Juice up a small garden | South Salem Real Estate

Few things that you can do in the garden are more satisfying than growing your own fruit. But what if your space or time is limited? Based on my personal taste, and with a mild-climate slant, here are some choices when you have room for only one fruit tree.

These are plants that I have grown or wish I could grow. You might want to consider the same factors that I do: Will the homegrown, tree-ripened fruit taste better than what you can get from the amazing array at farmer’s markets these days? Is the tree fun or interesting or pretty to grow? Can you avoid the complications of pest control or pruning? Notice that below I don’t bring up a number of popular fruit trees, such as apples, which often need precise pest control — and so many good apples are available at markets today.

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Apricot

There’s no comparison between typical market fruit and apricots that are allowed to ripen on the tree to a near squishy, unshippable stage. Trouble is, the apricot is fussy about where it grows.

Botanical name: Prunus armeniaca, many varieties
Where it will grow: Hardy to -20 degrees Fahrenheit (USDA zones 5 to 9; find your zone). The trees are fairly hardy but bear fruit well only in climates without spring frosts. Mainly that means California’s coastal valleys.
Water requirement: Moderate; the soil must be moist while the fruit is developing.
Light requirement: Full sun
Mature size: 15 to 20 feet tall and wide
Care: Plant bare-root trees in winter. Prune in summer after the harvest. As with most fruit trees, bone up on pruning, fertilizing and pest control.

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Apricot blossoms, just before spring’s arrival, are beautiful in their own right — especially against the dark, gnarly branches of mature trees.

See how to grow apricots

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/24506973?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u466&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery16

NYC mayor's next big push: affordable housing | Mt Kisco Realtor

NYC mayor's next big push: affordable housing - Houston Chronicle

The 9 Biggest Gardening Mistakes to Avoid | Armonk Real Estate

The 9 Biggest Gardening Mistakes to Avoid | Armonk Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

10 spectacular bathroom innovations | Waccabuc Homes

10 spectacular bathroom innovations - Yahoo Homes

Las Vegas cool down continues | Cross River Real Estate

For the second month in a row, home sales in Las Vegas were at the slowest pace in five years. Las Vegas’ February home sales figures reached their lowest level since 2009, according to data released by DataQuick. In fact, sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis in each of the past five months.
In February, 3,230 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County). That was down 0.1% from the month before, when 3,232 homes sold.

February’s numbers were down 19.6% from 2013. February’s home sales were 14.5% below the average number sold during every February since 1994.

Of the homes sold, resales of houses and condos combined were 9.0% above average for the month of February; while sales of newly built homes were 60.5% below the February average. Condo resales in February were 26.0% higher than the February average since 1994.

In February, sales of homes priced below $100,000 dropped 47.9% compared with a year earlier, while sub-$200,000 transactions fell 36.1% year-over-year. February sales of homes priced from $200,000 to $500,000 increased 20.2% from a year ago, while the number selling for $500,000 or more rose 17.7%.



http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29471-las-vegas-cool-down-continues

A Typical Town House Goes Modern Zen | Katonah Real Estate

Location matters in real estate, sometimes more so than a home’s other features.

When a young couple purchased a town home in Rosslyn, VA, just across the river from Washington DC, they did so because they loved the location. However, as they explained to architect and designer Andreas Charalambous, they were not fans of the home’s interior.

The home was largely outdated, and the couple wanted a modern and uncluttered space, explained Charalambous of DC-based Forma Design.

A red wall, dark floors and modern, low-slung furniture create a contemporary and inviting space.

“We didn’t set out to create this Zen home, but the decisions they made along the way created the Zen space,” he said. “It’s customized to who they are and how they use the space.”
His first step to redoing their home? A bit of homework for the couple.
“What we usually do with homeowners [is] we listen to what they liked about their house and what their lifestyle is all about,” he explained. “We have them write a one- to two-paragraph essay on their lifestyle so we can understand who will be occupying the space.”
He also requires clients to put together eight to 10 images of designs they like.
“When people say they like modern or transitional, it could be anything,” he said. “When we see images, they say this is what they like.”

In the case of his Rosslyn clients, they requested a few things: a red wall somewhere in the home, which would represent good luck, and a cabinet at the entrance of the home, which would display a Buddha statue and also hold a place for shoes. They were expecting their first child and wanted a home that would be modern, livable and uncluttered.

From there, Charalambous and his team began to work on the space.

The entry before and after.

“The first level of this house had the living room, then the dining room and behind the wall was the kitchen,” Charalambous explained. “The first thing we suggested was to tear out the wall behind the dining room to create one big entertaining space, and immediately the space would feel brighter and bigger and more cohesive.”

