Welcome Home - Past Editions

Enjoy pictoral display featuring the pride and joy of our buyers, their homes!  Each month, new pictures will appear, with gardens, home improvement projects or good old "show off" pictures of our buyers' homes. 

We were very fortunate to work with Susan Hofflander when we decided to purchase our first home in Robbinsdale, Minnesota.  Knowing that this would be one of the most important financial commitments that we make, we chose to work with a buyer’s agent.  During our interview Susan was able to allay our fears and assure us that she would work with us to find the perfect solution for us. Susan proved to be true to her word, and was patient, knowledgeable, and professional throughout our search.  Susan is also a great communicator, and we always felt that we were fully informed of the options available in our price range.

Photo 1

Photo 2

We purchased a 1948 home which had been partially updated.  The upstairs bathroom needed a new floor, and we were able to incorporate our longstanding fascination with Penrose patterns into our new home.  The tiles (two different rhombuses) that comprise this pattern are not readily available commercially, so we invested in a wet saw, and spent some time selecting the perfect stone for our project. 

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Photo 4

We decided to go with white travertine (limestone) for the fat rhombuses and black travertine for the skinny rhombuses.  All of the pieces were individually hand cut using the wet saw.   Photo (01) shows the cutting of white strips, initially cut from 1’ x 2’ tiles, into rhombuses, shown in photo (02).    

The as-cut pieces had sharp edges, so we employed two sons of friends of ours to sand the edges.  Travertine is a soft stone, so a couple of times with sandpaper on the edges were good enough.  Next, the pieces had to be washed since they were covered with rock dust from the saw and grit from the sanding (03).

Since the pattern is not periodic (there is no one unit that repeats over and over again), we decided the best way to lay it out would be face down over a life-size printout of the pattern.  We found some freeware online that generates the Penrose tile pattern, created the pattern we wanted, and took an inverted version to Kinko's for printing.  These printouts were laid out on our master bedroom (hardwood) floor.  We put the pieces (rhombuses) upside-down onto the printout in order to glue a mesh to their back sides (04).  Once flipped, the pattern would fit our bathroom floor.

The floor was installed by the tile contactors, and they did a wonderful job.  Photo (05) shows the installed condition, and photo (06) gives a close up after grouting.

We used a very dark grey grout--black was too intense, and white hid the lines between adjacent white pieces.  Photo (07) shows the final bathroom, and we are very pleased!

Leonie and Richard

Photo 7

Happy Holidays for Women of Nations

Buyers Real Estate Group has been devoted to a few philanthropic endeavors over the years.  Most recently, we prepared holiday gift bags for the residents of Women of Nations, an emergency shelter for abused women and children in St. Paul, MN.  At the party, hosted by Renei Schmitz, Broker and owner of Buyers Real Estate Group, attendees contributed contents for the "goodie" bags.  Mary Rugani, the other owner of Buyers Real Estate Group, arranged all of the contents on tables.  All the items were wrapped and put in the festive bags.  Mary Rugani and Renei Schmitz will be presenting the gifts to the women on Christmas Eve.  Thanks to Renei, we all enjoyed a wonderful pasta dinner and cheesecake for dessert!  If you would like to contribute to Women of Nations, contact them via their website:  www.women-of-nations.org. 

Happy Holidays!!

August 2007

We will be forever thankful to Mary Rugani of Buyer's Real Estate Group for making our first home buying experience a dream come true.  Mary supported us throughout each step in the purchasing process with unparalleled professionalism and clear dedication to our specific needs.  Our consumer confidence was bolstered by the education that only a veteran realtor can provide as we visited potential properties and learned volumes about previously unfamiliar vintage construction techniques.

When we found our new home, Mary and the rest of the team at Buyer's Real Estate Group took care of everything.  Mary phoned and hustled all over the Twin Cities to find the seller's realtor, and we were able to head to Target to do some shopping where she tracked us down and gave us the news...our dream home was ours. What could have been a process filled with trepidation for inexperienced buyers like ourselves, was instead one marked with confidence, self-assurance and ultimately success.

Kathy and Jennifer

July 2007

Tim and Marta recently bought this family home in the Macalester Groveland neighborhood of St Paul.  "With two small boys, ages one and three, our family was quickly outgrowing our Cathedral Hill condo. We'd had our eyes on a beautiful Tudor home in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul for some time, and when we saw online that the price had been reduced to within our range we called Mary immediately. She contacted the seller's agent and got us in for a showing that afternoon. We drew up our purchase offer on the spot, and Mary advised us on everything from the list of needed repairs to the addendum ensuring that the vintage light fixtures were included with the home. Mary advocated for us throughout the process, providing practical advice, a home inspector referral, and the calming reassurance that everything would work out fine."

February 2007

Bill and Christine bought this house in Plymouth.  Thanks to the agents at Buyers Real Estate Group, they got a great house at a great price, including 1/3 acre, perennial gardens, stone patio, custom decor.  They couldn't be happier in their new home!