 |
No mention of Las Vegas in this article from about the fasted growing cities. I suppose that means we bleed a good number of residents, negating the 6K-8K hopefuls who move here each month. The article was published last October but I doubt growth has changed much since then.
Adding hardwood flooring to your home is a great idea especially here in Las Vegas. Wood floors are cool on the feet and they increase your property value. Buying hardwood floors in Las Vegas is much like buying it anywhere else in the country. You can choose between corporate establishments such as HomeDepot or Lowes or visit a retailer who specializes in flooring (they sometimes sell carpet and tiling, too). We visited quite a few places to compare prices and to see a good selection of styles and colors.
Ultimately, we purchased from Harwood Floors Outlet. The owner, John Dorsey, had been an installer of hardwood floors for over 20 years before getting into the retail business. He is very knowledgeable about manufacturers and their product offerings and full of information about the pros and cons of various installation methods. He has a program called “Tech Services” where for a very reasonable fee, he will actually come to your home for 1-2 hours of installation training. I highly recommend this demo for anyone installing for the first time.
Hardwood Floors Outlet
7485 Dean Martin Drive, #101
Las Vegas, NV 89139
(702) 567-9663
The store is located in southwest LV, off Dean Martin Drive (behind Safari Furniture and the Zappos Outlet).
Today was my birthday (happy birthday me!) so we celebrated by visiting the Wynn Buffet for dinner. Our favorite buffet on the strip has always been Bellagio’s but we wanted to try something new.
Overall, I’d say that Wynn’s buffet did not disappoint but it did not wow me either. The food was high quality and the venue itself was whimsically beautiful. But there was nothing that really stood out about it and it seems like more of an afterthought than a focal point. I suppose the folks at Wynn prefer to focus their energies on the several worldclass eateries on the premises and see the buffet as a necessary evil. This is Las Vegas after all.
Perhaps it’s fitting that Bellagio calls their buffet, The Buffet. It really is THE buffet to eat at while you’re on the strip. They offer prime rib, lamb and snow crab legs (all of the required “high-end” buffet items). And you can try something more exotic like buffalo.
While we were waddling out of the Wynn buffet I had remarked that “Bellagio’s was better.” However, as I sit here hours later, still full and slightly in pain, I realize that the two buffets are not much different. So why did Bellagio’s “seem better”? Maybe it’s because dinner on the weekend can cost you $34. The $25 we paid at the Wynn seemed like a bargain. Also, it was not crowded at all at the Wynn. We walked right in a were seated immediately even though we arrived at 6:30ish. The lines at Bellagio can be really long which adds to one’s anticipation I suppose.
Next up on our buffet hitlist: The Seafood Buffet at The Rio.
Buying a home means having to pick out new furniture, a lot of it for some of the more sizable homes in Las Vegas. As newbies in town we had no idea where to go. A call to our trusty real estate agent yielded two recommendations. We added these to some places we have seen nearby and made a weekend of it. Along for the ride was a good friend from the Bay Area who studied interior design.
Here are some areas you can visit when shopping for furniture in Las Vegas:
Dean Martin Drive just off Blue Diamond
You can see a bunch of large furniture places along the side of Interstate 15. There are a few stores carrying modern pieces, a few upscale but traditional showrooms and a great place for outdoor furniture and accent pieces, Sedona Style (think rustic and charming). We loved the look of their tables and pottery and will be back when our deck is completed.
Rainbow Boulevard
There are tons of furniture stores along Rainbow, near Charleston. We spent the better part of Saturday and most of Sunday stopping every block or so at over a dozen places. There’s an Ethan Allen and Bassett on Sahara and many smaller stores to choose from. Two stores we bought from were nondescript places called World Class Furniture (just north of Spring Mountain) and Rainbow Furniture (just south of Charleston). The pushy salesperson at Too Good Furniture alienated us despite its unbeatable prices. JCPenny Home is also on Rainbow and they have an extensive selection of draperies that always seem to be on sale.
Spring Mountain Boulevard near Chinatown
If you are looking for some Asian-accent furniture or want to haggle to get low prices on other pieces, Jubilee and Hotai on Spring Mountain are worth a visit. The Macy’s Home store is also in the area and they have lots to choose from. They carry a good selection of linens and bath towels too. No drapery though.
Boca Park
We soon discovered that Boca Park is really the shopping mecca of Summerlin. This is a huge shopping center that will make you dizzy as you drive through the parking lot. You’ll find Potterybarn, Pier One Imports and a few upscale furniture stores. Pier One had an especially terrific selection and we loaded up our trusty little Honda Civic to its maximum capacity. For other household needs there’s Linens-N-Things and Target Greatland. Right around the corner from Linens-N-Things are a few very expensive designer furniture galleries.
We aren’t the only ones who think buying a house in California is not worth it. Both of the cities we considered buying a house in, San Francisco and Los Angeles, made Forbes’ list of America’s Most Overpriced Real Estate Markets. Actually, half of the cities listed are in California so we did well to leave the state.
Today is the big day. It’s Cinco de Mayo, Oscar de la Hoya takes on Floyd Mayweather and it’s MOVING DAY! That’s right, after many gut-wrenching and stressful delays we are finally leaving Los Angeles and moving to Las Vegas.
We have a few dependable friends coming to help us load the moving truck at 8AM. We opted for a Budget Truck Rental instead of a U-Haul given the long drive and horror stories we heard about U-Haul’s shoddy equipment and vehicle breakdowns. A one-way move from Los Angeles to Las Vegas will cost us under $350. Very reasonable compared to the cost of hiring a moving company.
Hopefully we can get everything loaded onto the truck quickly and get on the road. We’ve been warned of heavier-than-usual weekend traffic going to Las Vegas for the fight.
Many speculators are feeling the heat in Nevada and it isn’t even July yet. Great article on Yahoo today about the plight of real estate investors in Clark County where supply is up 30% from a year ago, pushing sales and values of existing single-family homes down 38%. Flippers who last year rushed to put deposits on pre-construction homes are having to spend additional cash to pay off mortgages. Sadly, 1 in 30 homes went into foreclosure in 2006. Read the article for examples of risky investment decisions and their consequences.
We definitely saw the change in the market when we were house-hunting. Of the 30-35 homes we visited, only a half dozen were occupied. It was common for us to view 2-3 homes in the same neighborhood, each just a few doors down from the others.
It never feels good to profit from other people’s mistakes but last year’s rampant speculation has created a strong buyer’s market. If you are looking to move to LV (8,000 new residents join the valley each month), houses are affordable and sellers are willing to negotiate. Now is a great time to buy real estate in Las Vegas.
