Condo Living 101

If you are planning to buy a condo and relocate there for good, might as well look for a unit that has a high roof. If you have been living in a house all your life and decided to get a condo instead because of maintenance or financial issues, then you must keep in mind that condos are generally smaller than your current house. What you can do so that you won’t feel anxious about your new home is to look for a unit that has high ceilings. There are a lot of units out there for sale that has this feature. High ceilings normally emanate a much larger space (it’s just a matter of tricking what the eyes perceive!). A much higher ceiling too can provide more space for storage. You can put up a high rise cabinet for you to put your knick knacks inside.

Photo taken from http://owengeronimo.vflyer.com

As we all know, dark colors tend to make the room look smaller. If you have light colored wallpapers or white paint on your walls, then congratulations, you just made your condo look bigger. However, when look at your unit, there seems to be something wrong. Oh, those kitchen counters! If you have counters with black granite tops, better call your contractor now and have those removed. Even if you have a large kitchen, the black tops tend to make your kitchen look smaller than its real size. Try to go for a lighter shade of granite if you really want granite for your countertops. Also, you can have Maple wood finishing for your countertops. This light colored wood can surely make your kitchen look bigger.

Photo taken from http://www.mapleblock.com

Across the US and the world, developers are halting development projects due to rising costs and other factors that have to do with the worsening global economy. Existing condos are getting quite overcrowded as people move out of single unit homes opting to get near their workplace to save on transportation costs and other expenditures for which they have less cash to spend on. Maintenance of existing condos are also being streamlined and tenants are left to suffer and deal with the consequences. Abandoned units and other issues are beginning to show, straining funds and people who all but pray for an end to this recession, soon. With unemployment soaring, people are leaving their homes into rentals that saves some cash, enough to get by and survive, till we all see the end to this recession, hopefully sooner that predicted.

Statistics are showing that people in condos and even single unit homes are having to do with room sharing in a recession due to more pressing needs of financial stores. This has been the result of surveys which shows children are not getting their own rooms to save on cost and on other needed provisions till the economy recovers and people get more cash for much needed renovations and home improvement projects.
Life is indeed getting harder for all for near city center’s a higher cost of living is to be expected due to price hikes and high unemployment levels. The recession may be leveling out but recovery is going to take longer than expected over predictions that this would be a short-lived economic condition, which could not get any worse for it is more than that in reality.

There are a lot of AC products on the market today that provides not only cooling but air quality improvements allowing germs and other contaminants to be filtered out effectively making for a healthier life. Products from many consumer electronics manufacturers have integrated air purification systems with their AC’s combining the work done by the normal AC and air purifiers using some nifty technologies such as ionization and silver filters that kills germs and bacteria while filtering dust and other contaminants with improved re-usable filters. More filtration for traditional AC’s can be achieved with the use of after-market filters that are treated for bacteriological contaminants and have smaller pores that allows only the air to pass through but traps contaminants in the fibers getting them out of the air we breathe. Read the rest of this entry »

The many developments around most metropolitan areas have created a man-made weather phenomenon known as micro-climate which tends to trap heat within these urban areas making them hotter than they used to be. The many buildings and spread of concrete and other structures disrupts natural airflow creating islands of heat and smog where pollution from our cars and other activities preventing heat from properly dissipating into the air trapping it beneath our concrete floors and parking lots. that is why we spend billions of dollars for cooling our urban dwellings so cooling it or maintaining the ambient temperature is of utmost importance. Adding more green zones where native plants and trees allows more heat to escape or be absorbed is a good idea and it also helps with the pollution problem to some extent. Read the rest of this entry »

The many glass windows we have in our major cities making up most of the facades of buildings and homes are a fair enough insulator yet with the addition of temperature control films or tint, they become better at reflecting the sun’s harmful rays. This keeps the interior of structures cooler be a few degrees, saving electricity and thus lowering our carbon footprint. Old windows in homes can be replaced with double-glazed ones that has an air pocket in between the two panes making it a very good insulator, keeping heat/cold in and the external temperature out. New AC technologies that incorporate not only environmental control but active filtering technology that kills and traps pollutants in the air makes Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most effective ways to make your condo unit become more homey and livable is to do away with clutter. Even Feng Shui experts say that clutter disrupts the flow of chi, or energy in your home. Having a neat home make it easier for one to live in it and work in it. Simply develop habits that prevent you from leaving clutter, like returning magazines or books to the shelf after they’re read, or washing the dishes at once so that the dirty dishes don’t accumulate in your sink. Untidy habits also invite all sorts of pests like cockroaches and rats and ants, all of which thrive in a dirty and untidy environment. Having less clutter also keeps you away from accidents, like accidentally stepping on a glass you left on the floor while you were watching a movie.

The two share a lot of similarities except for the ownership part where in condominium associations, you are part of a group of owners who owns the units per se. In housing co-op’s the cooperative owns the unit and you are merely a renter, when you move, you either have to sell the unit back to the cooperative or to other buyers and pay the cooperative the cost you bought it for and keep the profits should you have gained any. The ownership of a condominium is similar to single unit homes except for the fact that your piece real estate is on a vertical rather than a horizontal plane.
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More and more people are opting to save money due to the recession and condo living people are feeling the pinch. not only are the ones living within them finding it difficult, the property owner who gets a vacant unit seldom gets a replacement in time to make all necessary payments.
The hard economic times has resulted in many losing jobs even from some of the world’s biggest companies who have been forced to trim down their workforce rather than face closure. The government is trying to alleviate some of the pressure but it might not be enough to hold of foreclosure on your mortgage. Time will tell if we can weather the storm that is in full force, hopefully not too many will be left out on the streets of the broken American Dream.