Auston Woods Apartment Homes Blog

Green living should become the motto of the present and future generations. It has become essential for all of us to educate our children about eco-friendly methods so that they learn to respect the environment they are born into. The love and respect for nature has to be inculcated right from childhood. Children of today are adults of tomorrow; hence values instilled today will reap rich dividends in the future.

The children who are brought up in a surrounding that is healthy and green would definitely get used to this kind of living. Therefore, when they grow up as citizens they will ensure that they do not do anything that would jeopardize the health of the planet. Which is why Auston Woods and HHHunt are committed to green living in all of our apartment homes.

There is a need today to develop new technologies which would facilitate green living. New researches are being done to find out new forms of green energy. The oil and coal reserves of our planet are fast depleting owing to massive industrialization.

We do our part to provide that all new communities developed by HHHunt save as many well-established trees as possible, and upon completion will exceed local standards for the size and number of trees re-planted within the community. Our company strives to exceed government standards for energy efficiency and water conservation during the development process and beyond. As a part of green living, people should be encouraged to use solar power for house lighting. These days, technology is also developed to run vehicles on solar power. Though, this is still in the gestation period, it would be a great alternative to gas and petrol used for running the vehicles.

The effects of irrational use of the natural resources should be explained to the people in detail. People in general have a tendency to misuse and waste fresh water. This has led to scarcity of water. Steps should be taken to curtail this wastage and make people more responsible. Similarly, people also tend to waste electricity by switching on lights unnecessarily. If one extra bulb is lit in every household, then imagine the amount power consumption. So we encourage you, our residents and customers, to join us in our efforts to sustain our environment.

Apartments in Charlotte, NC

It’s the time of year for Cadburys, baskets, jelly beans and egg-coloring! Easter is on April 4th this year, just 11 days away! The city of Charlotte has lots of events and egg hunts to participate to get you in the Easter mood.

Seems like the Easter Bunny will be hopping all over town! Here are some places you can bring your family.

Ongoing Meet the Easter Bunny: Concord Mills until April 3rd

Ongoing Visit the Easter Bunny Northlake Mall. 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. with carrot breaks from 1- 1:30 p.m. and 6- 6:30 p.m., and Sunday from noon-6 p.m. with a carrot break from 3- 3:30 p.m. in the Center Court.

March 25 Visit the Easter Bunny Mooresville South Iredell Chamber of Commerce 2:30-4:30 p.m.

March 26 Lunch with the Easter Bunny: 11 a.m.- noon at the Matthews Community Center.

March 27 Breakfast with The Bunny: Join Joseph Beth for a 9 a.m. brunch, Easter Egg hunt and The Story of Peter Rabbit.

March 27 Peter Rabbit’s Garden Adventure: Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

March 27 Easter Egg Hunt: 10 a.m.- noon in the Center Court at SouthPark Mall.

March 27 Easter Eggstravaganza: 11 a.m.- 2 p.m. at Stumptown Park in Matthews

March 27 Kidgits Easter Event: 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. in the Concord Mills Food Court.

March 31 Egg Ed: Join McDowell Nature Center for an egg hunt, 10 a.m.- noon.

April 1 Underwater Easter Egg Hunt: Ray’s Splash Planet- 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

April 2 Easter Event: Join Freedom Park for their annual free egg hunt from 1-3 p.m.

April 3 Easter Egg Hunt: Historic Latta plantation

April 4 Easter Sunday brunch Botanical Garden at Riverbanks Zoo.

More details on these egg-citing events!

Hope you enjoy! We’d love for you to share your Easter pics with us on our Facebook Fan Page!

Photo by Midiman

I found this movie clip from Coach Carter to be very inspirational. I just hope that it touched you the way it touched me.

While driving in my car the other day, I heard a radio commercial for a really popular home builder in this area.  As someone who has rented an apartment, owned a home, and had a father who constantly taught fiscal responsibility, I tend to see the flip side of any type of new and exciting financial obligation (such as buying a home or car).  This particular commercial touted that you could own a home for just as much as you pay in rent.  This is almost always a misleading statement and I really can’t believe that builders and sometimes realtors can tell people this with a straight face.

Here are three things to consider where renting apartments and buying houses are concerned:

First of all, the monthly mortgage that they typically advertise does not include property taxes and insurance.

Secondly, it does not include HOA fees which can be anywhere between $50 per month to $300 per month, depending on the neighborhood.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the advertised monthly price does not include the yearly maintenance (usually 1% of the home value per year) and decorating costs.

