Aging is inevitable, and for many, it signals the beginning of a new chapter - one where you cross off bucket list items and live life to the fullest, on your own terms. However, for some women, aging is a horrible prospect, filled with chronic fatigue, irritability, and inability to perform in the bedroom. If you're concerned about life in middle age and beyond, we've got great news: there are easy, proven steps that you can take to help stop the negative effect of aging.
Global Life Rejuvenation was founded to give women a new lease on life - one that includes less body fat, fewer mood swings, and more energy as you age. If you're ready to look and feel younger, it's time to consider HRT (hormone replacement therapy), and growth hormone peptides. These therapies for men and women are effective, safe, and customized to fit your goals, so you can keep loving life as you get older.
HRT, and growth hormone peptide therapies bridge the gap between your old life and the more vibrant, happier version of you. With a simple click or call, you can be well on your way to a brighter future. After all, you deserve to be the one in charge of your wellness and health. Now, you have the tools to do so - backed by science and applied by our team of HRT experts with more than 13 years of experience.
As women age, their hormones begin to go through changes that affect their day-to-day lives. For women, hormone deficiency and imbalance usually occur during menopause and can cause chronic fatigue, hot flashes, and mood swings, among other issues. Hormone replacement therapy helps correct hormone imbalances in women, helping them feel more vibrant and virile as they age.
Often, HRT treatments give patients enhanced quality of life that they didn't think was possible - even in their 60's and beyond.
The benefits for women are numerous and are available today through Global Life Rejuvenation.
As women age, their bodies begin to go through significant changes that affect their quality of life. This change is called menopause and marks the end of a woman's menstrual cycle and reproduction ability. Though there is no specific age when this change occurs, the average age of menopause onset is 51 years old. However, according to doctors, menopause officially starts 12 months after a woman's final period. During the transition to menopause, women's estrogen and other hormones begin to deplete.
As that happens, many women experience severe symptoms. These symptoms include:
The symptoms of hormone deficiency can be concerning and scary for both women and their spouses. However, if you're getting older and notice some of these symptoms, there is reason to be hopeful. Hormone replacement therapy and anti-aging medicine for women can correct imbalances that happen during menopause. These safe, effective treatments leave you feeling younger, healthier, and more vibrant.
The most common reason for menopause is the natural decline in a female's reproductive hormones. However, menopause can also result from the following situations:
Oophorectomy: This surgery, which removes a woman's ovaries, causes immediate menopause. Symptoms and signs of menopause in this situation can be severe, as the hormonal changes happen abruptly.
Chemotherapy: Cancer treatments like chemotherapy can induce menopause quickly, causing symptoms to appear shortly after or even during treatment.
Ovarian Insufficiency: Also called premature ovarian failure, this condition is essentially premature menopause. It happens when a woman's ovaries quit functioning before the age of 40 and can stem from genetic factors and disease. Only 1% of women suffer from premature menopause, but HRT can help protect the heart, brain, and bones.
For many women, menopause is a trying time that can be filled with many hormonal hurdles to jump through. A little knowledge can go a long way, whether you're going through menopause now or are approaching "that" age.
Here are some of the most common issues that women experience during menopause:
If you're a woman going through menopause and find that you have become increasingly depressed, you're not alone. It's estimated that 15% of women experience depression to some degree while going through menopause. What many women don't know is that depression can start during perimenopause, or the years leading up to menopause.
Depression can be hard to diagnose, especially during perimenopause and menopause. However, if you notice the following signs, it might be time to speak with a physician:
Remember, if you're experiencing depression, you're not weak or broken - you're going through a very regular emotional experience. The good news is that with proper treatment from your doctor, depression isn't a death sentence. And with HRT and anti-aging treatment for women, depression could be the catalyst you need to enjoy a new lease on life.
Hot flashes - they're one of the most well-known symptoms of menopause. Hot flashes are intense, sudden feelings of heat across a woman's upper body. Some last second, while others last minutes, making them incredibly inconvenient and uncomfortable for most women.
Symptoms of hot flashes include:
Typically, hot flashes are caused by a lack of estrogen. Low estrogen levels negatively affect a woman's hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls body temperature and appetite. Low estrogen levels cause the hypothalamus to incorrectly assume the body is too hot, dilating blood vessels to increase blood flow. Luckily, most women don't have to settle for the uncomfortable feelings that hot flashes cause. HRT treatments for women often stabilize hormones, lessening the effects of hot flashes and menopause in general.
