Wednesday, February 11, 2009
pdf995 -- great free software
If you know me at all, you probably know that I love a good deal -- whether it's negotiating a great deal on house for my clients or on a pair of shoes! One of my favorite "free" finds is pdf995 which is free software that converts any document to a .pdf file. I use it all the time in real estate to convert contracts, repair requests, etc. into .pdf files. It's really simple to download from the www.pdf995.com website and while there's an option you can pay for, I've been using the free one successfully for well over a year.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Housing Bill incentives
Below are two news article links for the proposed $15,000 homebuyer tax credit recently added to the US Senate’s version of the economic stimulus bill. In light of the constantly fluctuating status of our economy, the proposals and options to help revive the economy change every day. Helping the housing/homebuyer market seems to be a bill cornerstone, though, that both parties and the executive branch all hope to keep a focus on.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gk-O6w-BLfUXwpefbNc-d3Z2X6-QD965PNM80
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/politics/05stimulus.html?hp
Additionally, a 4% fixed 30-year mortgage plan was defeated:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gFSu3GqniGVvNSQKACosXSPETSNwD965NDUO0
While I am not, in any way, asking you to form an opinion or follow an opinion that I have of a proper solution, if you are of the inclination to get involved in the political process and you do feel this type of home buying stimulus would be beneficial to our business/market, now would be a good time to send an e-mail, make a call, etc., to our respective Senate & US Representative to encourage this measure.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gk-O6w-BLfUXwpefbNc-d3Z2X6-QD965PNM80
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/politics/05stimulus.html?hp
Additionally, a 4% fixed 30-year mortgage plan was defeated:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gFSu3GqniGVvNSQKACosXSPETSNwD965NDUO0
While I am not, in any way, asking you to form an opinion or follow an opinion that I have of a proper solution, if you are of the inclination to get involved in the political process and you do feel this type of home buying stimulus would be beneficial to our business/market, now would be a good time to send an e-mail, make a call, etc., to our respective Senate & US Representative to encourage this measure.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Clean Steel
One thing I'll say for lots of snow days (and working from home today with a sick child) is the opportunity to catch up on some of my professional magazines (as well as cleaning out every closet in the house)So far, I've caught up on a few back issues of Realtor magazine, and the Real Estate Professional.
I came across one of my favorite pieces that Realtor magazine does every year: it's their story on best home improvements for the resale buck. As usual, kitchens and baths have the highest rate of return. I also found it interesting that the expectation is to have stainless steel appliances across every price level. Don't you wonder if one day we'll look at a kitchen with stainless steel appliances and think the same things we do now about harvest gold? Anyway, if you're replacing appliances anytime soon and think you might be selling in the near future, stainless steel might be worth the extra dollar difference. However, in replacing my own refrigerator in the not distant past, I discovered Clean Steel which looks exactly like stainless except it costs less, doesn't show fingerprints and VERY important in our house...magnets will stick to it! Definitely worth checking out! I have heard that you need to be careful mixing Clean Steel appliances with stainless steel in that the difference in surfaces can be noticeable.
By the way, if you are putting your house on the market, take the magnets off the refrigerator. All of them.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Not the end...
of the snow anyway! I ventured out to show property in the snow this afternoon and nearly had a second collision in two weeks as my poor battered minivan went sliding backward down an icy driveway into Stone Road. Somehow, I think this one would have been my fault. Apparently, snowy afternoons when school's being called off aren't the best times to show property. You track a lot of snow in people's houses too! Not very nice.
Want to keep up with Kentucky weather? I've become a huge fan of http://www.weather.com and the Fayette County public school website: http://www.fcps.net for school closings. Normally, I think talking about weather's pretty boring but we don't seem to be talking about much else these days.
As much as I love winter, I'm starting to think Spring.
Want to keep up with Kentucky weather? I've become a huge fan of http://www.weather.com and the Fayette County public school website: http://www.fcps.net for school closings. Normally, I think talking about weather's pretty boring but we don't seem to be talking about much else these days.
As much as I love winter, I'm starting to think Spring.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Back to real life...
