Useful Links

73ss454 · 11-29-2005, 09:13 AM

Sheryl,

Homestead in Fla. means that it's your primary residence.
You must give up any other exemptions on real estate that you own in other states. Also you must live for 6 months and 1 day in that Fla. residence.

In my case I live in NY and bought another home in Fla. about 2 1/2 years ago. I was ignorant to the fact that they can reassess your home in Fla. every year if your not Homesteaded. In my case my taxes in Fla. went from $3200 to 7000 in that time. If your homesteaded they can only raise you a max of 3% a year.

Next month I'm going to give up my star exemption on my house in NY and homestead in Fla. I will also hopefully sell my house in NY next year and move down.

It's not unusual in Fla. to have the same house next to each other and one person paying $3200 and the other paying $7000.

Hope this helps,
Joe

ladelfina · 11-29-2005, 09:38 AM

I personally think it's Crate & Barrel more than Pottery Barn.. I LOVE their furniture and did buy some pieces in the late eighties-early nineties when I lived in NE. Now the housing stock in NE is mostly old, and the rooms are mostly small, yet all the furniture on sale was monstrous. Of course it didn't look that way in their palatial showrooms. A regular upholstered armchair from C&B is easily twice the volume of one of my mom's or my grandma's old armchairs...

Where can you get nice, new, "downsized" furniture for a non-super-sized house anymore these days?

REWahoo · 11-29-2005, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladelfina

Where can you get nice, new, "downsized" furniture for a non-super-sized house anymore these days?

IKEA...

Martha · 11-29-2005, 09:50 AM

And Room and Board has a number of smaller sized items. http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/

Jay_Gatsby · 11-29-2005, 10:18 AM

Frankly, I'm just looking for affordable furniture. The prices at Pottery Barn are outrageous, while the prices at Crate & Barrel are ridiculous for the quality (or lack thereof). IKEA *used* to be a decent deal for furniture, since most of it is self-assembly, but the quality is terrible. If people are looking for self-assembly furniture, I've had good experiences with O'Sullivan, which can be ordered through different low-cost furniture stores. Getting the boxes home may be a problem, since unlike IKEA furniture, O'Sullivan stuff is *heavy*.

As an aside, anyone notice that entertainment armoires aren't fashionable anymore? They don't fit the 50" plasma, LCD or DLP sets being sold at the big box stores. I always thought that entertainment armoires were a great idea, since they keep the TV from being the "center" of a room.

justin · 11-29-2005, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay_Gatsby

As an aside, anyone notice that entertainment armoires aren't fashionable anymore? They don't fit the 50" plasma, LCD or DLP sets being sold at the big box stores. I always thought that entertainment armoires were a great idea, since they keep the TV from being the "center" of a room.

Who can afford an armoire after buying a 50" plasma anyway? Besides, if you stick your tv in some armoire, who's gonna see your bling you paid so dearly for?

ladelfina · 11-29-2005, 10:46 AM

IKEA is great for students or if you like to redecorate often. Any of their "laminates" scratch if you so much as look at it. Also, not much of a choice if you like a more traditional style.

Don't know what C&B is like now, but my solid cherry tables are going strong at almost 20 years old. They are truly heirloom quality. I have a sofa (at least 7 years old) and two armchairs (probably about 12-15 years old) that are also in fine shape. I think their quality is (or at least was..) outstanding! I did pick a bright red cotton that is fading on one of the chairs, but that's my fault.

You get what you pay for. The C&B stuff I have will last me for the rest of my life; I'll spring for a custom slipcover at some point to deal with the faded & by-now-somewhat-grungy-seeing-as-we-have-a-dog cotton number. Plus, I do have bigger rooms now.. so it was more of a rhetorical question (but back then it was a pain).

Thanks for the tips, though... they might help someone else!

As for the armoire.. how about getting a cabinetmaker to fashion some big sliding-type wood or japanese-screen-style panels that could run on a track and go across the whole entertainment 'zone'? I always like the armoire idea too, but again, they were always too humongous to fit in an 11x12 living room.

Jay_Gatsby · 11-29-2005, 11:17 AM

My armoire was ~$700 about 5 years ago, but can only hold up to a 32" TV without cutting out the back (it's designed to do this for larger CRT TVs).* I'm hesitant to do so, however, since that would detract from the stability, if not the aesthetics, of the unit. I would much rather find a DLP TV that would fit in the space, but that will be a problem if I want to go widescreen.

I believe that the current C&B stuff has gone down in quality since the store went really mainstream.* The concept of having an entertainment "zone" with sliding doors is a nice one, and probably is the wave of the future.

Sheryl · 11-29-2005, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 73ss454

Sheryl,

Homestead in Fla. means that it's your primary residence.
You must give up any other exemptions on real estate that you own in other states.* *Also you must live for 6 months and 1 day in that Fla. residence.

In my case I live in NY and bought another home in Fla. about 2 1/2 years ago.* I was ignorant to the fact that they can reassess your home in Fla. every year if your not Homesteaded.* In my case my taxes in Fla. went from $3200 to 7000 in that time.* If your homesteaded they can only raise you a max of 3% a year.

Next month I'm going to give up my star exemption on my house in NY and homestead in Fla.* I will also hopefully sell my house in NY next year and move down.

It's not unusual in Fla. to have the same house next to each other and one person paying $3200 and the other paying $7000.

Hope this helps,
Joe

Thanks for the explanation. Very interesting. As far as I know there isn't any similar provision in Washington state.

