We switch off the lights, turn up the thermostat, make improvements to our house,  recycle like crazy, but are our habits getting worse?

An article in the March 1,2010 article of Time, Less is Actually More, by Bryan Walsh contends that just like someone who binges on diet food (thinking it has fewer calories, they eat more of it, thus negating the benefit), those of us who try to reduce our energy use sometimes get complacent.  The theory goes like this: you check your electric bill and see that you are using fewer kilowatts than this time last year.  The next time you walk by the kitchen and notice the blazing lights, you think,' gosh we have been doing so, well, what would it hurt to leave them on for now? I will be back in 15 minutes.' And the energy reduction 'backlash' begins.

I can see evidence of this in my own household. We have made some big changes: turning down the thermostat, switching off lights, added insulation in the attic and garage, new windows, plenty of blankets and sweatshirts easily accessible.  As a result, I have seen definite improvements in our energy use.  Of course, now that I have shared that success with my family, I have noticed that they have been more casual about switching off the lights.  Even I have 'bumped up' the thermostat  on occasion (and I am the Energy-Enforcer).

This article was a great reminder that these changes and behavior modifications need to become lifestyle changes.  Just like dieting, don't cut back so severely that the change is not sustainable over the long-term. Smart choices, small changes and an awareness of energy use is what we all need to continue our steady improvements in reducing our carbon footprint--and an awareness of how easy it is to back-slide!

One of the hardest conversations I have with clients, and potential clients, is that they need to remove the wallpaper prior to listing their homes (and yes, borders count).  I know that your wallpaper is lovely and I can tell that is designer quality, but the number one complaint I get from buyers is that they don't want to deal with wallpaper removal!

Sellers don't want to remove it because

1. They paid to install it
2. Removal can be time consuming and/or costly
3. Walls often need to be repaired
4. After the paper comes down, the walls need to be painted

Buyers want it removed because:

1. They did not choose it
2. Removal can be time consuming and/or costly
3. Walls often need to be repaired
4. After the paper comes down, the walls need to be painted

As you can see, most of the same reasons that you have for not wanting to deal with it are the reasons that often make it a show-stopper for buyers.

On occasion, clients will leave up a neutral (ie. it looks like a painted wall) wallpaper and that is usually okay, but anything with any sort of design should be removed--even subtle designs can be a problem for some buyers.

Often removing the wallpaper provides an opportunity to paint the walls a warm and inviting color--which ends ups making the home more appealing in the long run.

If you want to sell your home for top-dollar (and who doesn't?) approach this like you would any other long term project: plan it out, do the foundation work, and finalize the details. If you approach it this way, removing the wallpaper is just one task on the way to selling your home for as much as the market will bear.

For more advice on removing wall paper go to:

Wallpaper Removal Techniques

Wow! What a come down for the company who has always been highest rated for quality. I do not intend to make light of the problems that plague Toyota vehicles. They are real and they need to be fixed. I am a long time Toyota owner and I have owned a number of their vehicles over the years. In December, we purchased  our latest Toyota to replace a very poor quality Audi. I was relieved to return to the high quality vehicles created by Toyota. I am a little less relieved now that my car has been recalled and the press is reporting that all Toyota owners have lost value.  But I still love my Venza...

So how did this all go so wrong for Toyota, and what can we as business people learn from it?

Not one of us is perfect. When we make a mistake, we really are faced with only a couple of options: deny it, ignore it, acknowledge it or own it. In most cases, the business person who owns the problem will be able to get passed it.

This is where, I believe, Toyota messed up. They did not own the problem. They attempted to acknowledge it and hoped that would be enough to make it go away. The crisis-hungry press, however, was looking out for consumers as they continued to delve in to the problem. The situation pretty quickly evolved from a problem to a crisis.

Lesson One:   Own your problem. Confess and work with all involved to come to a satisfactory outcome.

In addition, Toyota management behaved as if they were not accountable to anyone.  I am sure they are 'king' in Japan, but here in the United States, they are just another large company that produces a product that consumers purchase. If you are being summoned by the United States Congress, don't slap back at the hand that feeds you. Put on your best suit, board a plane and go talk to Congress.

