Are you thinking of starting your own Website or Hosting?

I don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to make sure that I shared this great deal. If you need hosting, I'm working on a deal with Hostgator! 

In the meantime, you can check out their plans:

(I use the baby plan)

Click here to go to HostGator

 

I've used hostgator for my websites and blogs and they have the best customer service around! :) I hope this helps! -Charissa

I can but should I? - Working on a Two Story Home

As you all know, I have a Venice.  (Love it!) 

It's much taller than my old house which looks like this:

Why do I show you this?

Because I use to do ALL the work on this place. (Then my husband came along and did some too)

At any rate, it gave me the mentality that I really can do all the house repair and anything I want to.

But should I?

Forward several years and some time in my New Home....

I can easily do things like painting the multiple bedrooms and getting in the attic (by the inside access instead of climbing on the roof)

Here's a photo of my girl's bedroom. :) Love it!  (By the way, Walmart sells this Glitter Gloss that is 100% worth the costs. It makes the room glow in sunlight)

We do more "repair" type things with this new home than the old home and ladders are a MUST.

With the high ceilings, even light changes need a little extra boost.

I found myself in contemplation when presented with the challenge that the upstairs dryer vent needs changed every couple months.

This requires a very LONG ladder and a lint grabber on a long stick.

It's the only problem I have with the upstairs laundry room, but it's a pretty big one.

If I twist the wrong way I plummet.  Even just climbing a ladder sometimes leaves me in weird positions while trying to get the lint out of the extra long dryer hose that is trapped between the walls of bedroom 4 and the laundry room (for some of you it's a closet).

This inevitably leaves me in need of my Wexford Chiropractor friend and a pack of ice.

As much as I love climbing ladders and fixing my own things.  The inside of a huge house is big and challenging enough.

There are so many things I still want to do so I feel that risking my back and my ankles and challenging my big ole' butt on and extension ladder is likely not the best idea.

It's time to do one of two things:

1. Build a deck so I can get to the vent without plummeting two stories (it will be just one)
2. Hire someone to do the work for me.

I think I'm going with #2.  For goodness sake, I pay the neighbor boy to come and pick up dog poop.  I certainly can hire someone to climb a ladder and get rid of lint for me.

What would you all do?

Do any of you face the crazy high upstairs laundry vent issue?

How do you handle it?

Another Fall in your Home.

As another Fall approaches, I am happy to have learned so much more about the online world and blogging.

My home had held up well and what is funny is that, although I love the house and location, I have already started dreaming of a bigger home in a warmer spot.

It's not that I don't like the Venice at all, it's just that I have started to really get serious about my blogging adventures and find a need for an office in a central location in the house.

Right now I have my office/guest room upstairs next to the kids bathroom and I barely am ever in it.

I do most of my online work on my couch, morning room table or on the floor next to the fireplace (like I am right now) because I'm a heat hoarder.

I love my fireplace.

If you are building a Ryan Home, or any home for that matter....get the fireplace.

I'll have to figure out where I got my fireplace blower too (I'll share that soon) so you can get one too.

I just bought one and popped it in and here I am enjoying it.

There are some Ryan Home models that have great layouts for office space and I know I've seen the Palmaro (I think that's the name) that is a larger home with a great layout for office space on the living floor.   It's a little more closed in though but the kitchen is in a central location so it's still really nice.

With my blogging now, I can see the benefit of a home that is less of an open floor plan just so you don't get attacked by drolling and grasping little one year olds who smell like poo. (Yes...I just got attacked)

Being able to work uninterrupted is kind of a commodity around here.

Do any of you guys out there have a home you love that allows you to work but still kind of be a part of the action?

I'm curious how you do it and what you thoughts are about an open floor plan with an office to the side or a closed floor plan altogether.

Thought?  Please share! :)

Have a great day!

(Ps...if you wanna check out my biggest online adventure:www.marikinavalley.com     Eventually I'll be writing more about the job killing program for those that are interested.

Beaver County Rental Home

Hi All! We now have our rental home for rent. If you know anyone in beaver county that is looking for a home. It's in a nice older neighborhood. I'll post more info here momentarily. The home is very close to I376 and in the middle of three great towns (Chippewa Township, Beaver, Beaver Falls) and very close to a lot of things but far enough away so you don't feel like you're in a city. Here's a link to some more details: http://houserentalbeaverfalls.blogspot.com/

Which site do I use to help me rent my rental home?

www.rentalhouses.com  is a great resource for any of you out there who need a quick and easy place to go to rent or find rental homes.
Using it, I have had great success in finding quality renters.
Finding them is only half of the battle though.

