Emily Lowe - Nashville, TN Realtor

I had one of the smoothest closings ever yesterday.

In Davidson County, Nashville's Downtown Area offers a variety of cool places to live. Edgy, urban and contemporary, they offer a very trendy home environment at a very reasonable price!

Just check out this place in Nashville's Hope Gardens, near the Farmer's Market and the Bicentennial Mall, with a GREAT view of Downtown!

Enter Ireland Street:

Built in 2004, with over 1600 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, not to mention loads of windows, a deck viewing downtown and a garage as well!

Check out this cool kitchen!

And the open living space:

What about the little Loft in the Master Suite? See the ladder behind the door? Cool!

Congrats - Sally!!!! Welcome home!

For those of you wanting to live on Ireland Street, well there is one more listing there - and it is a foreclosure, so hurry! (ssshhhhh, it has an unbelievable price!!)

For more information on Downtown Nashville Living, please contact Emily Lowe at 615.509.1753. This post is copyrighted by Emily Lowe 2008.

... I'd be getting the gold medal for July Sales!

Pardon the "gloat" blog, but it's a first for me and I want to celebrate it!

Now if I can do it, anybody can, so get out there and help some people live their dreams!

We are all aware of it. We are all living in it and with it. What is IT?

THE HOUSING CRISIS!!!

Now fortunately (if you live in the Lipscomb area of Green Hills), our Davidson County market has held fairly steady with maybe just a slight decline in price value - especially in the non-remodeled homes.

So, whether you are planning on staying in your home for a while or if you are wanting to put your house on the market and get the highest value possible, a remodel is a good idea.

BUT WAIT!!!

Not just ANY remodel will do!

This Blog Series will go through each one of the possible remodels you could do and give you estimates of what to spend to get the biggest bang for your buck!

Let's start with the KITCHEN REMODEL!!!

The kitchen is where we spend a LOT of our time eating and generally living as a family. Very important room in the home!

If you are going to improve your kitchen - great idea, by the way - and you live in Nashville's Green Hills / David Lipscomb area, you are probably residing in a ranch home built in the 1940s.

On your kitchen remodel, definitely do the following fixes if they have not already been done:

• Upgrade those outdated cabinets! Seriously, don't just paint your old ones - this will not give you the greatest return on your money.
• Upgrade your counter tops - granite is good, but it is also becoming so common now that you can even do other natural stones or concrete, but stay away from laminates!
• Update your flooring - tile is better than vinyl - travertine will also give you a good return - if you have hardwood in the kitchen, refinish them if they are looking shabby.

And here's the kicker (drum roll please) - how much to spend: (I feel like Kendra on "My House is Worth What?)

All told, please don't spend more than $20,000. You will be going overboard and most likely will not get what you have put into it. And to get the MOST out of what you spend, try to stay closer to $10,000! You would be surprised how great a $10K remodel will look!

Oh... if you are going to spend the full $20K, be sure and use some of it towards a designer who knows what they are doing. A good designer can actually save you a lot of money when it comes to ordering the correct materials and suggesting ways to keep the budget low.

Be sure to look for the second part of the series - THE MASTER SUITE REMODEL!

So most of us in Nashville heard about Will Hoge's accident in East Nashville on Main Street this past week.  Being a fan of Will Hoge's music, I was saddened to hear that he is in critical condition after his scooter and a van collided.  I am glad to know that he will be ok and that there was no head trauma and I wish him well.

When I heard about the accident, I had some pretty sobering thoughts. 

I don't know Will Hoge personally.  But it seems to me that he was attempting to do something good for the environment (whether it be due to pocketbook or truly for a "cause"), and he paid a price for it - and still is - and will be for a while. 

Perhaps we all need to take more risks for our world around us.  Life is (obviously) precious and we never know what could happen in the next moment.  But let's not go down without a fight!

Click on some links below to find out more about what we can each do --- but safety first, people!

http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/motorcycle-accidents.shtml

http://www.carbonfund.org/

http://www.hybridcars.com/

http://www.neoscooters.com/

Meet Patricio, Nashville's Most Modern Cowboy, riding his electric bike through Hillsboro Village in front of the very famous (and yummy) Pancake Pantry!

He was on his way to, what else, a gig!

I was sitting at the light at Hillsboro Road and Wedgewood/Blakemore and spotted him riding his bike.

I just had to pull my car over and ask him if I could take his pic. I personally think he should be selected for "You're So Nashville if..." contest.

Here's his entry:

You're so Nashville if you ride your electric bike through Hillsboro Village on your way to a gig with your cowboy hat, cowboy boots and black Wranglers on!!!

Thank you for the pleasure of meeting you, Patricio!!!