The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 14 No. 51 - October 15, 2014

REAL ESTATE

Designing your castle

 

Design and architecture go in and out of style just like clothes, music and vacation hot spots. But what most of us really want is a home we’re comfortable and one in which we may have had a hand in designing or at least decorating. Now in our ever changing computer era there are websites and iPhone apps that even the most un-artistic of us can maneuver.

In what now seems like a century ago, I took some design courses for fun at New York University, and I clearly remember using a scale ruler to draw floor plans and elevations on graph paper and then cutting and pasting design elements to create rooms.

For a long time now, rulers and scissors have been replaced with clicking, dragging and dropping design elements into virtual rooms in the palm of your hand, and a couple of new websites have caught my attention.

Homestyler.com looks like websites that were once only used by architects and interior designers. You can start a room from scratch with a variety of floor plans, decide which room of the house you’re designing and pick cabinet colors and styles, paint color, wallpaper and a large selection of furniture styles to drop into the floor plan. Then you can convert it into a 3D format looking like something from an HGTV show.

There also is a landscaping feature in Homestyler.com and, of course, you can import photos of your actual rooms to work with.

Homedesign3d.net is similar in that it allows you to create or upload floor plans and populate the rooms in 2-D or 3-D with furnishings and textures. Home Design 3-D has a paid version as well starting at $6.99, which gives you additional ways to customize your own décor elements.

Iscapeapps.com is for gardens and landscaping. Photos of your outdoor area are downloaded and trees, plants, water, features, walkways and furniture are then added. There is also a paid version for $9.99 offering a more extensive image bank. Iscape’s sister application called HardScape costs $4.99 and offers an extra wide array of options for rendering surfaces, walls, fences and even more.

There are three very good apps to help take the guesswork out of choosing paint. I have written about all three before, but they are worth mentioning again since we’re on the subject of design. ColorSmart by Behr Paint, Color Capture by Benjamin Moore and one that I have had on my iPhone for a couple years, ColorSnap, all make it easy to browse and save colors.

Just being able to look at a variety of colors while you’re walking around a furniture or fabric store is enough to make many of us swoon. ColorSmart and Color Capture allow you to input room dimensions so the paint costs can be calculated.

Aside from the over the top fun you can have with these websites and apps, you will end up saving time and money when doing a house redesign or shopping for a new home. Imagine going through potential homes to purchase that may need a bathroom or a kitchen makeover.

Simply snap a picture and download it into one of the design apps or start with just the room dimensions and window placements and go to town. It won’t take you long to either put that property in the potential list or in the too much to do list.

Le Corbusier,one of the founders of modern architecture and a graduate of the Bauhaus German School of Design, said, “A house should be a machine for living.”

Modern technology now allows us to have a digital tool box enabling us to use our “machines” to create the perfect machine for living, even if you never heard of a scale ruler.

Real Estate Transactions
As of August 31, 2014
Sponsored by Alan Galletto Island Real Estate

Sold Date | List Price | Sold Price | Address | Provision | Property Style

Anna Maria

08/13/2014 649,000 589,000 112 Hammock Rd. 2009 85x112 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
08/15/2014 697,500 660,000 208 Lakeview Dr. 1408 75x110 2 Br/2 Ba SFR
08/15/2014 749,000 725,000 519 South Dr. 1582 60x110 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
08/04/2014 895,000 895,000 316 Tarpon St. 2351 4 Br/3 Ba SFR
08/20/2014 1,195,000 1,079,000 218 Archer Way, 2712 4 Br/3.5 Ba SFR
08/06/2014 350,000 350,000 70 North Shore Dr. 836 54x78 2 Br/1 Ba Half Duplex

Bradenton Beach

08/22/2014 199,000 189,000 1801 Gulf Dr. N. # 215 691 1 Br/1 Ba Condo
08/29/2014 379,000 372,000 117 10th St. N. 121 1027 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
08/23/2014 625,000 625,000 2600 Gulf Dr. N. # 24 1195 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
08/29/2014 199,000 189,000 103 Gulf Dr. N. 1200 53x100 Com
08/18/2014 599,000 599,000 2412 Avenue B 2984 50x100 Inc

Cortez

08/06/2014 165,000 155,000 9604 W Cortez Rd. 224 1218 2 Br/2 Ba Condo

Holmes Beach

08/20/2014 549,900 540,000 218 85th St . 1534 90x100 3 Br/2.5 Ba SFR
08/15/2014 595,000 560,000 210 55th St. 2185 131x105,70,118 3 Br/3.5 Ba SFR

Holmes Beach

08/12/2014 599,900 572,000 4005 5th Ave . 1994 3 Br/3 Ba SFR
08/20/2014 599,000 585,000 312 61st St. B 1707 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
08/29/2014 599,000 585,000 628 Foxworth Ln. 2334 100x115 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
08/22/2014 675,000 627,500 518 Bayview Dr. 1250 75x120 2 Br/2 Ba SFR
08/05/2014 699,000 675,000 6201 Holmes Blvd. 1822 101x78 5 Br/3 Ba SFR
08/01/2014 749,000 705,000 214 82nd St. 1536 90x90 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
08/01/2014 873,500 837,500 514 Bayview Dr. 1841 75x120 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
08/12/2014 965,900 900,000 684 Key Royale D 3003 4 Br/3 Ba SFR
08/13/2014 1,249,000 980,000 8407 Marina D 2164 80x125 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
08/22/2014 1,499,900 1,400,000 3007 Avenue F # 1 & 2 2200 4 Br/4 Ba SFR
08/04/2014 232,000 215,000 4307 Gulf D 206 1027 2 Br/2 Ba Condo, Short Sale
08/13/2014 395,000 370,000 6500 Flotilla D 174 1622 3 Br/2 Ba Condo
08/15/2014 418,000 410,000 5200 Gulf D 508 1169 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
08/13/2014 597,000 573,500 244 S Harbor D 2 1330 2 Br/3 Ba Condo
08/07/2014 649,900 650,000 5608 Gulf D 215 1092 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
08/29/2014 1,725,000 1,700,000 7310 Gulf D 5 1952 2 Br/2.5 Ba Condo
08/22/2014 675,000 627,500 518 Bayview D 75x120 Vac
08/01/2014 425,000 395,000 3004 Avenue C 150x10 Vac
08/21/2014 650,000 405,023.85 8101 Palm D 1971 90x115 3 Br/2 Ba Inc, Short Sale
08/04/2014 519,000 493,000 306 65th St 1300 90x105 3 Br/2 Ba Inc
08/08/2014 419,000 380,000 4603 Gulf Dr # A 1334 50x100 4 Br/2 Ba Inc

Source: Manatee County Property Appraiser’s Office


AMISUN ~ The Island's Award-Winning Newspaper