Nancy Conner - Olympia/Thurston County WA

Percival Landing Park in Olympia is a wonderful destination for children who want to play at a playground or adults who want to stroll along the waterfront or relax as they gaze at Budd Inlet.

There are climbing toys, slides, and spinning toys, with separate areas for the younger kids and the older. The climbing toys at Percival Landing Park give kids the chance to get pretty creative about how they move from bar to bar or along the footstool type portions, enticing both the preschoolers and the older, daring kids.

And Percival Landing Park's boardwalk and little bridge let you get up close and personal with the Budd Inlet scene, admiring boats or watching the seagulls beg for bread.

From today's vantage point of sunshine and really mild, springlike weather, I think I can look back at the pictures I took during Olympia's big snow and ice storm - and actually appreciate them. When we were in the midst of being snowbound, hearing falling trees and cracking branches all around, and wondering WHEN our power would come back on - well, I noticed the beauty of the wintry scene....but couldn't really appreciate it.

First came snow....and more snow....and still more snow. How exciting to be among the areas with the deepest accumulation in the Puget Sound area! Facebook was full of photos of everyone standing in their yards with a yardstick showing how deep their snow was.

Then came the ice storm. Hmmmm, yes it is pretty, but oh my gosh the trees and branches were encased with THICK ice. And the cracking and crashing of trees, limbs, and branches began - taking out power lines left and right. Not having quite so much fun now.

Once our power was back on, and life was feeling a bit more normal, it was time to be oh so thankful that we didn't have any real damage. (And to see if my car could make it out of the driveway yet). The broken trees look so sad, and cleanup of the mess of downed branches will take quite a while, so the current springlike weather is really, really appreciated.

I used to tell people relocating to our area that sometimes we didn't get any snow at all, and the infrequent times when we got a lot, the temperatures usually rose quickly enough to bring back our normal winter rain and wash all the snow away. But, I am realizing that this winter is the second time in the last 3 years that we got so much snow that I couldn't get out of our driveway - for several days!

Maybe I won't tell people that anymore!

But, yes....the snow was truly beautiful! (Now bring on springtime!!!)

Many of you know that the Olympia area is finally digging out from a major snowstorm, which was followed by an ice storm - and trees and branches down, power outages galore...Not exactly our usual weather pattern.

But a storm like this points out some great things for buyers to consider as they hunt for an Olympia area home:

Does the home have a heat source that does not depend on having electricity?? Woodstoves obviously can keep you warm when the power is out, but even a gas fireplace will operate and put out some heat, though the fan will not operate without power.

Is the house surrounded by large trees? You just might want to get a chain saw to take care of falling limbs. And you might even want an experienced tree service person to check out the health of your trees if they are close enough to fall on your house. The crack and whoomp noise of falling trees and branches is NOT my favorite noise to hear during the night.

Is the home on a well and or septic system? Did you know that neither of these will work if the power is out?? Being without lights is not too hard to deal with, but being without water gets old pretty quickly! You may want to consider having a generator (make sure it is properly installed by someone who knows what they are doing).

Is the home in an area that loses power first and regains it last every time there is a storm? Talk to the neighbors - they will have all the war stories of the times that they were without power for 7 days, 10 days, maybe more. Storm damage can be unpredictable, but there are some areas that pretty regularly do lose power and for longer than average.

Is it a home with neighbors nearby? Many times buyers think living in total seclusion and privacy is their desire - but in any type of weather emergency, there are distinct advantages to having neighbors. Neighbors can check on each other's welfare after a storm. Neighbors can share resources, whether it's a chain saw, some extra candles, or a battery powered radio.

Is it a home on a secondary and/or dead end road? Because the Olympia area doesn't get storms like this every year, the snow clearing equipment is much more limited than in other places in the country that have lots of snow each year. This means main roads are the priority - and secondary or neighborhood streets won't get plowed soon, if at all. And after seeing all the trees down blocking roads this time around, it doesn't hurt to give some thought to whether there is more than one route to your house in case a road is blocked by downed trees and power lines.

And snow storms like this are truly the exception not the norm for Olympia - thank goodness!

Jubilee neighborhood in Lacey, WA has a great selections of homes listed for sale currently (as of January 2012), and is also showing a healthy amount of closed or pending sales activity within the last six months.

Currently listed as available for sale:

23 homes total ranging from $ 214,900 to $ 465,900 with median asking price at $ 293,900.

There are 7 homes with sales pending. Until these sales close, the sales price is unknown, but the median list price for this group is $299,500.

And in the last 6 months, sold homes total 17. These sales ranged from $ 197,500 to $ 487,500 with a median sales price of $ 252,476.

For more information about Jubilee, you can also read:

Jubilee Neighborhood for Active Adults - Really Active

Jubilee Neighborhood Homes

Jubilee - Convenient Loation in Hawks Prairie

Snow, snow and more snow....fun and beautiful....until the ice storm follow up! Life is looking much sunnier today with our power back on and temperatures up enough that the mountain of snow is melting. Slowly but melting. What did I learn? Once power is off for long enough that the inside of the house is barely above 50 degrees and there's also no water since we 're on a well....I start to get a little whiny. But also grateful to wake up yesterday to see that none of the beautiful (and BIG) trees around our house had fallen and squished us in our sleep. We did sleep downstairs, but kept waking up to those gunshot like CRACKS that meant another branch had lost the battle with the ice weighing it down. I've never seen almost a half inch of ice encasing every branch - and beautiful as it was...I'm ok with not seeing it again - I got pictures. Our local Starbucks is a happening place once text messages and Facebook spread the word that it's open! Hot coffee - aaaaaahhhhhh. And it was an instant community of people commiserating, sharing any news of possible timing for power restoration - and every outlet busily charging cell phones, laptops, and iPads - our lifeline to friends and neighbors and power company updates. The realization that Facebook is now the fastest way to get news of what's open, who has power, where to get help if the cold is driving you crazy. Also the realization that we are sadly unprepared to weather Mother Nature's little reminders of where our control runs smack into it's limits. And the realization that we are certainly not alone. Laughing at the look on our son's little dog's face when he realized the snow was deeper than he is tall. And lots of thankfulness for the caring expressed by friends and strangers. And for power - did I mention how very much I appreciate having power?