John Coley

One of the great things about working around Lake Martin is that occasionally you bump into some really crazy folks. The other day I met Kyle Walton and a bunch of his buddies who are professional wakeskaters and /or wake boarders.

click here to watch the video on my blog Lake Martin Voice

My family recently moved to a new-to-us home (fyi my “old” home sold in 2 days). The new home is on a septic tank system, whereas the old one was tied in to the sewer system of the City of Montgomery. This got me to thinking about a claim my father has long made, that is, those “flushable” wipes they sell these days may be flushable, but they are bad for septic systems as they do not properly disintegrate like toilet paper does.

I did some research, then an experiment. The results made me immediately think about homeowners on Lake Martin, as I would hazard a guess that 99% of waterfront homes on Lake Martin are on some sort of septic system.

THE EXPERIMENT: Do “flushable” wipes degrade like toilet paper?

Modus: Following the suggestion from this site, I took 3 separate Tupperware boxes, filled them halfway with water. In one I placed a ball of our walmart brand toilet paper (as a control to disintegration). In another I put 1 walmart brand flushable wipe. In the last I put 1/2 a square of our walmart brand paper towel (as a control to non-disintegration). I put the tops on, and shook all of them vigorously.

Results:

Click here for my blog Lake Martin Voice to see the results, and read my tounge in cheek recommendations to deal with life on septic......

In the November issue of Lake Magazine - Lake Martin Edition - Nikki Reeves sent out an email to interview local real estate agents. The topic was the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Lake Martin Area Association of Realtors (LMAAR). She also interviewed the past presidents of LMAAR about the past, present, and future of the Lake Martin real estate area. You can click on the above link to read the other folks’ quotes.

Of course, I am never shy about supplying my honest thoughts. I sent an email to Nikki with the below. The part that she used is highlighted in yellow. After reading the article, I can see why she didn’t use the other parts of my quotes. They wouldn’t have fit in with the tenor and tack of the others.

Here’s the text of my email:

Nikki-

some thoughts on LMAAR’s 20th anniversary:

PAST:

“It’s a funny coincidence that 20 years ago, as LMAAR was formed, the U.S. was in the middle of a different bank bailout - the Savings and Loan Crisis. It roiled the credit industry and hammered real estate, making a lot of people panic and expect the worst and wonder if real estate would ever ‘come back.’ Well, it did. Except for a slowdown in the late 90s, real estate roared until 2005 or so.”

PRESENT:

“Hunger is a powerful motivator.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MY TAKE ON THE FUTURE - LAKE MARTIN VOICE BLOG

One of my listings for sale is 302 Villas On The Harbor, a 1 bed 1 bath condo in Lake Martin’s Stillwaters Community. The Villas On The Harbor sits right next door to Harbor Pointe Marina, and Harbor Pointe Condos.

I got a challenging email the other day from Ron Botterbusch, Broker of RB Commercial Properties in Montgomery. He said:

Click here to read what he asked on my blog Lake Martin Voice

If I drive directly to my office from home, I never glimpse Lake Martin. So sometimes (read Mondays) when I am headed to the office, and need some inspiration or a reminder about what I am really doing, I drive to Kowaliga Bridge, take in the view, and turn around refreshed. Today it was really helpful, especially after hearing so much bad news lately about the real estate industry.

If you talk to families that have owned or rented Lake Martin homes for a long time, you will never hear them say, “boy we enjoyed the lake house, except for the late 1970s’ oil crisis” or “golly, the failure of the savings and loan banks in 1987 really screwed up my weekends at Lake Martin.” Nope.

Instead I hear comments like “that lake house has been the only place I can really relax” or “my favorite pictures of our kids were the ones we took on the dock…” Somehow, during WWII, Korean War, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam War, oil quotas, 19% rates, S&L Crisis, Tech Bubble, Y2K Crisis, 9/11, Iraq …. somehow people still like their lake homes.

Did I get a cool picture of a heron or did I settle for a yellow tree?

CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY BLOG LAKE MARTIN VOICE to find out.