Lighting is your Friend!

I don’t know if architecture school did this to me or not, but I love adding light to a space. Most of my clients on the other hand are seemingly more interested in over abundant natural light. I don’t know if this is a product of living in cities, where there are buildings that block out natural light, or a product of reading too many better home and garden type magazines and seeing pictures of unnaturally lit spaces, but I find it interesting people’s fascination with a space with overwhelming amounts of natural light. It sort of feels to me like they’re kicking the apartment’s tires, trying desperately to find some yardstick by which to measure apartments.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m in no way faulting people for their quest for a well lit space.

I know how wonderful natural light is, I just find it funny that people are seemingly SO opposed to a space needing artificial light. Maybe it’s because it’s so hard for most people to envision how to design a space, or because they don’t want to have to spend the time, or money or any number of other potential reasons. Like I said, it just seems a weird sticking point for something that most people don’t see during the day… and only come to at night, when it’s dark outside.

I wanted to write this because of a client I had recently who surprised when she described the lighting she had in her apartment. I have been telling everyone who would listen to use up lights in a space. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-up-lights.htm if you want a space to feel bigger or have higher ceilings, this is your one stop shop!

While she uses murano directional lights to wash the ceiling, http://www.muranoimports.com/ and that’s probably not the cheapest solution, but I think she’s on the track everyone else should be, pardon the pun… So, if you take nothing else from this blog, remember this: artificial lights are you’re friend! And don’t forget, these lights shouldn’t be over used… you can have too much of a good thing!

An Open Letter To My Readers:

I started this blog to try and make real estate (re) more interesting. It’s my hope I can show people why they should want to involve themselves more in a world that has brought me and others so much anguish and joy.

Now, I’m not delusional, re is most often a topic that people HATE thinking about, let alone talking about. It’s expensive, confusing, and most people in this business are annoying and always in your face. I don’t want to post ads for apartments and I don’t want my face on a bus stop reminding you “Joseph Cizmar sells property”. These days it seems like traditional advertising is less and less effective, so I’ll save my breath.

It’s my opinion that people don’t know enough about the reality that is the business of re and that disjunction is the root of many misunderstandings and bad experiences. Re is always in a state of flux and most people, even professionals, realize what’s going on long enough to figure out that they have to do something new. There are a lot of emotions wrapped up in any re transaction. There is usually quite a bit of money involved, and FYI, if your deal goes smoothly, you’re probably getting ripped off!

So, in the spirit of discovery… Let’s see where this goes!

Many of the things I post may not seem directly related to re, but I hope to convey the reality that the RE world and your life, or your job, or pretty much everything may have more similarities than one might think… Please feel free to let me know what you think! So read, tell me when I’m wrong, when I’m right, or just think, and hopefully, if I’ve done my job, re won’t seem like such a foreign or scary thing when I’m done!