AAA House Manager Blog

What are your home goals for 2020? As you're sitting down to set your New Year's resolutions, will any for your home make the list? Whatever the project, we're here to help when you need us. Here are a few ideas (and a special free smart home tech offer):

“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” is more than a classic holiday movie — it’s a guide for how not to care for your home. 

So while we winced watching Clark Griswold face home disaster after disaster, we also couldn't resist turning his experience into a set of homeownership tips. (We're all about education here at House Manager, after all.)

Here are just a handful of practical lessons from the movie that all homeowners can use; we'd share them with Clark if we could!

Between Scandinavian-inspired minimalist design and hygge vibes, house plants becoming a staple of modern living, and open floor plans taking the lead, 2019 was a more subdued, earthy year for home décor and design. Lovers of everything lavish and extravagant will be pleased to hear that more decadent styles are on the horizon, largely thanks to a nostalgic re-imagining of 1920's classic looks. 

Year after year, the Alameda County Fall 2019 Home and Garden Show is a great source of inspiration for the home — and this year was no exception. The Pleasanton Fairgrounds was packed with breathtaking garden scapes, the latest and greatest hot tubs and endless pools, and stunning fall decor ideas. Here are a few of our favorite new finds: 

Last week, we gave you a breakdown of the home improvement projects that provide the biggest boost to home value. Now that we've hopefully got you thinking about ways to maximize your biggest investment's value, let's make sure you're also aware of the "improvements" to avoid — those that either don't have great ROI or even lower your home value. (Surprising, we know. But they're real and, sadly, some homeowners do fall prey to them.) 

Home improvement projects are not created equal. Some can have much more impact — and much higher return on investment (ROI) — on your home's value than others. Then there's the nightmare scenario: "improvements" that actually lower your valuation. We dig into those for you here. On the flip side, here are five projects with some real bang for your buck.

Decks are beautiful and functional, but they come with their share of risks and costs. The biggest: dry rot. While certain woods — redwood, mahogany, cypress, cedar, and pressure treated wood — are less likely to rot to begin with, anyone with a deck or aspirations to build one needs to be versed in the warning signs and mitigation strategies for dry rot. Here are your must-knows:

Between summertime gatherings of friends, and bored teenagers spending hours in front of the fridge looking for snacks, you may have noticed your kitchen getting more use than normal recently. Are things starting to look a little dated or dingy? Could the most popular room in the house use some freshening up? Luckily, there are some quick fixes and tricks that can make a big impact in very little time.

California is no stranger to earthquakes, but it seems we've been rocking and rolling more and more over the past several months. We don’t know when the next one will hit or how bad it will be, which is why it’s important to be prepared. And the best place to start is at home. So here are a few steps to help get you and your household properly prepared.

When it comes to home maintenance issues and prevention, there are no experts quite like our AAA House Managers. They’ve seen it all and fixed it all. We’ve been curious to know about the most common problems homeowners are facing and the possible pitfalls that can be avoided. So we sat down with one of our most experienced House Managers, Matthew, to ask him about what he's seeing out in the field and what advice he’d like us to pass along to you.