It looks like our impromptu weather vacation is finally over in Lexington. It's back to business as usual in the Bluegrass with a handful of Fayette County schools that don't have power but the rest of our children back in class. A few Chevy Chase friends mentioned at Cassidy this morning that they are still out of their houses.
I have a few pictures I'll post later of the "branch" piles we collected at our house and I think I'll be waiting for my tree guy for a few days since our needs aren't critical like so many other people.
I have a few pictures I'll post later of the "branch" piles we collected at our house and I think I'll be waiting for my tree guy for a few days since our needs aren't critical like so many other people.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
More ice storm update from Western Kentucky
More from my brother Chuck in Paducah regarding their situation is below. So many people in Lexington are still out of power and while they are coming steadily back on line, a number of my friends have been told it may be mid-week to next week before their power is restored. At least the weather is beautiful today. I'll be heading out to do some limb clean-up myself shortly!
Things are a little more calm here but as people do get some power on, the ones that don’t have power become very angry. For those who don’t know, all power companies work by restoring (our jargon for rebuilding and repairing) power to the main lines that come from the generation plants to each of many substations for each power distributor. These transmission lines often cut through rough terrain and typically do not run along roads. We have spent a lot of effort helping to locate problems with those lines (which are technically the responsibility of the generation and transmission company) by using 4-wheelers and other means. We were able to help secure a helicopter after the second day to help workers spot problems. Prior to that time all air travel had been suspended. It is interesting that a lot of transmission lines are repaired by people suspended from harnesses from the helicopters. Not something I would want to do sixteen hours a day even in GOOD weather conditions.
Our transmission lines are supposed to be largely restored today. Our next task (going on simultaneously) is to restore the many large distribution lines. These feed into smaller lines which are repaired next and so on down to the individual lines serving houses. We all do this in an effort to secure the maximum good for the maximum amount of people. Somewhere in the scheme we deviate to secure service first to critical needs. These critical needs can include hospitals, nursing homes, hotels (for guest workers) restaurants (to feed guest workers) and people with medical needs. What often happens is an area or subdivision is restored but there is a problem with a single service that prevents that restoration. Our crews (and every other utility crew) move on to the next “big” line rather than repair that single service. In some cases these methods mean that a neighbor may have power weeks before problems affecting a single service can be resolved. It is unfortunate, but it insures that the maximum people are restored. Nearly all our linemen (they are all men) are stopped several times a day to be told that “if you could only repair this one pole or replace this one fuse I could have service.” These stops add up to more than an hour a day for a typical line crew which prevents them from working on what they need to be working on.
Another problem is that it requires electricity to make electricity and as power plants have been down they are not able to ramp back up for hours and in some cases days. We understand that is a part of TVA’s problem, they are afraid that the jolt of restoring large lines will in laymen’s terms kill the system and cause wild power swings. It is prudent to leave your computers and other expensive electronics unplugged as the jolts run through the system in the next week.
Our personal situation: We live on a line that feeds the hospital in Mayfield and the only high school in the county. The high school was designated a shelter and power was restored last night. We were beneficiaries of that restoration and now had power, one of the very few who do in Mayfield. Angela was able to go to the high school yesterday and find her 80 year old aunt who has been there with 650 other people for several days. She is now occupying our guest bedroom until power is restored to her house and house repairs are made. She said after a couple of days they were all lined up and order to take communal showers from the stink….. Kind of sounds like a concentration camp to me. Having been at the office since Tuesday, I went home yesterday afternoon around 3:00 and was able to cut up parts of the many trees that have fallen. My back now aches and I’ve discovered that my baby chain saw (even though it is a Stihl) is no match for a three foot diameter tree trunk. I’m going to see if I can “borrow” a bigger one from work in a few weeks when this all slows down. I’m salaried so I get no compensation for these hours so I hope use of a chain saw might be a perk I might hope to secure…..we’ll see. I have eaten well. We have hot good food 24 hours a day to feed linemen who come in at all hours of the day to replenish supplies. We are buying cartons and cartons of Hostess products and candy bars. I’ve noticed that not a single worker wants anything remotely healthy, but they are almost all lean so I suppose it must get worked off in a sixteen hour day. Several people who gather these supplies have remarked that they feel diabetic from just transporting the food. Like I say, food is good, the other day we had pans and pans of Rafferty’s ribs and chicken fingers. Olive Garden was for lunch that day and much other good food. Some restaurants have been very nice and thrown in free food or at least delivered while others have maybe taken advantage of the situation. Of note to family members who work at Rafferty’s, they charged us mandatory gratuity for take out and then would not even help carry the food to our vans. We have managed to secure running tabs at the local Logan’s, Rafferty’s, O’Charley’s and Applebee’s and workers just have to show their badge to order what they want. All these are close to the hotels so they can get a nice meal and get their six hours of sleep. I have heard many comments from workers who worked Katrina and Gustav and they all talk about how great Midwest hospitality is compared to the a**holes in New Orleans. Paducah and the surrounding areas remain under curfew at night but it is lifted for people supplying emergency services or those providing services to the workers.