Mood swings are common occurrences for most people - quick shifts from happy to angry and back again, triggered by a specific event. And while many people experience mood swings, they are particularly common for women going through menopause. That's because, during menopause, the female's hormones are often imbalanced. Hormone imbalances and mood swings go hand-in-hand, resulting in frequent mood changes and even symptoms like insomnia.
The rate of production of estrogen, a hormone that fluctuates during menopause, largely determines the rate of production the hormone serotonin, which regulates mood, causing mood swings.
Luckily, HRT and anti-aging treatments in Brass Castle, NJ for women work wonders for mood swings by regulating hormone levels like estrogen. With normal hormone levels, women around the world are now learning that they don't have to settle for mood swings during menopause.
Staying fit and healthy is hard for anyone living in modern America. However, for women with hormone imbalances during perimenopause or menopause, weight gain is even more serious. Luckily, HRT treatments for women coupled with a physician-led diet can help keep weight in check. But which hormones need to be regulated?
Lowered sexual desire - three words most men and women hate to hear. Unfortunately, for many women in perimenopausal and menopausal states, it's just a reality of life. Thankfully, today, HRT and anti-aging treatments Brass Castle, NJ can help women maintain a normal, healthy sex drive. But what causes low libido in women, especially as they get older?
The hormones responsible for low libido in women are progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone.
Progesterone production decreases during perimenopause, causing low sex drive in women. Lower progesterone production can also cause chronic fatigue, weight gain, and other symptoms. On the other hand, lower estrogen levels during menopause lead to vaginal dryness and even vaginal atrophy or loss of muscle tension.
Lastly, testosterone plays a role in lowered libido. And while testosterone is often grouped as a male hormone, it contributes to important health and regulatory functionality in women. A woman's testosterone serves to heighten sexual responses and enhances orgasms. When the ovaries are unable to produce sufficient levels of testosterone, it often results in a lowered sex drive.
Often uncomfortable and even painful, vaginal dryness is a serious problem for sexually active women. However, like hair loss in males, vaginal dryness is very common - almost 50% of women suffer from it during menopause.
Getting older is just a part of life, but that doesn't mean you have to settle for the side effects. HRT and anti-aging treatments for women correct vaginal dryness by re-balancing estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. When supplemented with diet and healthy living, your vagina's secretions are normalized, causing discomfort to recede.
Uterine fibroids - they're perhaps the least-known symptom of menopause and hormone imbalances in women. That's because these growths on the uterus are often symptom-free. Unfortunately, these growths can be cancerous, presenting a danger for women as they age.
Many women will have fibroids at some point. Because they're symptomless, they're usually found during routine doctor exams. Some women only get one or two, while others may have large clusters of fibroids. Because fibroids are usually caused by hormone imbalances, hysterectomies have been used as a solution, forcing women into early menopause.
Advances in HRT and anti-aging medicine for women give females a safer, non-surgical option without having to experience menopause early. At Global Life Rejuvenation, our expert physicians will implement a customized HRT program to stabilize your hormones and reduce the risk of cancerous fibroid growth.
Endometriosis symptoms are much like the effects of PMS, and include pelvic pain, fatigue, cramping, and bloating. While doctors aren't entirely sure what causes this painful, uncomfortable condition, most agree that hormones - particularly xenoestrogens - play a factor.
Endometriosis symptoms are much like the effects of PMS and include pelvic pain, fatigue, cramping, and bloating. While doctors aren't entirely sure what causes this painful, uncomfortable condition, most agree that hormones - particularly xenoestrogens - play a factor.
Xenoestrogen is a hormone that is very similar to estrogen. Too much xenoestrogen is thought to stimulate endometrial tissue growth. HRT for women helps balance these hormones and, when used with a custom nutrition program, can provide relief for women across the U.S.
Hormone stability is imperative for a healthy sex drive and for a normal, stress-free life during menopause. HRT and anti-aging treatments for women balance the hormones that your body has altered due to perimenopause or menopause.
HRT for women is a revolutionary step in helping women live their best lives, even as they grow older. However, at Global Life Rejuvenation, we know that no two patients are the same. That's why we specialize in holistic treatments that utilize HRT, combined with healthy nutrition, supplements, and fitness plans that maximize hormone replacement treatments.