Obviously, you don’t have any of those costs when you are renting an apartment home at our community.   I know that many of you have owned a home and understand the financial responsibility of home ownership.  For those who haven’t, keep this information in mind when listening to one of those commercials!

Watch this video for a demonstration of  “How to Build the Perfect Barbeque Fire”. To complete the task, you will need:

Newspaper
Chimney canister
Hardwood lump charcoal

Get started with the first step: Always use common sense and precaution when working with fires.

For the complete guide, go here Happy Memorial Day

You might be trying to add your own personal touch to your new apartment. When you first move into an apartment you want to feel at home as soon as possible. One great way to customize your living space and make it your own without fear of loosing your security deposit is to start with the window. The window is a great place to start. From the outside of your apartment it gives the first impression, from the inside it shows your character. There are plenty of ways that you can customize your windows with your own personality and style.

For instance, by using blinds you have the option of wood or even vinyl. Blinds also give you the option to let more light in or keep light out easily. With Traditional curtains and draperies you can often find a custom design that fits your style nicely. Curtains can even be tied back or let loose to fit your window perfectly. For more details and idea’s about how you can bring the home into your apartment through your window follow this link.

Remember, when you are looking for your window covering to think about what you want your personal space to say and what you would like for your coverings to do. The more prepared you are the more creativity you will allow to flow. Measuring your window before heading to the store, knowing what colors you like, even looking at different window designs on the internet will help you to have a better idea of what you are looking for. You should also be knowledgeable about what window coverings are safe and what is not.

The benefit of decorating your window with your personal style is that you can totally change the appearance of your apartment and feel at home without painting at all. You can find more tips on how to decorate your apartment at Apartment Guide.

Photo by: Baby Dove

Clowns Without Borders stir up laughter and share smiles with many children among the temporary hospitals in post-earthquake Haiti.

“Now child without a smile,” They say… “We send laughter around the world!” These Clowns take off the limits and really use laughter as a medicine to change desperate situations.

Clowns Without Borders offers laughter to relieve the suffering of all persons, especially children, who live in areas of crisis including refugee camps, conflict zones and territories in situations of emergency. They found themselves in Haiti surrounded by beautiful children who’s spirits seem to be lifted with every laugh.

I have always enjoyed the presence of a clown and the good feelings that they bring with them. Clowns Without Boarders had been over to Haiti previously; nearly a year earlier. But they were invited to come back so they decided to do it.

Leah Able from PRI’s Here & Now says, “Once there, however, Abel believes the clowns made a difference for the children, many who lost family members or were seriously hurt in the earthquake. Citing studies show how people need laughter:”

Google

November of 2009 is when Google first introduced its “text-to-speech” feature called eSpeak.  This can really allow for consuming information over the internet to be faster and more effective.

In combination with seeing the words on the screen as you read them you will also be have the ability to hear them.  Similar to an audio book this may help with the pronunciation of words and perhaps you may catch something that you didn’t get before.

From November of 2009  till now, less than two years later  Google translates web-pages in for over 30 different languages.
Including Haitian, Creole, French, Italian and German in recent months.

Today’s announcement adds text-to-speech functionality for Afrikaans, Albanian, Catalan, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese and Welsh.

Google is continuing with its effort to become the one-stop online-shop.  To Lear n more about Google Translate and how it works click here

Photo by: Alain Bachellier

There are so many factors that should be taken into consideration when deciding whether to buy or rent. Peer pressure (to buy a home) has often played into people’s decisions to purchase but every person’s finances, lifestyles, and needs/wants are different.

Check out this article from CNNMoney.com on renting and buying.

By Jennifer Moran

Many of us receive coupons in the mail to our favorite store which gives us a 15% or 20% discount on purchases in a given time period. While it may be very tempting to run right out to the store to get a “deal” on the latest style, gadget, etc., there are a few questions that you should ask yourself.

1. How much do I want this item?
2. Do I have cash to pay for the item(s) and
3. If I put this on my credit card, how much will I pay in interest to get this “deal”.

For example, a new laptop retails at XYZ store for $1250. You purchase this laptop at XYZ store using your 20% coupon and charge the purchase on your credit card. The discounted price is $1000 and you are feeling pretty wonderful about the deal on your laptop. If you just make the minimum payment on your credit card with an interest rate of 18%, you will end up paying $923.12 in interest over 113 months (9.4 years). In this example, the total to purchase this laptop was actually $1923.12 which is definitely NOT a “deal”!

Knowledge is power and it is so important that you make informed decisions when making a purchase, especially when purchasing with a credit card. Check out this online credit card interest calculator!

By Jennifer Moran