About Preble County, OH

This is a Fannie Mae HomePath property. Purchase this property for as little as 3% down! This property is approved for HomePath Renovation Mortgage Financing. No Ohio disclosures, rely on your own inspections, special addendums required.

Call me for a showing! 513-255-0826

email:

maria@mariacenter.com

You CAN teach an old dog new tricks

18 Jun

I, of course, am the old dog! I learned a new trick this week that I have been putting of for, ohhh, about 22 years. I learned to drive a stick shift!!

Big deal right? Well, probably so for a lot of you. But hear where I'm coming from. I got my drivers license in 1988. My Dad took me out and we practiced in an automatic. He made fun of me for driving like an old lady, but all in all, I didn't do half bad. THEN, he decided maybe I need to learn stick shift as well, just in case. After a bad case of whiplash and bickering for an hour straight, we hung up the towel. Maybe this just wasn't in my future.

Frankly, I've managed to get by through the years. I pretty much assumed I would go to my grave with this one skill just never having been accomplished. But, it wasn't ever really on my "bucket list", so to speak.

UNTIL....my Mom, having recently retired, decided it was time to get herself something fun. Her own little sports car. She purchased a brand new Mazda MX-5 Hard-top convertible. Cherry-red. Just gorgeous.

Mazda MX-5 Hardtop Convertible

One itsy bity problem though....ugh, stick shift. It was a blast riding passenger, but I wanted to be in the drivers seat...radio blasting, hair blowing in the wind. So, I had to just bite the bullet and learn that stick shift once and for all.

I'm proud to say, this week, I became the stick-shift master!! Well, I can't do hills yet, and I usually stall out after coming to a complete stop. Maybe Master is too big of a word. But I am learning well grasshopper.

The moral of my story...sometimes you just have to face what you are afraid of. Now, on to the next item on my bucket list. Could it be...a tatoo??? Stay tuned

I know the running joke around Preble County Ohio is how far removed we are from civilization. Sure feels that way sometimes. Life does have slower pace here in Eaton, but frankly, I like it that way! My parents recently returned home from a trip to San Diego, and were commenting on how close San Diego is to other destinations...such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, the Mountains, etc...

Well, it started me thinking about our own little neck of the woods and what we are relatively close to. Such as; 45 minutes to Cincinnati. Only 4 1/2 hours to Chicago!! Which is a great city. Not too big, not too small. How about 6 hours to the mountains? That's right. Only a 6 hour drive and you can be looking at the Great Smoky Mountains. About 5 hours, maybe a little less and you can be fishing in Lake Erie.

We are also very close (about an hour and a 1/2) from Indianapolis Indiana. For those who have never been to Indy, give it a try. It's a great place to take the family for a weekend getaway, which is what my family did over Easter Break. We spent the night at a Holiday Inn connected to Indy's largest indoor water park, Caribbean Cove. The Holiday Inn at the Pyramids is a NICE hotel and the water park was a good time. I'd recommend it more for those of you with younger kids, as my teenage son didn't have quite as much to do as a younger one would. The water was just right and the lazy river...well...let's just say I'm planning on putting one in my backyard. How relaxing!!

The next day, we went over to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We had not been there in a few years, and over that time period, they have really done a lot to make the museum a great place to visit. Again, my teenager was a little on the old side for this, but my 10 year old loved it. Lots of hands on activities; 5 levels on everything from science and Dinosaurs to Barbie and Egypt.

MY favorite thing in the museum was the spectacular exhibit by artist Dale Chihuly. He is a world renowned glass artist. His piece in the Children's Museum, entitled "Fireworks of glass" is his largest permanent installation ever. Chihuly designed the tower and led a team of artists as they blew glass and set up the installation.

Chihuly is from Seattle, but is known around the world for creating beautiful and extraordinary art glass. His unique work is discussed and sought after by collectors and museums everywhere.

Chihuly began blowing glass as a student in the early 1960's. Since then he has become more of a planner and visionary in the glass industry, as opposed to a physical craftsman. By focusing more on the big picture and less on the intricate details of physical glassblowing, Chihuly has created different themes in his artwork. His pieces have taken on forms found in everyday objects and nature.

The Fireworks of Glasstower stands in the Museum's central atrium, where children and families can circle the ramps and explore it from all sides. Chihuly artists blew and installed 3,200 pieces of glass on the 43-foot-tall tower. It is comprised of more than 3,200 individually blown, brilliantly-colored, two to four-foot-long pieces of smooth and twisted glass called Horns and Goosenecks.*

Here are a few pics I took of his work...

Looks like a beautiful coral reef to me.

Preble County Ohio might be in rural USA, but we are fortunate enough to live such a close distance to many great cities, sights of Mother Nature, and workds of art.

* Section in Italics as well as middle photograph from the Indainapolis Childrens Museum web site: http://www.childrensmuseum.org/themuseum/fireworks_ofglass/index.htm

Lying in bed last night, I started thinking about real estate (what's new?) and how in many ways, it's a lot like being a shoe salesman. Or Saleswoman I guess?

