Mark Johnson Custom Homes Blog

Wilmington home builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes would like to share with our readers an article courtesy of Realtytimes.com that was written to ease the minds of those contemplating the sale of their home in order to build a new one that is just right for them.

The decision to sell your home can come with a mixed bag of emotions. There is uncertainty and fear about how quickly your home will sell and for what dollar amount. There may be guilt about leaving behind family, friends, or neighbors. You may also feel anxiety about what is to come.

Many others who have made the leap are ruled by emotions of sadness or regret. How does one let go of a home where so many memories were made?

The answer is in the attitude. It’s not about letting go. It’s about moving forward.

In order to let go of the negative feelings you have about the selling process there are a few crucial steps to take.

First, be resolute about your decision. If we allow ourselves to go back and forth between “I should” and “I shouldn’t”, you’ll always have uncertainty. Decide once and for all what is best for your family. Many people make pro and con lists. Others simply go with what feels right.

Second, remember that memories aren’t housed in the walls of your home, they live inside your mind. Those last a lifetime! Plus, take lots of pictures and video to document what life was like in your old home.

Third, talk about your decision. Bottling or resisting emotions can simply make them more pronounced. If you feel anxiety, talk to your spouse, friends, and realtor about it. It helps having a sounding board for fears and questions. Bounce ideas off of them.

Next, be willing to compromise. Today’s sellers are finding tougher conditions. There are lots of homes on the market and that means more competition. Go into the selling process with the mindset that you may have to make certain concessions. Many sellers find they need to lower their price. They may need to pay the buyer’s closing costs. They may also need to move out sooner or later than they anticipated.

Finally, refocus your attention on the fact that you’re moving on to a new phase in life! Many of you will be experiencing moving-up to your dream home. No matter the reason you’re selling, get excited about the changes or opportunities in your life.

Article written by: Carla Hill, Realtytimes.com

Wilmington, NC new home builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes is a team sponsor of the 2011 Cape Fear Heart Walk which will take place October 15th on the campus of UNCW. The event raises money for research and education efforts of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Our team hopes to see you there!

Cape Fear Heart Walk

Saturday, October 15, 2011 | Event Goal -$175,000

Campus of UNCW – Wilmington, NC | Registration at 9 am | Walk Begins at 10 am

Click Here to Make a Donation

Wilmington home builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes prides ourselves in providing excellent service to our clients. We would like to share a testimonial from our most recent clients.

“Our experience with MJCH was first rate from start to finish. MJCH was hands-on with great attention to detail and costs from the initial planning stage through completion. They worked within our budget to provide us with everything we wanted in our new home and more. We experienced none of the horror stories you sometimes hear about constructing a home, and in fact, could not have asked for a better experience in constructing our new home. My wife and I have built three other new homes prior to working with MJCH, and I have personally been involved in construction and the legal representation of contractors since 1993. We absolutely would recommend MJCH, without hesitation. MJCH worked closely with us to develop the plans and a reasonable budget to construct our dream home, and then proceeded to construct the home on time and on budget. Having worked in construction for many years, I recognize that this is not always the case and is dependent on having a general contractor that’s primary focus is pleasing its clients. That’s the case with MJCH, and why they are a first rate builder that we highly recommend to anyone looking to build a home.”

Michael and Jeana Gandee

Wilmington, NC builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes encourages those in the Wilmington area to attend “Hidden Battleship” this weekend onboard the Battleship North Carolina. This is one of several events planned for the Battleship’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.

In 1960, the Navy announced its intentions to scrap the Battleship NORTH CAROLINA (BB55).  On this news, two Wilmingtonians, James S. Craig, Jr. and Hugh Morton developed a plan of action to save the ship.  With their valiant efforts along with thousands of citizens and countless school children in raising funds, the BB55 would be able to come to the state whose name she held.

 On October 2, 1961, the Battleship NORTH CAROLINA was moored in her present berth across from downtown Wilmington.  Later that month on October 12, she was open to the public for all to view. 

