Home and Garden
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Time to bite the bullet and sell the houseJul 18, 2015 1:00 am - Q. We purchased our home 15 years ago for $450,000 and have no mortgage. My husband has chronic medical problems, is unable to work in any capacity and is on Medicare, s...
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Down payments for home purchases droppingJul 18, 2015 12:01 am - Homebuyers are taking advantage of low down payment opportunities when purchasing a home in 2015. The average down payment has dropped to a three-year low. The average d...
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What happens when the lender miscalculates the payment?Jul 18, 2015 12:00 am - With millions of mortgage loans originated every year, it is not surprising that now and then lenders make a mistake in calculating the monthly mortgage payment. On a f...
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Only the board can fire management companyJul 18, 2015 12:00 am - Q. Do owners have the right to remove a property management company? A. No. The board of directors of the association has the right to engage the services of a property ...
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This comeback trail is lined with boxwoodJul 17, 2015 3:00 am - The boxwood is valued for its evergreen steadfastness, but we just finished that one lovely moment in the year when the monarch of shrubs transforms itself with new grow...
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What home equity bomb?Jul 17, 2015 12:00 am - WASHINGTON - It's the emerging housing success story that almost nobody knows about: Hundreds of thousands of homeowners who took out record numbers of home equity lines...
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Buyer's sales contract sometimes can be assigned to a third partyJul 17, 2015 12:00 am - Buyers can transfer their contractual right to buy a house that they no longer want to purchase, provided certain conditions are met. Q. I signed a contract to purchase ...
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Damage can sometimes occur during a home inspectionJul 17, 2015 12:00 am - Q. The people who are buying our home hired a home inspector. During the inspection, he was filling the spa tub in our upstairs bathroom and he filled it nearly to the t...
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Bonsai curator finds his groove at Chicago Botanic GardenJul 16, 2015 11:00 pm - Snip. Snip. Snip. With the gentle sounds of waterfalls and birds singing in the background, bonsai curator Chris Baker gently clipped several leaves from a dawn redwood ...
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A few of our favorite fernsJul 16, 2015 1:00 am - There have long been handsome fern species, but in the past few years, growers have introduced spectacularly beautiful ferns with more colors than green. Here are five o...