Your Valuable Home

In the Replay today, Dianne paints a picture of her new kitchen and its

defining characteristic, a ProVia® picture window with built-in blinds. In the

Horror Story, if you’re considering an HVAC split system, make sure the

installer strings the tubes inside – not outside – the house. Wow!! And in

the Feature, Matt C. and Matt P., two Crypto-savvy individuals who we call

the CryptoMatts, join us this week for an interview to advance your

understanding of Crypto and its many moving parts. We’ll cover how it

started, how it’s evolved and where it’s going as a new form of currency

and technology aimed at facilitating secure financial transactions

worldwide. We’ll learn that, after a volatile period, in 2024 Crypto appears

to be settling down and embraced by large financial institutions. You won’t

find any buy or sell recommendations here, just knowledge and plenty of it.

In the Replay today, Kevin and Ron reveal the scams, lies, and shaky sales

pitches some contractors employ to get jobs.

In the Horror Story, we cite a

bad roofing job that led to a bad siding job.

Today’s feature was prompted

by Ron’s visit to his godson’s parent’s home, where he experienced the

excellence of their refreshed kitchen. There was no need to change the

basic footprint of the cabinets, which were in great shape. So, after

weighing the cost of replacing the cabinets, the decision was made to

retain the base cabinets, make the change to new doors and hardware in a

NOW style – and paint the base cabinets on the spot in a matching “2024”

color. Add a new countertop, sink, crown molding, and appliances, and the

result is a huge WOW at a modest price. Listen to the CEO of Freedom

Millwork in Bucks County explain the project and breaks down the price for

the average kitchen. Don’t miss this!

In the Replay today, Kevin and Ron explain how a responsible

home improvement contractor can make a positive impact on a

family.

It’s the third week of the month...time for the Bad Guy

Bulletin, with contributions from Mike Bannon from Bucks County

Consumer Protection, Marc Furber from the Bucks DA’s Office

and Ron, whose mortgage holder was hacked by the bad guys.

In the Feature today, Rebecca Edwards points out top family and home safety and security products and advice on safewise.com We cover everything from a personal GPS tracker for people walking alone to the best home security system and a personal stun gun. Don’t miss a second!!!

In the Replay today, Kevin walks us through the renovation of a 300-year-

old farmhouse.

In the Horror story, Kevin discovers a new company on

Instagram and their improper installation of windows and roofing.

In the Feature, Jim Mailey, Senior Technical Training Coordinator from

Simpson StrongTie, walks us through the products his company makes to

bring about more resilience in the connections between framing members.

Something to consider if you re-do your siding.

In the Replay today, Mike talks about his kitchen/laundry room project that

Kevin is about to begin.

Like all homeowners, Mike isn’t immune to

contractor Horror Stories. Today, he shares one involving a siding job gone

bad.

In today’s Feature, Donna Butts, a frequent contributor and great

friend to Your Valuable Home, joins us to share inspirational stories of

people across generations helping each other live life to the fullest. Donna

is the Executive Director of D.C.-based Generations United. Kev, as you

recall, Donna joined us in 2021 to discuss in-law suites. You had just

completed one in your home. Anyone contemplating an in-law suite should

listen to that interview in our release the week of 4/19/21. In today’s

Feature, Donna also shares the exciting news about the formation of the

Intergenerational Housing Learning Network. The IHLN can advise about

all forms of intergenerational housing from home sharing, to co-housing,

grandfamily housing, and, of course, in-law suites.

In the Replay, Kevin is referred to a dissatisfied roofing customer to provide

advice.

In the Horror Story, Nissi explains the roofing nightmare no

homeowner should have to deal with.

In the Feature today, renowned

architect and frequent Your Valuable Home guest, Illya Azaroff explains a

scenario whereby a young family can buy and build a modest house that’s

resilient, sustainable, and expandable as the family grows. This all proves

that home ownership can be within the grasp of those who make wise,

outside-the-box decisions. Clue: the classic saltbox makes for an

affordable, expandable design.

In the Replay today, Kevin provides a progress report on major renovations

his company is doing to a 300-year-old farmhouse.

It’s again time for the Bad Guy Bulletin is our once-a-month segment devoted to exposing all sorts of scams and scammers.

George Smart is on a mission “to document, preserve, and promote residential Modernist architecture.” He’s doing that in myriad ways, including hosting a Modernism podcast and presiding over the world’s largest open mid-century digital archive. We learned a lot in our talk with George and you will, too.

In our Replay and Horror Story today, Frank fills us in on his in-law suite

which is now on the right track. The same project began as a contractor

Horror Story that lasted about a year.

In the Feature today, a deer strike will ruin your day. Getting hit by a dead, falling tree could destroy your home, your car, and/or take your life. Today we get a short, intensive course on why our landscape, including roads and municipal rights of way, holds the potential for disaster with thousands of dead and dying ash, oak, and other trees. It’s a problem compounded by legalities and complacency about

corrective measures like removing fallen trees from power lines. We

explore this little understood, but vital topic with a veteran arborist and an

an attorney who specializes in municipal and tree law. What you hear should

lead you to conclude that the people of every impacted state need to be

fully educated about the danger in the trees, and, at the least, dead trees

that have fallen on power lines need to be removed as quickly as possible

and/or taken down before they drop.

In the Replay today, Kevin reports on a large, 300-year-old house that’s

getting an extreme makeover. His first order of business: replace 40-some

windows.

In the Horror Story, Kevin reports that a driveway repaving job has gone totally out of control.

In the Feature, Kevin proves that you can take advantage of a major renovation to make major, long-overdue upgrades.

In the Replay today, we revisit Mike for the final time. The post-fire

reconstruction that became a nightmare for him and his wife is redone far

beyond his expectations.

The Horror Story involves the refrigerator in Kevin’s home, and it has a happy ending. After several attempts by repair people to fix a nagging problem, Kevin’s wife contacted the head of General Electric Appliances, and he made good things happen. Congratulations GE, for delivering outstanding customer service.

In this week’s Feature, Jessica Lautz, Deputy Chief Economist and Vice President of Research for the National Association of Realtors, shares key takeaways from the NAR 2023 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. There are striking findings in this study that every homeowner and homeowner wannabe needs to know about. For example, first-time home buyers need to be increasingly more affluent.