Palouse_Homes_April_2013

PALOUSE

HOMES

Advertising Supplement |

April 2013

| Moscow-Pullman Daily News

YOUR RESOURCE FOR BUYING, SELLING AND ENJOYING YOUR HOME IN MOSCOW AND PULLMAN

PALOUSE HOMES

2 | April 2013 | Moscow-Pullman Daily News

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April 2013 | Moscow-Pullman Daily News | 3

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April 2013 | Moscow-Pullman Daily News | 5 ROAD TO REBOUND

PALOUSE

HOMES YOUR RESOURCE FOR BUYING, SELLING AND ENJOYING YOUR HOME IN MOSCOW AND PULLMAN

Fannie profits a symbol of housing recovery them to repay taxpayers. But the past 12 to by the government in 2008 after they 18 months have marked a solid advance for were buried by bad mortgages. Taxpayers the housing market, noted Ken Mayland, have spent $188 billion to rescue the two ASHINGTON — collectively president of — Home prices are up. ClearView the costliest Foreclosures are down. bailout of the Economics, Construction is up. And and Fannie financial crisis. now comes the latest During and Freddie sign of the U.S. home market’s revival: much of will continue Fannie Mae, the mortgage giant that nearly to benefit. the 1980s collapsed five years ago, has earned its bigand 1990s, “It’s a spirgest yearly profit ever.

Fannie’s stock ited recovery,” Ken Mayland Fannie Mae earned $17.2 billion last a darling he said. “The president of ClearView Economics was year and said this month that it expects to housing sector of Wall Street, stay profitable for “the foreseeable future.” will be by far thanks in part It also paid $11.6 billion in dividends to to home-price increases and the governthe strongest (economic) sector growththe U.S. Treasury in 2012. ment’s implicit backing. In 1988, it was wise.”

And last year was Fannie’s first since its added to the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock The speed of Fannie’s resurgence is a takeover by the government in 2008 that index. In 1996, Fannie reported its 10th testament to a much healthier U.S. mortit asked for no federal aid. As recently as straight year of record profits. gage market.

2011, Fannie lost nearly $17 billion and Pay for Fannie’s top executives soared.

Fannie’s “profit recovery has come at a requested and received nearly $26 billion One former CEO, Franklin Raines, faster pace than I thought it would,” said in aid. received roughly $90 million in compenBert Ely, a banking industry consultant.

Some experts had suggested that Fannie Once symbols of the reckless risk-taking sation from 1998 through 2003, accordand Freddie were so deep in debt to the ing to Fannie’s regulator. The regulator that fed the housing bubble, Fannie and government that it could take decades for the smaller firm Freddie Mac were seized concluded that some Fannie employees had

| Moscow-Pullman Daily News

By Marcy Gordon Associated Press

Advertising Supplement |

April 2013

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Enjoy Palouse Homes IN PRINT: Palouse Homes is published monthly, with 12,500 copies distributed in the Daily News, Lewiston Tribune and at key drop spots and advertisers across the Palouse.

ONLINE: Check out the latest edition in digital format at www.DNews.com, just click on the Special Sections tab.

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6 | April 2013 | Moscow-Pullman Daily News GARDENING

(Nearly) weedless gardening is possible to believe that results could so well bear out theory.

The first step in creating this “weedless” or a time many years back, I condition was to stop turning over or tillwould become nervous every ing the ground. time I went out to my garden Buried in every soil are countless to weed. The weeds were so dormant weed seeds just waiting to be few that I feared something was awakened by exposure to light and/or air. wrong with the soil.

Not tilling — whether with a shovel, garTrue, I had taken deliberate steps to cre- den fork or rototiller — keeps those seeds ate this condition, but initially it was hard buried and dormant.

By Lee Reich

F

Associated Press

rigged accounting so the company could meet earnings targets and top executives could receive bonuses.

The excesses at Fannie paralleled the housing market’s surge — until they fizzled along with the industry boom.

