JULY 29, 2020 • Volume 15 • Issue 31
RE WEEKLY RESIDENTIAL • ACREAGE • FARM • COMMERCIAL • AREA DEVELOPMENT 515-233-3299 • 317 5th Street, Ames • All REALTOR® ads within are REALTORS® licensed in the State of Iowa
Online at www.AmesTrib.com/realestateweekly
Page RE2 • REAL ESTATE WEEKLY • Wednesday, July 29, 2020
HOME HELP TIP OF THE WEEK
CLEANING
WHICH GRILL IS BEST FOR YOU: CHARCOAL OR GAS?
REMEMBER TO CLEAN UNDER YOUR OVEN
Summer means grilling outdoors. If you’re new to it and are considering buying a grill, the choices and options can be overwhelming. While there are many types of grills, including smokers, hybrids and electric, the two most common are gas and charcoal. Here are the facts about each, as described by Home Depot:
There are many tight, easily forgotten spaces in kitchens for crumbs and grime to hide. One such place: under and around the oven. The area under your oven is likely covered with grease, pieces of food and old spills. This crud can lead to mold and attract pests. To access the space beneath your oven, remove the storage drawer. Then, sweep out any crumbs and scrub away the remaining spills and grease.
Charcoal • Least expensive outdoor grill. • Can get very hot — more charcoal means more heat — reaching temperatures of about 700 degrees F. • Emparts a smoky taste on food. • No temperature control knobs. • Dampers on the grill base and on the lid regulate airflow to control the heat.
GARDENING
• Lights fuel more quickly when used with a charcoal chimney starter.
SPACE OUT TOMATO PLANTS FOR BETTER RESULTS
• Heats up more slowly than gas or electric grills. • Requires more clean-up, as charcoal ash must be removed after each use. Gas • Heats up quickly and is easy to use, requiring very little cleanup. • Push-button start means no fiddling with a lighter. • Reaches temperatures between 400 and 600 degrees F. • Temperature control knobs allow more and immediate management of heat. • Multiple burners can create different heat zones for searing, cooking or warming foods on the grill.
If you’re growing tomatoes this summer, you may be excited to grow as many plants as possible to increase your yield come harvest time. Overcrowding tomato plants, however, might result in poor fruit seed and other issues. “Poor fruit-set on tomato plants can occur because of tight spacing,” according to BobVila.com. “Sun-loving tomato plants need direct sunlight to produce plentiful flowers and fruit. If gardeners plant them too closely together, the plants soon will shade one another, and production will decline.” To ensure optimal exposure to sunlight and air circulation, plant your tomato plants a minimum of 3 feet apart in rows. Those rows should be spaced 5 feet apart.
• Some models allow use of charcoal or wood chips to increase/change flavor. • Some models require maintenance or replacement for burners, valves, vents and heat shields.
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REAL ESTATE WEEKLY • Wednesday, July 29, 2020 • Page RE3
Page RE4 • REAL ESTATE WEEKLY • Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Left: Munstead is a lovely English lavender. Below: Spanish lavender. NATIONAL GARDEN BUREAU
Lavender The loveliest of herbs By Carole McCray More Content Now
M
y feeling is one can never have enough lavender in a garden. I have lavender in my perennial bed and my herb garden. Two favorites are Munstead and Hidcote. Both are Lavandula angustifolia, English lavenders, hardy to zone 5. A new one added to my garden is Lavandula Intermedia, and the plant tag reads “Phenomenal.” Hidcote lavender has deep, violet-blue flowers and silver-gray foliage. Its growth habit reaches to about 2 feet tall. Munstead’s flowers are lighter in color and foliage is a gray-green color. Munstead appears less compact and can grow from 1 to 2 feet tall. Phenomenal is true to its name; a winter hardy compared to Hidcote and Munstead, which can die back over the winter. Slender spikes of purple adorn Phenomenal’s mounded shape from mid-summer into early fall. Lavender grows wild all along the Mediterranean in dry, stony soil in full sun. One of the biggest problems with growing lavender is too much moisture. Lavender’s purple, spiky blooms complement plants such as roses and peonies. Because it can take the heat, lavender pairs well with coneflowers, sedums and Shasta daisies, also heat-tolerant plants. Looking back at lavender’s past, we learn the word “lavandula” is said to be derived from the Latin “lavrare,” meaning “to wash.” Today it is not uncommon to store freshly dried linens with dried blooms of lavender. The term “lavendress” became associated with washerwomen in the 12th century. Lavender water’s clean scent can freshen bed linens and closets and makes a lovely rinse in laundry.
Dry lavender’s flower heads when tight in bud so the essential oils are not lost. Cut them on a sunny day, preferably when there have been two consecutive sunny days after a rain. The following tips are some ways to enjoy the many uses of lavender: • Add them to potpourris and sachets. • Even the stems are fragrant. They can be tied into small bundles and added to kindling for emitting a pleasant scent in the fireplace. • Make a lavender “bottle” by taking lavender flowers and encasing them in their own stems. Your lavender “bottle” can be hung in a closet, placed in a bowl or basket to scent a room, or added to a linen closet or a dresser drawer. • Fresh or dried lavender flowers can be used in cooking. Culinary uses of the finely chopped flowers are nice additions to iced tea, lemonade, cakes, cookies, breads and fruit salads. If you dry the flower heads, place them in a cool, dark place. Hang the lavender upside down by securing it with string and a rubber band. Place lavender on hooks or on a line in a spot such as a closet, a garden shed or attic. Once the flower heads feel crisp to the touch, that is a sign they are dry. When dried, store flower heads in an airtight container in a cool, dry location until you are ready to use them. Lovely in the garden and useful in the home, lavender has many attributes to be enjoyed year long. Carole McCray is an award-winning garden writer who has been writing a monthly garden column, The Potting Shed, for regional newspapers for nearly 20 years.