One wall — running from the entrance to the back of the kitchen — was painted red. And from there, it was a matter of redoing cabinets and updating the fireplace to fit the new modern layout.

www.zillow.com 10/24/13

Million-dollar homes: March Madness edition | North Salem Homes

Housing is entering the heart of the spring season, but buyers are still not warming up to the market. Home sales are down across the nation as higher prices, tight credit and higher interest rates hold demand in a headlock. The nation's home builders are seeing improvements, but only on their higher-priced homes, which is where much of the focus is now.

 

Sales of homes priced above $750,000 increased 13 percent in February from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. Homes priced below $250,000 fell 11 percent. Those lower-priced homes make up 64 percent of all home sales. The trouble on the lower end is that investors are finding less to buy as fewer homes fall into foreclosure. First-time home buyers, who should pick up the slack, are having trouble qualifying in today's mortgage market. Analysts argue this is no time for the Federal Reserve to be pulling out of the mortgage market.

"Until proven otherwise, these numbers are awful, and create a need for continued Fed accommodation and a positive technical backdrop for securitized products, especially credit," Bank of America analysts Justin Borst and Chris Flanagan wrote in a note to investors.

Read More Million-dollar homes: Super Bowl edition

The bright spot, again, is the higher end. Sales of homes priced over $1 million are up over 14 percent from a year ago. What buyers get for a million dollars, however, varies greatly market to market. More than 40 percent of for-sale listings in metro San Francisco are over $1 million, as are more than 20 percent in Fairfield County, Conn., according to a report from Trulia, an online real estate company. The smallest million-dollar homes are in New York, typically less than 1,500 square feet, but those homes stretch to 6,000 square feet in the Kansas City area and Pittsburgh.

http://homes.yahoo.com/news/million-dollar-homes-march-madness-114800575.html

New home sales hit 5-month low | Bedford Hills Real Estate

New home sales of single-family houses in February dropped 3.3% to 440,000, reaching a 5-month low, according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This is a dip from the revised January rate of 455,000 and is 1.1% below last year’s estimate of 445,000.

“This isn’t surprising. February is typically a slow time of year for new home sales across the board. Not many new home buyers sign contracts at the beginning of the year because buying a home isn’t a top priority after the holidays. We saw purchase declines in the MBA Mortgage Application Surveys during January and February and we’ll likely see some more slowdown before we get geared up for March and the spring season," said David Williams, vice president at RightStart Mortgage, based in Pasadena, Calif.

“The snow in the Midwest and Northeast also had at least some factor to slowing sales in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. It’s not so much that they were hit by snow, but it was on the weekends," Williams said. "Nobody is looking for a home when it’s snowing. We saw new single-family home sales up 3.2% for the month in January, which was still pretty good. I think we’ll see it bounce back in March.”





http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29424-new-home-sales-hit-5-month-low

Here's a Look at the Palm Beach Estate Stylings of 1942 | Bedford Corners Real Estate

9 images

In looking at the Palm Beach home Louis D. Beaumont, a philanthropist who made his fortune opening up May Company stores, it's fun to see that, when it comes to typical Southern Florida decor, there are some things that don't change: fireplaces astride pool pavilions, porticoed verandas, banana-leaf curtains, globby white furniture ... they're all on display in these photos from 1942. That's not to say that there aren't some relics of pre-midcentury design lurking about—the cushions of one chaise lounge are so overplump someone would probably roll right off—but that mix is exactly what makes the images so compelling. Have a look.


http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/21/heres-a-look-at-some-palm-beach-estate-stylings-of-1942.php

25 Excellent Content Marketing Tools for Your Brand | Chappaqua NY Realtor

Creating powerful content that grows your business can be a discouraging process. It’s possible to spend countless hours producing something to help your brand reach the next level, only to discover that it does little in the way of improving engagement, traffic, or sales. The good news is that there are many content marketing tools available to help you streamline the process.

The team at Social Media Strategies Summit researched the marketplace of content creation, curation, promotion and distribution, and tracking/analytics tools to assemble the infographic below. It illustrates which brands use the 25 tools they reviewed, what’s great about each one, and who theywork best for. You’re sure to find something that will help you jumpstart your content marketing programs.

Content Curation Tools

These tools help you discover and gather content around the Web that is related to a particular topic, then display it in a meaningful and easily digestible format.