We expect to have the majority of our people on this week with some stragglers possibly taking two or three weeks. Other systems are still saying three to four weeks. Water service has been largely restored as those facilities received priority treatment or the Army provided generators. There have been a few cases of fatalities, mostly from carbon monoxide poisoning or failure of medical equipment. The National Guard is supposed to go door to door checking on people; I am afraid they will find a few more. Fortunately, we have had no deaths on our system and no injuries to our workers. This is a very dangerous time as people often will hook up generators incorrectly feeding current into the system and killing our line workers. We lost one in the late 80’s that everyone still remembers and there was one lost in last year’s wind storm in Louisville.
There is a need for trained medical workers in the many shelters. Many in the shelters have medical needs and there is a lack of medicine and personnel to treat them. All our hospitals have reached full census and are struggling to disgorge the less sick. Many of the regional hospitals are trying to transport their patients to the larger ones (Like Paducah’s) in the area as their power and water situation remain dicey. Banks have been reopened. Many of the larger chains have set up mobile offices with their own generators. Most businesses refuse to accept credit cards with phone lines down and cash is needed.
If people are interested, I will post more later. You are welcome to redistribute this or post it on your blog but I ask you to please edit any obvious grammar or spelling errors. I don’t have a lot of time to proof read.
Chuck Williamson, CPA
Vice President - Finance & Accounting
Jackson Purchase Energy Corporation
P.O. Box 4030
Paducah, KY 42002-4030
270.441.0825 Direct
270.442.5337 Fax
Things are a little more calm here but as people do get some power on, the ones that don’t have power become very angry. For those who don’t know, all power companies work by restoring (our jargon for rebuilding and repairing) power to the main lines that come from the generation plants to each of many substations for each power distributor. These transmission lines often cut through rough terrain and typically do not run along roads. We have spent a lot of effort helping to locate problems with those lines (which are technically the responsibility of the generation and transmission company) by using 4-wheelers and other means. We were able to help secure a helicopter after the second day to help workers spot problems. Prior to that time all air travel had been suspended. It is interesting that a lot of transmission lines are repaired by people suspended from harnesses from the helicopters. Not something I would want to do sixteen hours a day even in GOOD weather conditions.
Our transmission lines are supposed to be largely restored today. Our next task (going on simultaneously) is to restore the many large distribution lines. These feed into smaller lines which are repaired next and so on down to the individual lines serving houses. We all do this in an effort to secure the maximum good for the maximum amount of people. Somewhere in the scheme we deviate to secure service first to critical needs. These critical needs can include hospitals, nursing homes, hotels (for guest workers) restaurants (to feed guest workers) and people with medical needs. What often happens is an area or subdivision is restored but there is a problem with a single service that prevents that restoration. Our crews (and every other utility crew) move on to the next “big” line rather than repair that single service. In some cases these methods mean that a neighbor may have power weeks before problems affecting a single service can be resolved. It is unfortunate, but it insures that the maximum people are restored. Nearly all our linemen (they are all men) are stopped several times a day to be told that “if you could only repair this one pole or replace this one fuse I could have service.” These stops add up to more than an hour a day for a typical line crew which prevents them from working on what they need to be working on.
