March Market Update

EPA's Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule

We pride ourselves on smoothly guiding our clients through the home buying process. We recently helped our buyers through an issue relating to the EPA's Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting rule which went into effect in April of 2010. The buyers’ sale was delayed for two months with good reason. During the escrow period, it was discovered that the sellers had their house repainted by a painting company that did not take all the precautions required under the new law. The painting company power washed the loose paint chips and dispersed them all over the property and into the neighbor’s yard, resulting in the neighbors filing insurance claims and lawsuits. We were able to bring all parties to the table and facilitated a satisfactory resolution and there was a happy ending to this story.

Note to Homeowners: Please be careful when having the exterior or interior of your old home (built prior to 1978) painted.

Call us for a copy of the EPAs Renovate Right brochure. 1 800 Hi Berkeley.

Choosing a focal point in your kitchen:

By Mykah Larkins

Interested in giving your kitchen a face lift? Not sure where to begin? One way to start is to pick a focal point, an area of your kitchen that you already like that you can build around.

I chose to build my kitchen around the new Viking stove. I originally thought that we would be getting the typical stainless steel kind. Once we started visiting the sales floors, however, I immediately noticed they actually came in colors, lots of colors! There was a pale green that was really pretty, but I realized right away that it was very popular color at the time. Many homes I had seen were using this particular green for kitchens, bathrooms, accent pillows, you name it…it was everywhere. I thought that it might be one of those trendy colors that would become out of date rather quickly. Not the best choice for a 600 lb. stove.

The other color that caught my eye was the burgundy Viking. It was gorgeous. The color was rich and classic and I really couldn’t imagine not enjoying it anytime in the next decade. I had to have it. Once the Burgundy color was chosen for our new stove, everything just started coming together. For cabinets, there were many shades of wood that would look nice with the stove, but we could tell right away that the richer medium tones were the most complimentary. Next was the countertop, and a visit to the granite shop. So many choices, but we knew it had to have some burgundy in it. That narrowed it down somewhat. The tile for the floor was a little tougher, we didn’t want everything to be red, but it had to work with the reds we had already chosen. So, we ended up with kind of a swirly terracotta, brownish-red tile and it even has a little green in it. It looks lovely and better yet, hides all the dirt. Lastly, we had to pick lighting. Again, we didn’t want just your basic stainless steel colored pendant lights hanging from above. We wanted something eye catching that warmed up the room. After all, this was going to be a place to cook, entertain and hopefully invite some scintillating conversation. The funny thing is, it wasn’t hard to choose at all. That burgundy stove that helped us get started was also helping us complete the task in no time at all. Six months from start to finish and we had a beautiful new kitchen. And it was only after we painted it deep red, that I read an article informing me that the color red causes people to feel hungry. How appropriate. The other part I read was how red is the color of passion, love, warmth, power and excitement: Perfect for my new kitchen.

Tour this kitchen at it's Open House, Sunday April 10th

Open 2:00 to 4:00

11 Ramona Ave, El Cerrito

Offered at $695,000

3bd/2ba

This heavily upgraded split-level home is just a half block from Memorial Park. The floor plan offers terrific separation of space with two generous bedrooms and one large bathroom on the upper floor and the master suite below. The gorgeous remodeled kitchen boasts a Viking Stove & granite countertops. Creekside setting is perfect for entertaining.

www.11Ramona.com