http://www.aaadealsite.com

Our current home is “closer to nature” than we’ve ever lived before. We back up to a small strip of woods, and since moving here we’ve seen all sorts of critters roaming around. It makes sense when you consider that we invaded their space, and they were here enjoying the land long before our house was on it. We’ve heard noises in the woods at night that sound like raccoons or perhaps a wild boar, and we’ve seen snakes and rabbits and even a turtle or two. The turtles must have a burrow right around here, and they frequently trek across our back yard, much to the annoyance of our lab.

None of our animal visitors have been an issue, aside from the critters that munched on my tomato plant. I’m not sure who to blame – it could have been raccoons, or a bunny, or even one of the squirrels we’ve had climbing on our roof. The end result was a bunch of tomatoes with bites missing, so I tossed the plant and gave up gardening for the time being. Since then, I’ve learned there are natural and organic solutions I could have used to save my little plant, without ending up killing off the local squirrel or bunny population. Havahart® Critter Ridder® can technically be called a squirrel repellent, but it will also take care of skunks, raccoons, dogs, and even cats. I’ve seen people in neighboring homes go to great lengths to keep squirrels out of their bird feeders, and seeing that has actually deterred me from putting up a bird feeder. Matthew built a bird house and has been dying to put it up, so maybe some Critter Ridder is what we need to keep the bird seed from feeding the squirrels!

With all of the school and studying that Jim and I have been doing lately, the care and maintenance of the house has gone downhill. Rapidly. Oh, we’re not living in squalor, but it’s amazing how dirty things get when both of the adults in the house are working full time AND attending school full time. The kids, especially my girls, have been huge helpers with their chores, but I can’t expect them to do deep cleaning like I would. I just simply don’t have the time or the motivation. I’ve been seriously considering calling a local house cleaning service so that I can let someone else do my dirty work!

We’ve got about 2300 square feet to maintain, and three kids and two dogs do their part to dirty things up quickly. I’d love to be able to just maintain the small stuff – laundry, dishes, general tidying – and know that someone else can mop my hardwood floors until they sparkle, and make my toilets so clean we could eat off of them. (Uh, not that I would eat off the toilet, I’d just like to enjoy that level of cleanliness!) A service like MaidPro.com could free me up to study more and spend time withe kids, since school has taken me away from them on the nights and weekends.

I was at a neighbor’s yesterday, helping her to clean out her garage. I know, I know – what’s with my benevolent attitude? It was all self serving, I promise you! This is the neighbor (and friend) who is participating in the Avon walk with me this fall, and we’re holding a garage sale to raise money for our charity in 2 weeks. In order to make sure we’re ready for the big day, I spent two hours helping her sort and price things in her garage.

Once that chore was done, we got nosy and peeked in the house across the street which is wrapping up construction this month. The door was locked, but we looked into the windows to see what options and upgrades the future homeowner had selected. Then we attempted to do the same at her neighbor’s house, seeing as how the neighbor has moved out and all but abandoned the house. The house, complete with pool, was priced $50K less than the competition (also with pool) and still didn’t sell! With home prices being what they are in this area, it’s no wonder that we’re seeing an influx of Britons and Europeans taking advantage of international mortgages. Florida home prices are super attractive to overseas buyers right now, and our close proximity to Orlando, Disney, Busch Gardens, international airports, the beaches, etc, make buyers want to find deals on homes that they can use as a vacation home. I don’t really care who buys the vacant homes in our neighborhood – monkeys can take out mortgages – as long as they maintain the yards and act like good neighbors!

I mistakenly thought that when we bought a new house, we’d enjoy some maintenance free living for a few years. Nothing needs to be fixed to added to a brand new house, right?

Wrong. We started by painting every single room in the house, over the course of 4 days before we even moved in. We’ve added towel bars and hung pictures, and my husband created a small patio out of paver bricks just outside our lanai. We had a company do landscape curbing around our trees and shrubs, so what’s next? I’ve got two projects in mind:

• Adding more closet shelving. The builder standard is to install one shelf in each closest – even in our huge master bedroom closet! The lack of storage is ridiculous.
• Putting up crown moulding in the main rooms of the house.
• Ripping the carpet off the stairs and replacing it with hardwood to match the first floor of our house.

None of these jobs are really something Jim can conquer on his own. The shelving, maybe, but with both of us in school, it would be much easier to hire out the work to someone providing day labor services. With the construction market in a big slump here, there’s got to be out of work carpenters and tradesmen who would happily take on jobs like mine, provided they could find a new job daily or weekly.

That’s where Hire A Helper helps people like me, and people who need reliable work. I can log into the website and find someone in my area willing to do work, and receive an instant quote. Each helper has a profile page, where you can learn more about a person (maybe they used to work in construction, or owned a tile business in another state?) and even see reviews from other customers. To me, that’s the most invaluable part of this whole prospect. It’s virtual word of mouth, and I can see if someone completed their past jobs in a satisfactory manner? Did they clean up the job site when done, or leave a job unfinished?

When you select a helper, payment goes through Hire A Helper, which means you’re not out cash if you’re not happy, or a helper doesn’t show up to do the work. In essence, the site acts as an escrow service, making sure that both parties are happy with the work before payment is made.

Hire A Helper isn’t just for construction work and handy man jobs. They also provide moving help, something I could have used before! HireAHelper.com is endorsed by Realtor.com AND Moving.com, which speaks volumes about the level of service they’ve provided to past customers. If you’re interested in working with the company, they’re happy to have you. Set your own hours, your own rates, and be your own boss! You pay only a small fee to HireAHelper.com to cover credit card processing and for listing your profile on the site.

A neighbor of ours put her home on the market recently, for about $20,000 more than she paid for it a year ago. A few years ago, she would have sold it the same day the realtor’s sign went up in the yard, but those days are LONG gone. She won’t sell it at her price. She won’t sell it at the price she paid for it either! I know she’s listed it high to compensate for the fat commission she’s got to pay to her Realtor. Our neighborhood is still under construction, and anyone can walk in and build her exact home, with all the options she selected, and pay a lot less, because the builder has dropped the prices so much to accommodate slow sales.

With the market being what it is, more buyers and sellers are getting smarter and using things that will save them cash in their next real estate transaction, like what http://www.eperks.com offers. Buyers and sellers can save up to $20,000 by using one of the agents they’ll find at ePERKS.com, and Realtors can find the buyers and sellers they need in this cut throat market. They’re aren’t ANY agents listed for my city yet, which means Realtors who sign up now will be the first to be able to collect those buyers looking for a participating Realtor. Realtors – sign up eperks.com/signup and use access code: ep355

Don’t let waiting buyers get away!