Sarahiously Speaking

Well, it’s that time of year again, the Fredericksburg Fair is in town!  This is my second year attending the fair, and I must say, there have been some big improvements! 

First, there are more rides, including the re-introduction of the ferris wheel, a Fair staple.  Rides range in price and are not included in your general admission.  Lines seemed to move fairly fast. 

Second, there are more food vendors offering a wide variety of Fair food.  Now, I’ll be honest, this is my main reason for coming to the Fredericksburg Fair.  When I hear turkey leg, I come running!  Not since medieval times has it been appropriate to rip into a giant turkey leg with nothing but your teeth!  This year’s turkey legs are far bigger than last year’s and more delicious!  Other culinary delights are the Stafford Jaycees hand-dipped corn dogs, the gator sausage, funnel cake, homemade fudge, and hand-spun milkshakes.  A welcome addition this year is the beer tent!  They do have a limit to the number of beers you are served in a 2 hour time period.  There were 5-6 beers to choose from and the price was reasonable for a Fair. 

Of course, there are also animals at the Fredericksburg Fair.  My party met a delightful gentleman in the Chicken Exhibition area that showed us a chicken that has blue skin, blue meat, and black bones.  He also offered to let us purchase the chicken for our dinner, but we politely declined!  We also saw sheep, cows, rabbits, pigs, emus, a wallaby, and a camel!  There are several areas where you can pet and feed the animals and handwashing stations are close by. 

All in all, this was a pretty good Fair for a small town and I highly recommend you attend this year!  You can find more information at www.fredfair.net. 

Admission:  Age 4-54 – $7 and Age 55+ – $5  – this includes parking, but no rides.       

This is by no means an in-depth explanation of these very complicated types of real estate sales.  This is merely meant to offer a simple explanation.  There are many pitfalls when trying to buy a Foreclosure and a Short Sale.  It is very important that you hire a REALTOR who is familiar with the processes and that you close the transaction with an attorney who is familiar with the processes. 

If you have any questions about short sales and foreclosures, please feel free to contact me!            (I am not an attorney and can not give you legal advice.)   

I went to my very first Bluemont Concert Series last night.  My husband and I are always looking for fun new things to do and this seemed like it could be interesting.  We were lucky enough to see Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, a California bluegrass group.  Laurie Lewis is considered one of the premier bluegrass and Americana artists of our time.   I am now a big fan of bluegrass!   

Bluemont is a non-profit regional arts organization that has been presenting events since 1976.  Bluemont helps bring music programs to Virginia school systems, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and the region’s communities.  The music programs are as diverse as the communities enjoying them. 

Fredericksburg’s summer concerts take place every Saturday,  June 28th – August 30th, at Maury Stadium in downtown (corner of Kenmore Ave and George Street/ Hanover Street).  It is $5 for Adults and $2 for children under 12.  You are encouraged to bring your own lawn chairs, blankets, outdoor toys, and refreshments.  A community group usually has some refreshments for sale with the proceeds going entirely to the group to support their volunteer efforts. 

I highly recommend locals and visitors attend these events.  There was a great sense of wholesome community.  We really enjoyed watching some area children dance and play in the field while listening to amazing live music.  We have decided we will definitely be taking a picnic dinner the next time we go!  

If you would like some more information, please visit:  http://www.bluemont.org/Concerts/Fredericksburg.html        

(Okay, well technically Carl’s sells custard, but it’s close enough!)

July 18 marks National Ice Cream Day, according to the Bizarre Food Holidays website. So, in honor of this fantastic holiday, I recommend that you head to Carl’s at 2200 Princess Anne Street. Carl’s has been a treasured Fredericksburg landmark for over 50 years. What’s the difference between custard and ice cream? Custard contains more eggs than ice cream. Carl’s serves three flavors of frozen custard – chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, but that doesn’t mean your taste buds will be disappointed! You can also choose from a selection of sundaes, floats, cones, milkshakes, and malts. Don’t worry about the long line wrapped around the building when you arrive; the average wait time is between 10-15 min. It is well worth the wait!

Open 7 days a week!

(mid February- mid November)

Sun-Thurs 11 am – 11 pm
Fri. & Sat 11 am – 11:30 pm

Yesterday was a huge milestone for my husband and me.  It was the one year anniversary of buying our dream home.  July 16 will forever be ingrained in our heads as the day we bought our money pit.  Don’t get me wrong, we love our house!  But, let’s call a spade a spade, it’s a money pit.  It is very fitting that the traditional gift for a one year anniversary is paper, ie money.

The Dream

Like many home buyers, we had a dream when we bought ths house.  We drew up a To Do List the day after we had our home inspection and vowed we would have these items completed by July 16, 2008.  Let’s see how we did.

The List

1.  Re-wire House – During our home inspection we were informed that this home had the most active knob and tube wiring the inspector had ever seen!  On top of that, the previous owners had installed a central a/c unit in the attic and had decided to upgrade the insulation at the same time.  (Thanks for the central a/c, not so much on the new insulation).  The new blown insulation was laying on top of the exposed knob and tube wiring.  Can you say fire-hazard?  So how far did we get?…

Not too shabby.  After creating a trunk to run all the new wires, we are on our way to being a house with modern electricity!  We are also now wired for phone, cable, and ethernet in every room.  We have a ways to go, including setting the new electric panel, upgrading to 200 amp service, and patching the holes; but we are almost there.

2.    Paint – This was not supposed to have been done until after we were done re-wiring, but we soon realized that we needed to multi-task.  So…

I invited friends over and we painted 6 rooms in 6 days.  (P.S. We are still friends after this and hubby and I are going to their new house in 2 weeks to help them paint!)

3.  Fix Random Hole in Dining Room Floor – Yep, there’s a random hole in the Dining Room Floor. 

Here it is!                                    

Here’s the fix – a small area rug over the hole.  This helps prevent the cats from running thru the Dining Room and accidently falling into the hole or one of our dinner guests putting their chair leg in the hole.  Eventually we’ll get that hole patched.  I promise!

4.  Yeah, the “Basement That Never Leaks,” LEAKS!!!!!

We have a FAIL on this item.  This has been moved to the Will Handle When We Put Up That Addition List. 

5.  The Chimney Allows Carbon Monoxide to Come Billowing Back Into the Living Room – Eeeek!  This was a must get done before winter sets in item. 

The old chimney came down and the new, safe chimney went up!  This took about 3 days to complete.

The Verdict

All in all, I don’t think we did that bad getting items checked off our To Do List.  Most of the safety items have been taken care of, some of the cosmetic items have been postponed for that addition and my husband has learned when it is just easier to hire someone else to do the work.  If I had to do this all over again, I would still purchase this house.  By the time we finished, in say 5 more years, it will truly be our dream home.  It’s amazing what you learn to live with in the interim! 

I make sure to send all of my clients market statistics on the 10th of every month.  But, sometimes this information is hard to interpret.  So, I’ve decided to put it all in graphs to make things a little easier.  I will be updating these graphs every month.  I will concentrate on my three biggest markets:  Fredericksburg City, Stafford County, and Spotsylvania County, and the three biggest influences on marketing a property:  Days on Market, Sales Price vs. List Price, and Months Inventory.  Please feel free to email me any suggestions or ideas for additional information you would like me to provide.

Days On Market – these graphs show the average days on market for the first half of 2008

Sales Price vs. List Price – this graph demonstrates the difference between the advertised list price and the price the home actually sold for

Months Inventory – this is also known as the absorption rate.  This is calculated by dividing the total number of homes on the market by the number of homes that sold the previous month.