Home Designing

Vacation. Every year, millions of Americans take planes, trains and automobiles to escape to their favorite destinations, whether it’s for relaxation, adventure or something in between. But if a dream vacation is not in your budget, consider other options.

Each year, DIY Network gives one lucky winner their very own state-of-the-art vacation retreat that is designed by the viewers. Online, viewers vote on the many different phases of each home project, then watch as construction is documented in TV’s only interactive home-building series, Blog Cabin. Locations for the three cabins thus far include mountain-side retreats and lakefront getaways that encompass everything about a vacation destination.

If you are not lucky enough to win the Blog Cabin, there are several ways to incorporate some of the cabin’s design elements into your home to experience the relaxation or adventure and create a destination of your own while investing in your home:

• Take it outside. More
  
  than ever, homeowners are expanding their living space to the outdoors. Whether you add a fire pit or an entire outdoor kitchen to the backyard, the space will inspire gatherings and a break from the norm.
• Upgrade your landscaping. Replicate your favorite vacation spot by trying to mimic its vegetation. If you like the tropics, plant lots of lush, brightly colored plants. Add a tiki bar to the design, and you’ll never want to leave home again.
• Create a sanctuary for the man of the house. Build him a man cave, a man-only zone in the house where only he has decorative input. Transform the basement, the garage or even the attic into a place where he can play without interruption from his wife or kids. The women of the house will benefit from the man cave by enjoying the rest of the house without interference from the guys.
• Get the kids outside by building them a tree fort or play house. Get them involved in the design, and have it reflect their interests and hobbies. Once it’s built, let the kids direct you in how they would like it to be furnished.

For more information on DIY Network’s Blog Cabin or ideas on creating a home retreat, visit www.diynetwork.com.

In so many ways, foreclosure is an end. It’s a bank’s last resort, and the sad final chapter for a family sold on the American dream of home ownership.

But in another sense, foreclosure is also a beginning — a never desirable, but often useful, tool that can help stave off neighborhood blight and create a path toward rejuvenation.

As much as everyone wants to avoid foreclosure, it does provide cities — especially older ones with declining populations — the legal means necessary for acquiring property that would otherwise become vacant or abandoned.

The trouble is that there’s a stigma associated with foreclosure, and legislators can be swayed to impose restrictions on the process that make it more difficult for municipalities that want to reclaim and reuse property that has been left to decay.

So, from a policy perspective, what can be done to create better legal tools for clearing titles that don’t depend solely on the self-interest of debt collectors? Here are some ideas proposed by Mary Helen Petrus, a researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland:

* Quiet title actions, in which governments go to court to “quiet” any and


all claims to a property’s title.
* Laws to facilitate nuisance abatement through receivership (giving courts the power to assign repairs or improvements to an overseer of a vacant property).
* New rules making it easier for willing homeowners to forfeit their properties so that governments can take stewardship.
* Processes for tax foreclosures that don’t have to go through the courts.

This is not to say that foreclosure is always the best option. In viable neighborhoods, the most beneficial course of action is generally to focus on improving the quality and affordability of housing for the people who still live there. But when there’s a breakdown, and there’s no hope of rescuing properties from becoming vacant or falling into disrepair, foreclosure is often the most viable option.

This is especially true in American cities where joblessness is high, or the population is dwindling. In these situations, where there simply aren’t enough homebuyers to purchase the number of homes available in a market, foreclosure can actually help begin the process of revitalizing neighborhoods. For more information on this subject, visit www.clevelandfed.org/pr/foreclosure.