Family Travel Five: Make Your Vacation Picture-Perfect

(MCT)—Smile: It’s a family photo. Here are ideas for adding photographic interest to your vacation and some contact info for finding destinations.

1. People pictures. Including people in your shot adds tremendous interest. Encourage family members to be the focal point of landscape images, providing context and great memories. Capture the faces of those who live in the places you visit to add human interest to monuments, scenes or cityscapes.

2. Capture color. Markets, festivals and parades often provide an array of colorful subjects and unique experiences that will help tell the story of your family adventure. At the market, for example, be on the lookout for brightly colored vegetables, fruits, meat or fish unlike those in your local grocery store. Stoke your children’s natural curiosity by asking the vendor to explain the origin of items.

3. Give animal photos a shot. Whether at the zoo, in the countryside, on safari or within a national park, snapping photos of critters can be an enriching experience. Will you get the shot when the lion roars, the giraffe reaches upward or the monkey swings from the branch? Remember that animals in the wild are just that: wild. Keep a proper distance.

4. Get in on the action. It’s fun to capture the movement and the exhilaration of the adventure — whether it’s wild rides at the theme park, bike or running races or rafts in the rapids.

You don’t need a fancy camera to create fun shots that tell the story. Try clicking the shutter while moving your body at the same pace as the action you want to record.

Compare notes and consider experimentation part of the family experience.

5. Use your camera to take notes. Snap a photo of your parking space, your hotel address and room number, restaurants that make your favorite list and the designated family meeting spot.

When you are visiting a new environment or feel like you’re dragging after a full day of traveling, it can be difficult to remember life’s more mundane details.

Lynn O’Rourke Hayes is the editor of FamilyTravel.com.

©2014 The Dallas Morning News

Distributed by MCT Information Services

The Most Popular Features to Improve the Performance of Your Home

According to a new National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Remodelers survey, high-performing, Low-emissive (Low-E) windows are the most common green building products used by residential remodelers. To kick off National Home Remodeling Month in May, NAHB released the survey results, which highlight the most common building features that home owners are using to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

“The improved availability and affordability of high-performing building products means energy-efficient features are being incorporated into more home improvement projects,” says NAHB Remodelers Chair Paul Sullivan, CAPS, CGR, CGP, of Waterville Valley, N.H. “Remodeling can not only improve the overall layout and features of a home, but depending on the upgrades you choose, you can also save money on utilities, improve indoor air quality and strengthen the long-term value of your home.”

The most popular green building features in the survey of residential remodelers in the first quarter of 2014 are:

• High performance windows including Low-E and Argon gas windows
• High efficiency HVAC systems • Programmable thermostats
• ENERGY STAR appliances

Other popular features include ceiling fans, moisture control products such as bathroom fans, water conserving fixtures and high performance insulation.

The usage of technology to improve a home’s performance has increased dramatically during recent years. Seventy percent of remodelers says they used programmable thermostats, an increase from 42 percent in 2011. Sixty-two percent of remodelers used ceiling fans in their remodels, compared to 37 percent in 2011.

Over the next five years, the percentage of remodelers who expect to be doing more than 60 percent of their projects green will double, according to the McGraw Hill Construction green building study in conjunction with NAHB.

“The lower operating and maintenance costs of energy-efficient homes are a compelling reason for more home owners to incorporate green features in their remodeling designs,” says Sullivan. “A professional remodeler can help maximize the benefits of including these features in a remodel. The survey results provide useful examples of ways to increase a home’s efficiency, decrease costs and take advantage of the other benefits that high performance green homes offer.”

For more information, visit www.nahb.org/remodel.

Housing Affordability Edges Higher in First Quarter

Slightly lower median home prices along with steady mortgage rates contributed to higher housing affordability in the first quarter, according to the recently released National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI). In all, 65.5 percent of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of January and end of March were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $63,900. This is slightly higher from the 64.7 percent of homes sold that were affordable to median-income earners in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, the national median home price dipped from $205,000 in the fourth quarter to $195,000 in the first quarter while average mortgage interest rates were virtually unchanged, moving from 4.54 percent to 4.57 percent in the same period.

“Housing affordability remains strong and this is an encouraging sign as the spring home building season moves into high gear,” says NAHB Chairman Kevin Kelly, a home builder and developer from Wilmington, Del.

“As home prices and mortgage interest rates are unlikely to go down, the first quarter HOI is another indicator that this is an opportune time to buy,” says NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.

Syracuse, N.Y., was the nation's most affordable major housing market, as 93.7 percent of all new and existing homes sold in this year's first quarter were affordable to families earning the area's median income of $67,700. Meanwhile, Cumberland, Md.-W.Va., claimed the title of most affordable smaller market, with 96.3 percent of homes sold in the first quarter being affordable to those earning the median income of $54,100.

Other major U.S. housing markets at the top of the affordability chart in the first quarter included Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y.; Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa.; Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa.; and Dayton, Ohio; in descending order.

Smaller markets joining Cumberland at the top of the affordability chart included Springfield, Ohio; Kokomo, Ind.; Mansfield, Ohio; and Lima, Ohio.

For a sixth consecutive quarter, San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif., held the lowest spot among major markets on the affordability chart. There, just 13.3 percent of homes sold in the first quarter were affordable to families earning the area's median income of $100,400.

Other major metros at the bottom of the affordability chart included Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif.; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif.; New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J.; and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.; in descending order.

All of the five least affordable small housing markets were in California. At the very bottom of the affordability chart was Santa Cruz-Watsonville, where 21.1 percent of all new and existing homes sold were affordable to families earning the area's median income of $77,900. Other small markets at the lowest end of the affordability scale included Napa, Salinas, San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, and Santa Rosa-Petaluma, respectively.

For more information, visit www.nahb.org/hoi

Written by RISMedia