Foreclosures Nationwide

A study for CNNMoney lists the zip codes with the highest number of foreclosures and here's a list of the top 500 foreclosure zip codes. Many predicted we would see this if the market cooled considering the record number of ARMs that were being used to finance homes.

  June 20, 2007 | Comments ()

Rebuilding in New Orleans

We would all hope that the reconstruction of sections of New Orleans would have been further along (almost two years since hurricane Katrina) but unfortunately it's not and now homeowners are facing another hurdle in rebuilding their homes because the city requires additional permits to reconstruct in historic districts.

It's important to maintain the integrity of a historical neighborhood but quite another to deny a homeowner the right to rebuild their bathroom wall or front porch because they don't have the money or patience to search out a period specific hinge or siding. There must be a happy medium here. Your thoughts?

Landmark requirements increase rebuilding costs for New Orleans

  June 20, 2007 | Comments ()

Top Ten of 2007 (so far)

It's hard to believe we're about half-way through 2007 but in the last six months our traffic has more than doubled thanks to you. Here's your Top Ten Favorites for the first half of 2007 (which includes some posts from 06').

1. Drywall Repair
2. Subway Tile
3. Replace a P-Trap
4. Building and Demolishing an Interior Wall
5. Real Estate Comps
6. Building and Installing a Screen/Storm Door
7. Weather Vanes
8. Installing Wood Stair Railing
9. DIY Granite Countertops
10. Build a Sandbox

  June 18, 2007 | Comments (1)

More DIY Videos

DIY videos are available online from AOL, Easy2DIY, Expert Village , and the venerable YouTube. But not so new entrant VideoJug has upgraded and focused their DIY channel to include some great videos from amateurs and professionals who may hold the key to helping solve your house or garden dilemma.

  June 18, 2007 | Comments ()

House to Home

Shelterrific has turned us onto another great site called House to Home out of the UK. They are published by IPC Media which is a part of the Time Inc. family just as This Old House is. Whilst I was at This Old House we knew that IPC was up to some interesting things online and I think they've hit the nail on the head with their new site, especially their use of decorating tools and inspirational photos which are both prominently displayed on the homepage.

  June 7, 2007 | Comments ()

Rate My Space

Shelter website redesigns continue to rollout and HGTV.com is just the latest. The clean and easy to navigate site has a feature that is particularly interesting called Rate My Space. It seems like a mashup of Hot or Not and Digg, whereas you can upload your own photos of a room and users vote on whether they like it or not as well as add comments on each photo. The "most viewed" and "top rated" remain on the main page.

We think this will be a popular application that involves the community and allows people to share and receive feedback. Keep an eye out for more of these type of features from other sites.

  June 6, 2007 | Comments (2)