The Movers.com Blog

Is it just me, or do these Hollywood celebrities jump between multimillion dollar estates like they’re playing mansion hopscotch? I mean seriously, it’s like a neverending cycle. Get a new boyfriend, buy a new house, break up, buy a new house, get married, buy a new house, get divorced, sell your old house and then buy a new house. They trade property like we used to trade POGs in third grade.

Well, it turns out that Jennifer Aniston is on the move yet again. In August, she rented a Beverly Hills home with boyfriend Justin Theroux, then in November she reportedly bought not one, but two New York City penthouse apartments and this time it’s a modern Bel-Air mansion that Jen has purchased for a mere $21 million. Despite the preposterous price, it’s actually a whole $8 million below the original asking price when it first hit the market back in 2008.

The home is an 8,500-square-foot, four-bedroom mansion that sits on three acres of land in Bel-Air and features sweeping views of the city to one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other, and also boasts a pool, a wine cellar, a guesthouse and its very own vineyard. There is no word yet on whether Jen plans to start bottling her own wine collection, but at this point I think anything is possible.

This week’s Tech Review features an app that will almost certainly save you a lot of time when you’re planning your moving budget. One of the biggest hurdles you have to get over when trying to work out a moving budget is figuring out what the approximate cost of your move will be. Before you even begin the process of looking for moving companies and getting in-person estimates that will give you a figure to work with, you have to come up with a ballpark estimate yourself if you want an accurate budget assessment.

Luckily, with the MoveMatch app, you can input all of your items that you plan on moving and let the app do all of the work for you. What the app does is provide you with an estimate of approximately how much your move will cost you based on the items that you provide it and the volume that these items will take up in a moving truck or van. Although the app provides its estimate in cubic meters, you can choose to switch it to cubic feet if you are unfamiliar with the metric system.

While the app won’t give you an exact cost (that number can obviously only be determined by the type of moving company and services that you ultimately decide on), it will calculate an estimate that will allow you to more precisely figure out what your moving budget should be.

In addition to helping you figure out how much your move will cost you, the app also provides you with a bunch of cool moving tips to help you save money, and also a few handy moving checklists for you to use throughout the moving process. Unfortunately, if you have an Apple device you are out of luck, as the app is currently only available in the Android market.

It’s common knowledge that when you are moving and preparing to sell your house, that remodeling jobs will help to substantially raise the value of your home once it hits the market. Exterior remodeling jobs and kitchen remodeling jobs are typically the most expensive projects that people undertake when they are looking to spice up the appearance of an older home, however one room that many people overlook is the bathroom.

Despite usually being the smallest rooms in the house, the appearance of your bathrooms are very important to potential buyers and a good bathroom remodeling job can really bump up the value of your home almost as much as a good kitchen remodeling. The best part about this is that you can greatly improve the appearance of your bathrooms for a fraction of the cost that it would take to remodel a larger room, like the kitchen.

Often, bathrooms are subject to some of the most frequent usage of any of the rooms in your house, and things like leaky sinks and cracked shower tiles can be easily and inexpensively repaired. While you might have to spend thousands of dollars to upgrade an older kitchen with new and flashy appliances and granite countertops, you won’t have to put that much money into a simple bathroom remodeling project to achieve a similar effect.

For example, a thorough paint job in a soft and neutral color can easily project a feeling of freshness to potential buyers. Also, simple home decor tips and a little decorating flair can add a lot to a bathroom in a very inexpensive way. Things like replacing your shower curtain, buying a new mirror and towel rack or even installing glass doors on your shower can really change the look and feel of your bathroom.

So when you are getting ready to move and you are putting your house on the market, don’t worry about spending thousands of dollars to upgrade and remodel your bathrooms. If you keep it simple, you can up the value of your home without having to break the bank.