Liz's Havasu Lifestyle Blog: January 2011

The amazing 1965 Amphicar was built to travel roads and navigate waterways.  You can see this amazing big boy toy on display at the Big Boy Toys event in Lake Havasu City in the Uptown District of McCulloch Boulevard. 

This featured vehicle is owned by Dean Baker and is German built.  The broker searched for two years before finding the car of his dreams in Seattle.  This is the perfect vehicle for Dean Baker to show condos from the water or take clients for a ride on the Lake.  Registering the vehicle with the state requires you to register as a classic car and a watercraft. 

To move from land to water, it requires you to remove the seatbelts, switch a lock type device to seal the doors from water, insert a bilge plug to make the vehicle seaworthy, and shift the floor board levers to engage the propeller. The throttle is the gas pedal and the tires act as the rudders.  The vehicle pretty much drives as a car in the water.  

About 150 Big Boy Toys are expected to be on display in Lake Havasu City and there will be vendor booths featuring local business as well.  You can also see an Old Ford Cobra, a Phantom, a dragster, a world champion drag boat and a rock climbing buggy just to mention a few of the other 40 extreme machines. 

Come see these extreme machines for yourself on Saturday, January 29 from 10am to 5pm on McCulloch Blvd between Smoketree Ave and Acoma Blvd for FREE.

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The Lake Havasu City leadership program will be seeking funds at this weekend's Balloon Festival for the "Heart of Havasu Park".  The Havasu Leadership Development Class proposed a park project that can save the city as much as $15,000 a year on water costs.  The plan will replace 21,000 square feet of sod with a Xeriscape landscape. 

A Chamber of Commerce spokesperson says the park will be funded through donations, with the largest fundraiser being the Balloon Festival and Fair at the Beachfront Resort.  A co-project leader said that they will be selling t-shirts and taking orders for stepping stones.  You can get yours from the Chamber of Commerce booth this weekend. 

The entire project must be completed by May 31^st.  The purpose of the project is to reduce the cost of watering in the city.  It currently costs between $800 and $1500 per acre-foot to water.  Therefore, by removing the sod, it would reduce water usage by at least 70%. 

Having Xeriscape as landscaping will allow for minimal water usage and utilizes the use of native plants.  By living in the desert, we don't get to conserve water that much and this project will allow us to improve the look of the city and save money on water costs. 

The Chamber of Commerce is set to take bids from contractors for the project in the up and coming weeks.  They are also working with area artists and contractors for other designs.  We are all set to begin fundraising for the t-shirts and pathway stones and other donations.  To become a sponsor or to make a donation, you can contact the Chamber of Commerce at 855-4115. 

During this time of year, we can spend a lot of money on gifts, parties and much more.  Therefore, we find it hard to afford to let money fly right out the window.  If you want to save yourself some money on utility bills, start with your windows, making them more efficient.   

In winter months, you can lose 25% on your heating bill from drafty windows, even in areas of the nation like Lake Havasu City where winters are mild.  You can create an insulated air buffer between your home and the window surface.  Interior storm windows, plastic window insulation kits and insulating drapes are solutions and each one has their own pros and cons. 

Storm windows for the interior can be fitted to your windows and are effective for reducing air infiltration.  They have a fitted pane that clips into a frame.  Materials range from more expensive glass to polycarbonate plastic.  Interior storm windows have an advantage because they can be reused for several years.  Many homeowners favor interior storm windows over exterior varieties because they are easier to install and require less maintenance.  The U.S. Department of Energy says storm windows can reduce heat loss by 25% to 50%. 

Insulation kits are cheaper; however, they generally only last one season due to tears in the plastic and milky appearance created by the aging plastic. 

So which one is your best choice?  Homeowners that want the long term savings may want to consider upgrading to Energy Star windows.  You will have a substantial upfront cost, but these windows are the most efficient way to reduce your heat loss. 

Want to put more money in your wallet?  Whether you go big or small, keep the warm air inside your home this winter.

The American Community Survey has recently released their analysis of the first detailed portrait of the heartland in America.  In the last decade, rural counties lost more residents than the previous decade.  

The analysis covers roughly 1400 counties of fewer than 20,000 people.  The numbers show a growing number of Latino presence in these counties.  Data has been hard to come by previously from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountain region; these counties constitute half of the United States by area. 

The recently released data includes population, income, and social characteristics that previously have been averaged over the past five years.  Some of the data is difficult to interpret, especially the income figures, mainly because the five year period spans the pre-recession and the beginning of the recovery. 

But the data shows that a thick swath of the country, from north Texas to the Dakota, has lost population.  In the 1970s, rural population growth was due to city dwellers leaving struggling cities for a quieter pace of life.  

The American Community Survey is distinct from Census 2010, a 100% count of the population used for redistricting.  It will be released sometime around the beginning of 2011.

For more information on the latest real estate news, click here.

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