Sheryl · 11-29-2005, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay_Gatsby

As an aside, anyone notice that entertainment armoires aren't fashionable anymore?* They don't fit the 50" plasma, LCD or DLP sets being sold at the big box stores.* I always thought that entertainment armoires were a great idea, since they keep the TV from being the "center" of a room.

Dang! I just finally got one last year when I replaced my 13" tv with a 27" one.

SteveR · 11-29-2005, 11:53 AM

We still have 3 of the 27" CRT type TVs. One is in the bedroom armoire and when it dies, one of the other ones will hopefully still be alive to replace it. One of them is almost 20 years old and lives in the basement exercise area and could roll over any day now. I guess when it happens, it will be a sort of forced downsizing.

We have not gone to a plasma or DLP set yet. I cannot justify it when my RP set is still working. Maybe when the prices drop a few more $thousand I might consider one for the family room.

justin · 11-29-2005, 01:23 PM

I'm not sure if I can get a 50" widescreen at all. My living room is 11.5 feet wide, so I'd be sitting about 7 feet from the screen. That's a little too close for comfort.

Jay_Gatsby · 11-29-2005, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveR

We still have 3 of the 27" CRT type TVs.* One is in the bedroom armoire and when it dies, one of the other ones will hopefully still be alive to replace it.* One of them is almost 20 years old and lives in the basement exercise area and could roll over any day now.* I guess when it happens, it will be a sort of forced downsizing.* *

We have* not gone to a plasma or DLP set yet.* I cannot justify it when my RP set is still working.* Maybe when the prices drop a few more $thousand I might consider one for the family room.*

I have a 27" TV that I haven't gotten my money's worth out of yet. However, the sound on one of the channel bands is bad, so a couple of channels don't have sound. This wouldn't be a bad thing if I had a cable box (which would solve both the bad picture from rabbit ears and the sound issue), but since I don't have cable TV that's not a tenable solution. Overall, I think I'm going to have to break down and get cable.

Back to the furniture issue for a moment. Anyone notice that in homes furnished with Pottery Barn or Ethan Allen, the house looks more like a catalog/museum than a "home"?

Another piece of furniture shopping advice -- never shop at Scan Design Centers -- they claim to be Scandanavian design, but their quality is garbage and their prices are outrageous. Likewise, don't shop at Marlo Furniture -- really pushy salespeople and ugly furniture.

Andre1969 · 11-29-2005, 01:40 PM

I have two 32" tube tvs, and honestly that's big enough for me. I also have an old RCA 25" console TV that's about 24 years old. Works fine, just got no need for it anymore so it just sits there, being used as a plant shelf.

I guess if I had house with a humongous great-room or something, I might be tempted to get a bigger tv. Or just put the chairs closer to the set!

SteveR · 11-29-2005, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andre1969

I have two 32" tube tvs, and honestly that's big enough for me.* I also have an old RCA 25" console TV that's about 24 years old.* Works fine, just got no need for it anymore so it just sits there, being used as a plant shelf.

I guess if I had house with a humongous great-room or something, I might be tempted to get a bigger tv. Or just put the chairs closer to the set!*

We used the older TV for the kid's Sega games. Once they left, I am using it in the basment to watch CNN while I attempt to maintain my body mass.

The main set is a RP HD toy I bought with a bonus in 1999. It is a 55 inch widescreen Pioneer that I really enjoy. It is the best movie watching TV I have ever had and with a 7.1 sound system it will rock the house.

The TV in the bedroom is only about 9 years old (Sony) so it will be around for a while yet. The house is on Dishnetwork but I have only two connections and I use IR to beam the signal from one decoder box to the TV in the basement. No reason to pay for another decoder box and $4.99 a month if I don't have to.

Martha · 11-29-2005, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay_Gatsby

Frankly, I'm just looking for affordable furniture. The prices at Pottery Barn are outrageous, while the prices at Crate & Barrel are ridiculous for the quality (or lack thereof). IKEA *used* to be a decent deal for furniture, since most of it is self-assembly, but the quality is terrible. If people are looking for self-assembly furniture, I've had good experiences with O'Sullivan, which can be ordered through different low-cost furniture stores. Getting the boxes home may be a problem, since unlike IKEA furniture, O'Sullivan stuff is *heavy*.

Furniture generally is not very well built any more. After all, the manufacturers expect you to buy something new when you redecorate. What we did was have an acquaintance of ours build us a couch and a loveseat out of oak. They will last forever. Upholstery may have to be redone every so often, but is easy because how they are designed. And the cost was less than buying from a store.

FlowGirl · 11-29-2005, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay_Gatsby

As an aside, anyone notice that entertainment armoires aren't fashionable anymore?* They don't fit the 50" plasma, LCD or DLP sets being sold at the big box stores.* I always thought that entertainment armoires were a great idea, since they keep the TV from being the "center" of a room.

Lately it seems like every living room I walk into has a giant ass TV as the focal point.* One of our friends has an apartment with a gorgeous ocean view... but somehow its their 50'' plasma you notice first.* Wish more people would recognize that a television set is not an attractive piece of furniture.* There's also the issue that when someone has a TV that size out in the open, it tends to get turned on - even if its at a party where you're enjoying wine and pleasant conversation.* Annoying!

We have a 27'' in the corner that we use for watching DVDs.* Would someday love to get a larger set with a nice home theater system, but not until our lives become less active and not unless its easily hideable (armoire or rec room).