Another problem is that it requires electricity to make electricity and as power plants have been down they are not able to ramp back up for hours and in some cases days. We understand that is a part of TVA’s problem, they are afraid that the jolt of restoring large lines will in laymen’s terms kill the system and cause wild power swings. It is prudent to leave your computers and other expensive electronics unplugged as the jolts run through the system in the next week.
Our personal situation: We live on a line that feeds the hospital in Mayfield and the only high school in the county. The high school was designated a shelter and power was restored last night. We were beneficiaries of that restoration and now had power, one of the very few who do in Mayfield. Angela was able to go to the high school yesterday and find her 80 year old aunt who has been there with 650 other people for several days. She is now occupying our guest bedroom until power is restored to her house and house repairs are made. She said after a couple of days they were all lined up and order to take communal showers from the stink….. Kind of sounds like a concentration camp to me. Having been at the office since Tuesday, I went home yesterday afternoon around 3:00 and was able to cut up parts of the many trees that have fallen. My back now aches and I’ve discovered that my baby chain saw (even though it is a Stihl) is no match for a three foot diameter tree trunk. I’m going to see if I can “borrow” a bigger one from work in a few weeks when this all slows down. I’m salaried so I get no compensation for these hours so I hope use of a chain saw might be a perk I might hope to secure…..we’ll see. I have eaten well. We have hot good food 24 hours a day to feed linemen who come in at all hours of the day to replenish supplies. We are buying cartons and cartons of Hostess products and candy bars. I’ve noticed that not a single worker wants anything remotely healthy, but they are almost all lean so I suppose it must get worked off in a sixteen hour day. Several people who gather these supplies have remarked that they feel diabetic from just transporting the food. Like I say, food is good, the other day we had pans and pans of Rafferty’s ribs and chicken fingers. Olive Garden was for lunch that day and much other good food. Some restaurants have been very nice and thrown in free food or at least delivered while others have maybe taken advantage of the situation. Of note to family members who work at Rafferty’s, they charged us mandatory gratuity for take out and then would not even help carry the food to our vans. We have managed to secure running tabs at the local Logan’s, Rafferty’s, O’Charley’s and Applebee’s and workers just have to show their badge to order what they want. All these are close to the hotels so they can get a nice meal and get their six hours of sleep. I have heard many comments from workers who worked Katrina and Gustav and they all talk about how great Midwest hospitality is compared to the a**holes in New Orleans. Paducah and the surrounding areas remain under curfew at night but it is lifted for people supplying emergency services or those providing services to the workers.
We expect to have the majority of our people on this week with some stragglers possibly taking two or three weeks. Other systems are still saying three to four weeks. Water service has been largely restored as those facilities received priority treatment or the Army provided generators. There have been a few cases of fatalities, mostly from carbon monoxide poisoning or failure of medical equipment. The National Guard is supposed to go door to door checking on people; I am afraid they will find a few more. Fortunately, we have had no deaths on our system and no injuries to our workers. This is a very dangerous time as people often will hook up generators incorrectly feeding current into the system and killing our line workers. We lost one in the late 80’s that everyone still remembers and there was one lost in last year’s wind storm in Louisville.
There is a need for trained medical workers in the many shelters. Many in the shelters have medical needs and there is a lack of medicine and personnel to treat them. All our hospitals have reached full census and are struggling to disgorge the less sick. Many of the regional hospitals are trying to transport their patients to the larger ones (Like Paducah’s) in the area as their power and water situation remain dicey. Banks have been reopened. Many of the larger chains have set up mobile offices with their own generators. Most businesses refuse to accept credit cards with phone lines down and cash is needed.
If people are interested, I will post more later. You are welcome to redistribute this or post it on your blog but I ask you to please edit any obvious grammar or spelling errors. I don’t have a lot of time to proof read.