Fannie still has a long way to go to repay taxpayers. It received $116 billion in aid. So far, it’s repaid $35.6 billion.

Fannie and Freddie don’t actually make loans. Rather, they buy mortgages from lenders, package them as bonds, guaran-

tee them against default and sell them to investors. In doing so, they help make loans available and exert influence over the housing market.

Together, Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee about half of U.S. mortgages — nearly 31 million home loans worth $5 trillion. And along with other federal agencies, they back about 90 percent of new mortgages.

The two companies nearly folded during the financial crisis because of huge

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I now take great pains to avoid disturbing the layering that naturally develops over time in any soil.

I clean up old marigold plants, tomato vines and other spent plants during and at the end of the growing season by just jerking them out of the ground, coaxing out plants with large roots, such as corn, by first cutting around their main roots with a garden knife.

I also enrich the soil from the top down, spreading fertilizers and compost or other organic materials right on the surface. Most of a plant’s feeder roots

losses on risky mortgages they bought.

Fannie and Freddie bore some responsibility for those losses. Like banks, they relaxed their standards on the loans they bought or guaranteed during the boom and failed to thoroughly check incomes and assets.

High-interest loans, some with low “teaser” rates, were given to risky borrowers.

Fannie and Freddie grew spectacularly as demand for mortgages exploded. The two firms, championed by powerful Washington lawmakers, rushed to compete with big banks for dominance in the home-loan market. In doing so, they bought or guaranteed mortgages they once would have deemed too risky.

Now, the two companies are benefiting from the home market’s steady recovery.

Previously occupied homes are being sold each month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of nearly 5 million, compared with a recession low below 4 million. Nationally, prices have risen nearly 9 percent since bottoming in March 2012. The number of homes repossessed by lenders has reached its lowest point since September 2007, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing firm.

And the proportion of loans Fannie holds or guarantees that are at least 90 days’ delinquent is down: The figure dropped to 3.3 percent at the end of 2012, compared with 5.5 percent in early 2010.

Ely, the industry analyst, thinks their financial improvement also reflects higher fees that Fannie and Freddie now charge banks to guarantee their mortgages.

Fannie earned $7.6 billion in the October-December quarter, a quarterly record for the company. About $1.3 billion of the gain came from a settlement paid by Bank of America Corp. related to mortgages that soured during the housing crash.

Fannie paid the Treasury a quarterly dividend of $2.9 billion. Under federal

policy, Fannie and Freddie must give their profits to the government. Fannie’s fourthquarter earnings compared with a net loss of $2.4 billion in the final quarter of 2011.

“Our financial results improved significantly in 2012, and we expect our earnings to remain strong over the next few years,” Timothy Mayopoulos, Fannie’s CEO, said in a statement.

After their takeover by the government, Fannie’s and Freddie’s pay and bonus structure came under fire when it was revealed that 12 executives received a total of $35.4 million in salary and bonuses in 2009 and 2010. Fannie’s chief executive received about $9.3 million for the two years, Freddie’s $7.8 million.

Once mainstays of the New York Stock Exchange, the stocks of both companies traded above $60 in 2007. Since 2010, both have been listed on the Over-theCounter Bulletin Board, an electronic quotation service. They’re trading below $1.

Since taking control, the government has owned 80 percent of each company, and a federal regulator has made financial decisions.

The government provided taxpayer aid in exchange for preferred stock in the two companies. The stock pays 10 percent interest, which Fannie and Freddie have been repaying in dividends each quarter in which they make a profit.

Freddie has received $72 billion in federal aid and paid back nearly $24 billion.

Freddie has reported positive earnings for five straight quarters.

Fannie and Freddie have since tightened their credit standards for the borrowers whose loans they back. And early last year, under pressure from Congress, the companies’ regulator capped pay for their CEOs at $500,000 a year and eliminated annual bonuses for all employees.