1. List.ly (free/paid)

Good for any brand or business with a blog, List.ly creates lists that can be shared easily, edited quickly, and embedded anywhere. It’s simple to curate, crowdsource, and engage readers. The available WordPress plugin makes it easy to share your lists on your blog.

2. Storify (paid)

A favorite of many brands and media companies, Storify enables you to build multimedia timelines and tell stories using a combination of digital content. Stories can be public or private, and can be created by collecting content from 20 different social channels and websites.

3. Curata (paid)

If you’re looking to increase visibility and generate leads, Curata’s content curation software will help you find, curate, share, and analyze content on numerous issues and topics.

4. Magnify.net (paid)

Publishers and brands interested in video curation will find Magnify.net’s fully-customizable cloud-based app ideal for digital publishing. It’s easy to curate, upload, and aggregate content related to your content marketing strategy.

5. Echo (paid)

Echo is a real-time comment and reaction-managing platform for companies and brands with vast amounts of content.

Content Creation Tools

Visualize digital content — without the need for designers — with these tools.

1. KnowledgeVision (paid)

Useful for all companies — from startups to enterprises — KnowledgeVision helps you create video and audio presentations and make them available via Web browsers and mobile devices. It’s a great tool for webinars, ebooks, and product demos.

2. Lingospot (paid)

Lingospot serves program-related content on TV viewers’ tablets and smartphones, anticipating what viewers of a particular show may be interested in.

3. Visual.ly (free/paid)

Great for all brands and media outlets, Visual.ly enables you to create or outsource the creation of infographics and data visualizations with a range of templates.

4. Prezi (paid)

Prezi is a robust tool for everyone. It’s cloud-based software helps users create dynamic visualizations and presentations. You can import your PowerPoint presentations and take them to the next level with this useful app.

5. Issuu (paid)

If you create digital publications, Issuu is for you. The platform makes it easy to collect, share, and publish ebooks, white papers, and any number of other content types and make them look their best for your audience.


Read more: http://www.pamorama.net/2014/03/23/25-excellent-content-marketing-tools-for-your-brand/#ixzz2wtT2wjR6

Google Tops Itself With Swings and Ball Pit at the Mexico HQ | Mt Kisco Real Estate

Photo via Design Boom
Another day, another completely bonkers office space courtesy of Google. As is the tech giant's way, this latest HQ in Mexico City offers a veritable playground of oddball features one wouldn't normally find in an office building—or even indoors—like a a refurbished telephone booth taxi, a faux subway car meeting room, and even cluster of rope swings centered around a fake pond that's actually (yep) a ball pit. Designed by the Mexican studio Space, the overall feel is meant to call to mind Mexico City itself, with the help of a Google map of the metropolis on the carpet and a traditional "trajinera" boat serving as inspiration for the office's lounge. Still, whether it be the aggressive, primary colored walls, cheery carpeting, or the fact that there is literally a ball pit adjacent to the conference rooms, the space feels much more like a crazed nursery school than anything else. Do take a look, below:




http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/21/google-outdoes-itself-with-swings-and-ball-pit-at-their-mexico-hq.php

It's Official, All the Coolest Lofts Have Little Houses In Them | Waccabuc Real Estate

Photo via Design Milk
First, there were the white boxes in one windowless Japanese home, and after them, the cabin and the treehouse that sit inside the most Brooklyn loft ever. According to the rule of three, this redesign of a Brussels apartment by adn Architectures means that filling one home with a few smaller ones is officially a trend. And what a trend it is! According to a project statement from the firm, the point of the overhaul is to give shape to "two internal bodies that embrace the envelope without touching it, opaque, translucent, airy, abstract," but any five-year-old knows what we have on our hands here: forts, wonderful forts.

Check 'em out from the inside. >>

The clients requested a loft conversion that made efficient use of their limited space; little did they know they would end up with "purity of form and functional simplicity" in the form of two perforated metallic boxes. The first floors hold the laundry room and bathroom, with a bedroom and an office above them, each without a ceiling, leaving the second levels open to the entire apartment. With a deftly concealed wall of storage cabinets between the two, and a raw concrete ceiling lending the white and airy space some much needed weight, it seems like a pretty swell setup.


http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/20/its-official-all-the-coolest-lofts-have-little-houses-in-them.php

Painted vs. Stained Kitchen Cabinets: Help for Deciding | Cross River Real Estate

One of the biggest decisions you will make when choosing cabinets is whether they should be painted or stained wood. The choice you make will have a huge bearing on how the cabinets will look and how they will hold up.

