Abberly Village Apartment Homes

Living in an apartment in West Columbia SC, you have surely been to the State Museum. It is almost November, and that means it is almost time for the State Museum’s autumn tradition.

November 5, from 10 to 4 the Fall Heritage Festival & Pickin’ Party will be held.  With mouth-watering barbecue on the menu, some of the best of South Carolina’s musical and traditional folk art talent, guests will enjoy a day filled with fall activities for the whole family—plus a new evening event, Moonshine and Muscadines, highlighting more of South Carolina’s bountiful heritage.

Barbecued chicken is new on the menu this year as you taste different styles of South Carolina barbecue from award-winning barbecue masters at the annual Pig Pickin’.

Also, returning by popular demand are Bill Wells and the Blue Ridge Mountain Grass  to headline the day. Joining them is Angela Easterling, a local singer-songwriter who has been taking the world of roots music by storm.

There is plenty of entertainment with South Carolina traditional folk artists and crafters on the Museum grounds. Have fun shopping for pottery, paintings, jewelry, handmade soaps and more.

See you at the festival!

At our apartments in Columbia, SC the fall season is about to start. As you look around your apartment home, do you long to redecorate? Read on for low-cost suggestions to brighten your space.

Paint!  For under $100 you can dramatically change any room’s appearance with paint and a few basic supplies. Pulling a vibrant color from a room’s patterned upholstery or rug and putting it on the walls can have a dramatic effect.

Warm Up Your Space! Now is the time to think about what the floors will feel like on chilly mornings. Roll up or throw down a rug as the seasons change. A soft area rug could really pull all the colors together in a room, and reduce echoes from hardwoods and tile.
 
Add Fabrics!  Textiles can really brighten up a room.  Plain sofas can be livened up with patterned pillows. New place mats are a fabulous way to change the presentation of a meal. Pair a contrasting color or a pattern with plain plates. Dining room chairs or bar stools can be recovered for a whole new look.

Fill that Empty Wall! Use family photos and mismatched frames to fill a blank wall space in a family room or hallway. Lay them out on the floor and make a grid. Play with the design until it feels balanced and looks good. If you have trouble following the pattern, make paper bag cut-outs of the same pictures and tape them to the wall for the placement of the frames.

Replace the Towels! Take a look at your bathroom. Can it use a fresh  look? New towels and a bath mat in a bathroom can completely change its look.

Here’s hoping that these tips will inspire residents at Abberly Village to make some colorful changes in your apartment homes.

Rent is usually the biggest item in everyone’s budget. The average American renter spends about 35% of their gross income on rent and rent-related expenses. Fortunately, you don’t have to break the bank to keep a roof over your head in an apartment in West Columbia, SC. Here are some simple ways to save money when renting.

Have Roommates
A great way to save money on rent is to have a roommate. Find a couple roommates. Living with roommates is much cheaper than renting your own one bedroom apartment.

Inexpensive Decorating
Make your apartment feel like a home by decorating frugally. If you enjoy photography, take some pictures and use them as decorations around your apartment.

When you start the process of furnishing your apartment, reach out to family and friends who may be trying to get rid of their unwanted furniture. There is no reason to buy new furniture for your place when you can save money by taking advantage of other people’s unwanted treasures.

Share the Grocery Bill with Your Roommate
Invest in a membership to Sam’s Club or Costco, set up shopping days with your roommates, and buy in bulk and split the bill. Also, switch off cooking dinner every night. Cooking for two is less expensive than making one meal at a time.

Watch Your Utilities
Utilities can add up quickly and be a total budget drainer. When leaving a room, turn off the lights. Don’t leave the water running when you are brushing your teeth. Invest in energy efficient lighting. By making small changes to your utility usage, you can save big time.

Take Advantage of Apartment Facilities
Abberly Village has a beautiful gym onsite so use it and cancel your monthly gym membership! There is no need to spend money on outside facilities when you can use onsite apartment ammenities included in your rent.

