Backyard Renovations

Backyard Renovations are usually last on our list, with indoor living spaces requiring attention first. (Who wants to live without a kitchen or bathroom? Not me!) It’s also harder to picture your dream outdoor oasis because there are no walls to define the space – making it difficult to know where to begin. We’re here to help you get started because having an amazing outdoor space can add livable square footage to your home.

Create Zones

Think about your yard, and what you’d like to use your yard for. Draw up a layout of your back yard, and divide up the space into zones. If you have children you can start dividing the space by creating an adult area, and a children’s area. Think playing, lounging, entertaining, as you decide what you’d like where. Consider whether you want shade, or sun as well.

Materials

There are a variety of back yard materials you can choose from. We’ve put together a chart to help you compare the various materials and decide what is right for your backyard!

Furniture

Will you need a table for outdoor dining? A firepit to relax around in the evenings? Or would you prefer a sitting area, or chaise lounges for sunbathing? Look at the zones you’ve created and decide how to furnish each one.

Color

Color can reinvent a space. Think of your yard this way- if you don’t like it – paint it. And add fabrics to your outdoor furniture. You don’t need to be match-y, you can mix and match prints and colors, just make sure they lend cohesion to all the zones in your yard to tie everything together.

Lighting

Lighting adds instance ambiance to your yard and keeps it safe. There are great solar powered outdoor lighting options, and some awesome tutorials to create your own. You can visit our Pinterest page where we’ve saved some of our favorite DIY lighting solutions!

Of course if you ever need any recommendations for landscapers, contractors, or any kind of home improvement – let us know – we have trusted partners that we’ve worked with for years that we can recommend to you!

We had to try…

…these new places that just opened in our area. Since it’s Spring Market in the real estate world things are a little hectic around the office and hours are a bit longer than usual. So we decided treat ourselves during the work week. We took time out from the busy work day on Cindo de Mayo to actually take a lunch break and explore a new restaurant that had just opened, AND we treated ourselves to some donuts for breakfast (more on the donuts towards the end).

We checked out Bartaco in Reston Town Center. It didn’t disappoint! Cinco de Mayo was a gorgeous day in Reston, 82 degrees and sunny. So we opted to sit out side on their patio. The patio was separated from the rest of the restaurant by huge floor-to-ceiling screens – perfect for keeping pesky bugs away. The decor was coastal casual with whites and blues.

After we were sat our waiter explained the ordering system. There were small pieces of paper with menu items on it. You wrote the number of each item you’d like to order next to the item on the paper & then place the paper in the holder. The waiter then comes and picks up the paper and puts your order in. It’s a tapas restaurant so the dishes are small – for $3 your tacos are NOT going to be large. We liked the tapas menu because it allowed us to try a bunch of different items. It’s the worst when you pick something off a menu and you look around and everyone’s food looks better than what you ordered! This style ordering allowed you also to order more of anything whenever you wanted it, just fill out another order card and display it so that waiter could pick it up.

First we ordered drinks. My margarita was phenomenal. It was super fresh, no sugary syrupy concoctions here! Then we ordered a bunch of items off the menu. We had quesadillas, chicken tacos, fried oyster tacos, and salsa verde with chips.

The salsa verde came out first – and Nora thought it was a little too spicy (keep in mind she used to think soda was too “spicy” as a child – but I loved it. The chips weren’t your usual chips. They were circles as big as your hand!

The tacos were good and so was the quesadilla – which was wonderfully cheesy. Who doesn’t love cheese? (Well i guess don’t answer that if you’re lactose-intolerant.) But for me the best part of the meal were the sauces they had on the table. There were three, Habanero, Jalapeno, and Rojo. My favorite was the Jalapeno. I put it on everything on my plate.

Bartaco is a great addition to the dining options in Reston Town Center, and it was a nice low key way to spend our Cindo de Mayo lunch!

Our second “treat” to ourselves this week was breakfast. Duck Donuts recently opened in Herndon and we kept hearing great things about it from people that had been to the original location in the Outer Banks. So I decided to pick up some on the way to work. When I got there I was concerned that the line was looking rather long – but it moved quickly & the place smelled phenomenal.  You customize your donuts to your liking by picking with coating and topping you’d like. They make them as you order them, so you know your not going to get a crusty old doughnut that’d been on the shelf all morning. And they’re served warm – so they’re extra delicious.