Directions for creating a lavender bottle: • For one bottle, cut about four dozen stalks of lavender with long stems. • At the point just below the flower heads, tie the stalks with string. • While keeping stalks upright, carefully bend stalks over the flower heads and form a cage for the buds. • Using twine or a lovely ribbon, tie the bent stems together at the base of the flower heads. Gently knot and tie to form a bow. • Clip stems making sure all are even. • Lay the finished bottle flat in a basket in a cool, dark closet to dry for about a week. • Once the bottle is completely dried, carefully cut the string and discard. Footnote: You can keep it simple or weave a pretty ribbon through the stems.
REAL ESTATE WEEKLY • Wednesday, July 29, 2020 • Page RE5
Don’t see your home in the
DEAR MONTY How to verify a property’s lot lines
RE WEEKLY Then contact a Realtor® today, because you are missing out on over 39,000+ potential buyers seeing your property for sale. STORY TY COUN
PMENT ERCIAL • AREA DEVELO GE • FARM • COMM RESIDENTIAL • ACREA Street, Ames 99 • 317 5th ® licensed in the State of Iowa 515-233-32 are REALTORS ® within All REALTOR ads
RE WEEKLY
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RICHARD MONTGOMERY
R
eader question: We want to know how to verify lot lines. We have found a home we want to buy. When we looked at the house with our agent, we toured the yard, and the agent pointed out the lot lines. Our agent is not the listing agent. The lot corners were described based on the location of flower beds, shrubbery, trees on the lot and the adjacent neighbor’s landscaping location. The datasheet stated the lot’s depth and width, but the agent did not have a tape measure. Neither the owner of the home nor the listing agent was present. It was the first time our agent had ever seen the house. At some future point in time, we may want to have a fence or possibly a swimming pool. Our agent was very comfortable with her observations, but we wonder, what if she is wrong? We don’t want to offend her. How can we verify the lot size? Monty’s answer: While your agent may be correct, this is not a situation to worry about offending the agent. Knowing the exact boundaries is one of the basic due-diligence facts to uncover before buying a home. Guesstimates will not count if there is a disagreement in the future. At some point in the past, there was
a survey of the property. At that time, the surveyor marked the lot corners with metal stakes. Over time, these corner markers can disappear. Grading the lot, adding soil, or removal of the stake by accident or on purpose are examples of how this happens. Your choices are: 1. Ask your agent to deliver the survey of the property to you. With the survey and a tape measure, or a metal detector, one may find the stakes. Common sense and experience now come into play as one uses judgment to decide whether the stakes appear correct. The risk is, something or somebody moved the original stakes. 2. If no survey can be located (check the tax listing department in the register of deeds office), the county or the municipality has online GIS systems. Many GIS systems can activate a layer to identify the lot lines. 3. If all else fails, the last and most reliable source of verifying the corner stakes is hiring a registered land surveyor. They will confi rm or reestablish the correct location of the boundaries. This process could also be deployed as a condition in a purchase agreement. Richard Montgomery is a real estate industry veteran . Find him at DearMonty.com.
Page RE6 • REAL ESTATE WEEKLY • Wednesday, July 29, 2020
HOME HELP TIP OF THE WEEK
SPRING CLEANING
INSTALLING A DIMMER SWITCH
VINEGAR DO’S AND DON’TS
If you want the ability to adjust the brightness of a room, a dimmer switch is the answer. Here’s an installation guide from BobVila.com:
If you don’t have access to or don’t want to use chemical cleaning products, vinegar can be a great alternative. Its acidity makes it a good choice to cut grease, sticky buildups, soap scum, etc. It can kill some bacteria, and a paste of vinegar and baking soda can dissolve set red wine stains. It is not a disinfectant substitute, however. It will not kill viruses. You should not use vinegar to sanitize surfaces or your hands.
1. Shut off and test the power. Turn off power to the existing switch at your breaker, then, using a voltage detector, test to make sure the circuit’s not live. 2. Remove the old switch. Pull out the existing switch to see what you’re dealing with. For most toggle switches (what you typically think of when you envision a light switch), wires will be wrapped around connector screws in the back. Loosen the screws or use wire strippers to disconnect the old switch. 3. Install the dimmer switch. “To install the dimmer, read the instructions to make sure you’re clear on what wires go where and which is the top and which is the bottom,” recommends BobVila.com. “As always, green denotes the ground or copper wire. Unlike installing a light fixture, both wires going to the dimmer will be black and usually can be placed on either gold screw. There shouldn’t be any silver screws. If the switch can be used for either a single-pole or three-way, there may be an extra screw so make sure to look at the wiring diagram. To connect the wires, strip 3/4” of casing off the end, loop it into a U shape, hook it around the screw, and then pinch the ends together before tightening the screw down.” 4. Put everything back. With the wires connected, refasten the switch to the electrical box with screws at the top and bottom. Then place the switch plate back on to cover and turn the breaker back on.
REAL ESTATE WEEKLY • Wednesday, July 29, 2020 • Page RE7
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