If you've been suffering through menopause, is HRT the answer? That's hard to say without an examination by a trusted physician, but one thing's for sure. When a woman balances her hormone levels, she has a much better shot at living a regular life with limited depression, weight gain, mood swings, and hot flashes.
Here are just a few additional benefits of HRT and anti-aging treatments for females:
Hormone imbalance causes a litany of issues. But with anti-aging treatments for women, females can better process calcium, keep their cholesterol levels safe, and maintain a healthy vagina. By replenishing the body's estrogen supply, HRT can relieve symptoms from menopause and protect against osteoporosis. But that's just the start.
Global Life Rejuvenation's patients report many more benefits of HRT and anti-aging medicine for women:
If you're ready to feel better, look better, and recapture the vitality of your youth, it's time to contact Global Life Rejuvenation. It all starts with an in-depth consultation, where we will determine if HRT and anti-aging treatments for women are right for you. After all, every patient's body and hormone levels are different. Since all our treatment options are personalized, we do not have a single threshold for treatment. Instead, we look at our patient's hormone levels and analyze them on a case-by-case basis.
At Global Life Rejuvenation, we help women rediscover their youth with HRT treatment for women. We like to think of ourselves as an anti-aging concierge service, guiding and connecting our patients to the most qualified HRT physicians available. With customized HRT treatment plan for women, our patients experience fewer menopausal symptoms, less perimenopause & menopause depression, and often enjoy a more youth-like appearance.
Growth hormone peptides are an innovative therapy that boosts the natural human growth hormone production in a person's body. These exciting treatment options help slow down the aging process and give you a chance at restoring your youth.
At Global Life Rejuvenation, we offer two forms of growth hormone peptides: Sermorelin and Ipamorelin.
Sermorelin is a synthetic hormone peptide, like GHRH, which triggers the release of growth hormones. When used under the care of a qualified physician, Sermorelin can help you lose weight, increase your energy levels, and help you feel much younger.
Human growth hormone (HGH) therapy has been used for years to treat hormone deficiencies. Unlike HGH, which directly replaces declining human growth hormone levels, Sermorelin addresses the underlying cause of decreased HGH, stimulating the pituitary gland naturally. This approach keeps the mechanisms of growth hormone production active.
Ipamorelin helps to release growth hormones in a person's body by mimicking a peptide called ghrelin. Ghrelin is one of three hormones which work together to regulate the growth hormone levels released by the pituitary gland. Because Ipamorelin stimulates the body to produce growth hormone, your body won't stop its natural growth hormone production, which occurs with synthetic HGH.
Ipamorelin causes growth hormone secretion that resembles natural release patterns rather than being constantly elevated from HGH. Because ipamorelin stimulates the natural production of growth hormone, our patients can use this treatment long-term with fewer health risks.
One of the biggest benefits of Ipamorelin is that it provides significant short and long-term benefits in age management therapies. Ipamorelin can boost a patient's overall health, wellbeing, and outlook on life.
When growth hormone is produced by the pituitary gland using Ipamorelin, clients report amazing benefits. Some of those benefits include:
Whether you are considering our HRT and anti-aging treatments for women in Brass Castle, NJ, we are here to help. The first step to reclaiming your life begins by contacting Global Life Rejuvenation. Our friendly, knowledgeable HRT experts can help answer your questions and walk you through our procedures. From there, we'll figure out which treatments are right for you. Before you know it, you'll be well on your way to looking and feeling better than you have in years!
PHILLIPSBURG, NJ – We've all heard about phone calls, phishing emails, malicious posts on social media and the many ways scammers target people to buy gift cards, send cashAPP or foreign currency. In reality, these scams often fool people.In a news release issued today, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office is seeking to keep residents from being swi...
PHILLIPSBURG, NJ – We've all heard about phone calls, phishing emails, malicious posts on social media and the many ways scammers target people to buy gift cards, send cashAPP or foreign currency. In reality, these scams often fool people.
In a news release issued today, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office is seeking to keep residents from being swindled, by scheduled two Scam Prevention programs this month at local Senior centers.
The programs are scheduled for April 12 at 11 a.m. at Phillipsburg Area Senior Center, 310 Firth Street, Phillipsburg, and April 21 at 11 a.m. at the Washington Area Community Senior Center, 33 Brass Castle Road, Washington Township.
“There are many nefarious characters coming up with innovative ways to separate us from our money,” said Sheriff James McDonald, who will be conducting the programs with Investigator Rich McQuade of the Warren County Sheriff’s Office. “While we are all vulnerable to these scams, they often target our senior citizens,” McDonald added.