Added bonuses to the no-till approach are preservation of valuable soil humus (organic matter), earlier planting in spring, more efficient water use and, of course, not having to go through the trouble of tilling.

Keep soil intact and covered

PALOUSE HOMES — the roots that benefit most from organic materials and fertilizers — grow near the surface anyway. And near or on the surface is where organic materials can also do the most good offering protection from the pounding of raindrops and the summer sun.

Still, there are always those weeds that arrive in the garden as seeds hitchhiking in with the wind or dropped by birds. Each year, I smother them by spreading a thin, weed-free mulch over the soil. The mulch of choice depends on the look I want, the plants and the soil.

Poor soil and hungrier plants demand the most nourishing mulch. So every year, compost gets slathered an inch thick over the ground where vegetables grow.

Buckwheat hulls, straw or wood chips are adequate and attractive for most flowers.

Don’t walk on my bed Of course, you can’t just stop tilling, throw mulch on the ground and garden as usual. Walking on the soil and rolling a wheelbarrow, garden cart or tractor over it compacts the soil; tillage is then needed to aerate it.

The way to avoid compaction in the first place is to lay out the garden with permanent areas for plants and for traffic.

April 2013 | Moscow-Pullman Daily News | 7 Trafficked areas also need to be mulched, in this case with some lean, weed-free material such as wood chips, gravel or straw.

Planted areas in my vegetable garden consist of rectangular beds 3 feet wide surrounded by 18-inch-wide paths. Beds in my flower garden are more free-form or have stepping stones.

Planted areas in a vegetable garden don’t need to be raised beds, however; they can be laid out flat on the ground.

A big advantage of bed planting is that you can pack more plants into less space.

Instead of planting carrots with 18 inches between rows, four or five rows can be planted with only a few inches between them. (That 18 inches is to let you walk between the rows for planting, weeding and harvesting. With a 3-foot-wide bed, you can do all that from the paths.)

Also, different vegetables, flowers, or vegetables and flowers can be grown together in beds.

Drip that water Changing watering technique was the final step on my road to “weedlessness.”

Not all plants need regular watering, but for those that do, drip irrigation is the way to go.

Drip irrigation puts water near garden plants, so none is wasted or promoting

weed growth in the areas between plants or in paths.

This is not to say that with the above four steps — drip irrigation, mulching, keeping traffic off planted areas, and not tilling — weeds never appear. They do.

But weed problems do not.

What few large weeds do appear get yanked out of the soil, roots and all, coaxed out, if necessary, with a garden knife or trowel at their roots.

Colonies of small weeds are Lee Reich/Associated Press quickly done in Can you garden without weeds?

Perhaps not. But there with a “winged are tips for keeping those weeds at bay. weeder,” colinear hoe or some other With the above four steps, this activity is hoe with a sharp blade that can be slid pared down to nothing more than a few along parallel to and just a fraction of an pleasant minutes per week. inch below the soil surface.

Also important in keeping a garden Lee Reich is the author of “Weedless Gardening” weed-free is to search regularly for them.

(Workman, 2001)

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8 | April 2013 | Moscow-Pullman Daily News ARTS and CRAFTS

Build color confidence into your crafting a stretch for him.

A Londoner for 40 years who was born and raised in California, Fassett eschews rtists and craftspeople know conventional color rules, although he that the colors they choose subscribes to a few intuitively.

— and leave out — are critical “I left art school the minute the color ingredients in their works’ suc- wheel came out,” he muses. “I thought that cess, no matter the medium. was the work of the devil.”

Color done well is captivating. Color When Fassett talks about harmony and done badly? It’s just bad. Or drab. “bounce,” his language is as energetic as his Yet a color tweak may be all it takes to artwork. turn up a piece’s vibrancy and magic.

