We are happy to say that we took some time off over the holidays to spend time with family and relax a little bit away from the office. We hope that most of you enjoyed your holiday break and had a restful holiday time between the Christmas and New Year holidays. That said, we had some time to do a little holiday reading over this period and we read an interesting article about what and how much Americans ate this past year.

Most Americans can say anything we want about eating healthy and watching our weight but the average American ate 1,996 pounds – or nearly a ton of food this past year in 2011. This is an estimate of how much – by weight – the average American eats over the course of one year.

If you are like us this (just) past holiday season you probably ate too much at the family dinners, parties, and get-togethers so let this article shed some perspective on what the typical American diet looks like over the course of one year. We thought this might be a fun little read to start the work week and the new year in 2012.

Happy New Year everybody!

How can that be? Mortgage rates have matched their lows on 30-year fixed mortgages at 3.94%. The average 15-year fixed rate mortgage dropped to 3.21% which is the lowest on record. All of this and the housing market still remains depressed. Not sure why this is but if rates stay at these levels for any length of time, can’t we finally expect some “pep” and a little “giddy-up” in Housing purchases?

What do you think? Leave us a comment.

We just received a new shipment of our Beveled Glass Subway Tiles which we are pleased to say have been well received by our customers. To celebrate us being fully stocked again on these tiles we wanted to offer a one day sale for our Beveled glass subway tiles of 10% off for today only on orders placed by phone.

Call our office today anytime up until the close of business Arizona time and order at least 15 sf of tile to receive your 10% off discount. Orders must be paid at the time of purchase to receive the 10% discount.
We hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and Merry Christmas!

We’ve talked in the past about the durability of Bamboo which is why we developed our Kaguya series of Bamboo tiles. As an example of just what can be done with Bamboo we came across this concept car developed by researchers at Kyoto University in Japan and made from Bamboo. The car dubbed BamGoo is a single seat model that can travel up to 30 miles on a single charge.

While the car is not yet ready for prime time it is yet another example of what a little creativity and ingenuity can do for an item such as a car which many of us use every day and which most of us take for granted will always be there to run on petroleum and oil based fuels. Leave us a comment to let us know what you think of alternative fuel vehicles such as electric cars.

With remodeling spending expected to slowly make a comeback in the US nationally in the second half of 2012 we thought we would take a look at what are forecasted to be some of the top remodeling projects taken on by homeowners in 2012.

Not surprisingly, many of the projects are replacement and repair projects that may be required in many cases but are affordable nonetheless. Americans are projected to spend carefully and all with a goal of achieving necessary repairs that may have been put off as long as possible but also trying to achieve as much value and investment return from every dollar spent.

• Entry Door Replacement is one of the lowest cost upgrades possible and goes a long way towards improving the curb appeal of any home. Choices here include fiberglass, metal and wood and costs can range from $1,000 for a basic decorative door to several thousand dollars or more for upgraded materials and features.
• Deck Additions can be a mandatory replacement in many communities across the country since many homes were built with the thought of creating an outdoor living space as part of the total home environment. After several years of usage these wood or composite decks need refinishing or replacement to ensure these areas can continue to be enjoyed.
• Minor Kitchen Remodel always makes the list of the most important projects on a homeowners list, largely because many see the kitchen as the most important room in the home. There are different levels of spending and remodeling activity one can undertake here depending on the look one hopes to achieve. Performing much of the labor yourself can also provide huge savings and will stretch materials budgets much further.

It’s time to look out in to 2012 to see where your remodeling dollars are best spent. Plan well in advance so you get the highest value on your dollar on materials and labor if you decide to hire a contractor to do your job.

Good Luck!

Several of the larger cities in Texas are forecasted to show growth in residential remodeling in 2012 according to the Residential Remodeling Index (RRI) which was created and compiled by Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. The RRI takes in to account a number of factors to measure remodeling demand including Household Growth, Unemployment, Existing Home Sales, and Total permits. These and other data inputs are used to compile the index which was created several years ago to measure the overall level of remodeling activity in 366 metropolitan statistical areas across the United States.

The State of Texas has shown positive job growth during the recession despite the downturn in other US markets. Texas has one of the highest concentrations of Fortune 500 companies in the US which is one of the reasons to explain the positive jobs situation there. And as we all know, jobs mean folks have money to spend and when folks have money to spend the housing market is one of the beneficiaries of that spending by homeowners.

As a result, of the top six markets forecasted to show positive remodeling activity in 2012 Texas is well represented by four cities in the top six. These cities include Houston # 2, Dallas # 4, Austin # 5, and San Antonio # 6. If you live in any one of these cities you can be proud that residents in your community have shown a propensity to maintain and improve their homes and are forecasted to continue to do the same in 2012.

Did you read about the violence, fights, and arguments at some of the larger retail stores on Black Friday and over the weekend? When you hear stories like this it makes folks want to move more and more of their shopping online to avoid the holiday crunch, crowds and nowadays the petty violence and hassle. At our house we did some early Christmas shopping from the dining room table while the kids played outside in our gorgeous Thanksgiving weekend weather – and we loved it.

With this said we are offering our home remodelers an incentive to shop online with us this Cyber Monday – 2012 version. For Monday only, take 10% off of any product in our online store via phone orders only. Call in your order to our toll free number listed at the top of our AnchorBayTile homepage and use the code CYBER. The offer is valid on orders of $200 or more and the offer expires at our close of business on Monday evening.

Give us a call and place your tile order whether for now or for a project to be done during the downtime of the week between Christmas and New Year’s. We hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and we look forward to speaking with you on Monday.