Warren County Commissioner James R. Kern III, liaison to the Sheriff's Office, noted the importance of these free programs, explaining, “Over the past few years, online scams, particularly those targeting seniors, continue to be on the rise. Warren County residents should take advantage of this program from our sheriff.”
Kern added, “While I am confident those committing these crimes against our residents will be brought to justice, prevention is the best form of defense.”
This program includes a power-point presentation and other information on how to avoid being victimized. “These programs are conducted several times a year throughout Warren County to whomever requests us,” McDonald said. “We work closely with the Warren County Division of Aging and Disability Services to schedule these events at our Senior Centers.”
According to McDonald, the program addresses:
“This program is educational both for our seniors and this office, as we sometimes learn of scams that we were unaware of,” the sheriff noted.
As an example, a thank you to CVS pharmacy in Phillipsburg recently was noted on the NextDoor APP. A woman was asked to purchase a large dollar amount of gift cards at CVS for a local church by her priest. Knowing the Gift Card Scam, the staff at CVS stopped the scam. It is not only important to protect yourself, but awareness will help your friends, neighbors and local businesses who are all at risk from these scams.
By Laura OltmanThe March 5 article regarding logging of Roaring Rock Park in Washington Township accurately portrayed some key points made during the special meeting on the logging plan held by the township committee. The forester who created the park logging plan spoke at length about it. A forest ecology professor from Drew University debated the alleged ecol...
By Laura Oltman
The March 5 article regarding logging of Roaring Rock Park in Washington Township accurately portrayed some key points made during the special meeting on the logging plan held by the township committee. The forester who created the park logging plan spoke at length about it. A forest ecology professor from Drew University debated the alleged ecological benefit of logging a forest. I am not an expert in biology or forestry and won’t speak to these topics, but I have read the forestry plan and I know what it says. In the public record of discussion about the park and in the forestry plan itself, the clearly stated goal of logging is to sell wood products. The forestry firm will earn 20% plus fees from the harvest and a logging company will be paid to carry out logging.
The most important topic concerning Roaring Rock Park is government turning over public trust resources of the park to private interests for financial gain without conducting a stakeholder process or otherwise notifying the public in advance of a plan to significantly damage the character and natural resources of this woodland park. The park was purchased with taxpayer dollars through the New Jersey Green Acres program. It belongs to every resident of New Jersey. Commercial logging in publicly owned parks is a perfect example of privatizing gains while socializing losses. As an expert taxpayer, I can say this is a raw deal.
Volunteers in Washington Township built a network of woodland hiking trails in the park. The Warren Highlands Trail, a 52-mile long spur of the long-distance Highlands Trail extending from New York to Pennsylvania, traverses Roaring Rock Park. Brass Castle Creek, which runs through the park, is designated by New Jersey Fish and Wildlife as a Wild Trout Stream due to its naturally reproducing brook trout population. Brook trout is the only native New Jersey trout species.
How much will people enjoy hiking on rutted logging roads while listening to chainsaws and trucks in the woods? Will it be safe for kids to be in the park when logging is going on? Will there be any native brook trout able to survive in Brass Castle Creek after it is silted from vehicles driving through it and erosion from logged hillsides pouring into it? What will happen to neighboring properties when stormwater is no longer absorbed by tree roots and cascades unimpeded down steep slopes onto their property?
The forestry plan describes these and other problems likely to require remediation but there is no specific plan or cost estimate for accomplishing it. There is no guarantee that reforestation would work because of deer browse and invasion of non-native plants. It is extremely difficult and expensive to battle deer browse and weeds, as any homeowner can tell you. The forest as it is now took 100 years or more to develop. Park users will not see this forest again in their lifetimes.
Who will fix things after logging? There is no “after”. Forestry is a long game. The current logging plan lasts 10 years, but the goal is creating an ideally stocked forest of the largest and most valuable trees for continual harvest.
This is not what New Jersey taxpayers wanted or paid for with Green Acres funding. It is wrong and needs to stop now.
Laura Oltman is a member of the New Jersey Highlands Coalition Natural Heritage Committee. She lives in Phillipsburg.
