How to Find the Perfect Holiday Home

Owning a holiday home is something that all Australian’s dream of. Despite living with the beach literally just down the road, over 8% of Australian’s own a holiday home in Australia and over 70% of these are at beachside locations. There are obvious attractions to owning a holiday home in a coastal area, but for most people it requires that they rent it out when they are not using it. This can be a difficult task which is both time consuming and even expensive. Renting Noosa accommodation each year will be far easier and more cost effective for most Australians, but if you’re brave enough Sunshine Coast real estate will both please and challenge you at every turn. This article will consider some of the practicalities of buying a holiday home.

1. The potential costs

Whilst you save money on travel costs and the expense of hotels, there are many ongoing costs to a holiday home that can take a toll. General maintenance will fall to you, for example, and this will slowly absorb your wealth. Gardening, repainting and general fixes will be required throughout the year to keep the property looking good and all of this comes at a cost. You will also be expected to pay tax for the land you own but are not resident upon. The level of cost that this will incur depends largely on the state, but if you aim to rent the property when you are not using it you will certainly need to pay commission to a real estate agent for every customer.

2. Legal issues

When renting a property you will become liable for the condition it is in and what is offered. You will need property insurance as well as public liability insurance to cover you in case anything happens. In the worst case scenario you will rent the property for a period, only to have it trashed by the occupiers in the first week. If this happens you will be liable for compensating any customers who are then unable to stay in the property and will have to find alternative accommodation for them. It is of vital importance to make sure you are covered against any eventuality because otherwise some bad temporary tenants could cause you to lose far more than you can afford to.

3. Rental opportunities

When renting a holiday home it is very different from renting a property for a year or 6 months. Your customers will be arriving for a week only and they will want a single serving experience of a lifetime. They will expect new and clean appearing living conditions and they will want a dishwasher so that they do not need to wash up.

Holiday tenants want elements like outdoor entertaining areas with patio heaters. They are not worried about electricity cost for the week and they want to be able to enjoy every comfort. When furnishing the property consider things like the supply of matching tableware.

It is important to consider how many people the property can comfortably sleep. If you jam it full of beds then you can sleep more people but they will not be happy having to wait in a queue of 6 people to use the shower every morning. Consider what you can realistically offer and always try to be flexible in your rental offerings.

4. Advertising

Properties are no longer only advertised in travel agents, they are also online. There is a multitude of destinations and holiday homes everywhere so you really need to make your property stand out from the crowd. Make sure you take flattering pictures of the property as people will want to see what they are getting for their money. It is essential that the advert is both clear and honest because any discrepancies can be questioned later on by the customer if you do not fulfil the agreement.

Organising a Cost Saving Weekend Party at Your Home Itself

A question (this goes out to the gents and the ladies alike): what is the point of a weekend party? The answer – it’s for celebrating your oldest and best friendships before you get married. So why spend a fortune trying to live it up some place you have never been before (and which is normally full of hundreds of other stag do and hen parties, all acting up and spoiling the mood)? The best and cheapest weekend parties happen at home.

Here are the advantages:

1: It’s your house, so you don’t have to spend any money on travel or accommodation. Even friends coming from out of town only have to find the cost of fuel or a train ticket.

2: You’re not tied to any itinerary other than the one you set for yourselves. You can get up when you like, eat when you like and drink what you like.

3: You can hang out with your oldest and best friends in a familiar environment, reminisce, let it all hang out – and then stagger up to bed without having to worry about getting lost!

So how do you arrange a good one? Bear in mind that even a party at home needs to be organised, to make sure that it is all going smoothly.

The first thing you need, of course, is food and drink. I’d advise starting the weekend with a Friday evening meal, something informal with a few drinks. The best kind of food for these occasions is stuff you can cook together and pick at, at will, without having to necessarily do a big sit down thing. Pizza, fajitas, curry, buffet food – all of these are good.

Keep Friday light, a few bottles of wine maybe and some music while you all catch up. Then arrange to meet back on the Saturday (if your house is too small to sleep everyone) or just wake up (if it’s big enough) when you want.

At this point you probably want to go out somewhere, unless you live in a mansion with plenty of entertainment possibilities. I’d suggest either taking a few things to the local park - a picnic lunch, some wine and beer, and maybe a Frisbee or a few board games), or going for a long walk. Depends where you live of course. You will know what the best things to do for a chilled Saturday afternoon are. If you can’t think of anything, find a nice pub or a good outdoor location and do a quiz. You can find plenty of questions online.

Saturday night is the main event. Your choice here is between eating in and staying in, or eating in and going out. I would recommend, again, buffet style food and plenty of wine and music – then you can all go out if you want to, or stay in and chat and party if you feel like it. If you do go out, make sure everyone knows how to get home and don’t let anyone go off on their own – this is your weekend for togetherness.

Sunday is all about a slow breakfast and seeing everyone off on their various ways home. If you’ve had a really good weekend (and you will have!) then the rest of the day is for you. Put your feet up, drink tea (or finish the wine!) and watch old movies on DVD. Come Monday, you’ll have had the best weekend party ever and won’t have broken the bank.

Appliances Your Home Can't Do Without

There are some appliances that you just can't do without in your home. Some are obvious, for example, you can't do without your Westinghouse fridge, and every household needs a washing machine. There are, however, other appliances that you shouldn't go without because they are just so fantastic and are real time savers. You may even need to call in the electrician to install extra power points to cope with your collection of new appliances.

