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      • Lending
      • Settlement >
        • Documents needed to close
        • Title Insurance
      • Home Buying
      • Home Selling
  • My Listings
  • Explore Annapolis
    • Places to visit >
      • Architecture
      • Alex Haley Memorial
      • Banneker-Douglas Museum
      • Eastport Walking Tour
      • Hammond Harwood House >
        • Pumpkin Walk
      • Lighthouses
      • Paca House & Garden
      • Maryland Inn
      • Naval Academy
      • Parks >
        • Dog Parks
        • Leon Wolfe Park
        • Quiet Waters Park
        • State Parks
      • Severnside Farm Tour
      • St Anne's Church
      • Tiffany Stained Glass
      • State capital building
      • Wall Murals >
        • Design District Murals
        • Historic, Murry Hill & Eastport
        • Others Out & About
    • Events >
      • Annapolis Cup Croquet Match
      • Art Walk
      • Boatyard Beach Bash
      • Bourbon Bowties Cigars
      • C.R.A.B Cup
      • Crab Feast
      • Puppy Plunge
      • US Powerboat Show
      • US Sailboat Show
      • Waterfowl Festival
    • Runs
    • Holidays >
      • Memorial Day
      • Labor Day
      • Halloween
      • Christmas
    • Festivals >
      • Anne Arundel County Fair
      • Art in the Park
      • Beer & Wine Festivals
      • First Sunday Arts
      • Irish Festival
      • Homestead Gardens Fall Festival
      • Kegs and Corks
      • Maryland Seafood Festival
      • Renaissance Festival
      • West Annapolis Oktoberfest
    • Markets >
      • AA County Farmers Market
      • Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre
      • AA Medical Center Farmers Market
      • Diehl's Produce
      • DNR Farmers Market >
        • Annapolis Farmers Market
      • PA Dutch Farmers Market
      • 2017 Farmers Market Guide
    • Concerts & Shows >
      • All Saints Concert
      • Annapolis Town Center Concerts
      • Fast as Lightning
      • FOQWP Summer Concert Series
      • Middletons
      • Rams Head On Stage
    • Tours >
      • Ghost Walk Tour
      • Red Trolley Tour
      • Circulator
    • Places to stay
  • Gardening
    • Composting
    • Fruits and Veggies >
      • Apples
    • Gardening Clubs
    • Native Plants
    • Insects >
      • Friends or foe
    • Trees
    • Where to buy plants
    • Butterfly Garden >
      • Butterflies in Maryland
      • Location
      • Plants for Butterflies
      • Butterfly Life Cycle
      • Monarch Butterfly
    • Spring >
      • Seed Starting
    • Summer
    • Fall >
      • Preparing your yard for winter
      • What to Plant in the Fall?
    • Winter
  • Resources
    • Important Numbers
    • Maryland History & Resources
    • Schools >
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All About Annapolis

Blog

You know, I didn't think I had a lot to say, but apparently I might!!  :-)

Easy House Plants for Every Room

4/24/2018

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Don't you just love Homestead Gardens?  They're definitely my go-to place for new things in my garden.  They send out their Inspirations magazine, and I don't always have time to read it cover to cover....   but this weekend I had some time to catch up on some back issues.  The early spring publication has this one great page article on "House Plants For Any Room."  

As a stager, I love this article.  Perfect pictures usually have pictures with some form of green living plant in them, but I know too many people go to the store and buy a plant they love, only to get it home and find out it's turning brown/wilting/dying before their very eyes!  Figuring out why it failed can sometimes feel like rocket science, and frankly, not all of us have time to pull out our inner astrophysicist selves and figure this darn thing out!

But this one tiny page article does that for you!  I was so impressed I felt like I NEEDED to share it with you.   They broke down the plant types to 4 areas of the home. I love this time of year because so many different places have fresh new plants in.  So if you'd like to add a new plant to a new area of your home and you see one, pick it up! :-)  You'll be glad you did!

Thanks so much to Homestead Gardens for putting such a great guide together!
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Want to get Top Dollar for your home? Try these tips...

4/17/2018

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Selling your home is hard. I know, having a realtor say that seems kind of bizarre.  But let me tell you, I know it is!  I've sold many of my own personal houses, and I can tell you, as the seller, you are under a LOT of stress!  Besides your plans for the next location (do you even have your next housing taken care of?), you have to worry about getting this home ready to sell. Then when it sells, how are you going to pack and move all your stuff?  That's a lot on your plate.

But if you can get a handle on some of these tips, potential buyers will look at your home and picture themselves in it.  If you leave some of these items slide, then those buyers will start a running tally in their mind of the things they want to change, and that will affect what they choose to offer for your home.  You want them to want your home as their new home, not as a fixer upper.  Check them out and make them your own:

1.  Keep your entryway simple and inviting.  Put a seasonal wreath on the door.  When's the last time you bought a new welcome mat?  When guests walk in, is the floor clean and clear, or are your rain boots or grass cutting shoes still there?

2. Do a spring cleaning on all your floors.  Clean all your carpets,  wood floors, scrub the tile floors (yes, the grout too).  

