Winter is Coming - Part 1

To be completely honest it has gotten rather chilly in these parts of East Tennessee over the last few days. We have gone from tank tops and shorts with flip flops to three layers of clothing over night (at least for me). Now fall and winter are my favorite seasons.  I love the clothes, the food, holidays, and staying inside and reading a book or watching a movie, but I do not enjoy the way my cost of living goes up.  So here are some helpful hints to hopefully reduce your heating bill and help you and your family enjoy the most wonderful time of the year! 

-The Bailey Team 

•        Most modern ceiling fans have a switch to reverse the direction of the blades. Setting the fan to operate in a clockwise direction will push warm furnace air up toward the ceiling and then down the walls to ground level. Since your thermostat monitors room temperature closer to ground level, it should provide a more accurate reading of the actual room temperature, which should help your system work more efficiently. Easy, effective and inexpensive.
•        A clogged furnace filter will cause your system to work overtime, and it recycles dirty air through the house. A furnace filter is easy to replace and typically costs $5 to $20. Change the filter once a month for optimal performance. I know that seems like a no brainer just a helpful reminder! 
•        Check around window and doorframes and fill gaps with caulk. Use your hands to feel for cold air around the doorjamb and windowsill. You can purchase foam or vinyl weather stripping for $5 to $10 to attach to the closing edges of doors and windows. You can also purchase a door sweep to seal the gap between the bottom of a door and the threshold. A sweep is a plastic or rubber seal on a metal strip that can be attached directly to the door. Door sweeps typically range in price from $5 to $20. 
•       Insulation plays a major role in keeping cold air out during the winter so consider adding new insulation or upgrading your existing insulation. Ideally, a home should have insulation in the walls, floors and attic. Insulation is rated by its ability to resist heat flow, which is referred to as its R-value. The higher the R-value, the more effective it will be at blocking heat flow. A professional energy auditor can inspect your home for all points of heat loss, and assess the efficiency of your insulation. An auditor might use an infrared camera to check your walls and floors for cold spots, or perform a blower door test, which involves lowering indoor air pressure and using a smoke stick to see where air leaks. A professional energy audit can cost between $300 and $800, but many utilities offer free or discounted audits or incentives to have them done.
•       The US Department of Energy says you can save as much as 1% on your energy bill for every degree you lower your home's temperature during the winter. Install a programmable thermostat now and save money by keeping the temp down when you're not at home.
•       Air ducts are responsible for channeling warm air from your furnace to different parts of the home. According to Energy Star, about 20 percent of the air is lost due to cracks, leaks and faulty connection points. Air loss in your ducts can make it difficult to heat your home, and cause utility bills to soar. If you have flexible ducts, look for areas that appear twisted or tangled. Use metal tape to repair cracks in the ducts. For joints, use a mastic sealant and metal screws to fasten them back together. If you have ducts in your attic, garage or an unheated part of the home, consider wrapping them in insulation. Hire an HVAC expert to assess the efficiency of your air ducts.
•     Open all your vents and clear them of objects that would impede the heat getting out and circulating around the room.
•       The US Department of Energy says you can save as much as 1% on your energy bill for every degree you lower your home's temperature during the winter. Install a programmable thermostat now and save money by keeping the temp down when you're not at home.
•       If you have old, drafty windows like we do, use bubble wrap to insulate your windows by placing it between the inner window and the storm window.  You don’t want to do this on windows that you actually want to be able to look through though. Or consider the window insulation film can keep up to 70% of your heat from leaking out of windows. Cost: $20 to $35 per kit.
•       Particles and sediment can collect over time in the bottom of your water heater, hindering the unit's efficiency. Flush the water through the drain valve to clear out the material and keep your heater functioning at its best.
•       Keep doors to rooms that you aren’t using, or don’t use often, closed to keep from heating those rooms.  Keep doors to drafty places like the basement, attic, or three-season room, closed tightly, and consider using a doorstop there as well.
•       You've heard it before, but we can't stress this enough. Making sure that water can flow freely through your gutters now will help prevent icicles and ice dams from forming later.

Theses tips are so helpful! They are not all mine though I found them floating around Pinterest.  Hope you guys are having an amazing week! Any people lol at the Title of this post? Any Game of Thrones fan's out there?! 

Showing - Katy Perry's House

These love birds have been broken up for a bit now.... So I won't feel as bad about this post, but still it would be horrid to have all of your dirty laundry put on show for the world to see... c'est la vie.

The Home Owners

Katy Perry and Russell Brand have put their Los Angeles home on the market. Its located in the Los Feliz area in the city of Angels, neighbors include (Michael C. Hall  "Dexter", former residents include  Howard Hughes and Elvis Presley,not too shabby!) The gated property includes a 1922 Mediterranean-style main house and a swimming pool.The 4,700-square-foot home with city views features both a formal entertaining space and a casual dining area, with French doors that lead out onto the garden patio balcony.  Four bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms, ladies don't worry about closet space, our girl Katy has got you covered she converted the 3 car garage into a closet/dressing room! The kitchen is something my "Teenage Dream's"  were made of with its top of the line appliances and its marble countertops and wall-to-wall custom cabinets, it would be a joy to make myself at home in that kitchen alone. If all of this is not enough to make you want to start packing your bags this very minute... let me tell you my favorite thing about the house  the yard has a 25-foot-tall teepee in it (a present for Katy from Russell.) List Price $3,395,000 apparently Russell bought it in 2009 for (then girlfriend Katy for Christmas)  for $3.25 million.  