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Glass, brass, and class. A centerpiece of a fledgling empire. An absolute delight to developers.The Trump Plaza of the 1980s is a far cry from the nameless building of today, dismantled into a skeleton, awaiting the day it will soon be reduced to rubble.The Wednesday implosion of the casino, which comes nearly seven years after the last slot-machine levers were pulled, is the final destruction of former President Donald Trump’s mark on Atlantic City.Trump Plaza was the tenth casino to open in Atlantic City when it ...
Glass, brass, and class. A centerpiece of a fledgling empire. An absolute delight to developers.
The Trump Plaza of the 1980s is a far cry from the nameless building of today, dismantled into a skeleton, awaiting the day it will soon be reduced to rubble.
The Wednesday implosion of the casino, which comes nearly seven years after the last slot-machine levers were pulled, is the final destruction of former President Donald Trump’s mark on Atlantic City.
Trump Plaza was the tenth casino to open in Atlantic City when it welcomed gamblers in May of 1984, seven years after the legalization of gambling in 1977. Trump, then in the early stages of his real estate career, pinned the city’s success on his building, which was his first foray into casinos.
“A lot of people throughout the country are looking at this hotel and, to a large extent, this hotel will determine the future of Atlantic City,” Trump told the Star-Ledger in 1981 during the pre-approval process. “If it doesn’t get built, other hotels won’t get built.”
The architect, David Jacobson, said the Harrah’s Trump Plaza was his most lavish casino, and delighted in media descriptions calling it “glass, brass, and class,” a 1984 article in the Star-Ledger said.
The building stood at 39 stories, with 60,000 square feet of casino, and more than 600 hotel rooms. It was the largest gambling hall in the city at that point.
Its imposition on the city spilled onto the street: a section of the hotel that jutted out over Mississippi Avenue turned the street from “a dingy, colorless street overshadowed by Convention Hall into a brilliantly lighted all-weather pedestrian arcade,” news coverage at the time said.
The Plaza opened to a rocky start on May 14, 1984, with malfunctioning slot machines and two women injured when a faulty fire alarm caused a rush of gamblers trying to leave the building.
The relationship between the Trump Organization and Harrah’s soured quickly, and Trump bought them out for $29 million in cash about a year after the casino opened, financed by a bond agreement. Five years later — after also opening Trump Castle (later renamed Trump Marina) and Trump Taj Mahal — Trump ended up in bankruptcy court in 1991. It was the first of five times his casinos would face a financial restructuring, ultimately allowing the enterprise to remain under his control.
At its peak in 1996, Trump’s casino empire was a jobs generator in the city, employing as many as 6,100 workers at the Plaza alone.
“I made Atlantic City a really good place, and now it’s a place where people want to come and invest,” Trump told the Star Ledger in 1998.
But that sentiment wasn’t shared by all.
“The notion that he was somehow responsible for the success that Atlantic City had is not accurate,” state Sen. Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic), who was the city’s mayor in the 1990s, told NJ Advance Media during Trump’s first presidential run. “Nor is he responsible for the problems we now have.”
During the five bankruptcy proceedings, Trump allegedly bilked local contractors out of thousands of dollars as courts freed him from the debts.
“He had stiffed hundreds of local businesses and left them with financial claims that they would never recover,” Steven Perskie, a former state legislator who wrote the laws legalizing gambling, told NJ Advance Media in 2016. “He put the casinos through the bankruptcy proceedings and left town. And he left in a very different aura than he came.”
By the time the Plaza shuttered in 2014, Trump was only marginally involved. He resigned as chairman of the casino company during the 2009 bankruptcy proceedings, giving up his role in the company’s operations and retaining just a 10% stake.
Casino operations at the Trump Plaza ended at 6 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2014. It closed as the worst-performing casino in Atlantic City.
More than 1,100 workers lost their jobs as the Plaza became the fourth casino to shutter that year, following the Atlantic Club, Showboat, and Revel.
A month before the Plaza’s closing, Trump sued Trump Entertainment Resorts, a company that bore his name but which he was not involved in, to force the removal of his name from the building, citing its disrepair.
And then the casino sat there. For years, the building was vacant, passing ownership from Trump Entertainment Resorts to Icahn Enterprises in 2016.
The inside of the hotel was emptied during a 2017 auction. And then the building sat some more, despite work beginning on implosion plans that same year.
As nor’easters came up the coast, the building was battered by high winds, sending pieces of debris flying onto the Atlantic City boardwalk. Local officials bemoaned it as an eyesore.
Mayor Marty Small made it a goal of his administration to tear down the building during his first State of the City in January 2020.