Original article – US News Money

Grab your family and friends and head to the Sandhill Fall Festival at Clemson University. Visitors will enjoy a family focused event celebrating the autumn season.  Bring the whole family and enjoy the fall fun!

The 2nd Annual Sandhill Fall Festival will be held October 1 - October 29, 2011.  Along with the popular carnival rides, hayrides, corn maze, petting zoos and haunted forest, this year's festival will include School Days at the Festival, so teachers bring your classes!

Are you looking for ways to decorate your apartment in Columbia, SC for the fall? Come to the Sandhill Fall Festival where mums, pumpkins, gourds, hay and corn stalks for Fall and Halloween decorating will be available for purchase.

One ticket gets you all this fun: Hay Rides, Pumpkin Patch, Corn Maze, and the Haunted Forest.  Bring the whole family and enjoy the fall fun in Columbia, SC.

If you live in an apartment in W. Columbia you know there are plenty of  festivals. The Greater Columbia Area is known for hosting some of the best festivals, fairs and events in the state. There are quite a few local events coming up, and they will liven up the weekends for plenty.

Congaree Bluegrass Festival — Saturday, Oct. 1

Look to the other side of the Congaree River to Cayce, where the community holds its annual Bluegrass Festival each year. Kicking off at 11 a.m., the outdoor festival lasts all day with plenty of down-home  jams to keep the night rocking. But best of all, it’s completely free. This festival will have several family-oriented activities and a special area designed just for kids. But the highlight is the bluegrass, featuring an excellent lineup of bands from throughout the area. This year you’ll see the Carolina Rebels, New Dixie Storm and Steep Canyon Rangers as well as a live performance by the Capital City Cloggers.

South Carolina State Fair — Oct. 12 – Oct. 23

When you get to the State Fair try a deep-fried Snickers or a donut hamburger. Every year, the fair draws in thousands of local and out-of-state visitors to hundreds of vendors offering fresh lemonade and funnel cakes to chicken wings and candy apples. When you are not eating, there are games and classic fair rides to keep everyone occupied. This year’s fair also hosts an impressive lineup of musicians, including G. Love and Special Sauce, the Roots and country crooner Trace Adkins. Fair admission is $1 on opening day and $10 for adult admission the rest of the week.

Here is a fun filled family event for all of you who live in an apartment in Columbia, SC. Get ready for some championship chili! Kick off the fall this weekend.

Bring the family to Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park at River Bottom Farms for a day full of Family Fun at our Fall Craft Fair & Chili Cook - Off!

There will be a huge variety of crafts and vendors, inflatables for the kids, a dunk tank, and some of the best chili around! Join the fun, open to the public from 10am-5pm Saturday, September 24th. This is a great way to spend a weekend in Columbia, South Carolina.

Proceeds will be donated to the South Carolina Autism Society.

You have just moved into your new apartment. It could be your first home or your last, either way you want it to be comfortable and attractive. In decorating your apartment in West Columbia, SC, hanging pictures and artwork is often the most challenging. Abberly Village has some helpful hints for you.

A good guideline to keep in mind is that artwork should be hung so that the center point of the picture is approximately at eye level for a person of average height.

When you are hanging a grouping of pictures, treat them as one unit. Lay a piece of paper out on a large table or on the floor. Lay all the pictures on that until you get a design you like. Use it as a template, by putting that on the wall.

The size of the picture or artwork should compliment the size of the wall. Choose smaller pictures for narrow walls and larger ones for larger walls.
 
When you hang art over a piece of furniture, like a couch or table, be sure it is not longer than the furniture.
 

You may have been in your apartment in Columbia, SC, with friends and family, or out for a walk, but regardless of where you were or what you were doing, that day 10 years ago will always be remembered.

This coming Sunday is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Columbia, South Carolina is holding two memorial events to remember the fallen from that day and to honor all first responders.

First Responders Remembrance Memorial Unveiling Ceremony
The official First Responders Remembrance Memorial unveiling ceremony is planned for Sunday at 3:00 pm at Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center to honor the American heroes who lost their lives.

