People love to know what is the hottest thing in home décor and home improvements. Surprisingly enough, gray is out!

That's right, gray flooring and carpet is on its way out, according to designers and fashionistas.

For the past few years, plastic/PVC/LVP-type flooring that is printed to resemble wood has been all the rage, but the color scheme has moved this year to more tans and natural wood colors, with soft neutral accents.

Next would be "barn doors" inside homes. It was a cute idea for a minute, but barn doors are for barns and are a cheap way for builders to close off rooms rather than pay for solid wood doors or pocket doors.

The feeling of "warmth" is back, and things like grass cloth wallpaper, exposed brick and quiet luxury help to create a home refuge these days. "Grommet-style" curtain rods and drapes are cheap and they look it. Upgrade if you can!

Statement wallpaper is still a thing, with bold designs like enlarged photos of flowers to bring big color into a room. And "mindful maximalism" is in, with people displaying their odd collections in unusual ways, on and around unique furniture pieces.

After the horrific fires in California and Maui, sustainable and fire-resistant materials are in the minds of home builders and buyers like never before, as is using landscaping as a buffer for potential infernos. It's worth reviewing your trees and brushes for fire safety.

We are so lucky here in Utah to not have had such horrific fire disasters, but the clock is ticking in some areas of our state, waiting for that one lightning strike, that one careless campfire, to create havoc.

We just spent a small fortune to have our trees—and the neighbors' trees that poked over our fence—cut back. Another neighbor spent $7,000 to have a dead tree removed, as nowadays, they use cranes to help take them out and those machines cost a fortune to rent.

But now, we have a cleaner landscape and hopefully our homeowner's insurance won't jump up too high this year. Also, we put in an emergency Generac generator after we lost power for nine days a few years back.

The lovely machine clicks on once a week to test itself and when there's an outage, it clicks right over so that there's really no interruption in electricity at our place.

Solar panels have come down in price. But with the new government tariffs going into place, they may skyrocket in cost, as many panel types are made in China.

It's not so much about how a home looks these days, but how it feels. There's nothing more off-putting when selling a home than having it vacant and dirty. We recommend that 90% of our listings be deep cleaned and staged so that when buyers walk in, they smile and feel comfortable in the space.

Remember to make the home "neutral" for potential buyers so they can see themselves living there!