Lesson Two: No matter how powerful we are, or how good at your job, you are still accountable for your actions (and the actions of those who work for you...take note, Brokers)

Every day, it seems, I hear about more and more vehicles being recalled. I can't help but feel that any manufacturing company  put under this microscopic scrutiny would find problems that need to addressed. When I was talking to my sister-in-law last week about the floor mat recall, we could both recall problems of that nature with non-Toyota vehicles.

Lesson Three: Perception is Reality to the public. Good word-of-mouth=good reputation.  Bad-word-of-mouth = bad reputation.  Pay attention to what is being said out there about you and your company, because it matters.

I hope that Toyota will be able to resurrect some of its good will and reputation. They really do build good cars and trucks.  I think that what has happened to them should be a lesson to us all. I do not believe that Toyota set out to create problem vehicles. I believe they set out to become the biggest and most powerful car company in the world, and in their haste to the top, they stopped paying attention to the little details that used to set them apart.

The final lesson here for all business professionals: do not get so confident and so conceited that you don't think you have to 'sweat the small stuff.'  The small stuff is probably what got you to the top and it is the same stuff that can bring you back to the bottom!

Today at 5:00pm is the last day that the winner of a $250,000 Virginia Lottery can claim their winnings!  Are you holding the lucky ticket? By State law, the winner has 180 days to come forward.

The prizewinning Ticket was purchased on August 21, 2009, in the Mega Millions drawing at Giant Food, located at 61 Catoctin Circle NE in Leesburg.

If you have a ticket lying around that you purchased late in the summer, run and grab it. The numbers that you need to claim the prize are: 9-38-44-48-49 and the Mega Ball was 13.

Unclaimed prize money goes to the Virginia Literary Fund which is used for education in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

For more information on claiming the prize, or on the Virginia Lottery, go to their website and check out the page announcing this local Mega Millions winner.

If you have been considering private school placement for your Pre-Kindergarten through 8th Grade student, plan to attend the Loudoun Country Day School open house this Sunday, February 21, 2010, from 4 to 5:30 p.m.

Loudoun Country Day School (fondly called LCDS) has been educating young Virginians for over 50 years. As its Mission Statement states, 'The purpose of Loudoun Country Day School is to educate and develop each student academically, physically, artistically, socially, and emotionally.'

This open house is a great opportunity to explore the beautiful new campus and hear about the wonderful programs offered in both the Lower School and the Middle School. There will be  faculty, parents and students available to answer your questions about curriculum and programs.

My children have attended LCDS and I have had first hand experience with both the Lower and Upper Schools. The school has been a special part of our family through the education of our 3 children. As Fairfax County residents, we have made the reverse commute, using the wonderful Bus Service for our daily transportation needs from Reston. The small classes and individualized attention have been wonderful for all three of my kids!

We have particularly enjoyed the competitive Middle School sports program. Boys and girls in grades 6-8 compete in a variety of sports against other private schools. Sports include Soccer, Field Hockey, Basketball and Lacrosse. There is also an intramural program for young athletes that prefer individual sports, such as Cross Country and Tennis. There is also a swim team and a tennis team.

If you would like more information about Loudoun Country Day School, and the wonderful learning environment it offers, the phone number is: 703-777-3841

The address for LCDS is: 20600 Red Cedar Drive, Leesburg, VA 20175

I hope you can make it on Sunday, February 21 from 4 to 5:30 pm for the LCDS Open House!

As I sit here at my computer, we are going through our second Blizzard in a week here in the Washington D.C. Metro area. If you live out of the area, I apologize in advance if it seems like those of us who are living through this series of snow storms seem obsessed. We don't usually get  a lot of snow in our area and certainly this many serious storms so close together is unprecedented!

We all know the obvious cancellations; our children are home from school for the indefinite future, the Federal Government is closed for the third day in a row and the powers that be are rescheduling both professional and college sports events.

Today, to add insult to injury, the Washington Post is reporting that the local public high school winter sports regular season is over. The teams will be going directly in to the tournaments. The article, 'Snowstorms force Northern Region to cancel basketball regular season' detail the current plans for finishing the Basketball, Wrestling, Gymnastics, Swimming and Indoor Track Seasons.  It is a tough blow for the student athletes, especially the Seniors, who will not have a chance to play all of their regular season games.

