Kauai Asbestos Prevention & Healthy Alternatives
When searching for a new home or apartment, there are many things to consider. The path to owning a home will be one of the greatest investments in your life, but it will bring many additional responsibilities. Homes that are newly brought may often need to be remodeled. Structural repairs may be needed for those who live in areas susceptible to natural disasters.
One of the main items that go unnoticed is taking precautions to avoid Asbestos related exposure. Potential Hawaii home buyers or those remodeling older homes should be aware homes constructed prior to 1980 can still contain asbestos. This is not to make you jump out of your chair because not all asbestos is harmful and exposure is easily prevented with the proper precautions. For a diagram to see areas of a home where asbestos may be an issue, go to
http://www.asbestos.com/images/asbestos_house_diagram.gif
Asbestos Tips & Info
As awareness and protocols continue to advance, levels of asbestos have slowly began to decline in many states. Hawaii has two major military bases and oil refineries where were filled with asbestos products. Utilized in homes until the last quarter of the 20th century, asbestos was commonly used as insulation for piping, boilers, roofing and flooring. Frequent exposure can lead to the development of asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma. Due to latency periods that can last 20 to 50 years, mesothelioma diagnosis is truly a difficult task for physicians.
Prior to moving into your new home or apartment, identify whether or not asbestos materials are present. If any are located, it best to leave it un-disturbed as this can damage asbestos and releases its fibers to become airborne. A home inspector can provide expert advice on the best possible solution. If the asbestos is deemed dangerous and removal is necessary, it must be performed by a licensed abatement contractor who is trained in handling dangerous materials. Schools, places of work and other public locations must also be removed by professionals.

Going GREEN

The Hawaii Department of Health assists public facilities and home owners to comply with state and federal regulations in regards to the inspection and abatement of asbestos. If asbestos is removed, green alternative materials should be used as replacements. These include the use implementation of recycled building materials such as lcynene foam, cotton fiber and cellulose. These alternatives not only allow for a healthy and safe home, but can bring down annual energy costs.

Residents in Hawaii are taking steps to move to a green paradigm, installing eco-friendly construction practices throughout the state. The United Nations Environmental Program states that the use of these recycled building materials, on top of the installation of energy saving appliances and the maximization of natural lighting in a building, can reduce energy use energy use by 25 percent.
Living in a world where environmental sustainability is a vital concern to the future of mankind, it is important to take note of the consequences of improper building materials and environmental degradation. They allow for a healthy home, free of any damaging materials.
Are you looking for a "Green Home" in Kauai? Go to www.KauaiRealEstateProfessionals.com, where you can look for yourself, or we will search for you!

Housing Fair

The County of Kauai and the Kauai Board of Realtors are sponsoring a free Housing Fair on June 19 and 20. There will be exhibits and workshops both days. Workshop topics include:
1) First Time Buyer Program
2) Foreclosure Avoidance, loan Modification, and short sale
3) Rental Property Management
4) County Housing Programs
WHERE: County Pi`ikoi Building, 4444 Rice St., Lihue, HI 96766
A good idea for anyone looking to buy their first home, landlords, tenants, or if your property is in distress!

Mapping My Listing to Google Maps

I was talking today with a freind who was playing around with Google Maps. She showed me that you could make your own custom map!

I decided to map a custom map for my kauai page, on my Kauai real estate site, that would show where on the island I currently have a listed home for sale! Once I had signed in to my Igoogle account, I clicked Maps. Then Scrolled and zoomed to my section of Kauai. I then clicked My Maps, and put in a title and description. Then I moved the screen to the address of the home I had listed, and then added a pin to the map. After adding some links to the details, the price and number of Beds and Baths with a picture, I saved my new map and made it public! In the top right corner it gave me a link to the map but I wanted it to actually display on the page. So I grabbed the code to Embed the map, and plugged it into the page. It was really easy!
The neat thing is I can even post it into my blog like this:

Hope this is helpful to anyone else thinking of adding maps to their properties or websites.
View Larger Map

Getting Info Out There

Information Infatuation

I was recently reading an article on content writing advice, that talked about how there's a big difference between your blog content and your website content. They both have a unique function, but it's important to know the difference between the real goal. I'm going to be making a bigger effort here in my blog to be more engaged, and I have taken the tip, and made efforts on site to offer more info and pictures about Kauai as well as about my kauai real estate services. Let me know if there's any particular topics you'd like to know more about the island of Kauai!

Quick Tour of Kauai

Recently it was Alicia Rubadue's birthday, and we ended up taking a quick jaunt around the island of Kauai, and enjoyed many of the different wonderful features of our little island.Here are some of the images from our mini-tour of Kauai, which makes me so glad I have a home in Kauai ;)

 

Opaeka Falls

 

Waialua Falls

 

Kauai's North Shore

Carnival of Real Estate

There is a carnival on the web! Here is the 117th carnival and you'll find the top 5 rated blog posted for the real estate industry. Everything from Buyers tips, to real estate news.

Kauai On The Beach

Kauai, Hawaii
This picture was taken on Alicia Rubadue's birthday, as we walked down the beach in our home of Kauai, Hawaii.