“Pick up one color and stick it next to An eye for color is both intuitive and another and see if you get a bounce from learned, say the experts. it,” says the textile artist. “Colors can either Kaffe Fassett has spent a lifetime experi- dampen each other or they can light each menting. The septuagenarian is exuberant other up. It’s just fantastic to see color that with color in his embroidery, knitting and is pulsating. It’s just vibrating with life. fabric designs. He’s known for bold florals, Other times, the most wonderful color is fruits and vegetables, and geometric shapes dropping dead because it’s in the company — in sweaters, knitted coats and needleof something that’s killing it.” point. The author of 15 books, his latest, “I want to make the colors lush,” Fassett “Kaffe Fassett Quilts: Shots and Stripes” continues. “I’m after the glow all the time.”

(STC Craft, 2013), goes minimal with viDuring the quilting workshops he brant swaths of color — a simplicity that’s teaches in the United States and elsewhere,

By Jennifer Forker

A

Associated Press

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including online, he recommends using myriad shades of the same color to create depth and harmony.

“Whenever possible, you have 10 shades of something rather than just one,” says Fassett, who is inspired in part by faded, antique carpets.

For example, while knitters are usually told to adhere to a single dye lot when buying multiple yarn skeins for a project, Fassett recommends working with several dye lots.

“I never had dye-lot angst,” he says. “Just the opposite. I loved when a color ran out.”

Also, stick to a color theme but make it “pop” with little surprises of a different color.

That ensures a piece won’t become muddy or drab from a color theme’s overuse. For example, if you’re working in warm tones of red and orange, inject a little cool blue. This works in quilting and in other artistic media, such as painting.

AP photo/Abrams “It can go very mushy if you don’t have enough vivid differ- The Bordered Diamonds quilt from Kaffe Fassett’s book “Simple Shapes Spectacular ences,” says Fassett.

In quilting and other textile Quilts” (STC Craft/A Melanie Falick Book, 2010) arts, mix up the fabric patterns and it also appears in his autobiography, “Kaffe — use both large and small Fassett: Dreaming in Color” (2012). He’s taught prints — to add interest. workshops on this quilt throughout the world.

Anna Maria Horner, a Brentwood, Tenn., fine artist Ariz. She recommends studying the same turned fabric and home-decor designer, color wheel that Fassett detests and learnechoes some of Fassett’s tips. ing about color theory, including how our “What people overlook is arranging brains process color. the light and dark — the depths of every “Color is a system,” Fink says. “You can shade,” says Horner, who designs fabrics take a lot of the mystery out of it if you and needlework products for Westminster follow the system.”

Fibers. “You can throw all the right colors For starters, learn about complementary into it, but maybe you don’t have the right and analogous colors, she says. Complelightness and darkness and depth of shade.” mentary colors are opposite each other on Meanwhile, too much of a good thing the color wheel — say, blue and orange.

— too much vibrant color — creates Analogous colors, such as blue and purple, chaos, she says. Injecting a neutral color are near each other on the wheel. can help.

Learn how to mix complementary “There’s a difference between vivid and colors and how to use them side by side. chaos,” Horner says. “It’s really a fine, small Learn about their values — their lightness step between the two.” or darkness — to understand different Betina Fink, an oil painter for 25 years, aspects of the same color. teaches art classes — including one about Then, see what color combinations apcolor — at The Drawing Studio in Tucson, peal to you, says Fink.

PALOUSE HOMES

April 2013 | Moscow-Pullman Daily News | 9

HOUSING MARKET

Decorating with plants

By Melissa Rayworth Associated Press

W

arm weather and the first buds of spring have been slow to arrive in much of the country.

But even if your garden has yet to grow, you can add beauty, fragrance and a sense of springtime to your home by decorating with lush plants and potted trees.

Decorating with plants “kind of fell out of vogue” for a time, says California-based interior designer Molly Luetkemeyer. “It was such a ‘70s thing, or I think people associated it with the ‘70s,” but it’s become popular again in recent years.