My daughter is a spring athlete. Tryouts begin the week of February 22. Since many of the Winter athletes also play Spring sports--and facilities will be in great demand--there is really no alternative but to find the most fair way to wind up this winter season.

I appreciate what a difficult decision this has been for the local Athletic Directors, but I am sure that most of us agree that they really have very little choice. With such severe weather, there is really very little option but to make the hard decisions and move on.

My sympathy goes out to all of the Senior athletes for the loss of the remainder of their senior season and I wish them all great success as they move in to the post-season tournaments!

I am at the point where I just have to laugh with all the snow that we have had this year in Virginia--otherwise I would cry! The Washington D.C. metro area, which includes suburban Virginia and Maryland, usually gets a couple of light snows, but rarely anything like what we have gotten this year.

The evidence is anecdotal, but it seems to me that the years that we  purchased or upgraded our snow blower were years that we got little or no snow

So here is a list of things that you should do to prepare for NEXT winter. I can almost (but not completely) guarantee that if you do all these things, you will notice a significant reduction in  the amount of snow we see next season:

1. Buy the biggest, strongest snow blower that you can find
   
2. Buy extra engine oil for the super strong snow blower
   
3. Keep the gas can stocked and  in a safe place
   
4. Stock up on snow shovels; all types. Replace any shovel that looks at all decrepit or prone to breaking.
   
5. Buy one of those plow-style snow movers (they look like a big, square plastic sled with wheels at one end).
6. Find one of those nifty ice-choppers (I just used  one to break up the 2 inches of ice that had settled on my driveway). A friend from Buffalo told me about it and it has been a god-send!
   
7. Keep plenty of pet-safe ice melt around
8. Always keep plenty of hot chocolate available
9. Get that emergency generator that you have been coveting (and see #3)
   
10. Make sure you have a battery operated radio (and spare batteries)
11. Have flashlights on hand with batteries to put in them
    
12. Keep extra windshield wiper fluid on hand to restock after a storm
13. Check the pet food and make sure you have enough on hand
14. Don't let prescription medications get below one weeks worth of medication
15. Make sure all family members are outfitted with warm, well-fitting coats, snow pants, boots, scarves, mittens/gloves and hats. Check them in October and buy them then for best selection in both color and fit.
16. Buy a variety of sleds and saucers so that you can have fun in the snow, too!
    
17. Get your cars in for service, check tires and battery, and make sure they always have gas before a possible snow storm.
    

Most years in the D.C. Metro area will not require any of these items...except maybe the warm coat, hat and gloves. This winter we have used them all and gone out for restocking once or twice. I am sure I have left things off of the list, but those were the items that came to mind this morning as we prepared for our latest snow storm.

All kidding aside, next fall when supplies are plentiful, consider purchasing the items on my list. If you stock up early, besides being well-prepared for any snow emergency, you will almost ensure that the rest of us don't have to deal with a snow storm next year. And we will all thank you!

Stay safe and warm!

We have been snowed-in here in Virginia since Friday.  For some reason, my nesting instincts are tied to snow storms and I have been cooking like a fiend (until today when we finished digging out and I stopped cooking).

One of the things that I made was a really good, and really easy, Chicken Pot Pie recipe from Real Simple Magazine. This recipe uses no butter so it has fewer calories than many other recipes.   I made two changes: one was to add a bottom crust that I baked, empty, for about 10 minutes. The second change was that I used dried Thyme since I did not have fresh. It came out beautifully; it sliced nicely and was easy to serve. Best of all, if you have some frozen pie crusts, you probably have most--if not all-- of the ingredients that you will need in your pantry already.

I hope you enjoy...let me know what you think!

Chicken and Vegetable Pot Pie Recipe from Real Simple Magazine.

The sun is shining today, but the snow remains. I am trying to rally the troops to get out and continue the effort to move the very heavy snow off of our driveway and shovel out the car that did not fit in to the garage.

In the meantime, here are some photos from yesterday. I am not sure I will be able to add any for today since we don't have a single AA battery in our house (and that is what my camera needs).

Today we begin the 'big dig.' Superbowl parties are limited to neighbors only...but at least the snow has stopped!

Thanks to John Thomas -- EcoBroker, MSEE, MBA Boulder, CO for this excellent post.