List Price -  $3,395,000

Location -  L.A. neighborhood of Los Feliz, 

Pinterest - My First House

Currently trying to get all of my ducks in a row for the purchase of my first house... Man its harder than it looks but recently I have found myself wasting more time on Pinterest. While in school  Pinterest was my favorite way to avoid studying but now it has become a useful tool for me to find new DIY (on a budget.)  Here are some of my favorite pins ( I will try to update this monthly)

June Pins 

Love love this yellow! I would love to display all of my pretty glass ware on this! 

Found Here

This would take a while but it would be something to be proud of for many years... So much heart an soul on this wall. I would most likely use "I love you to the moon and back" or "I love you a bushel and a peck a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck. " (my dad's mother said this to me every time we got off the phone.) 

Found Here

I adore how simple this is. 

Found Here

Not crazy about the colors but I loved making these as a teenager. 

Found Here

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. 

Found Here

I really went crazy about this pop of color.

Found Here

Who are some of your favorite people to follow on Pinterest?

xoxo,
Bee

Showings - The Great Gatsby

Hello Everyone,

I just want to start by saying that The Great Gatsby is possibly one of my favorite books... this is saying something because I read a lot. I dream of being Daisy I adore everything about her... even her faults. Her life long love affair with Gatsby is so swoon worthy! Also the fashion in the roaring 20's was to die for! 

“Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

The champagne-soaked soirees and opulent mansions in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” are, of course, legendary. With Baz Luhrmann’s new film about to hit theaters this Friday, we couldn’t help but be tempted by our own collection of Previews  mansions that embody the essence of the Roaring Twenties: beauty, freedom, extravagance and a touch of Art Deco. 

“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

1120 Greacen Point Road

Mamaroneck, NY 10543

$11,500,000 USD

Fitzgerald supposedly conceived of the book in 1922, shortly before moving to Great Neck, Long Island. This Georgian-style mansion is not exactly in Great Neck…but it still offers spectacular views of the Long Island Sound from all living areas and the master bedroom suites. From the grand 10,228 square-foot main residence to the magnificent pool and gardens, the fictional Daisy would surely be impressed. 

“Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Winnetka, IL 60093 

$21,900,000 USD

“A home so spectacular it has a name: Le Grand Reve...The Big Dream.” If that property description doesn’t sound like a Gatsby-age endorsement, then we don’t know what is. After all, Jay Gatsby was a man of dreams…big dreams. Designed by world-renowned architect Richard Landry, this 16,791 square-foot North Shore estate has all of the grandeur an affluent socialite would need: master craftsmanship, grand spaces for entertaining, nine fireplaces and a lower level with a theater and spa.

“There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind…” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

40 Verbalee Lane
Hillsborough, CA 94010 

$26,000,000 USD

At the height of the 1920s, Mrs. Celia Tobin Clark, a member of one of the Peninsula’s most prominent families of the early 20^th century, commissioned architect David Adler to create her hilltop dream home right outside San Francisco. Resting on six lushly landscaped acres, the stately 12-bedroom Cotswold Tudor Mansion has been meticulously renovated to today’s standards and was even featured as a Decorator’s Showcase in the 1990s. Can’t you just imagine Jay, Nick and Daisy huddled around the grand music room, with its drama-filled 15-foot ceilings, soaring leaded-glass windows, antique parquet-de-Versailles floors and French doors leading to the loggia and terrace?

“What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon?” cried Daisy, “and the day after that, and the next thirty years?” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

706 Guisando De Avila
Tampa, FL 33613 

$12,900,000 USD

This extraordinary 29,000-square-foot estate tucked into Tampa Bay's most esteemed guard-gated community of Avila provides the exclusivity, privacy and quality of life that any of the Gatsby characters would appreciate. Modeled after a 17th century British royal palace, the manor was completed in 2004 following nearly seven years of custom design, development and construction. The residence captivates five spacious acres of impeccably landscaped grounds and rests near the exclusive Avila Golf and Country Club. At the very least, Jordan Baker would be impressed.   

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther ... And one fine morning ---” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

27777 Winding Way
Malibu, CA 90265 

$7,995,000 USD

There is something so Gatsby about the grand foyer of this timeless Tuscan estate, aptly named “Villa Al Mare.” If the double staircase and antique chandeliers don’t inspire visions of hosting elegant galas à laDaisy Buchanan, then surely the expansive ocean views will. It’s the perfect destination for a summer soiree with two acres, fruit orchards, rose and vegetable gardens, tennis court and wine cellar.