Here I am. In my "store" so to speak, with my inventory sitting on the shelves. I've got a pretty good stock at hand right now. Lots of new models that have just hit the shelves. All sorts of price range and oh...some really pretty ones that I'm going to put in the front window for people to ohh and ahh over. I've still got some of last season's stock at hand too. I sure wish I didn't. I TOLD the person who wanted me to sell these that I felt the price was just too high, but he was insistent on giving it a shot. So here we are now, competing with a whole new crop.

Then there are the shoes that are my clearance. These needed to go a long time ago. In fact, the maker of these shoes has told me to get them off the shelves. He will take LESS than what he even paid to acquire the shoes in the first place. It's not a good situation at all, but hopefully someone will come in and take a look. These shoes are the deals to be had, and it seems like more and more of my inventory lately is going in this direction. Maybe the shoe manufacturer paid too much in the beginning for them, but hey...the shoe market was different a few years back. Maybe the manufacturer hit a financial snag, fell on bad times...whatever the reason; I only have so long to get rid of these shoes or out they go.

I see a lot of people come into my store...looking for the dream shoe. Maybe they have something in mind already. A nice "starter" shoe, if you will. Something they will wear a lot, and love. Maybe they have outgrown a pair of shoes, and now they are looking to move up into a higher priced, bigger shoe. Sometimes they come in and are looking to downsize. They don't have the need any more for the high heels or wing-tips. A nice pair of flip-flops is what they are yearning for. A shoe to relax in, watch the world go by in, play with the grandkids in.

I get customers who come in with cash in hand. They know what they want, when they want it, and exactly how much they are going to spend. Most of my customers by shoes on credit. Some folks know just how much credit they have, and they look for shoes accordingly. Then there are others...those who come in and really have no clue what kind of credit they have, or how much for that matter. So we spend a lot of unnecessary time looking at shoes that they might just not be ready for. Shoot, sometimes they check out shoes that they could afford three times over, but they just don't know it. So I run the credit, and we wait...With baited breath. Will NOW be the time for shoes? Or maybe this needs to wait a few months.

I try to be the best salesperson I can. I keep convenient hours for my customers, and work a lot of weekends and evening, keeping the store open in case someone needs to see a pair of shoes RIGHT NOW! I'm ok with that. I love shoes...I've had a couple great pairs in my lifetime that I will never forget. I do my best to keep my shoe distributors happy. Good advertising, the best placement I can possibly give them, and advice and direction on color, the appeal of the shoe...even maybe a thought that the shoe price MIGHT be a little high.

Sometimes, even with all this...I lose customers to the shoe guy up the road. I try not to take it personally but heck...shoes are a pretty big deal! We live in them almost every day! Shoes are my life!! What I have had to learn over time is that it probably isn't my stock of shoes or the way I'm selling them that sends customers to the competitor, but in a lot of cases...just timing. Just luck or bad luck if you will. Sometimes I will close my store because my daughter needs help with her homework, or my son wants me to catch his soccer game. And for that I feel no regret. Shoes have come and shoes will go. And my job as a salesperson might change quite a bit over the years to come. But my priorities will always remain constant. If you need the shoes that bad...you CAN get them up the street. But I gotta warn ya...they won't come with any sole!!

I'll admit it. I've become a little picky as far as houses go. I'm sure it has nothing to do with looking at hundreds of homes a year! There are times, lots of times honestly, that I will go to view a home, and come out thanking God I live where I do! Not to put down other people's choices, but that's just what it comes down to...a matter of choice. And some homes just don't do it for me. Then again, every now and then, I'll go to see a house and come home saying "that's it! We've gotta move! I've found the PERFECT home!!.

It doesn't happen much. Seems to take more and more to get me excited But there is one style of home that I am absolutely in love with. Some may say its outdated, some may just not like the style, but here goes...

Yep, the tri-level home. LOVE these! And someday, I will say goodbye to my ranch home and live in a tri-level. I'm not sure why I am so interested in this style of home. Maybe it goes back to my childhood. My parents were friends with a couple who lived in a tri-level home. We would go over to visit and I would play with their kids in the rec room downstairs. I loved the house. It had an open, airy feel. It offered privacy with the bedrooms being upstairs, a more formal feel on the main level with a large living room and dining area, and then a great family space downstairs, with a huge rec room, office and a bar. The perfect spot for entertaining, super bowl games, sleepovers and more.

I guess that's where my real estate career really started. My interest in that home and its architectural style. I recall many homes that stuck in my mind as a child, for one reason or another. One home impressed me because there were steps up to the master bath. Another I can recall from when I was REALLY young, like about 4; I remember the home had tile in the living room, and I just thought that was the cat's meow!

I just think of the tri-level as the ultimate family home, and that is where my heart is, with family. Not pretentious. Space for everyone and every occasion. Open design so no one is ever out of yelling reach. Perfection.

That's MY idea of a dream home. So, whats yours???