Articles by Heidi Alexander

Here’s a couple of my favorite unique pumpkin carvings……these were winners on www.extremepumpkins.com - a hilarious site to check out.
I think I”ll order his new book and try some extreme pumpkin carving next Halloween!

Mmmmmmm - if you’ve never saved your pumpkin seeds and baked them, you’re missing out on a healthy AND yummy snack!  Here’s a basic recipe from www.elise.com for your eating pleasure!

1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut open the pumpkin and use a strong metal spoon to scoop out the insides. Separate the seeds from the stringy core. Rinse the seeds.

2 In a small saucepan, add the seeds to water, about 2 cups of water to every half cup of seeds. Add a tablespoon of salt for every cup of water. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.

3 Spread about a tablespoon of olive oil over the bottom of a roasting pan. Spread the seeds out over the roasting pan, all in one layer. Bake on the top rack for 20 minutes or until the seeds begin to brown. When browned to your satisfaction, remove from the oven and let the pan cool on a rack. Let the seeds cool all the way down before eating. Either crack to remove the inner seed (a lot of work and in my opinion, unnecessary) or eat whole.

You may have noticed that I’ve been slack on blogging the past few months.  I do have a good excuse - i really do! 

On July 30th, we welcomed our newest member into the family.  Olivia Rain was born at home at a nice 7lbs 11oz. - whew that was a relief!  My last two girls were 8.8 and 9.2, so i was a little worried about having a 9 1/2-10lb baby!  She’s been keeping me a little busy, but generally is a happy, mellow baby that actually sleeps at night!  woohoo!

We’re back in the swing of things now and I’ll be posting again, so you’ll be seeing more of me.

I know that when I was looking for a new house last year, one of my main concerns was the proximity of sex offenders. Many buyers have also asked me how to check into this particular subject - even those without children.  As much of an unpleasant subject as it is, many of us start thinking about the subject when looking for a new home.

The Arizona Dept of Public Safety has a public web-site where you can enter your zip code and receive information on the sex offenders in your neighborhood, including their name, address, a photo and types of offenses, as well as which schools they live in close proximity to. 

During your 10-day inspection period of buying a new home, research into schools and sex offenders can top your list if you have school-age children.  To find information for your neighborhood, visit www.az.gov/webapp/offender/main.do

School time is almost here for the Valley!  My daughters start next week, which seems so early, compared to the September start dates of my school years - we have a hard time believing that summer vacation is almost over!

If you have just moved, are planning on moving, or want more information on your local schools, you can get school ratings and information at http://www.greatschools.net/.  You can compare schools all over the nation - just put in a zip code or address to compare all schools in that area.  Comparisons can be broken down into academics and student grades, student-teacher ratios, student attendance, and even parent ratings and reviews.  The site also lists private and charter schools as well, if you’re looking for an alternative to public schools.�

My sister’s water heater just died on her this week, so she’s been researching the advantages and costs of transitioning to a tankless water heater.  If you’ve been thinking about switching to one when your water heater poops out, here’s some basic info to think about.

Advantages:

1.  Tankless water heaters only heat water as you need it, rather than storing it and waiting for it to be used.  This form of heating water as needed usually saves 10-20% off your water heater portion of your bill.  Since water heaters eat up approximately 14% of your bill, this can be a good amount of savings!

2.  Besides energy savings, tankless heaters use less materials and require less energy consumption in regards to production and transportation to stores.

3.  Life expectancy is longer - tankless heaters have a life expectancy of around 20 years, compared to conventional water heater’s 10-15 years.

Costs and Disadvantages:

1. The cost of a gas tankless water heater will run you 2-4x the cost of installation as a regular water heater, due to needing to retro-fit existing houses with wider gas supply lines and heavier cable or multiple circuits to draw more power.  New construction is the best time to install a tankless heater to save on retro-fit costs

2.Water usage can sometimes be limited if you’re planning on running two showers at once, as well as laundry or the dishwasher.  Large full-house tankless units can pump out over 5 gallons per minute for gas, and around 3 gallons per minute for electric.  If you don’t usually run more than 2 water-consuming devices at a time, you should be fine.

 All in all, if you’re needing to replace your hot water heater, a tankless unit might be the way to go.  Even if you plan on moving from your home in the next few years, it’s a great selling point to buyers to have a tankless water heater.  “Green” is in!

Catchy, eh?

I was watching a program yesterday on the death rituals of Tibetan Buddhism and couldn’t help but agree with their philosophy on the body after death.  Now, I’m not an expert in Buddhism by any means, so hopefully I understood their beliefs correctly - they believe that once the soul leaves the body, the body does not need to be maintained or housed as we do in cemetaries, as they soul has already moved on.  They actually take the body, break the spine and fold it into a much smaller, compact package, wrap it in cloth and then they take it out to the desert for other animals to feed off of.  The whole idea seems to be a circular one, in which the used-up body is given back to the earth and other animals, to further their life, after the human one has ended. 

In a way, it reminded me of a personal form of recycling.  Rather than take up land space with cemetaries and graves, or further pollution with the burning of bodies into ashes, why not recycle the body by giving it to creatures that can eat it for their sustenance?

Of course, I can imagine why we don’t practice this here, as who would know whether the body in the desert died legitimately or not.  I”m not really writing this to discuss the realities of how it would work, but just musing on the philosphy.

However, I can appreciate the Tibetan Buddhist’s belief in the circle of life and that rather than looking at human life as detached from other animals, and one that proceeds along a straight line that ends at death - why not view the human life as part of the bigger circle and that the deceased body can be given back as a benefit to other life.