Make sure you update the photos and make sure your asking price is within reason compared to the competition.

RentalHouses.com (gold membership is what I do) is well worth the cost and it plasters your information everywhere.  If it's anything like last time, I'll have a surplus of interested renters even after I have rented the home.

One thing I highly recommend when renting a home too is to join ezlandlordforms.com and utilize their credit check/background check service.   I am very diligent when it comes to prospective tenants and this valuable service has helped me keep my rental home nice and my pocketbook secure.  I have not had any problems (knock on wood) with using this method.

Charging the potential renter upfront for the background check will also deter people who already know they have shady rental or credit history.  I charge it upfront and offer it as a deduction on their first month rent if they are approved.

If you all are thinking of renting out your old home and want some more advice, I'll be glad to share.  We have been really blessed in making the decision to keep our old home and rent it.

We have actually talked about renting our Ryan Home too and building out a new home somewhere else.  Actually, building a Ryan Home Venice in a different state and moving all of our stuff to the exact same spot.

The only reason we talk of moving is because we both like a little adventure and we are turned off by the fracking that seems to be taking over all over PA.

I'm curious if anyone else out there has had fracking pop up and disturb their sleep.  It hasn't happened in a while now but when it does happen, you notice.

I'm not a fan of allowing fracking sites right next to residential areas. My main issue is the loss of sleep and the lack of information that they supply the affected residents.

What are your thoughts?

Troy Polamalu Signed Steelers Jersey!!!

I just found a great sports memorabilia place that has this Troy Polamalu Signed Jersey and a bunch of other great signed items by the Steelers.

If you're out there in black and gold land and you are thinking about getting some great sports memorabilia for our Pittsburgh Steeler's fans, you should check these guys out!

I found this great coupon, but I have no idea how long it will last.

I hope this helps the Steeler's fans out there looking for Signed Steelers stuff!!

TAKE 10% OFF at Steiner Sports with code SPORTS10! You can even use it on the Franco Harris signed football they have! I need to get a sport room up in my house to put something like this in! I hope someone out there can use this code! Click here and it will take you to the site: TAKE 10% OFF at Steiner Sports with code SPORTS10! Ttyl

Loving my Morning Room and Renting Out Your Old Home

I was just talking to another blogger the other day (it might have been today!) about how much the morning room really makes my home.

I was super "lucky" when I built my Venice because I was able to build my home with the Morning Room included.

I'm not sure if I ended up having to pay more for other things or not during that time, but I don't feel like I lost any money.

I'm so eternally happy that I got the morning room instead of the finished basement option (because you can finish a basement on your own) for many reasons.  The main one being that the morning room addition added to our square footage and I just don't see where a finished basement would even compare to that.  We did finish our basement!!! (I shared some crappy photos in prior blog post)

I think once you make the decision to build a new home, or buy a new home, you just go with it. In Hindsight, there were a lot of things that I worried about while my home was being built, that I probably didn't need to worry about so much.

But, that time was a part of my homebuilding journey and it's the only way that I got here too right? Being in the home close to 4 years now, we do not regret our decision at all. Sure there are some things we wish we had more of, but for our first home build, this is a great house and in a great neighborhood.

There are a lot of people selling homes around us in this neighborhood and that has me wondering but, of the ones I know personally, they are job relocations or divorces.

I do wonder if they decided they didn't like their Ryan Home or not but the answer to that doesn't really matter because I do like my home.

Of all the homes I have ever lived in, My Venice is literally the most energy efficient. My bills are ridiculously low compared to other homes of the same or bigger size.

As a matter of a fact, my old home that I made a rental has higher bills than my new home!

Speaking of renting a home....remember when I made that decision?

For those of you out there wondering what to do with your own home, I HIGHLY recommend keeping it.

Why?

Well, for one, there is a report out there that less and less people are buying homes. Do you know what that means?

It means that you will likely have a harder time, than in the past, to sell your home.

It also means that if people are not buying homes, they are RENTING HOMES!!!!

This is great news and because of my decision to rent my old home rather than sell it, I have to do a little bit of work here and there BUT I am getting a home paid for on someone else's money.

Certainly I pay with my time in upkeep on the property and making sure my renter pays, however, I can't say enough about how awesome it is to have someone else putting down the cash to pay a mortgage on my first home.

I get to keep all that hard work I put into it and put some time in every now and then (which ..in case you didn't know doesn't cost money...time does not cost me money in this respect) and in the end, I own a home that holds it's value and even rises in value as the area around it builds up and as inflation happens.