Chuck Williamson, CPA
Vice President - Finance & Accounting
Jackson Purchase Energy Corporation
P.O. Box 4030
Paducah, KY 42002-4030
270.441.0825 Direct
270.442.5337 Fax
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Update from Western Kentucky
My brother Chuck works for the Jackson Purchase Energy Co-op in Paducah -- about 4 hours from Lexington. He just sent our family this update as we hadn't heard from him in a few days. I know some of you all may have friends in the area and would appreciate the update. Sounds horrific.
Just wanted to let you guys know the status down here. Angela and Josh are fortunate enough to have power this morning. They are one of the only people in Graves County with power. We are fortunate to live near the hospital and County High School. The high school is a designated shelter and power restoration was a high priority for them and the hospital. They are telling the rest of the county to plan for 30 days without power and more if an individual service is affected. I refer to Josh and Angela as they because other than going home for a couple of hours to check on them I have been here at the office……sleeping for an hour or two on the floor of my office. We lost nearly all our trees but none hit the house. I have probably a week worth of chain sawing to do when things quiet down. Joni and Sara are in the city and if they aren’t on, they should be within the week maybe even in the next day or so.
We are hoping to have a majority of our system on by the end of next week but it will probably be 30 days for some folks. We alone have 150 extra workers from the gulf shore in Alabama to Michigan. Some of the folks we helped out in Louisiana are here to return the favor. We normally run about 30 line workers so this is quite a lot of people to house and feed. Plus many of our regular workers have had trees damage their house…..work comes first so they have been having their spouses and family manage as best as they can. We secured a load of generators for their families so they can get some power to keep some things going without having to worry about closing off their houses where trees have come through.
I just had the President of our bank hand deliver some cash to us……nice to be able to call his cell phone, tell them we need cash to feed people and have them open up the bank and bring the money to us.
No injuries yet with our workers; probably because no power is getting to us. Only a few people that have been found dead in their house from exposure or failure of medical equipment. 911 was down for several days so medical cases weren’t able to summon help and in some cases they couldn’t be reached because of trees blocking roads. Even helicopters were banished the first couple of days because of weather conditions. Some veterans of Gustav and Katrina are saying this is much worse, save the mostly lack of home damage.
The judge executive for one of our neighboring counties, Crittenden, has told people to close their houses and not come back for two months. Hard to believe people’s jobs will be carried that long and the businesses there will be hard pressed to survive.
Chuck Williamson
Just wanted to let you guys know the status down here. Angela and Josh are fortunate enough to have power this morning. They are one of the only people in Graves County with power. We are fortunate to live near the hospital and County High School. The high school is a designated shelter and power restoration was a high priority for them and the hospital. They are telling the rest of the county to plan for 30 days without power and more if an individual service is affected. I refer to Josh and Angela as they because other than going home for a couple of hours to check on them I have been here at the office……sleeping for an hour or two on the floor of my office. We lost nearly all our trees but none hit the house. I have probably a week worth of chain sawing to do when things quiet down. Joni and Sara are in the city and if they aren’t on, they should be within the week maybe even in the next day or so.
We are hoping to have a majority of our system on by the end of next week but it will probably be 30 days for some folks. We alone have 150 extra workers from the gulf shore in Alabama to Michigan. Some of the folks we helped out in Louisiana are here to return the favor. We normally run about 30 line workers so this is quite a lot of people to house and feed. Plus many of our regular workers have had trees damage their house…..work comes first so they have been having their spouses and family manage as best as they can. We secured a load of generators for their families so they can get some power to keep some things going without having to worry about closing off their houses where trees have come through.
I just had the President of our bank hand deliver some cash to us……nice to be able to call his cell phone, tell them we need cash to feed people and have them open up the bank and bring the money to us.
No injuries yet with our workers; probably because no power is getting to us. Only a few people that have been found dead in their house from exposure or failure of medical equipment. 911 was down for several days so medical cases weren’t able to summon help and in some cases they couldn’t be reached because of trees blocking roads. Even helicopters were banished the first couple of days because of weather conditions. Some veterans of Gustav and Katrina are saying this is much worse, save the mostly lack of home damage.
The judge executive for one of our neighboring counties, Crittenden, has told people to close their houses and not come back for two months. Hard to believe people’s jobs will be carried that long and the businesses there will be hard pressed to survive.
