Will new homeowner tax effect you when you sell your home?
By Jill Goldman, Special to The Times
The “homeowner’s tax” that Congress created to help pay for the Obama Healthcare Law is theoretically a scary proposition, since it applies to the proceeds of real estate sales including primary residences. In actuality, however, few homeowners will be affected since only a relatively few sales will generate enough proceeds to high enough wage earners...
Matson Goldman Team moves to Prudential Fox & Roach
WEST CHESTER — MaryAnn Piccone, manager of Prudential Fox & Roach, REALTORS® West Chester Office, announced that the Matson Goldman Team, one of the area’s top reality firms, had joined the Prudential family.
The Matson Goldman Team, co-founded by Jill Goldman and Katherine Matson, is an award winning, top-producing team recognized in Philadelphia Magazine’s Five Star Realtor Awards...
Housing recovery starting in some hard hit areas
Hard hit areas show the way for lesser-impacted areas such as Chester County
By Jill Goldman, Special to The Times
Several years ago I attended a real estate conference just as the housing market was really starting to decline, and one of the economic analysts assured the eager listeners (all real estate professionals) that eventually the housing market would not only level off and even start to...
What’s so great about living here?
A great deal, actually, from culture, to nature to great schools, Chester County has a lot to offer
By Jill Goldman, Special to KennettTimes.com
With natural beauty, great schools and one of the great cities of the world just a short car ride away — Philadelphia — Chester County has a lot to offer.
Last week we promised to write about why Chester County is such a great place to live. We...
Let’s talk about home building
Building a house starts from the ground up
By John D’Annunzio, Columnist, KennettTimes.com
This will be the first in a series of articles on how to construct a building the right way: I know because I started from the ground up. I’ve operated all kinds or heavy equipment from John Deere 450 loaders up to Caterpillar’s 977 Trackscavator.
From those experiences I can tell you that the first...
What’s in my drinking water?
Whether it comes from a well, or a water system, what you need to know
By John D’Annunzio, Columnist, KennettTimes.com
The experts say that the human body needs eight glasses of drinking water a day. This amount of water is needed because the body needs water for temperature control, removing waste from the body and brings oxygen to the cells and organ function.
Let’s talk about what could...
The evolution of building codes
Rules for safe building have their roots in ancient times
By John D’Annunzio, Columnist, KennettTimes.com
Some may ask “why and when did building codes evolve?” Did it all start in the 1920s or later?
Well, we need to go back to a time when a Babylonian emperor named Hammurabi enforced his own code called the Hammurabi code. This was around 1800 BC. His thinking was if a builder built...
Smoke detectors: the right one could save lives
By John D’Annunzio, Columnist, KennettTimes.com
Here’s a hot topic: smoke detectors.
All new residences are required to have smoke detectors. They must be hard wired with a battery backup. The location in a single family home goes like this:
One in each bedroom, one in the hallway, one on each level, and one in the basement.
If one is activated all of the alarms will sound. The idea is...
Sun rooms: let the sun shine in
What to know to add some light to your home
By John D’Annunzio, Columnist, KennettTimes.com
How did sunrooms come about? It all started with the porch, and when the time came for a barbecue people had to put up with all kinds of insects. So they started to install screening on their porches and with a little bit of framing, the insect problem was taken care of. Then, in the 1960s a trend...
‘Countering’ those kitchen questions
Lots of options for those kitchen and bathroom counters
By John D’Annunzio, Columnist, KennettTimes.com
Centuries back man didn’t have many options as far as counter tops. They probably cut down a huge oak tree and started working the daylights out of it to come up with something that was feasible. As far back as I can remember, people used tile or Formica. But today we have a few more...
