Homeownership is the foundation of the American Dream and with dwindling inventory across the country many potential buyers are breaking the barrier into building the homes they can’t find on the market.  This isn’t a task to enter into lightly, there’s plenty of horror stories to be found about buyers being scammed or having contractors walk away in the middle of the job whether they’ve been paid or not.

Due to the lack of inventory any good builder is going to have a pretty hefty pipeline and likely not enough help to keep up with the demand so it’s important to do a lot of research on your own before venturing into this territory.

ARM? GPM? PITI? You’d have to be a cryptologist to figure out some of the terms buyers encounter during the home buying process. Doing research on how to buy a house before beginning the process can greatly improve your experience and prepare you for the exciting course ahead. And with this glossary of home buying terms at your side, you can rest easy that your new home won’t get lost in translation.

During these difficult times when many people are losing their jobs or getting hours cut there has been some significant activity on the exceedingly small end of small businesses – micro-businesses you might say.

About Pemi Valley Habitat for Humanity 
Pemi Valley Habitat for Humanity is part of a global, nonprofit housing organization operated on Christian principles that seeks to put God’s love into action by building homes, communities, and hope. Pemi Valley Habitat for Humanity is dedicated to eliminating substandard housing locally and worldwide through constructing, rehabilitating, and preserving homes; by advocating for fair and just housing policies; and by providing training and access to resources to help families improve their shelter conditions.  Habitat for Humanity was founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a simple, durable place to live in dignity and safety, and that decent shelter in decent communities should be a matter of conscience and action for all.

Clutter can often be a sign of a chaotic lifestyle and it can also represent a very depressed person. You might have ready many articles on the subject and tried a variety of ways to clean up your own space but within days it’s right back to the same old trend of collecting mail or papers you really don’t need.  That’s because you haven’t found the decluttering style that best fits your lifestyle. There’s no one way that works for everyone.

It’s been proven. Clutter is a bummer — literally.

Dishes in the sink, toys throughout the house, stuff covering every flat surface; this clutter not only makes our homes look bad, it makes us feel bad, too.

At least that’s what researchers at UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families (CELF) discovered when they explored in real time the relationship between 32 California families and the objects in their homes. The resulting book, "Life at Home in The Twenty-First Century," is a rare look at how middle-class Americans use the space in their homes and interact with the things they accumulate over a lifetime.

Our over-worked closets are overflowing with things we rarely touch.

It turns out that clutter has a profound effect on our mood and self-esteem. CELF’s anthropologists, social scientists, and archaeologists found: