Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

Mark your calendars for April 10th & 11th this year – if you are in the market for a new home,  the Tri City Association of Realtors is sponsoring an Open House weekend in conjunction with the Realtors National Open House Weekend. The homes will be open somewhere in the timeframe of 11 a.m until 4 pm on both days. Last year’s event was a success with over 170 homes holding Open House events. Homes will be throughout Kennewick, Pasco, Richland and West Richland.

1. Tidy up kitchen cabinets. Potential buyers open kitchen cabinets and look inside.  Home owners can add rollout or organizing trays so when buyers peek in, they feel like there’s lots of room for their stuff.

2.  Add or replace tile. By retiling very inexpensively, you can make a room look way cleaner that it was. Every city has stores that offer $1 to $2 tile, so home owners have to pay only for the low cost tile and labor to replace a dated background or add a new one.

3.  Add a breakfast bar. When a wall separates a kitchen from a family room, suggest cutting out an opening to create a breakfast bar.

4. Install granite tile instead of a slab. Granite kitchen counter tops are the rage, but that can be a $5000 upgrade. Instead, home owners can put in 12 inch granite tiles for about $300  materials and can have a very high impact for little money.

5. Freshen up a bathroom without retiling. To update a bathroom, consider putting in a new medicine cabinet for $100-150, light fixtures for about $100, a faucet for $50-75, and a vanity for $200-300. Instead of replacing the tile, the existing grout can be lightly scraped and regrouted, which will make the tile look brand new. Installing glass shower doors makes for a brighter appearance. French doors can add a bit of flair and class for about $250, which of course will take people’s eyes off the tile and onto the doors!  This bathroom remodel would run $1000 to $2000.

6. Freshen up the basement. If your cement blocks or poured concrete walls in the basement are cracked, have a contractor fill the cracks with hydraulic cement, paint with waterproofing paint, add a top coat to add color, paint the basement floor and like magic, the basement isn’t finished but certainly doesn’t have the dark, damp dungeon feel anymore.

7.  Add a room. Look for large spaces that can be enclosed to create a new bedroom, for just the price of creating a wall.  For a job that can run in the low hundreds, can net you in the thousands or tens of thousands.

8. Spruce up cabinet fronts. Suggest home owners update tired-looking kitchen cabinets. reconditioning is the least expensive move for under $1,000. For $1,500 to $4,000 owners can replace the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, and for $4,000 to $12,000 home owners can have all the cabinets refaced.

9. Replace light fixtures. In a foyer, bathrooms & kitchens, replacing overhead lighting provides a great deal of pop for a little money.

10. Tech up the garage. Replacing the garage door opener with a remote touchpad entry system can make it look like a high-end system, for about $425.

The Tri Cities now has one high school with the International Baccalaureate program. Kennewick High is one of two schools on the east side of the state that offers the college prep classes. Usually the classes are smaller and offer more hands-on learning. The students in these IB classes can receive college credit for this learning as a result of end of the year testing.  Go Lions!

We in the Tri Cities have been incredibly fortunate not to have experienced the huge decline in the housing market as many communities have; in fact, the Tri Cities housing starts are blossoming with a 255 percent increase in building permits over last year.  Almost 300 new homes are under construction currently with nearly half of those being built in Pasco.

This is the time of year when we lose an hour of sleep (darn) but we know that spring is on its way and that means sunshine and warmer weather here in the beautiful Tri Cities! Just as a reminder, this Saturday night before you head to bed, make sure that you set your clocks ahead 1 hour for daylight savings time.  (Those of us that forget to do this invariably end up being clueless as to why we end up late to everything on Sunday….speaking from experience here..LOL)

So Saturday night – spring forward!

Paul & Diane Santillie of Kennewick, who made such a wonderful success of their pasta and sauce business, Pasta Mama’s, are back in business after a 16 year absence. Their story is one of triumph and tragedy. They developed the pasta business and became outstanding small business leaders in the state of Washington. Then tragedy struck on what was supposed to be a celebration of Paul’s 50th birthday – a hot air balloon ride that no one living in the Tri Cities could forget. The result was Paul being paralyzed, the business failure due to the accident and finally, bankruptcy and loss of everything.  But like the Phoenix, the Santillie’s are rising again. They most recently signed a lease on a building on North Columbia Center Blvd where they will have a manufacturing area, a retail shop, a restaurant and a garment printing business.  Lots of their former vendors, customers and business associates have been encouraging them and keeping in contact over the years, and were delighted to hear the news that Pasta Mama’s is Back!  We wish them the very best in their endeavor.