I went to two cabinet shops —the larger Canyon Creek Cabinet in Monroe, Washington, and the smaller O.B. Williams custom shop in Seattle — to get expert perspectives on the choices, which don’t end once you’ve settled the stain-versus-paint debate.

td[s]

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Painted Cabinets

When you choose painted cabinets, they will usually be assembled with materials that accept and hold paint well, such as poplar, veneered plywood or MDF.The key is having a nice, flat surface, free of knots and heavy grain patterns.

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Some cabinet manufacturers perform all the finishing work on their cabinets in-house.At Canyon Creek, an elaborate system of spray booths, ovens and an overhead drying line make it possible to finish hundreds of cabinets a day. Cabinets leave the plant boxed and ready for installation.

 

 

 

 

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/23429308?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u458&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery1

Indian Builders flout rules | Mt Kisco Real Estate

Without any construction permissions in place and sometimes even when land titles are not clear, builders in the city have been enticing clients to book flats early at discounted rates although it is illegal under the law.

In fact, by luring investors to book flats by paying just 10 per cent to 20 per cent before the first brick is laid, developers manage to sell 200 to 300 flats even before the project is publicly announced in some cases.

Property experts say this is now a common practice in the real estate industry. In a big Thane project, the builder sold 500 apartments although the title of the land is still not clear and no sanctions have been procured.

Laws are stringent about what are called pre-sales and soft launches of flats. The Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act says no flat can be sold unless building plans are submitted to the civic body and are approved. "It is illegal to sell apartments this way," advocate Vinod Sampat said.


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/real-estate/news/builders-flout-rules-sell-flats-in-projects-sans-clearances/articleshow/32233815.cms

4 million renters want to buy. Can they? | Chappaqua Real Estate

As the housing market moves slowly into recovery, more and more Americans are gaining confidence and hoping to jump into home ownership. The home ownership rate has been dropping steadily since its high of 69.2 percent in 2004 to now just 65 percent. Millions lost their homes to foreclosure and millions more never entered the market, fearing falling home prices.

Now, 10 percent of U.S. renters say they would like to buy a home in the next year, according to a new report from Zillow (NASDAQ:Z), which surveyed renters in the nation's 20 largest housing markets. If all the renters who said they wanted to buy a home in the next year actually did, that would represent more than 4.2 million first-time home buyer sales, about twice the number of first-timers in 2013.

First-time home buying has actually fallen to the lowest level ever recorded by the National Association of Realtors, at just 26 percent of sales in January. These buyers usually make up roughly 40 percent of the market. Interestingly, the majority of the renters who said they wanted to buy felt they could afford home ownership, despite rising home prices and rising mortgage rates. The trouble is there is just not that much out there to buy. Home construction is still recovering at a slow pace, and prices for newly built homes are far higher on average than for existing homes.The number of homes for sale is rising slightly but is still well below.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/4-million-renters-want-buy-130353560.html

HARP refinances drop off as interest rates for mortgages increase | Armonk Real Estate

HARP refinances drop off as interest rates for mortgages increase | Armonk Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Down to Earth Farmers Markets | Mt Kisco Homes

Celtic Fiddle Music + 6 Day Vendors in Mamaroneck; Sale on Pasture-Raised Meat in Ossining & MoreMarch 13-19th, 2014 Down to Earth Markets

What's New and On Special This Week Cheese-Filled Spinach Tortellini SALE! $3/13 oz (Reg. $6) Trotta Pasta Ground Beef Grassfed & Finished Buy five (5) pounds, get 1 FREE Kiernan Farm Head LettuceGajeski Produce Irish Soda Bread Sharon's mother's recipe!Bread Alone Irish Soda Bread Both Regular & Gluten-Free Meredith's Bread Irish Soda Bread SALE: $0.50 OFF; now $6 Orwashers Bakery Popping Corn John D. Madura Farms Pork Sausages (Nitrate-Free!) SALE: Buy any three (3) packs of link sausages & get $1.50 OFF/lb! Varieties: Andoullie, Breakfast, Chevelata, Chorizo, Hot Italian, Luganega, & Sweet Italian Kiernan Farm Swiss Chard Gajeski Produce

Click on a Market to see all vendor and event details... Westchester County Mamaroneck Winter Saturdays, 9:00 am-1:00 pm St. Thomas Episcopal Church 168 West Boston Post Road (at Mount Pleasant Ave) Ossining Winter Saturdays, 9:00 am-1:00 pm At the corner of Spring & Main in downtown Ossining Headed to the city soon? Visit a Down to Earth Farmers Market in NYC!