I ordered 1/2 a dozen. 2 maple frosted with bacon, 2 vanilla frosted with rainbow sprinkles (I love rainbow sprinkles!), a cinnamon sugar, and a glazed donut.

My absolute favorite was the maple bacon – I’ll be going back just for a maple bacon. It was the perfect combination of sweet and salty. I wish I had ordered a whole box of them (although my waistline is VERY glad I didn’t!).

That’s how we treated ourselves this week. Have you tried either place? Do you take time out of your busy work week to treat yourself? If so, how?

Lyme’s Disease Could Be Lurking In Your Yard

With Spring finally here – tick season is upon us. Loudoun County has one of the highest rates of Lyme disease infection in the United States, and the highest rate in Virginia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Make sure that you take measures to prevent Lyme disease, starting in your own backyard.

Matt Elliott Realty is a proud sponsor of the Loudoun Lyme 5K Run/Walk that takes place annually. This year’s race will take place in Brambleton on May 17th. We hope you’ll join us in raising awareness about Lymes Disease.

Clean up your act!

Spring has finally sprung! Which means it’s time for Spring cleaning & decluttering. We went ahead and compiled some of our favorite tips found on Pinterest to help you get started…

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1. Whenever you’re cleaning a room, get rid of at least five items, whether it’s a piece of trash, an old magazine, or just something you haven’t used in ages.

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2. Clean up your Facebook feed

Tip #1: When you see pesty updates from Candy Crush or Spotify that you seriously could care less about, hover your mouse over the post and click “Hide all stories from ______”

Tip #2: Make friend lists. Only follow your close friends. This also comes in handy later on when you want to post an event or news item that you only want your legit pals to see.

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3. Everyone gets a crap basket. If you see or collect anyone’s crap throughout the house, it goes in that person’s basket. And then they’re responsible for putting it back into their rooms. You can even elaborate and make a rule that if someone doesn’t put the items back in their rooms for 2 week, then whatever is in the basket will go in the garbage. (Sometimes people need a little extra motivation!).

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4. Start editing & organizing your closet by asking yourself one question: “If I were shopping right now, would I buy this?” If the answer is no, out it goes.

OR if your closet needs some tough love, limit your closet to 50 hangers… Sometimes you need hard-and-fast rules to keep organized.

Too keep clutter at bay once your closet is clean, make a new rule for yourself. When you buy a new item, donate two similar items from your closet.

Here is a great resource for donation places where your clutter will do good.

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5. When cleaning the bedroom, always make the bed first. There are a myriad of reasons.

• It serves as a mission control center for organizing and folding
• You’ll be less likely to climb into bed and take a nap in the middle of your cleaning session
• Your messy stuff will look weird and out of place once the bed is all neat

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6. Identify your clutter traps. Then divide and conquer. Is there a certain place where everyone just dumps their stuff out of sheer laziness? Is it the entryway? Under the kitchen sink? A junk drawer? Identify each of the clutter traps and dedicate an hour each weekend to each one. See if there’s an easy way to compartmentalize the stuff you really need while throwing out the things you can bear to part with.

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7. Run a power strip through the back of a nightstand so you can charge your gadgets out of sight. It will cut down on clutter on your nightstand!

Usually nightstands have a gap in the back. If there’s no gap you can use a drill to make a small hole in the back of the drawer and run the power cord’s wire through it.

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8. On a super-hot day, clean out your fridge and freezer. It’ll feel less like work and more like a treat as you’re keeping cool. Make sure to throw out any expired foods!

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9. When buying electronics, download the manual and store it in the cloud. If you’re positive you won’t be returning it, you can safely discard the manual. Uploading an electronic copy to the virtual cloud of your choice keeps you covered in case the manufacturer stops producing the item and takes the manual down from its site.

Read more here about archiving your manuals into iBooks (if you have an iPad).

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OR– you could just sit back and watch an episode of Hoarder’s to instantly feel better about the clutter in your house!

Cheers! Look who we spotted drinking Green beer!

We hope you had a wonderful time celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year! There were tons of celebrations happening around the Northern Virginia area. To get in the spirit we sent our Office Manager, Nora, out to mix & mingle!

She hit up a few bars and had a blast getting to know people and snapping photos! Be sure to check out our Facebook page for all the photos from the night.

