One solution the administration of President Barack Obama is seeking is a change to federal bankruptcy laws that would allow federal judges to restructure mortgages of struggling borrowers.

Senate Democrats are advancing legislation that would allow judges to reduce the principal or “cram down” the amount owed for the primary residences of borrowers who have sought Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection. Chapter 13 is a bankruptcy status that allows debtors to retain assets and pay back their debts over three to five years.

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Are you religious (or not) and looking for a new way to speed up the process of selling your home? If so, you may want to try what one person did to help sell her home in Brooklyn, N.Y. during this difficult real estate market. She has turned to an unlikely source for help: St. Joseph.

St. Joseph is a Catholic saint who has long been believed to help with home-related matters. And according to lore now spreading on the Internet and among desperate home-sellers, burying St. Joseph in the yard of a home for sale promises a prompt bid. After she and her husband held five open houses, even baking cookies for one of them, she ordered a St. Joseph “real estate kit” online and buried the three-inch white statue in her yard.

These statues are flying off the shelves as an increasing number of skeptics and non-Catholics look for some saintly intervention to help them sell their houses. Talk about desperate measures. You might as well put your house up on eBay and/or Craigslist and see if anyone makes a bid. Regardless, I guess at this point I would try anything and everything to help sell my home.

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Here is a really unusual house design from Antonino Cardillo which is located somewhere in Barcelona, Spain.

The unique design is full of curves, each of his structures that I’ve seen have these swooping, gentle curves, and it’s so soothing. There are more photos of the building after the break.

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A very traditional home can become energy- and resource-efficient. When this house in Washington, D.C. was built in the 1950s, most of its windows got direct sun. But then it was remodeled to better suit D.C.’s steamy summers.

The new covered porch shelters east-facing windows from morning rays. When the sun moves west, the porch provides a shady, AC-free retreat.

The porch columns are not chemically treated to repel rot or harvested from some far-off rain forest. Instead, they’re made from the naturally rot-resistant trunks of Eastern Red Cedar trees grown nearby.

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The De Vrouwe van Stavoren Hotel in the Netherlands salvaged four wine casks from Switzerland and converted them into rooms. Now you can not only fall asleep alongside a good glass of French wine but also inside the cask of good French wine. These cask were once filled with 14,500 liters of Beaujolais wine from French chateau. Now instead of wine they will be holding modest two-person room with standard amenities and even an attached bathroom and sitting room. See more photos after the break

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Here are some really helpful tips that will help you to maintain a sparkling, show-ready house in just 19 minutes a day.

First of all start in your Bedroom and this will only take 6 1/2 minutes daily. Make your bed after or before your morning shower. This will take only 2 minutes, Fold or hang clothing and put away jewelry (4 minutes) and Straighten out the night-table surface (30 seconds).

Tidy your Bathroom and this should take you approximately 2 minutes. Make cleaning the basin as routine as washing your hands. The head to the kitchen which should take just about 4 1/2 minutes, Wipe down the sink after doing the dishes or loading the dishwasher, stove top, counters and sweep the floor.

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I don’t think this information will become useful if you want to sell your house but if you want to NOT sell then here is some really good information. There are more photos after the jump to give a good example of what your home and yard should look like.

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There are many persons right now who can’t even stand to hear the word Forclosure because of what that word means to them. It means that they lost there house to that simple word. But do you know what is foreclosure? It is the legal and professional proceeding in which a mortgagee, or other lienholder, usually a lender, obtains a court ordered termination of a mortgagor’s equitable right of redemption. Usually a lender obtains a security interest from a borrower who mortgages or pledges an asset like a house to secure the loan.

Here is the fun part you can gain from previous homeowner’s lost. Did you know? Because these houses where owned and repossessed they are being sold for basically what was owed on the mortgage. So whenever you hear of a Foreclose Auction go out and see you may just end up with a house for less than you think.