Fridge

Every household needs a fridge. In days gone past people would store food that need to be kept cold in the cellar or a cool room, but today we have the convenience of being able to have it right there in our kitchen, safely and hygienically stored in the fridge. When buying a fridge get the right size to suit your family and your lifestyle. If you live by yourself you will only need a smaller fridge, but if you entertain often you should buy something larger to accommodate all the food. If you have a larger family you will naturally need to store more food so buy a fridge that is going to hold everything comfortably.

Washing machine

Another appliance that households can't do without. It is something you realise how much you need when it breaks down. Going to do your washing at the laundry mat not only becomes expensive it is also inconvenient. You can buy either a top loader or front loader and they come in various sizes. A larger machine may use more water but if you have more clothes to wash because of a bigger family, invest in a bigger machine.

Dishwasher

Dishwashers are one of those appliances that really do make your life a whole lot easier. Doing dishes is time consuming and is usually the last thing you feel like doing at the end of a busy day. All you want to do is crash on the couch but instead you have to face up to an enormous pile of dirty dishes. Having a dishwasher will also help you keep your kitchen tidy. No more piles of dishes sitting on the bench waiting to be washed. You can stack the dishwasher during the day as you go.

Bread maker

A bread maker is a great appliance and is really easy to use. You can set the timer too so that it starts during the night and you will have fresh hot bread all ready as soon as you get up. The bread is better than store bought bread and you know it is always fresh.

Slow cooker

A slow cooker is a great appliance and will make your life a lot easier. All you have to do is throw the ingredients for your dinner into the cooker in the morning, turn it on and it will have your dinner perfectly cooked by dinner time. Easy.

Coffee machine

For lovers of coffee a coffee machine would be considered the most important appliance in the house. You will find that you save a lot on buying coffees on the way to work if you have already had your freshly brewed cup before you leave home.

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Fishing

After about five months, it’s our first time to go fishing again. This Sunday, my father asked us (my husband and I) to take him fishing. I assume this fishing activity as a therapy for my father. He forgot how to use the fishing rod. We taught him again until my father can swing the rod; but he hasn’t got yet his patience back. After two hours fishing with no result, he wanted to go home.

I didn’t take picture of my father. My husband was also fishing; but he’s got no fish as well.

Health Care Reform – How the Law Affects Senior Citizens

Health care reform, passed by President Obama in 2010, has changed the way that healthcare is provided to thousands of American citizens – including seniors. So how does the new law affect the senior segment of the US population?

Government payments to part of the Medicare scheme – the Medicare Advantage component – are to fall over a period of years. Within 10 years, the Medicare Advantage program (which gives its members a little more per annum than the regular Medicare program), will lose 132 billion dollars.

How this affects the Medicare Advantage plan is of course unclear – because it is the administrators of the plan that will have to decide where the cuts are felt. Given that the Medicare Advantage plan gives extra benefits to seniors that posses sit, it is possible that these benefits will dry up or at least experience some upheaval.

On the flip side of the Medicare coin, the Government is undertaking to raise the amount of money that it devotes to spending on drugs for seniors, filling a famous gap in the old Medicare service provision. Previously, there was a funding gap for seniors between 2,700 dollars spent on drugs per year (which the Medicare program paid for) and just over 6,000 dollars per year. That hole in the middle received no funding from the program.

By 2020, the US government intends to be paying 75 per cent of senior drug costs in this hole.

There are provisions in place within Medicare to ensure that check ups and screenings for many of the most common and dangerous diseases are, become, or remain free. By now, Medicare patients should have access to a pretty all encompassing wellness plan – basically a risk assessment and advisory policy conducted by doctors to ensure that seniors experience an increase in their likely wellness, as well as their overall health care.

These are the basic facts, as gleaned from sources that seem to know what they are talking about. The overall atmosphere in these articles, though, is one of confusion. Articles posted prior to 2011 state that the healthcare reform bill will cut money from Medicare Advantage and fill the hole in the prescription drugs funding. But articles published more recently seem to deal more with the fact that no one knows how much or how little of the bill has actually had any effect at all.

For example: the Medicare program relies on private insurance companies, who have control over their own pricing structure. So any price increase from insurers automatically devalues funding figures released by the Government, for the overall efficacy of the program. Furthermore, polls of American citizens show that as little as 13% actually believe that their healthcare has been positively affected by the reform. While the rest seem unclear whether their healthcare has in fact been affected at all.

The financial situation in America doesn’t help, of course. With less money flying around it is harder to structure a program that effectively provides more balanced healthcare to any vulnerable group in society. Seniors are one of these groups – permanently disabled people, disadvantaged children and people living below the poverty line are three more. The recession is creating more and more people in need – and the healthcare bill will have to stretch to meet them.

On paper, then, healthcare reform means a more even supply of funding for seniors when they need it most. In practice, it’s unclear what has come to pass and what exists only as promises.

About The Author:
The above article is written and composed be Britney Danila who is associated with many health communities as their freelance and staff writer. She writes articles in her free time which are related to unsafe drug lawsuit, healthy plans etc.

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The Ruins in Black and White

I still have some photos about the ruins around the mud volcano (Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia) that I’ve mentioned in my last week post. You can see the color version here.
The Weekend in Black and White