It almost makes me want to sell my current Ryan Home, rent it out and then buy another.

I wouldn't make money on renting my Ryan Home right now though because I don't think that the renting price would match what the mortgage is.

BUT if you are thinking at all about renting out your old home, chances are pretty good that you can rent it for close to double what your monthly payments are on the mortgage.

I make about $400 a month on my old home and of course I put it back into the home for the water bill (which I pay) and the up keep and repairs/ city fees etc..

Think about when that home is paid off though!

I get even more money in my pocket.  

So it looks to me that my retirement is going to be awesome!!

I could probably push it up a little too if I get that old house and this new house paid off asap.

Seriously, consider renting homes out.

If you can get some older homes that will do for renting, you might want to do it.

They pay for themselves and gain value while it's being paid for on someone else's dollar.

I don't know why more people aren't told about or encouraged to rent homes.

I have a friend who hates renting because she always has bad renters, but I was smart and did background checks and credit checks.  (That doesn't always guarantee much of anything but it has helped me keep a pretty sound rental income going!)

I use landlord station to help me out with stuff in that realm.  I also used a legal site and another site to help with my listing.

If I remember, I'll make sure to share it on my next post.

Speaking of posts!!!

If you are out there building your own blogs and stuff and you're building out a blog like me, learn to monetize your site.  It's not much, but it's fun to watch the traffic of your site make a couple bucks here and there.

When I started, I had no clue the "power" behind building a blog.

You know, you always hear of people making money online, but I had no clue how much or HOW people did it.

You almost feel stupid when you find out but it's pretty awesome once you know how to do it and it makes it even more fun to blog!

Alright!!

WEll...it's time to go sleep away and get ready for a super productive tomorrow!

Have a great night my Blogger Friends!

Totally Off Topic But I have to share here because I know there are other mom's out there...

So this is going to be off topic from the Ryan Homes Blog but I feel like many of you, whom built your home around the same time I did, have something in common.  

Kids.

Having my second child and being my my Ryan Home was a fantastic idea.

Both of my girls have so much space and I can't emphasize enough how safe we feel with our kids playing in the yard in our neighborhood.

Everyone in our Ryan community kind of looks out for one another and we help each other out in the winter when PA decides to throw some crazy snow at us.

Some of us in the community have found that our slopped driveways maybe aren't the most ideal and others (me) have been inspired to just buy a new vehicle that just destroys any "driving in the snow" problems that might exist.

Last winter was a BEAST.

But..that' s not what I hopped on to talk about.

I want to share my pure joy and delight for the Ergo Baby Carrier.

Seriously.  I didn't have this thing with baby #1 and I swear my back paid for it.

But I have it for baby #2 and I have to tell you it's the best money in baby carriers I have ever spend.  Literally...it is.

I have bought almost every baby carrier there was out there.   I don't know how I missed this Ergo Carrier the first time around but I"m so glad I didn't miss it the second.

Right now, I have a snuggly little baby cuddled up to me and sleeping away and when I'm done typing here, I'll be able to easily slip out of my carrier and leave her to sleep in her bed for a couple of hours.

Aside from the close cuddly contact, my absolute FAVORITE FEATURE is one of the most simple things about it.

The Ergo Carrier has a little black cloth that you can pull up and snap to your shoulder straps.

The cloth covers the babies head and makes it almost completely dark.

THIS IS AWESOME!

I'm serious.

You have no idea how much I was just struggling to get this little baby bugger to take a nap and finally in a moment of desperation, I remembered this carrier.

I tried to put her on my back first but that just didn't work.  She got more calm but she wasn't going into a trance.

So I switched her to the front carry withe carrier (cause you can do both) and BAM!  in less than 5 minutes she was conked out and now here I'm typing about it.

Little black nap cloth covering her head and a little bundle between me and my computer...BUT at long LAST she is sleeping.

Once I realized I'd have some time after she feel asleep my pure joy and admiration for this baby carrier had to be shared.

Plus...if I let her get a little deeper into the sleep cycle while I rock back and forth and type this blogpost while standing at the kitchen counter (which I still love btw!)  then I might have a chance of having more freedom today than I planned. (Freedom in regards to more time to blog my butt away!)

So there you have it.

An "off topic" blog post about my Ergo baby carrier because it is literally one of the best investments (aside from my home of course) that I have made.

Now...if I could just lose a little more weight and look sexy with this little bundle like those skinny mamas!  ....then maybe I'd share a photo.

Haha!

I hope you have a great day!
-C

ps...My horrible weight loss story is n't so horrible anymore!  Boooyah!