Daniela Realty

       Hi, everybody! Tax questions come up often as the tax season started. In my opinion, in order to get the most relevant information is to go on the IRS website, the only online source you should trust for US tax advice.  I would also emphasize that i f the publications and documents from the people who write the tax rules don't give you a clear answer, it is time to talk to an accountant.                Taxes on the sale of a home , don't forget to check out the link to Publication 523, and the additional information if you're doing an installment sale.          Gift taxes .  You may also find additional information in  Publication 559  or some of the other forms and publications offered on our  Forms Page . Included in this area are the instructions to Forms 706 and 709. Within these instructions, you will find the tax rate schedules to the related returns.   ...

    Cob, a mixture of clay, sand and straw, is a sculptural building material that has been used to create beautiful natural homes. Part III. 1.A tiny cob home in Romania This is one of the cob homes built by architect and natural builder Ileana Mavrodin of  Casa Verde  in Banat, Romania. She, with a few others, are using natural materials in Romania to help people rediscover their local skills and community spirit. You can see the steps in the construction of Ilena's  cob house  on her website from the rubble trench and dry  stone stem wall through to the roundwood door frame in the  cob  walls and round wood  green roof . 2.The Cob Waldorf School in Lago Puelo, Argentina There's an organisation of devoted women called  Kleiwerks  building homes like this cob school in Lago Puelo, Argentina. Their latest initiative is  WASI  teaching women to build natural homes and strong communities. 3.Cob House...

Cob is an earthen building material that is made of soil, aggregate, fiber, and water. It has been used for thousands of years to construct homes and buildings with. It has been used worldwide, but has only just started to pick up interest in the United States. About 30 percent of the world’s population lives in earthen homes. This is nothing new to the world, but cob is offering new advantages and opportunities to the developed world. Building with earth and other natural materials is becoming a solution to our world’s energy and consumption problems. Cob is dirt cheap, sustainable as a building material, and ecologically friendly. The advantages of cob houses are numerous: cheap, energy efficient, inexpensive, healthy, strong, fire proof.     Have you seen the most beautiful houses, yet? Meka’s cob cottage in Oregon   built over a four year period. Complete with hand-sculpted furniture, shelves and nooks built directly into the walls, arched windows, and ...

Hello, friends!       Remember last time I told you about my Christmas gift from Romania, a traditional carpet woven on looms? As mentioned previously, these type of carpets were to be found in the Romanian villages, in the cob houses of our beloved artisans.                 One of the oldest cob houses, that I was able to see, was a house built in 1730.  C ob was made by mixing the clay-based subsoil with sand, straw and water. Its 280 years durability is explained by having been built on a hill so the soil did not keep humidity and the cob did not get infiltrated by water .   Cob appears to be a very versatile building material, possible to form into virtually any shape . The clay, mixed with bigger chopped straw, was raised with forks by two men at the height of the wall, where a third one built it and stamped it with his feet. The walls were placed on a stone foundation or directly on the ground. Th...

My mother-in-law sent me as a Christmas gift, a carpet woven on looms. I am still admiring its beauty and mastery and I can picture it in the old Romanian cob houses. Cob is a natural construction material, very inexpensive and it has no chemicals in its composition. You did not need an architect to be able to build a cob house. In this type of hou ses you would find the most beautiful carpets, woven on looms and having different purposes. Could you imagine that in the 19th century, people were able to create perfect shapes and motifs on a carpet without the help of our beloved technology? The colors for the carpets were obtained naturally from trees' roots, flowers, leaves, dandelion, onion, nettle....The women in the villages knew how to combine colors and concentrations so that the carpets would not discolor not even in a hundred years. These people, without going to school for this purpose, were mastering the art craft  of carpets woven on looms and their design techniq...

      Christmas is the season of love, peace, joy and giving, and like those precious moments we have in life, this is one worth the wait. I just want to share with you a story(that I read a while ago) of parental love and how our little actions could have the greatest impact on the lives our children, friends, acquaintances. We can all be better, kinder, more loving, more helpful, more attentive to those around us. This could be the greatest gift that we are making to ourselves.      Wishing you the most wonderful Holidays, I invite to read this story: "On Christmas morning, we eagerly waited in the hallway until Dad told us everything was ready. We rushed into the living room and let the wrapping paper fly. We made weak attempts to wait and watch while other family members opened their presents, but as the time passed we lost our self-control. “Here’s another one for you,” said Mom as she handed me a package. I looked at it, confused. Having sp...