March 9, 2006 Issue                                               

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Spring Home Improvement

Never trust a paint sample
by Maryanne Schloss

In a few weeks, spring will finally be upon us. You know what that means? Elections and home improvement. This year I think I have found a way to combine the two of them.

Don’t-break-a-sweat cleaning tips
by Kristin Pazulski

Springtime to the college student means golf Frisbee, studying outside, driving with the windows down, trips to the beach. We hope that our post-college years will be the same or have similar thrills. But beware. Whether you have your own home or apartment or are living with the ‘rents, there is a monsterous thought out there that probably has yet to flit across your now-thousands-of-dollars worth of a brain, Spring Cleaning.

Buying tips for first timers

Rookie home buyers will have an easier time finding their first home when they understand how to work with a real estate sales associate and what information they need to have on hand prior to shopping.

Vintage Remodeling
By MEREDITH SONDERSKOV

According to a turn-of-the-century home remodeling magazine, this house was transformed from the picture on the left, as it was a “typical Henry Houston” style home. The picture on the right shows the house after it had been remodeled to reflect the new Tudor style

As you drive or walk through Chestnut Hill’s tree-lined streets, you will see houses of many different types of architectural designs. Everything from 18th century colonial - one of the oldest houses in Chestnut Hill, dating to the 1840s, is located at 8220 Germantown Avenue - to designs by contemporary architects Louis Kahn and Robert Venturi, with many others in-between. A number of the houses built in the late 1890s and early 1900s have been remodeled, some quite extensively. A few very large homes have been demolished, especially during the Depression and World War II. Those houses required extensive, expensive maintenance and large staffs of servants - maids, cooks, butlers, chauffeurs, gardeners, nursemaids, etc.

7 tips toward a better relationship with your remodeling contractor

During a typical remodel, a homeowner’s temper can flare, with the addition of the dust, noise and of having a crew working in the home for most of the day.

Andrew C. Beck Landscaping’s Personal Touch and Dependability Yield Bountiful Results

“When will the snow be gone? I don’t know. When will the grass grow? I don’t know. When will the flowers bloom? When they are ready!”

Container Gardening Offers Something for Everyone
By Emily Lambert

Container gardening has taken root in households all across the country — over 26 million in fact, according to the National Gardening Association in Burlington, Vt. — from homeowners with acres of land adding “spots of pots” in flowerbeds and garden borders, to those in retirement communities and townhomes getting the most from their windowsills, decks, patios, and even, front steps. “Container gardening is the ideal solution for people who may not have any land of their own or who don’t have time to maintain a traditional garden,” says E.G. Rall Jr. owner of E.G. Rall Jr. Landscape Design in Norristown. “It’s also a perfect way to add interest and color to an already established landscape,” he adds.