Wow, pretty heavy for a Saturday morning, eh?  Just thought I’d get you thinking!

Earlier this month I took a trip to Seattle with my daughters to visit a friend there, and to escape the Phoenix heat (if even for just a little bit this summer!).  It was our first visit to Washington and boy were we amazed at the differences between the Northwest and the Southwest.

First, everywhere you drive you see green!  It made me realize what an easy color green is on your eyes (I’ve been told that the human eye can see more shades of green than any other color) and how in the summer, the reflective quality of the desert brown can really wreak havoc on your eyes.  I think I have more wrinkles from squinting in the Arizona sun than from aging!

With all the green trees everywhere, I also noticed that the lush vegetation does a fantastic job of hiding house and building flaws.  A building or house may not be taken care of and falling apart, but they don’t look as delapitated as our buildings do here, since we have nothing growing around them to hide the deterioration.  It’s amazing how some vegetation can cover the building flaws!

Because of the extensive amount of rain and cooler weather, the neighborhoods in Seattle all have yards and gardens, whether the owner does anything to grow them or not.  I’ve noticed many houses here in the desert that just have the original dirt for the front yard, which does nothing for the house value except drag it down!  One advantage of wetter weather is that all the yards at least have grass or bushes of flowers growing in them without any effort from the owner - wouldn’t that be nice!

Now I know it sounds like I’m ripping on Phoenix in this article, but don’t get me wrong!  I love the desert and the open sky and that you can always plan a picnic without worrying about rain.  But I have to admit that visiting someplace wet and green during the scorching summer months was a great relief this June!

Go Gilbert Arizona!  While reading Time magazine this week, they had a small article rating US cities which were highest and lowest in crime.  Gilbert came in 4th for crime safety according to the article.  Not suprisingly, Flint and Detroit Michigan were two of the highest cities for crime rates (1st and 4th if I remember correctly). 

It’s nice to see happy little Gilbert scoring so high for low crime rates!

For those of you not familiar with the term, Dual Agency refers to an Agent who is working for both the Sellers and the Buyers in the same transaction.  Recently we were speaking with a Seller who was concerned that we didn’t have a Buyer ready to go in their area of town, so that their house could sell quickly.  Actually, the majority of Real Estate transactions are not because a Listing Agent happens to have a buyer just waiting for a house to go on the market.  The large percentage of sales come from other agents who have buyers looking in the area.

What our Seller didn’t realize was that if we did have a buyer ready to purchase their home as soon as it went on the market, that would also mean that we would now be working in the best interest of BOTH parties - not just the Seller.  Some people are comfortable with having Dual Agency, while others might feel more comfortable knowing that their Realtor is working solely for them and does not have any invested interest in the buyer or their position. 

In any Real Estate Transaction, there is a ton of sensitive information that should not be passed to the other party - such as financial status, reasons for selling, how much each party is willing to bend during negotiations, etc.  I’m sure that most Realtors respect these boundaries and do not pass on personal information during a Dual Agency transaction.  However, if you are concerned about facts of your position being revealed, you should make certain you trust your Realtor to be professional during the process, or not request Dual Agency from your Agent.  It might make a safer position for your needs during the sale to have your Agent working only for you and not for the other party as well.

Greywater systems are not widely used here in Phoenix, but could provide a fantastic opportunity for water re-use and conservation here in the dry Phoenix desert.  Greywater systems re-use water from your shower, laundry, sinks and dishes (pretty much everything except the toilet), rather than sending it down the sewer system.  The most common use of greywater is for landscape irrigation, which saves the cost of watering your lawn with freshwater.  It’s estimated that 50-80% of your household wastewater is greywater. 

In using greywater for landscape irrigation, ADEQ (Arizona Department of Environmental Quality) regulations require that the greywater be filtered and disinfected before being sent to a sub-surface irrigation system.  It’s not a good idea to take your washing machine hose and just drain it on your lawn or in your bushes.  Surface greywater can tend to pool up, and if it hasn’t been filtered, may contain bacteria that you don’t necessarily want sitting on top of your lawn and plants.

On the other hand, greywater can be more beneficial to your plants than freshwater because it may contain nitrogen or phosphorus, which will help your plants grow stronger and healthier than with freshwater alone. 

Greywater systems can be expensive to have installed, but it’s worth doing some research into them if you’re looking for more ways to make your home environmentally friendly.

If you haven’t been to Whole Foods in Phoenix or Tempe yet, you’re in for a treat!  Whole Foods is expanding into two new locations this year - one in Chandler on the corner of Ray Rd and the 101/Price Freeway, and the other in Scottsdale at Scottsdale Rd and Mayo.  Word has it that both locations will be double the size of their Tempe and Phoenix stores, which means lots more selection and items to choose from.

I’ve been watching the construction on the Chandler Whole Foods, and it’s coming along quick!  If you’re looking for a smaller natural food store, there’s also Sprouts on the corner of Ray and Dobson (only 1 mile from the in-progress Whole Foods).  The Chandler location supposedly will also feature a few drive-thru restaurants (wouldn’t that be great if we had some drive-thru’s that were healthy?!?!) as well as a handful of shops in the same complex. 

I’m glad to see more and more natural and organic food stores popping up in Phoenix.  It seems the healthy life-style of Northern California is filtering our way.  Of course, I enjoy my greasy fast-food now and then, but it’s fantastic to have the CHOICE of foods available and close to home.