Announcements

Mamaroneck Jump into the spirit of St. Patrick's Day this Saturday at Mamaroneck's Down to Earth Farmers Market! The market's talented bakers will bring Irish Soda Bread and Trotta Pasta will have their delicious locally-sourced pasta dishes on hand, too. As owner Ed Trotta says, "St. Patrick was born in England while under Roman rule, therefore that makes him Italian, right??" From 10 am to noon, Brian Vegh will entertain the crowd with his fun Celtic fiddle music. Come one, come all! Stay tuned to all market happenings via our Down to Earth Markets Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @DowntoEarthMarkets

Farmer Knows Best: The Perfect Burger from Kiernan Farm

Some might say that a post showcasing the perfect hamburger is premature. We associate the sights and sounds of a hot grill with summer vacations, pool parties, and our friends' home brew on a July day. And while these things create a very nice scene indeed, we want to remind everybody that delicious, pasture-raised meats are available at our farmers markets all year around. This recipe comes from Marty and Thelma Kiernan, livestock farmers from Ulster County in upstate New York, who raise their cattle on open pasture and feed them only grass and hay. This diet results in a very lean beef -- it has a mere 6-7% fat. As Thelma says, "When I cook chili or tacos with our meat, there's so little oil that I don't need to drain the meat. It's all flavor in there." The Perfect Burger by Kiernan Farm Ingredients 1 egg, slightly beaten 1 teaspoon dried minced onion flakes 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 tablespoons chili sauce 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 pound lean ground beef Instructions In a large bowl, combine the first 7 ingredients, Add ground beef and mix well. Divide into four 3/4 inch thick patties. Grill uncovered over medium-hot heat to desired doneness. Serve on toasted buns with desired toppings. Note: Thelma offers this guidance for those who are cooking with lean, grass-fed beef for the first time: "Keep in mind that there's no shrinking down with this beef. The size of the patty you put on the grill is what you're going to have in the end." Sounds good to us! Find Kiernan Farm every Saturday at Ossining's Down to Earth Farmers Market. This weekend, they're offering a couple of specials on their products, including buy five (5) pounds of their ground beef and get one (1) pound free. It's a nice offer as the spring starts to pop up...and the summer begins to evolve on the not-too-distant horizon. (Promise.)

Day Vendors This Week Mamaroneck Danascara Cheese Flourish Baking Company Hudson River Apiaries Maupston Design Studio (Handspun yarns & more) Pie Lady & Son Trotta Pasta

Down to Earth Markets 173 Main Street Ossining, NY 10562 Phone: 914-923-4837

12 Key Decorating Tips to Make Any Room Better | Armonk Real Estate

12 Key Decorating Tips to Make Any Room Better | Armonk Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Big Investors Boosting Home Prices, And Not Everyone’s Pleased | Chappaqua Real Estate

Big Investors Boosting Home Prices, And Not Everyone’s Pleased | Chappaqua Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Funky NoCal Rustic Modern on the Water Wants $2.25M | Bedford NY Real Estate

Funky NoCal Rustic Modern on the Water Wants $2.25M | Bedford NY Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

It’s Time to Spring Clean Your Yard | Pound Ridge Real Estate

It’s Time to Spring Clean Your Yard | Pound Ridge Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Renovated Sag Harbor Property is Ambitiously Priced | Cross River Real Estate

12 Breezy Drive Sag Harbor

13 images

We do wish brokers would stop using "new construction" to mean anything other than a house just built from the ground up. This place has been newly renovated but isn't new construction. The results are really beautiful, we must say: kitchen lovely, baths gorgeous, everything fresh and bright and stylish. The price even includes the furniture (indoor and outdoor), artwork and accessories. But has it been overimproved? The property sold in October 2012 for $415,000. Now the asking price is $2.185M. Sorry, we just can't see it. There's less than half an acre of property (0.47 acre) in an unexciting area of Sag Harbor. Thoughts?
· 12 Breezy Drive [Elliman]


http://hamptons.curbed.com/archives/2014/03/06/renovated_sag_harbor_property_is_ambitiously_priced.php

US home prices rose at solid pace in January | Bedford Real Estate

US home prices rose at solid pace in January | Bedford Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

What is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) asking of credit card companies? | Armonk Real Estate

What is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) asking of credit card companies? | Armonk Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Bring the Outside into Your Home by Decorating with Green | Bedford NY Real Estate

Bring the Outside into Your Home by Decorating with Green | Bedford NY Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Plaza Hotel owner surrenders to Indian police | Pound Ridge Homes

Plaza Hotel owner surrenders to Indian police | Pound Ridge Homes | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor