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Home front

Briefs and news of note

By JUDY STARK
Published April 16, 2005

Hurricane help

All too soon it will be hurricane season 2005. Now's the time to get yourself, your family and your home ready. Coming Sunday: a 28-page special section, Safe at Home, packed with the lessons learned in 2004 and lots of advice, tips and suggestions on things to do now, before the hurricane warnings go up.

The May issue of Consumer Reports carries a special report on buying, selling and financing your home. It's a good basic primer on the buying and selling process. There are cautionary tales about the perils of tapping your home equity and about becoming an investor in the overheated home market, and an explanation of various mortgage types.

The Florida Orchestra Guild's designer show house continues through May 1, and today the residents of St. Petersburg's Old Southeast Neighborhood Association open their doors for tours.

Antiques Roadshow returns to the Tampa Convention Center on June 25. The deadline has passed to have your treasures considered for evaluation by the experts, but you have another week to apply for tickets. Send a postcard, postmarked no later than April 23, to Tampa Roadshow, Box 249, Canton, MA 02021. Include name, street address, city, state and ZIP code, and a preferred entry time morning or afternoon, which the show will try to honor but can't promise. Two tickets per household. Or you can apply online at www.pbs.org/antiques until May 6. Recipients are selected at random; a maximum of 6,800 tickets are given out.

- Compiled by Homes editor JUDY STARK

[Last modified April 15, 2005, 10:30:06]