The thing I adore about this book its Fitzgeralds hope in the American Dream.... The story might not have ended well for Jay Gatsby but he really came from nothing and became everything just to atepmt to be with the woman he love. Needless to say I will be seeing this movie as soon as I possibly can. Hope you have enjoyed this post... I found most of this article from Here . Tell me what are some of your favorite books and are there any houses you want to see in these post? Hope to hear from you soon! 

History of Knoxville Part 3

Reconstruction and the Industrial Age

Early-1900s photograph of the Republic Marble Quarry near Knoxville

After the war, northern investors such as the brothers Joseph and David Richards helped Knoxville recover relatively quickly. Joseph and David Richards convinced 104 Welsh immigrant families to migrate from the Welsh Tract in Pennsylvania to work in a rolling mill then co-owned by Thomas Walker. These Welsh families settled in an area now known as Mechanicsville. The Richards brothers also co-founded the Knoxville Iron Works beside the L&N Railroad, also employing Welsh workers. Later the site would be used as the grounds for the 1982 World's Fair.

Workers at the Knoxville Knitting Works, photographed by Lewis Wickes Hine in 1910

Other companies that sprang up during this period were Knoxville Woolen Mills, Dixie Cement, and Woodruff's Furniture. Between 1880 and 1887, 97 factories were established in Knoxville, most of them specializing in textiles, food products, and iron products. By the 1890s, Knoxville was home to more than 50 wholesaling houses, making it the third largest wholesaling center by volume in the South. The Candoro Marble Works, established in the community of Vestal in 1914, became the nation's foremost producer of pink marble and one of the nation's largest marble importers.

In 1869, Thomas Hughes, a Union-sympathizer and president of East Tennessee University, secured federal wartime restitution funding and state-designated Morrill Act funding to expand the college, which had been occupied by both armies during the war.In 1879, the school changed its name to the University of Tennessee, hoping to secure more funding from the Tennessee state legislature. Charles Dabney, who became president of the university in 1887, overhauled the faculty and established a law school in an attempt to modernize the scope of the university.

The post-war manufacturing boom brought thousands of immigrants to the city. The population of Knoxville grew from around 5,000 in 1860 to 32,637 in 1900. West Knoxville was annexed in 1897, and over 5,000 new homes were built between 1895 and 1904.^[14]

In 1901, train robber Kid Curry (whose real name was Harvey Logan), a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch was captured after shooting two deputies on Knoxville's Central Avenue. He escaped from the Knoxville Jail and rode away on a horse stolen from the sheriff.

[edit]The Progressive Era and the Great Depression

Kingston Pike, circa 1910.

The growing city of Knoxville hosted the Appalachian Exposition in 1910 and again in 1911, and the National Conservation Exposition in 1913. The latter is sometimes credited with giving rise to the movement to create a national park in the Great Smoky Mountains, some 20 miles (32 km) south of Knoxville.Around this time, a number of affluent Knoxvillians began purchasing summer cottages in Elkmont, and began to pursue the park idea more vigorously.

Gay Street in the early 1900s

Knoxville's reliance on a manufacturing economy left it particularly vulnerable to the effects of the Great Depression. The Tennessee Valley also suffered from frequent flooding, and millions of acres of farmland had been ruined by soil erosion. To control flooding and improve the economy in the Tennessee Valley, the federal government created the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933. Beginning with Norris Dam, TVA constructed a series of hydroelectric and other power plants throughout the valley over the next few decades, bringing flood control, jobs, and electricity to the region.The Federal Works Projects Administration, which also arrived in the 1930s, helped build McGhee-Tyson Airport and expand Neyland Stadium.TVA's headquarters, which consists of two twin high rises built in the 1970s, were among Knoxville's first modern high-rise buildings.

Showing - Steel Magnolias

The house where Sally Field and her family lived in the 1989 movie Steel Magnolias is now a Bed & Breakfast in Natchitoches, Louisiana. It was built before the Civil War in the 1830s and sits along the Cane River. 
As much as I love this movie I have only seen it once, its just so sad I can't really bring myself up to watching it again. Now I know that it is not the saddest movie out there but it is the first movie sad movie I remember watching as a young teenager, aside from My Girl (because people that movie brought on all the tears.... every time) 

The thing I loved most about this movie aside from the totally 80's pink wedding,  our local girl Dolly Parton rocking her big hair,and  Julia Roberts trying to have a southern accent. It was the house and the perfect southern back ground. It just made you dream of corn bread made in an iron skillet and drinking  sweet tea to cool off on a hot summers evening.  

Welcome Home! 

From the listing.

This is from the movie after the Big Pink 80's Wedding!

This is from the listing. I would love to spend my mornings here catching up on my reading! 

Let's step inside!

So many flowers. 

The light over the island is still in this house today! 

From the listing 

No pink ribbon same stairs. 

From the listing... Look at the T.V. So cheesy. 

Julia Roberts room in the film. Love those stripes! 

Guest bedroom. 

From listing 

From listing, seems to be front sitting room! I love old houses like this! 

From listing. 

Beautiful back yard. From Listing!

Do you want this house? It could be yours for  only 1,175,000 or you could just just buy it the movie for about $5.