Condo Living 101

The Top Four Questions to Consider When Choosing A Condominium Insurance Policy

Condominiums and townhouses have special insurance needs. They don’t need as much insurance as a house, but owners have more to insure than a renter. The insurance needs for a condo owner include personal property and liability coverages. Special policies for condominium owners, known as form HO-6, will provide the liability and personal property protection a condominium owner needs.

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All About Condominiums

What is a Condominium?

Under a condominium plan, residents hold legal title to their units, as if they were freestanding houses. In addition, they own a proportional share of “common elements”, like lobbies, yards, roofs, parking lots, and recreation facilities. Condominiums come in a wide range of sizes and styles, including town houses,
garden apartments, high-rise towers, and even freestanding houses sharing private
streets or courtyards.

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Easy Lifestyle

Most condo living is easy to maintain and dust are unlikely to be present on coffee tables, china cabinets, and entertainment centers. As an alternative, buy double-duty furniture like day beds that can turn into a sofa and other decorative chest for storage. Unnecessary items can be stored on these and allowing more space as well for other things. The other side is that little spaces blow up anything that is less than white-glove dirt free.  If you forget to make your bed for example or clean the floor, you need to do quickly so that when you arrive with a visitor you’ll have a stress free environment.

Living together

The word condominium came from the Latin words ‘con’ which means together and ‘dominium’ which means property. This makes condominium as common property which is shown between people who live in a condominium. In condos, there are lots of families sharing the same building but they live in individual units. There are area where they gather such as lobbies, cafeterias, pools, activity rooms and gardens. Condo life is more complicated that living individually because you share property with yourself and you must learn to live and tolerate people living with you. Thus it is important to know what each one can do and cannot do so that you could live in harmony within shared property.

Recycled Insulating Products

One of the most expensive parts of the home is the insulation which keeps the warmth from the heating system in during the colder months and keeping the cooled air within during warmer months. There used to be widespread use of cellulose wall insulation that is basically virgin paper trimmings mixed with an adhesive and some preservatives that prevents pest infestation but now, there are more recycled cellulose fillers that are good as the virgin pulp products and are very much environmentally friendly.
They are blown into the walls as they are being put up, just before they are closed up with all electrical and plumbing fixtures and pipes (please include access panels and provisions for additional installations). Adding more that you really need in terms of electrical conduits, greatly reduces the need for extensive work on the walls when they are indeed needed.

Earthy Homes – Efficient Homes

There is a constant revision of the way our homes are constructed and what do you know, we are again turning to technology that has been in use for millions of years till now in impoverished homes in Africa and elsewhere. A move to make earthen homes again all the rage is one of the the best solutions to the energy crisis for the many enticing advantages these homes offer us. First, they are made of dirt and straw so they can be way cheaper. They can be made to work with current modern framing technology, that can only get better with the advantages of a better understanding of what needs to be addressed. They are naturally insulated from external temperatures so they mostly maintain a proper balance of moisture making them a joy to live in. You may have to trim down on the painting and rich colors for they work best left natural hence they may lose their insulating properties. Earthen homes was one of the earliest forms of home construction that served our ancestors well, why can’t it serve the same purpose for us now?

Green Roofs – Worth It?

The many concrete buildings and structures we have been erecting since the beginning of the industrial revolution are not only some of the most polluting structures but some of the most drab and lifeless we have ever come up with. In an effort to bring more green into our city’s, planners and building administrators are studying the feasibility of green roofs or gardens that allows the green to return while we keep our concrete jungle below. Property owners have been finding that developments besides such green roofs are more favorable and clients often haggle for a view of such structures. Continue reading Green Roofs – Worth It?…

Planting Wisdom

There are more and more green developments that are mixing the use of plants, more for decorative use to more active roles such as natural climate and pollution control. Such new radical developments can be seen in the many architectural proposals where plants and trees are a vital part of a high-rise’s structure that they are providing natural air conditioning. Plants have long been known to keep the air cooler as their leaves absorbs most of the sun’s rays turning them into life giving oxygen, Continue reading Planting Wisdom…

Are plants right for you?

One the ways to spice up and give life to a condo space is through adding plants. However these are not for everybody, since not everyone like to look after plants. If you decide on getting one, be sure that you have ample space where you can place it where the plant has access to enough sunlight. If your condo isn’t that type of space, then you can forget it. Another thing is that you should commit yourself to the plant’s care – watering it everyday, picking off dead leaves, and so on. There are several low maintenance plants available if you’re not so particular with the type of plant you want to have in your space. Also remember to have something under the pot to catch any dirt or water that may spill out whenever you water it to avoid any mess.

Plant Wisdom

There are a lot of tips on how to make an utterly drab cinder block condo as warm as possible and one of hem would be the addition of plants. They are good for the environment and can add some refreshing oxygen to an enclosed space as a condo but they need proper care and some caution for some of the toughest house plants are poisonous to animals and kids alike. Cacti are low maintenance yet their thorns sometimes contain break-away spines that in nature serves as the plant’s defense mechanism, but around kids, they can turn laughter into shrieks of pain. Dumbcane or elephant ears contain toxins that can be deadly to small animals and children so use only where the kids cannot reach. They can induce numbness of the lips and tongue but will lead to more serious health effects if ingested. Take samples of poisonous plants with you if you suspect ingestion so the emergency room staff can administer proper medication.
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