The memorial will include a pair of 25 foot granite towers and two steel beams which will be crossed, showing how the country united after the attacks on the United States on 9/11/01. The memorial will include the names of all of the victims of the attack on New York City, both citizens and first responders, who gave their lives in New York that day, along with the names of all the South Carolina Midlands first responders, including the military, who have given their lives since that morning in 2001.

Attendees are encouraged to enjoy the many shops and restaurants in the area before the Midlands' 9/11 Remembrance Concert begins just a few blocks away at Finlay park.

Midlands' 9/11 Remembrance Concert
The South Carolina Philharmonic takes to the stage in Finlay Park on Sunday at 7:00 pm for the Midlands' 9/11 Remembrance Concert. The concert is free and will remember the fallen from that day and honor the first responders who keep Midlands communities safe today. The SC Philharmonic will play pieces for reflection as well as patriotic favorites.

If you are relocating to or moving within South Carolina, consider renting an apartment in West Columbia, SC. There are many economists out there that believe renting might be better than buying.

Here are some reasons for renting. Businesses are great investments while houses are poor ones, so I'd rather rent the latter and own the former.

Stocks versus houses: Returns

Shares of businesses return 7% a year over long periods. That’s subtracting for inflation, gradual price increases for everything from a can of beer to an ear exam. (After-inflation, or "real," returns are the only ones that matter. The point of increasing wealth is to increase buying power, not numbers on an account statement.)

Shares have been remarkably consistent over the past two centuries in their 7% real returns. In Jeremy Siegel's book "Stocks for the Long Run," he finds that real returns averaged 7% over nearly seven decades ending in 1870, then 6.6% through 1925 and then 6.9% through 2004.

The average real return for houses over long periods might surprise you: It's zero.

Shares return 7% a year after inflation because that's how fast companies tend to increase their profits. Houses have their own version of profits: rents. Tenant-occupied houses generate actual rents, while owner-occupied houses generate ones that are implied but no less real: the rents their owners don't have to pay each year.

House prices and rents have been closely linked throughout history, with both increasing at the rate of inflation, or about 3% a year since 1900. A house, after all, is an ordinary good. It can't think up ways to drive profits like a company's managers can. Absent artificial boosts to demand, house prices will increase over long periods at the rate of inflation, for a real return of zero.

For house returns over the next 20 years to match those over the past 20, the government and private lenders would have to "up the ante" by relaxing borrowing standards further. Given the recent attention paid to swelling foreclosures, that seems unlikely. Real returns will probably turn negative over most of the next two decades.

Original article by smart money on MSN

If you live in a home or apartment in West Columbia, South Carolina, here's a great hurricane awareness check list  to look at.

Secure Your Home

• Put freestanding objects inside
• Plan for your pets. Make sure you have pet food, collar and leash and crates, if necessary
• Designate a safe room with no widows or exterior walls.

Plan for Your Personal Safety and Security

• Keep emergency phone numbers by the phone; include out-of-state contacts for family members.
• Assemble an emergency preparedness kit (enough supplies for three to five days) with bottled water (one gallon per person per day), battery-operated radio or TV with extra batteries, first aid kit, flashlight and packaged snacks. Remember to include baby supplies and food, manual can opener, hand sanitizer or wipes, and extra house and car keys.
• Gather all necessary prescriptions and medical supplies to take at a moment's notice.
• Place all important documents -- including your insurance policies -- in a waterproof bag to take with you. Include documents like wills, deeds, birth and tax records, and marriage certificate, proof of residence, home photos, and driver's license and vehicle registration. Include house and car keys
• Take cash and change
• Listen to media broadcasts, especially paying attention to any calls for evacuation
• Call 311 (Emergency Evacuation Assistance) if a family member needs special care.

Check Your Insurance Coverage

• Flood and windstorm insurance are not automatically covered by renters insurance.
• Take photos of your home before the storm.
• Take camera to take photos of damage.