Today, “designer spaces pretty much always include some element of life,” says interior designer Brian Patrick Flynn, founder of decordemon.com. “While that can be anything from coral to tortoise shells, pressed leaves or even a tiny bowl with a goldfish, the most common way to add life is with potted plants and trees.”

We’ve asked Flynn, Luetkemeyer and

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Betsy Burnham of Burnham Design in Los Angeles for advice on choosing the right plants, potting them perfectly and keeping them blooming with minimal effort.

WHERE TO START? “Talking to someone at a nursery is a really good idea,” says Burnham, because employees at garden stores and plant nurseries are usually glad to answer questions about choosing and caring for plants.

You can choose plants based on the spot in your home where you’d like to keep them (sundrenched windowsills, shady corners or in-between spaces that get a mix of sun and shade). Or you can select a plant you love and then ask for advice on where to place it.

If you have pets or small children, ask whether a plant you’re considering is poisonous. And if you want plants that need very little attention, don’t be shy about saying so.

“While I’m a fan of making a big statement with greenery,” Flynn says, “I’m only interested in plants and trees that are

Her main advice: colors and keep Don’t use too much looking at them,” color in your artwork. says Fassett. “See “It will all start to which ones make cancel each other out,” each other happy, she says. “There’s more and which ones impact in your artwork overshadow and when you use a limited dominate the art palette.” scene and make Finally, avoid using things dull. Get white to lighten and it to the point of black to darken a color, glowing.”

Fink says; each mutes Fassett colors. Instead, lighten teaches a class, and darken color with Rosy Quilt AP photo/Abrams Design, online another that’s near it Three needlepoint chairs with at creativebug. on the color wheel.

For example, lighten overblown blooms by Kaffee Fassett. com. The show orange with yellow.

Fassett uses exuberant color and bold “Kaffe Fassett: A Darken orange with images in his embroidery, knitting and Life in Colour,” red. chronicling his fabric designs.

This same color 50 years in the advice can be used textile arts, apelsewhere in our lives — when planning pears through June 29 at the Fashion and a garden, decorating a room or dressing Textile Museum in London. for a night out. Likewise, get color advice from your surroundings. Horner turns to ONLINE fashion, Fink looks to nature and Fassett is www.annamariahorner.com www.betinafink.com inspired by antique quilts. www.kaffefassett.com “The main thing is to get out your www.creativebug.com

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10 | April 2013 | Moscow-Pullman Daily News low-maintenance. Give me something that requires daily care and/or delicate grooming, and it’s most likely to go from green to brown or black in less than 72 hours.�

says Luetkemeyer, who recommends daffodils, narcissus and hyacinth.

She also loves gardenia plants for their heady fragrance and shiny leaves. But they do require a bit of effort. “Any plant that’s a woody plant, with a Fabulous ferns wood that’s exposed, is going to be a little All three designers like ferns, such as bit trickier,� she says. the maidenhair. “They’re so delicate and Consider researching gardenias online soft,� says Luetkemeyer. “They’re fresh, and to learn how much water and how much they’re that pale green that’s the beginning light your plant will need. green of spring.�

And with all potted plants, LuetkeMaidenhairs are fairly easy to care for: meyer suggests placing a dish underneath “They need to be watered,� she says, “but if the pot to catch and maintain the water, you water them, they hang around.� then placing a coaster underneath the dish Consider grouping several together in to protect the furniture or floor. small pots or buying just one large fern. “They can ground a space grouped Potted trees together in odd numbers in pots of varied “A statement tree,� says Burnham, “adds heights on the floor,� Flynn says. Or “you can use them to add life high up in a room height to your room, and plays with the light at a window.� with hanging basket planters. And then Her clients in southern California often they also look excellent potted and placed on a pedestal, coffee table or console table.� opt for the color and fragrance of small citrus trees in their homes or at the entrance If you want something larger and bolder than the delicate maidenhair, Flynn to a patio or yard. “They require light and require water,� suggests the staghorn fern. Just remember Burnham says, “but they have fabulous that all ferns do best in shade rather than floral blooms in addition to the color of direct sunlight. the fruit.