NOW is the time to SELL!

If you were considering selling your home in Northern Virginia, now is a great time to sell!

Here’s why:

• Property values have climbed the past 4 years, but have recently leveled off
• While pricing has leveled off, it’s still a great seller’s market
• Avoid costly future maintenance repairs

For a FREE, no-obligation valuation of your home, visit www.MattElliottRealty.com 

You’ll see instantly how much homes are selling for in the neighborhood and what your home might be worth in this current market.

Out of state? No Problem!

As your agent, I will manage the process of preparing your home for sale! I have successfully managed the entire process of obtaining contractors, estimates, and then overseeing project completion to update current rental properties to “perfect sale” condition. This process is a part of my service and is designed to maximize your ultimate sale price.   You can even sign closing papers remotely!

Here’s a testimonial from a recent client:

To read even more about past client’s experiences visit our Zillow Reviews page.

Contact me via phone/text @ 703.627.2167 or email to MattE@kw.com, and let me provide a no-obligation market analysis of your home’s current value.   I’m also happy to explain how I can manage the entire process for you, making the process a stress-free one to get your home sold for the highest possible price.

Now is the one of the best times to sell a property since the last real estate peak in 2005/2006. Don’t miss the opportunity to get your home sold at what might be the current real estate peak.

Our Reviews Speak for Themselves!

We really appreciate our clients and LOVE reading that they had an exceptional experience with us!

Check out our newest Zillow Review…

We used Matt to handle the listing of list my Mom’s house. Since I live outside outside of the area, it was important that I utilized an agent who not only knew the market, but could also assist in finding reputable, fairly-priced, contractors to help do some required “fix-ups” before we put the house on the market. We also wanted to make sure that we had assistance in having the house professionally staged and photographed. I put together a request for proposal and sent it to 3 agents that had been recommended to me. I selected Matt and his team. Matt is extremely well-networked with many contractors in the area. We needed help with landscaping, electrical work, floor refinishing, driveway sealing, painting, etc. Matt always was able to put us in touch with, or called for us, several contractors that did quality work. Matt has a good feel for where to invest when making improvements. We followed all of his recommendations, including asking for a higher price on the home than the other agents had suggested. He held an open house that was well-attended by other agents and buyers. We had 2 offers the following day. Matt did some qualifying of the offers and came back with a recommended negotiation strategy which we accepted. He handled it from there and after some back and forth we accepted an offer. I liked working with Matt and would use him again. He’s responsive and easy to get a hold of. He knows the real estate business inside out and he applies his skills in a professional manner.

We’re happy to offer assistance with contractor referrals, recommendations on home improvements, and anything else home related. Just give us a call 703-627-2167, or shoot us an e-mail MattElliottRealty@gmail.com!

Be Our Valentine?

Valentine’s Day elicits a wide range of emotions in people. Some people love it, some hate it, and some people think it’s just a holiday created by Hallmark. Whether you love it or hate it – we have put together lists of fun Valentine’s Day related links we thought would be fun to share with you… whether your a hater or a lover of the holiday.

In Love with Love Links

• From ring bearer and flower girl, to husband and wife
• Romantic Additions to add to your Home
• How we met love stories – as told to children
• Makeup sealer – kiss everything you love with no smudges!

Links for the Haters:

• 14 Reasons Valentine’s is better when you’re single
• 4 Types of people you meet on Valentine’s Day
• How to throw the best Anti-Valentine’s Party

10 Steps to Buying a Home

Have you ever wondered what the home buying process was all about?

At Matt Elliott Realty – we have the process broken down into 10 easy steps – most of which your Realtor will do for you! If you’re thinking about purchasing a home feel free to contact us with any questions you have – we can talk you through the process and provide you with valuable information about the areas you’re interested in!

We love our clients!

Matt Elliott Realty is very lucky to have been able to help so many wonderful clients buy or sell their homes. It’s always exciting in the office when we receive a letter, review, or Facebook post about how our clients enjoyed working with us! Here’s one of the latest…

“If Cinderella ever decides to put her castle on the market Jodi Marquith and Matt Elliott are the only Realtors for the job!!”

We just had to share the screen grab of the photo (taken at Disney for Run for Our Sons) & comment because we appreciated it so much!

#thankful