 Now, as we move into 2011, the Ship gets ready to celebrate her 50 years of being part of the wonderful legacy and state of North Carolina. Visit www.battleshipnc.com for a list of events taking place.

Hidden Battleship: Join us for a unique, behind-the-scenes tour of un-restored areas of the Battleship. The four-hour tour consists of small groups with guides. Guests explore the bow (officers’ country and boatswain locker), third deck (Radio II, brig, after gyro, storage rooms, ammunition handling, Engineer’s office, torpedo area), Engine room #1, the refrigerator compartments, and climb inside the fire control tower to the top of the ship. The Azalea Coast Radio Club will be in Radio II to explain their work on the ship’s radio transmitters.

$45/$35 for Friends of the Battleship. You must be 12 years or older to participate. Wear comfortable, warm clothing and sturdy, rubber-soled shoes; bring a camera, but no large backpacks. 8:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-5:30pm. Registration and payment required by Thursday, Janaury 13. For more information call 910-251-5797 ext 3006 or 3026.
Battleship North Carolina
#1 Battleship Rd
Wilmington, NC 28401

Architect Sarah Susanka on designing houses that feel spacious but don’t waste space.

Wilmington, NC home builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes would like to share with our readers a helpful article written by Evelyn Royer in ECOHOME Magazine that gives tips for “rightsizing” your home.

The Primrose at Landfall built in Wilmington, NC by custom home builder and remodeler Mark Johnson Custom Homes was recently recognized as one of the Most Innovative Small Residential projects in the country. The honor was presented as part of the ICF Builder Awards, an international competition designed to showcase the advantages of building with Insulated Concrete Forms, commonly called ICFs. ICFs are hollow foam blocks which are stacked and then filled with steel-reinforced concrete. The finished structure combines the strength of concrete with the insulating properties of foam, which stays in place to insulate and protect the walls. This construction method can reduce energy bills by up to 70 percent, block exterior noise, and is extremely disaster resistant. As an additional benefit, it is one of the most popular ways to “build green” costing between 5 to 10 percent more than regular frame construction.

The Primrose at Landfall was named First Runner-Up in the Small Residential division. The presentation, witnessed by hundreds of construction professionals associated with the industry, took place last month at the World of Concrete trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For more information about the ICF Builder Awards, go to www.icfmag.com.

Wilmington, NC Green builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes understands the importance of recycling and would like to share the following information about recycling paper, courtesy of NCGreenPower.org.

• Every ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees compared to paper made from virgin materials.
• Instead of using a new piece of paper for rough work, turn over a used copy and write on the other side.
• Junk mail is more than an annoyance. It clogs landfills as well as your mailbox, and costs millions of trees and tax dollars every year.
• 5.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct mail advertisements end up in U.S. landfills annually.
• The average U.S. household receives unsolicited junk mail equal to 1.5 trees each year—That’s more than 100 million trees for all households combined.
• 44 percent of junk mail is thrown away unopened, but only half that much junk mail (33 percent) is recycled.
• Americans pay $370 million annually to dispose of junk mail that doesn’t get recycled.
• On average, Americans spend 8 months opening junk mail in the course of their lives.
• Start by registering with the Mail Preference Service of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). It won’t guarantee you a life free of junk mail, but it can help.
• You can also go to OptOutPreScreen.com, which can enable you to remove your name from lists that mortgage, credit card and insurance companies use to mail you offers and solicitations.
• One option is to use the Stop the Junk Mail Kit developed by the Consumer Research Institute.
• The website JunkBusters.com provides further guidelines for reducing junk mail and other intrusions, from unwanted e-mail (Spam) to telemarketing.
• Pay your bills online! Eliminate your paper trail as well as the energy used to transport paper bills.
• Go digital. If only 10 million people in the US change Mon-Fri newspapers to online, we could save almost 50,000 trees each year!
• Manufacturing products from recycled materials requires substantially less energy and natural resources than products from virgin materials.
• You may think that a lot of paper gets recycled, but according to the National Recycling Coalition, Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 13-foot-high wall of paper from New York to Seattle.
• Do your part – recycle!