Flynn also suggests fig trees: “Fiddle Flowring plants leaf fig trees are, hands down, my favorite,� “I love plants that flower in the spring,� he says. “They’re super architectural and

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almost kind of minimalist. Since these grow straight upwards, they’re perfect for corners or flanking a fireplace or focal point without growing out and over it.� “I also use fiddle leaf fig trees in unexpected places,� he says, “just to add a big burst of life into an otherwise utilitarian space such as a bathroom or even offices.

The key to using them successfully is ensuring they don’t come into contact with direct light, and that they’re not exposed to dry heat.�

Countertop herbs

One simple approach is to “put the plant into a fabulous low basket and cover it with reindeer moss,� Burnham says. “You don’t see the soil, and don’t see the plastic container inside.�

Luetkemeyer agrees that it’s worth taking time to choose the right pots: “You can take the same plant and pot it four different ways and it creates four different vibes,� she says. A pot is “sort of like the frame on the piece of art. It sets the tone.�

Non-plant greenery

If you don’t wish to commit to even a low-maintenance plant, Flynn suggests you “work in fruits in decorative ways.� “Oranges, clementines, apples and limes ... look excellent grouped in vessels,� he says. “The key to getting it right is to separate them, and not have different types of fruit within the same grouping. My favorite way to use fruit decoratively is by placing them in apothecary jars in different heights and sizes.�

Perfect potting Whatever kind you choose, Flynn is sure “What you plant something in makes you’ll be happier if you add some kind of just as much of a statement as the tree or greenery to your home. plant itself,� says Burnham. “Whether you’ve got all the time in the Take time shopping for exactly what you world to care for something or just want to want. “Add a little extra effort,� she says, be able to squirt a water bottle on your way “and you get a really chic little addition to out the door,� he says, “there’s definitely something out there for you.� your room.� “This might be a great time to put some herbs in your kitchen,� Luetkemeyer says.

Many grocery stores and nurseries sell herb plants such as mint or basil that are already blooming in small plastic pots.

You can re-pot them into more attractive containers, then cluster several together on a countertop.

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teamWASHINGTONrealestate.com

PALOUSE HOMES

April 2013 | Moscow-Pullman Daily News | 11

up with your lifestyle.

ener will help you keep

We’ll make laundry brighter, skin smoother and hair shinier.

We’ll knock out the rust and throw out the scale. We target odors, stains, and spots too. If you want to get “hooked-up”, just say “Hey Culligan Man”® or contact us at culliganwatermoscow.com.

100% satisfaction guaranteed*.

Hard water, iron problems, water delivery....easy solutions! at’s Culligan!!

$

100 OFF

a Culligan® Iron-Cleer® Water Filter

Limited time offer. See participating dealer for details. ©2010 Culligan International Co. May be subject to credit approval. Not valid with other offers. Dealer participation may vary. Coupon must be presented at time of sale. Contaminants may not be in your water.

Up to a Culligan

$

100 OFF

®

Water Softener

Culligan Water LLC

better water. pure and simple.

®

310 N. Jackson Moscow, ID 83843 (208) 882-1351 or (208) 743-5171 www.culliganwatermoscow.com

Limited time offer. See participating dealer for details. ©2010 Culligan International Co. May be subject to credit approval. Not valid with other offers. Dealer participation may vary. Coupon must be presented at time of sale. Contaminants may not be in your water.

WE TAKE HARD WATER PERSONALLY.

CR0365455A

er good at this location and other participating dealer locations.

12 | April 2013 | Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Thinking of Selling?

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128 E. Third St., Moscow • 208.883.1525 • 800.205.7530 For ALL Area Listings: www.LatahRealty.com

PALOUSE HOMES