Heidi Main, Writer

SUBMERGED

How do you immerse the reader into your scene? Make them feel they are there with the character?

By adding the right amount of descriptions, emotions, and inner thoughts to your already solid scene.

Edit your scene. Highlight all descriptive phrases and sentences in a color. Highlight all emotions in another color. Inner thoughts get a third shade.

The emotions and inner thoughts should be sprinkled evenly throughout. Description will be heavier at the beginning and first half, tapering off in the second half, but still active.

Try it and let me know how this tip works for you!

Filed under: Writing Tip on August 22nd, 2012 | No Comments »

 In crockpot, place chicken, corn, beans, and salsa. Cook on low 4 to 6 hours.

Shred chicken. Add pieces of the cream cheese, stir until cheese melts.

Serve with tortilla chips. Enjoy!

Filed under: Recipe on June 6th, 2012 | 2 Comments »

Moving is a hassle in many ways. It is expensive and disruptive. We’re moved locally twice and were able to have positive experiences by breaking the move into two parts. Check out my prior post on how to label and organize boxes for your move. That post may help you as well.

Plan on having the professional movers move the big stuff (furniture, mattresses, washer, dryer, . . . ) a week after you do a local U-Haul move.

Friends helping us move!

The day of the U-Haul move, try to get friends to help That day, move all the boxes, lamps, breakables, small items that don’t fit into a box. And the entire kitchen. Load all of your hanging clothes in the back of the cars and transport them on hangers so you don’t need to purchase the wardrobe boxes.

For a week, you’ll be camping out in your old home and using paper plates, but that’s okay! It’ll give you time to put your kitchen together in your new home or temporary housing. And, you’ll be able to drive over anything you missed the day of the U-Haul move.

Before the professional movers arrive, make sure you measure each room and mentally place furniture so that the day of the move, you know which room each piece of furniture will go into.

The day the professional movers come, strip the beds and drive the bedding to your new home. Be prepared to do a few loads of laundry before bedtime, or have those sleeping bags prepared! But guess what? You may have boxes all over and furniture out of place, but your kitchen is intact, so all is well. A kitchen makes a home

Why in the world would I suggest a move like this? You can save big bucks by having the professional movers only transport the larger items. The professional movers won’t guarantee anything breakable unless they pack it, so move breakables yourself.  And don’t forget, this allows you to be in control.

Filed under: Organization Tip on February 29th, 2012 | No Comments »

Note that some of our clear boxes are labelled with the contents

The first thing you need to do is get thick blue painters tape, thick green tape (there is a tape called Frog’s tape at hardware stores), and sheets with the small colored dots on them.

As you pack boxes, designate a colored dot for each new room as well as the garage or storage areas. That way, the movers or your friends won’t need to ask where the boxes are going. The dot should be on the top and the side. Place a dot on the molding of the new rooms so people can, for example, pick up a box with a yellow dot on it and simply walk it into the room that has a yellow dot on the molding. Simple. You can even write instructions on the top of the box, like “store in closet” to further assist your helpers.

The thick green tape is for FRAGILE boxes. Anything that has breakables in it will get a thick strip of green tape across the top. Write FRAGILE on the tape. Consistency will help the movers or your friends in assessing where items need to go as well as how cautious they need to be with certain items.

If this will not be your final move and you need to store items and boxes in a storage facility or the garage of your temporary home, then consider numbering the boxes and creating a simple Excel spreadsheet (or table within a Word document). Put the number on the blue painters tape on the top and the side of the box or storage container. Then, in your spreadsheet, include the number of the box, the contents (for example, writing books from Heidi’s office closet) and the final destination (for example, will it be inside the house to be unpacked, stored in a closet in the house or placed in the garage or attic space).

Here is a low row of numbered boxes that we won't unpack. They are behind a couch.

If you are storing a large amount of boxes and containers somewhere (a garage or a storage facility), consider using a 3D grid on paper so that you can know where a certain box is located. That way, if you are looking for a particular box, say box #31, you know it is in the garage in the second row, 3^rd from the house wall and 2^nd box from the top. You don’t need to dig through boxes and boxes to find the item you are looking for.

Check out my blog post later today on how to organize a local move and let me know if this post helped you organize your belongings.

Note, the row of boxes hidden under a coordinated sheet and behind a couch (I put two lamps on it and used it as a sofa table)

Same row of boxes, notice the draped sheet . . .

Filed under: Organization Tip on February 29th, 2012 | No Comments »

Fresh color infused mulch, great first impression!

I hope you enjoyed my post from yesterday, preparing you home for sale~part one.

If you haven’t powerwashed your home in over a year, schedule someone to come and powerwash. Does your driveway look fresh? If not, have it powerwashed as well. Don’t overlook this. It’ll cost under $200 and will be well worth it. Remember, curb appeal. After the powerwash is complete, clean your windows inside and out.

Freshen all pine-straw areas as well as any mulching on your property. Don’t overlook this since it is the most noticeable part of curb appeal and will only cost a few hundred dollars.

Yes, I am throwing around hundreds of dollars, but if you sell quickly and at top dollar, wouldn’t it be worth it?

If you have extra’s that are above and beyond what the houses in your area have, provide that list to your agent so they can include that in your selling packet. The more extra’s, the more a buyer will remember your home over the competition.

