Why you should stage vacant hones?

Emotions!! One word connects a home buyer to a house...Here is the house we just staged at 318 Belvoire Avenue in Beach Haven Borough New Jersey.

This is the vacant living room area - no emotion -

First we bring in all our supplies

Preparing art for hanging

Furniture and accessories in place

Emotions have been created with  a sense of relaxation

color and comfort 

Plenty of room for family gatherings

Morning Breakfast at the counter

Plenty of room for prep work

Master Bedroom Vacant

adding accessories to enhance the emotions

Warm and inviting once furniture is added

Now that the HOUSE is staged ...Prospective buyers are  more likely to connect to this home emotionally... Buyers need to see them selves making great memories in this beautiful vacation/weekend HOME.

Resources

Home Staging - Harmonizing Homes, LLC

Furniture Rental - Churchill Furniture

Accessories - Home Goods

Accessories - Creative Design Inc

Real Estate Agent - David Cowles - Prudential Zack Shore Properties - BH

Harmonizing Homes - 917-699-1262
David Cowles 609-492-7277

Home Staging is just an occupation for nosy housewives!!!

Really????  This is a recent statement that was brought to my attention..... I'm a "Home Stager" and I'm not at all nosy nor do I care how other live their lives....  My GOAL is to add a connection and EMOTION to a home for the  prospective buyer ( I want the buyer to feel as if they belong in the home) ... I'm educated in  home design and home staging....I have entered into a second career after a successful career with the International Rescue Committee helping refugees after war has taken their homes and families...

Here is an example of a recent home that I've staged..... We converted the dining area back into a living room and the office back into a dining room... For a full preview of the entire home please email me:  CorinneKaas@harmonizehomes.com

Before/After Photo's:

For more information please call me at 917.699.1262 or email me at CorinneKaas@harmonizehomes.com

Shopping in Atlanta

This Jersey girl just discovered Atlanta back in September.  My brother in law landed a job in Atlanta good for him, not too good for my sister and I.  However its been fun traveling down there and exploring the shopping....OMG...is there shopping....  This weekend I traveled down to help her pick out tiles and paint for their new town house that they are building.    So we headed out early in the morning and was immediately detoured to this Estate Sale.

In no time we had found a desk, two pictures a urn and I bought two runners that I had shipped back to New Jersey.

We than had to go back home and unload...before we could continue on our journey for the day.

We headed out to the site to view the fixtures, tiles , granite, paint selections etc.

Afterwards we hit the biggest Restoration hardware store I ever saw!!  Located in Buckhead Ga.

This is a serious RH

Check out their Home Goods!

I'm planning another shopping trip soon!

Vinings Ga - Vinings GA

Restoration Hardware -RH in Buckhead

Color's Color's Color's

We have a love hate relationship!  I love them, but like everyone else I can stress over them when picking out colors ....especially for clients....for me....its easy...I know what I like and I go with that.

Here are some of the color combo's I am doing for a client new home that they are moving into.  Its a great older railroad type of house, one that you might find in Hoboken NJ however this is in Fair Haven NJ....so colors have to flow from room to room as there are no walls...to prevent the joining room colors from clashing....

Here is what we are dealing with below my clients do not like the orange that is now existing so we need to come up with an alternative.

Please....keep in mind the colors on the internet do not reflect the actual colors on swatches.  I think anyone of these would work just fine.

At the same time, we just moved into a home in December and I'm in the mist of picking out colors for our home.....its an open floor plan so again, I need  the colors to have a flow from one room to another.  I have very neutral furnishings as I like to add pops of color with art work and pillows....so its pretty easy going..

Here is what I've picked out for my own home.

The first is called Straw Hat by Benjamin Moore its a very neutral color with hues of green/khaki like your weekend favorites.   I used this for the living room and dining room...the adjoining great room and hall way has an accent wall in Majestic Sage by BM and the primary walls are in stingray....More to follow as the color choices come to term with reality.   

Now off to watch the Red Carpet.....to check out the fashions....I haven't seen any of the movies with the exception of Bird Man which I viewed today....