3.  As hard as this is to say, empty spaces sell. Not completely empty... stay with me here.  Empty out 1/2 of what's in each closet and cabinet and put them in storage.  If you're moving, go ahead and box it up and label it.  Then some of your packing is getting done in the process!  Stack the boxes neatly in the garage, basement, attic, etc.  Buyers will see possibilities in how big the spaces are. Don't worry about them seeing boxes because aren't you selling your house?  You're getting ready to move, it should seem logical to the buyers that there are boxes ready to move in your garage.

4. If you have the time, paint your walls a neutral paint color.  If you have walls that are different colors, buyers may just focus on how they didn't like your orange bathroom and your purple living room. I can hear you now, it's just paint you say.  But today's buyers don't want to be bothered with having to paint. They want it all done before they move in. 

5.  I've had buyers who, upon pulling up to the home, will judge by the outside and say "I don't even want to look at this one".  Curb appeal is that important.  Your yard shouldn't have toys, bikes etc outside.  No one wants to see the garbage cans. Do you have a planter by your door with a nice arrangement in it?  Keep the outside of your home neat and tidy.

6.  Speaking of the outside, mow and edge your lawn, trim the trees and bushes, plant a few colorful annuals in your flower beds, and put down some fresh mulch.

7.  Keep the high traffic areas of your home, like the kitchen and the bathrooms, spotless.  Even if they need updating, as long as it's clean a buyer will consider.  I've had buyers say they want to rip out a whole kitchen when it was just really dirty and messy. It affected their offer price.

8.  Consider providing a home warranty for your potential buyers.  This will give the buyers peace of mind, because if something were to go wrong with the home after you sell, they're covered.  

9.  Consider having a certified stager (like myself) talk a look at your home.  Stagers can make sure buyers will see exactly what you want them to see.  Sometimes buyers may have a hard time seeing the purpose of a room.  A stager can use what you have, or bring in some of their things, and will set up the room so buyers hopefully can see themselves in the space.

10.  While it may be tempting to try and sell your home yourself, use a real estate professional.  Negotiations can get risky, and you definitely want someone on your side to represent you.   
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Can't we just throw it away?

4/10/2018

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I am totally embracing the concept of Spring Cleaning. Besides, the weather forecast has 70's and 80's for the first time in forever, Spring must be here, right?  I read a statement the other day about someone not being a slave to your things.  He went into a heavy description of how things require a spot, and you have to tend to that thing (either by upkeep, using it, dusting it, or storing it).  The less things you have, the less spots you have to find, and the less time you'll spend tending to that item!   Maybe I just need to embrace Marie Kondo's method of holding each item, and if it sparks joy, I get to keep it. If not, out it goes. 

Being a good steward of our land, I just don't want to throw it all away. I'll donate a good bit of it to charity, and maybe I'll hold a garage sale in a month or two.   But my old VCR?  No one wants that.  Can't I just throw it away? 

I came across an OLD pamphlet (back from Governor Ehrlich days) about recycling e-waste.  It's not surprising that consumer electronics are rapidly finding their way into our landfills.  Sometimes, these items can contain toxic materials such as lead, mercury, cadmium and chromium.  This old brochure says the average computer can contain between 4 and 7 pounds of lead.  They're much lighter now, but it makes me wonder what other funky chemicals are in there.

Good news is, Anne Arundel County has us covered.  E-waste is accepted at any recycling center.  
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When you visit their website, it also has a list of private recyclers that will accept other items. With addresses, phone numbers and some email addresses.  I think that's pretty cool too!

So while it may seem so much easier to just get a large box or garbage bag and throw them away, please do the right thing.  Take them to the Recycling Center and feel great about your good deed.  AND as an added bonus, you're space is all cleaned out and organized now, right?  Happy Spring Cleaning!
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Don't use these passwords

4/3/2018

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I always find articles like this funny and fascinating at the same time.   Everything nowadays requires a password, and you know you're not supposed to use the same password for online sites as you use for your financial information.   Then you have 4000 different passwords.... how are you supposed to remember them all?   

I know a few people who just keep resetting their passwords, but that's a pain.  So you can see how some of these may have come about.  We're all fed up with the whole concept of passwords,  and to me, it seems like when I come up with a creative password, I need to change it again.  How about the sites that say "You can't use one of your last 5 passwords?"  Hunh?  I can't even remember the last one let alone the past 5.

But whatever you do set them to, avoid these common ones. 


  1. 123456 (ranked number one last year)
  2. Password (also unchanged in ranking)
  3. 12345678
  4. qwerty
  5. 12345
  6. 123456789 
  7. letmein 
  8. 1234567 
  9. football
  10. iloveyou 
  11. admin 
  12. welcome 
  13. monkey (new to the list)
  14. login 
  15. abc123 
  16. starwars (new to the list)
  17. 123123 (new to the list)
  18. dragon
  19. passw0rd
  20. master 
  21. hello (new to the list)
  22. freedom (new to the list)
  23. whatever (new to the list)
  24. qazwsx (new to the list)
  25. trustno1 (new to the list)

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    Author

    My name is Susanne Kneeland and I'm an Associate Broker for Long and Foster in Eastport Annapolis. I'm a wife, a mother of 2, and to 2 furbabies, a dog Maggie and a cat Marty

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