Fresh pinestraw. Nice, clean look for the buyer to admire.

Price your home well: In a buyers market, you must have a real estate agent. Meet with them once your home is show ready. Have them assess your home and together come up with a price for marketing your home. Do not throw a high price out there and see if you can grab a fistful of cash that first month. First, you will bring in the wrong price buyers. If you price too high, the people looking at your home can afford more and will expect more, they won’t make an offer. Second, you will begin to languish. Start off with the right price and you’ll sell quickly. Your agent can prove that homes that started too high ended up chasing the market and selling for a lower price after many months on the market.

Let me know if these posts helped you in your home sale!

Filed under: Organization Tip on February 8th, 2012 | No Comments »

Replaced carpet with tile. Updated one piece gold globe track lighting with modern oil rubbed bronze sleek fixtures. Replaced glossy pink floral accent tiles in tub & shower with matte tiles that coordinate with the new flooring. Replaced gold towel fixtures, gold cabinet pulls, and gold plumbing fixtures with oil rubbed bronze.

If you have the luxury of timing the sale of your home, then you have the upper hand in selling. You can do many things to help your home sell quickly without languishing. The top two are staging your home and pricing it right within your current market.

Go through your home, inside and out, with pen and paper and make notes of everything that is visible that needs fixing or painting or refreshing. Then do it. This will take much time, but your home will be that much nicer than the competition!

Go through your home with an eye for what a buyer these days wants: Oil rubbed bronze or satin nickel doorknobs and cabinet pulls, up-to-date ceiling fans, up-to-date kitchen and entryway fixtures, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, upgraded master bath. Yes, some of these things are expensive, but the doorknobs, cabinet pulls, ceiling fans, and light fixtures are inexpensive and do-it-yourself projects. You would be surprised at how much value you can add to your home with some small changes. The higher the price of your home, the smarter it is to add things like granite and stainless steel.

Declutter your home and storage areas. This may mean you need to store some of your personal items,

The ceiling fan in this room used to be white. To bring the room up-to-date, we installed this oil rubbed bronze fan with darker wood to complete the look of the room

but it’ll be worth it. Go through every closet and make sure that everything is in order. Make sure that the buyer can see all aspects of the closet area without moving things out of the way. For example, I used our coat closet for storing paint and all sorts of non-coat things. Before we listed, I transferred the paint into the garage, streamlined what was in that deep closet and hung six long coats in there. In our master walk in closet, I took some of the clothing and stored it in the attic so that the closet looked bigger (the less there is in a room or closet, the larger the space appears). Make sure storage areas are organized and appear spacious.

Tip: For shower and tub plumbing fixtures, you can purchase a trim kit, which allows you to pop off the existing fixtures without getting behind the wall A do-it-yourself job instead of calling the plumber.

Join me tomorrowwhen I discuss exterior staging and pricing.

Filed under: Organization Tip on February 7th, 2012 | No Comments »

Ingredients

• Thaw bread dough and allow it to rise. Punch it down and let it rise again.

• Liberally grease a deep-sided cookie sheet or roasting pan with olive oil. Knead the dough on a lightly floured board and roughly shape to the shape of the pan. Place the dough in the pan and let it rise again.

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the dough out to fill the pan and poke holes in the dough with your fingertips.

• Spread the olive oil on top of the dough. Add tomato sauce and spread evenly. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over the sauce. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes or until the crust starts to brown and the bottom of the pie is golden brown in color. Remove the pie from the oven and let it rest on a cutting board for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Delicious!

Filed under: Recipe on January 30th, 2012 | No Comments »

Sunday, Stephen Davey preached on Titus 1:1-3. This is the third week in a row at my church that he went over this passage, but for good reason. In that passage, he noted a number of topics. The one I wanted to share with you is on Godliness.

Stephen noted that, in passion, your life must lead you toward God like-ness. Here are some ways that a Christian exemplifies Godliness:

• Living the truth in front of others
• In your actions, people can see God in you and it honors God
• Our life isn’t about us, but Him
• Always remember, we must be small and He must be big

GodLike-ness is every day expressions that express the character of God within you.

Filed under: Spiritual Thought on January 29th, 2012 | No Comments »

I hate to say this, but in my very first apartment, there were roaches. Yes, I moved immediately, but how could I know the bugs didn’t travel with me? Well, we put everything into a U-Haul to move. As soon as we arrived at my new apartment, I set off a fogger in the trailer and let it sit overnight.

This procedure works well if you are storing your belongings in a storage unit, start the bomb off 24 hours before you go in to transport everything into your new home.

The nice thing about using the bomb in a U-Haul is that the spray doesn’t get on your walls. So, don’t forget to cover bare and upholstered furniture with old sheets that you can later wash.

Let me know if this tip helps you!

Filed under: Organization Tip on January 27th, 2012 | No Comments »

In the process of getting our home ready to put on the market, I needed to either get some stubborn marks off the walls or do some repainting.

I found that Magic Eraser works well. But, unless I used the magic eraser and then rubbed the area with a damp cloth, some ingredient in the eraser left a stain on the wall.

Let me know how this works for you!

Filed under: Organization Tip on January 26th, 2012 | No Comments »