Chuck Williamson
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Chilliness!!!
I'm starting to feel really bad right now about telling people moving to Lexington about our mild winters! It's a little chilly and especially chilly if you haven't any electricity which seems to be a theme around town this week. At least we aren't in Paducah! We're still happy at my house (which we haven't left in days...) and while we've lost several trees our power is still going. Thank goodness for that as we were the last street in Lexington that came back on-line in the ice storm of 2003! Lots of people in Ashland Park and Chevy Chase area are without power and section of Downtown has been out as well.
I was noticing that my least favorite tree appears to be at an odd angle right now and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that if I lose another tree that it's the one to go. I might send the kids out to help it along. If it comes out by the root, I won't have to pay my tree go to grind the stump this way!
So...one thing I always say about living in Kentucky is that we have all four seasons. We've definitely got winter covered this year!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Ice + Snow + Wind = Crack!
That's what Mary Rollins said anyway. Kentucky.com has lots of photos of Ice Storm 2009 but I thought I'd post a few pictures from the Mathews house and Lakeside neighborhood. We're on Day 3 with no school and amazingly having more fun everyday. We may never go back to work. Of course, it's a lot more fun with electricity and heat than it was in 2003 when we had our last ice storm. We were 8 days without power and, frankly, that wasn't nearly as much fun. Today, we're enjoying a Harry Potter movie marathon, a toasty fire and I just lost at Monopoly to Will. I knew I shouldn't have traded Atlantic for those Railroads but I'll do anything for a kiss from Willy! We have left the house but only to take the loop around our neighborhood.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61458&l=85bda&id=572718665
As you can see in these pictures, we did lose a major tree in the backyard, a big chunk of fence and my most beloved maple tree has suffered some serious damage.
And, word just in...Fayette County schools closed for Thursday!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Perfect for roommates 3659 Leisure Creek Court
My newest listing is perfect for wanting like-new, affordable and a quick commute downtown or to UK. It's an ideal floor plan for the owner who would like to have a roommate and be able to offer them their own private space and bath. Totally neutral decor and move-in ready, plus there's not even a nail hook in a wall that would need to be patched! The current owner has installed 1.5 blinds throughout the house and all appliances stay! Plus, there's no exterior maintenance to take care of and the development features a clubhouse and pool for residents.
Check out this great find under the featured listings on my website.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
RESIDE Magazine
Check out the link to the right for the on-line version of Sotheby's RESIDE Magazine. It's fantastic.
Will said he wishes we had $44 million dollars so we could buy the island in Whitefish, Montana...me too!
Will said he wishes we had $44 million dollars so we could buy the island in Whitefish, Montana...me too!
More about Sotheby's
Sorry it's been a week since my last posting regarding my brokerage change to Bluegrass Sotheby's International Realty (BGSIR). So many friends have sent so many nice notes (and some really pretty flowers to the office...thanks Kathy & Marc). It's a really exciting opportunity and has generated lots of questions from so many people.
Here's one question that I keep getting and seems really important to answer! Will I still be selling the same kinds of properties and helping the same clients I've been serving the past four years? Absolutely. One of my favorite things about BGSIR is the philosophy is that Sotheby's is "about service not a price range!" While I'm sure not opposed to selling a $44 million dollar island, BGSIR is absolutely about the very nice home at 1321 Dale Drive that's perfect for the first-time home buyer. I believe that every client deserves the highest level of service and care whether they're Bill Gates or the UK med student looking for a $75,000 townhouse!
Here's one question that I keep getting and seems really important to answer! Will I still be selling the same kinds of properties and helping the same clients I've been serving the past four years? Absolutely. One of my favorite things about BGSIR is the philosophy is that Sotheby's is "about service not a price range!" While I'm sure not opposed to selling a $44 million dollar island, BGSIR is absolutely about the very nice home at 1321 Dale Drive that's perfect for the first-time home buyer. I believe that every client deserves the highest level of service and care whether they're Bill Gates or the UK med student looking for a $75,000 townhouse!
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