Enjoy the colors!!

Corinne

A Home Away From Home

How many people dream of owning a beach house?  I had the great fortune of staging a beautiful home in Long Beach Island New Jersey.  I fell in love with this home.....I could just picture myself entertaining on the multi  level decks that this house has.

This is 9309 North Susan Lane Long Beach Township NJ

Sunday after noon bloody Mary's ready and waiting for you in this beautiful kitchen fully equipped.

This house is turn key ready! All of the furnishing inside and out come with this house.  Enjoy the tour...

Multi Levels 

Open Floor Plan which is great for a crowd

Lots of prep space 

Plenty of extra seating

Comfy seating all brand new

French doors lead into the wicker room - great for reading or watching some TV 

Second level deck....plenty of seating...comes with red comfy cushions

Imagine strolling outside to smell the salt air on a summer morning

We choose  SW Rain - SW6219 although we never want to see rain down the shore

We added new fixtures and mirror mates to this bathroom 

Queen size bed for an extra couple~  painted in SW Sea Salt SW 6204

How much fun would your kids have in this light house room.  Painted in SW Take Five SW6513

This room can be set up with two twins or two sets of bnnks...for the extra company that you will have

Full bath all new fixtures

Sun set over the bay on the top deck 

Sunset off the master suite 

Staging by Harmonizing Homes

Resources

Pictures by Motion City Media -Motion City Media

Listing by Van Dyke Group- rob@vandykgroup.com

Paint by Sherwin Williams 

Design  By Harmonizing Homes - Harmonize Homes, LLC 

Visit us on Facebook -Face Book Harmonize Homes

How to move your self 6 times...

I am not an expert by any means...but I have moved a few times in my 42 years of married life.  Our first home was a two bedroom starter home in Landing New Jersey.  We had one child and the second one was born while we were living up by Lake Hapatcong New Jersey

The house was getting tight with two children and it was time to move on....we were there for 5 years.....We decided to head south to the Jersey Shore (Toms River)...homes were a bit more affordable.. We purchased a beautiful three bedroom ranch...where we lived for 21 years.  After the kids were grown we were bored and purchased a 1850 farm house in Silverton section of Toms River.....Where we almost divorced over the amount of work that went into restoring the home. Now think about this; a huge farm house to an apartment...I gave everything away...

I was working in NYC at the time and thought it would be a great idea if we rented in NYC and purchased my mother's cottage on the Toms River.  We did it....we were in NYC on West 100 and Riverside Drive...a bit edgy but so much fun..

Cottage

We loved NYC and the fact that we could head down the shore on the weekends...So we then bought an apartment on the upper west side 320 West 83rd.... all 700 square feet one bedroom.....we literately would wheel our belongings from  100 to 83rd...Instead of loading the care,.as it was so difficult to find parking...

We were so happy and then I lost my job....we couldn't afford to live here any longer.... So we moved into...(oh yeah...forgot we bought another house)...This was on one of my husbands long runs as he was training for the marathon...since the cottage has not heat we moved into the house below and sold the apartment....Oh, and gave all that furniture away...

I had to reinvent my self as I decided I wasn't going back to the corporate world of non-profit......any time soon...So I started design, home staging and custom painting furniture....It was something that I had been trained in...and has always been a passion....so why no....Don't get me wrong it took two years of  sitting around gluing shells on various things..mirrors, jars etc.. before I got out of my shell....or off my ass.... Now..its time to move again as I need space for my growing business.... Sold our home in 22 days and closed in 30 days....oh no...the place that we bought is not available until November.....So we are renting a home from the buyer for which we are purchasing her home... That is a story for another day....

So like I said I am not an expert but I have experience...  One tip that I would like to share is the following:

If you are moving into a interim situation it is most important to make a packing list of what is in each box along with a corresponding number.  This will allow you to store you boxes....and retrieve only the items that you need.  For an example we were fortune to move into a furnished home...so I only needed boxes that had towels, sheets, and my favorite cooking pots...  I will keep you posted on the next stage of the move which will be in November....

I have a lot of stories to add to each move...this is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.....