“My administration’s goal is to tear Trump Plaza down,” Small said. “That’s not accepted in any other city but Atlantic City. It’s an embarrassment, it’s blight on our skyline, and that’s the biggest eyesore in town.”
The era will end on Wednesday when the once-great Trump Plaza comes crashing down, and what once was glass, brass, and class is reduced to rubble.
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I’ve never believed in UFOs, the Loch Ness monster, the Jersey Devil or the like. I always think it’s kind of fun when people do, though, because the stories of sightings are what I like to think of as “urban lore” and are often fun to read and really fun to tell your friends at campouts to scare the crap out of them. Especially at night.So it stands to reason that I did not believe in Sasquatch or Bigfoot or whatever you call him. But if I were ever going to be a believer, it would be now that I checked out th...
I’ve never believed in UFOs, the Loch Ness monster, the Jersey Devil or the like. I always think it’s kind of fun when people do, though, because the stories of sightings are what I like to think of as “urban lore” and are often fun to read and really fun to tell your friends at campouts to scare the crap out of them. Especially at night.
So it stands to reason that I did not believe in Sasquatch or Bigfoot or whatever you call him. But if I were ever going to be a believer, it would be now that I checked out the very intriguing database called The Bigfoot field Researchers Organization or Bfro.net.
The website is run by Eric Spinner, health food store owner in Medford. He was most recently involved in the production of the South Jersey Sasquatch episode of Finding Bigfoot.
The site lists a comprehensive database of Bigfoot sightings around the country, including interviews with people who have run into the hairy menace and details about their encounters. Interestingly, many people decide not to give their names to their personal accounts because they are afraid to be mocked for what people believe is just a dream, myth or a fantasy.
This website is fascinating and I’m telling you that if you go through some of the stories, you will begin to believe.
Every narrative is extremely detailed and sounds very believable. Pretty much everyone describes him as well over 6 feet, hairy all over with huge feet and hands. He’s always described as running quickly with very long swinging arms. And creepiest of all, most people noticed a mildew or sour smell when he’s in the area.
And all “witnesses" explicitly state that what they saw it was definitely not a bear.
New Jersey doesn’t have the most Bigfoot sightings reported on this list. Washington state holds that distinction with 697 reported sightings.
By county, BRFO reports how many sightings New Jerseyans have had. Five counties in New Jersey have no reported sightings of Bigfoot, so I guess you could feel pretty safe in these. They are Atlantic, Bergen, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hudson and Union.
But the rest of the county siding tallies are here from highest to lowest. Check out their stories and see, after reading them, if you’re a believer.
Sussex — 17Burlington — 14Ocean — 10Morris — 6Passaic — 3Essex — 3Cape May — 3Hunterdon— 2Middlesex— 2Monmouth — 2Salem — 2Somerset— 2Camden — 1Mercer — 1
The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco. Any opinions expressed are Judi Franco’s own.
Annie Joines Prentice knows when the neighbors are trying to figure out how much money she has spent on her house, even though they never actually ask her. They speak in a code that’s familiar to anyone who has danced around the subject of money.“They’ll say, ‘Oh wow, that sounds expensive.’ Or, ‘Oh, were you expecting that?’” said Ms. Prentice, who bought a 3,000-square-foot house near West Palm Beach, Fla., in August that she likens to the 1986 movie, “The Money ...
Annie Joines Prentice knows when the neighbors are trying to figure out how much money she has spent on her house, even though they never actually ask her. They speak in a code that’s familiar to anyone who has danced around the subject of money.
“They’ll say, ‘Oh wow, that sounds expensive.’ Or, ‘Oh, were you expecting that?’” said Ms. Prentice, who bought a 3,000-square-foot house near West Palm Beach, Fla., in August that she likens to the 1986 movie, “The Money Pit.” “There are lots of people fishing for information, but they’re a little afraid to just come right out just say: ‘Did y’all just buy this house and you’re dumping a bunch of money in it?’”
Ms. Prentice, 49, an elementary schoolteacher who is in a graduate program studying special education, initially met their questions with equally veiled responses, because she had long ago learned the rules of talking about the costs of home improvement — the chief rule being: Don’t talk about it.