 New Hanover County, NC home builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes realizes that many of our clients have homes to sell before they can build a new home or move to our area. Consider these tips when selling your home. 

Home buyers and home sellers have the same goal: an exchange of property. Buyers want to pay as little as possible for the nicest house they can afford; sellers want to earn as much as possible on their property. They may seem like conflicting interests, but they aren’t. Buyers and sellers goals, at bottom, are both about making a fair trade.

Interior design professional Emily Spreng, who holds degrees in interior design and historic preservation, says working with just two elements of your interior design can reap huge benefits in the overall feel of your home.

Lighting

“Lighting is one of the most important elements in interior design,” Spreng says. “By changing lighting you can instantly change the mood of a room.”

Whether you’re showing your home day or night, pay close attention to the mood being created by your lighting. In the bedroom, Spreng recommends creating a relaxing, ambient feel by turning off your overhead light and adding lamps with opaque shades to your bedside tables.

For cramped or dim spaces, Spreng says mirrors can make a room feel larger and warmer. “Put a mirror on the opposite wall of yours window to bounce the light around,” she says. By reflecting the sunlight, mirrors create the illusion of a second window.

You should also pay attention to your choice of window dressing to use the daylight you have, Spreng adds. “Use blinds that open and close and go up all the way, so you can let in a little bit of light or a lot—it’s just another way to control your lighting.”

Accessories

“Your accessories are the cheapest thing to change if you’re working on a budget,” Spreng says.

Accessories are the stuff you put in the room to make it more interesting, things like vases, candlesticks, pottery, flowers and wall hangings. For Spreng, the thing to remember about accessories is: less is more.

“I think the most important thing to remember when accessorizing your home is that one very interesting accessory is better than six or seven knickknacks,” she says. “If you want to emphasize the design of your home, it’s important to remove as much clutter as you can.”

Spreng advises home sellers to focus especially on area rugs, paintings or photos and throw pillows to spruce up a room. “An area rug is probably the best way to warm up a room,” she says, adding that it will bring a room together and make it feel cozy. Paintings and photos are a good way to add color and character to your room, and you can liven up drab furniture with cheap, colorful throw pillows.

An extra tip: if you have a big room with an empty corner, folding screens are a great way to round out the space and bring the focus back into center of the room.

Courtesy of: Drew Johnson, RealtyTimes.com

Landfall, NC custom home builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes would like to share with our readers an article written by Stephani L. Miller of Custom Home Magazine regarding mandatory green building code for residential, commercial, and public projects in the state of California. 

Why does this matter to our readers on the East Coast? It’s because a lot of our building codes related to energy efficiency follow that of Western states that have experienced the Energy Crises in the past. Items like occupancy sensors which are mandatory in California will likely be mandatory for us someday soon.

The California Building Standards Commission has unanimously voted to adopt the nation’s first mandatory green building code for residential, commercial, and public projects.

The California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen), which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2011, provides guidance on the implementation of energy efficient and environmentally responsible building methods and aims to reduce the water consumption of all new buildings in the state by 20 percent, divert 50 percent of construction waste from landfills, and improve the overall indoor environmental quality of all buildings. According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the mandatory codes will reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 3 million metric tons in 2020. It also will help the state achieve its goal of 33 percent renewable energy by 2020 as well as help mitigate global climate change. More stringent voluntary provisions also are part of CALGreen, which the state’s government hopes communities will pursue.

Mandatory residential construction measures under CALGreen address nearly every aspect of the process, from site selection and development, reuse of pre-existing structures, energy efficiency, and indoor and outdoor water use to materials conservation, resource efficiency, and indoor environmental quality and comfort.

Courtesy of: CustomHomeOnline.com

Wilmington, NC custom home builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes would like to share an informative article from GreenHomeGuide.com that explains things to look for when selecting Green paint. A new coat of paint can make a room feel fresh again, but it often has the opposite effect on the air quality in your home. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), paints, stains, and other architectural coatings produce about 9 percent of the volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from consumer and commercial products, making them the second-largest source of VOC emissions after after automobiles. For the complete article, click here! 

Courtesy of: GreenHomeGuide.com