Everyone might know that a new kitchen costs a fortune, but not many are comfortable showing the receipts. Try to get a ballpark figure from friends or neighbors, and you may find yourself wandering through conversations built on euphemisms, with things like “it wasn’t that bad” (code for “it was not as much as you’re thinking”), or “we did a lot of it ourselves” (roughly translating to “I paid my brother, cousin and best friend in beer to take down this wall”). Find yourself on the receiving end of the questions and you might feel flustered, perhaps offended. You might even find yourself rounding down on those final numbers to make the project — and yourself — seem more palatable.
“You know how Emily Post says never talk about politics, money or religion? This falls into that,” said Alessandra Wood, the vice president of style at Modsy, an online design company.
Or, as Rachel Sherman, the author of “Uneasy Street: The Anxieties of Affluence,” put it, “When you say, ‘How much does it cost to do a kitchen?’ you are in some sense saying, ‘How much money do you have?’”
And we all know that question is a big no-no.
Sure, there’s a natural curiosity when you walk into a friend’s newly minted bathroom and wonder how they could afford it. But if you want to redo your own bathroom, and want to get some back-of-the-envelope numbers about how much the project will cost, you may discover that few people are willing to dish. The purchase price for a house might be a number easily retrieved on Zillow, but that new bathroom is a mystery until you actually set out to do it.
Three years ago, Wendy Zeilstra was trying to price a new kitchen for her house in Montclair, N.J., and found herself reading tea leaves. The architects she interviewed told her most homeowners budget six figures for such projects, a number well beyond what she and her husband, Paul Calame, 46, who works in logistics, had hoped for.
Originally from the Netherlands, Ms. Zeilstra, 43, a stay-at-home parent, was used to speaking bluntly about how much things cost. “We’re Dutch, we’re direct,” she said. Americans, she quickly learned, were anything but. “It was kind of a maze, if you tried to navigate the maze by asking questions.”
She found herself at the mercy of contractor estimates, figuring out costs based on what workers would tell her they’d charge. She eventually landed on Ikea cabinets and quartz countertops, keeping the budget under $55,000, including labor and architectural fees.
Ms. Zeilstra said she is happy to share what she’s learned and how much she’s spent. But so far, only one person has directly asked her about it, and he was a neighbor who flips houses for a living. “I’m very proud of the kitchen,” she said. “We worked for it. It’s not like we robbed a bank.”
Dr. Sherman, chairwoman of the sociology department at the New School for Social Research, argues that these conversations make people uncomfortable because they’re really conversations about income inequality. If you can afford quartzite countertops and custom cabinets at a time when millions of Americans live in poverty, your splurge brings inequity into focus. And if you walk into a friend’s house and ogle a kitchen that costs more than your annual salary, you may be made acutely aware of a class divide.
“Class inequality is hiding in plain sight because we don’t talk about it,” Dr. Sherman said. Asking a person how much they spent on a renovation “is broadly construed as inappropriate, which is fortunate for capitalism because it means that these kinds of inequalities can continue to proliferate.”
On the flip side, your answers about how much you spent, or how you came up with the funds, may reveal the limits of your finances, especially if the person asking the questions would easily spend two or three times as much. “There is shame associated with having debt,” Dr. Sherman said. “We live in a society that deeply shames people for being poor.”
Our general discomfort with money may explain why we sometimes lie to ourselves, and in some cases even our partners, about it. Lisa Gilmore, an interior designer in St. Petersburg, Fla., had a client who once hid the cost of a dining room chandelier from her husband. To avoid admitting that the handblown glass and brass chandelier cost $15,000, the client asked Ms. Gilmore to bill her $5,000 and she would pay the balance out of a separate, personal account. The chandelier “was a nonnegotiable for her and she didn’t want to deal with the argument,” Ms. Gilmore said. “Even with their spouses, they don’t want to tell.”
Since Ms. Prentice, in West Palm Beach, started working on her house of endless fixes, her perspective about money has changed. Where she once bristled at questions, worried that someone would tell her she’d overspent, she now sees opportunity. “At this point, it’s almost comical because so many things have popped up wrong with this house,” she said.
She is renovating the kitchen, laundry room and a bathroom. She also recently encapsulated the foundation, a waterproofing project that she didn’t even know existed until a few months ago. When she got a waterproofing bid for $39,000, she had nothing to compare it to. Was this a great deal or a grift? In an effort to compare notes, she started talking directly to other homeowners who’d had similar work done. How much did they spend? What was the square footage? What was included in the job?
“There is a tipping point where you’re spending so much money,” she said. “I just want to make sure that I’m spending it in the right places.”
Perhaps, with enough information, she might actually get an answer.
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