Roswell Georgia Real Estate Agent - Nancy Rivera

Yesterday, around 6am, a fierce storm tore through Roswell and East Cobb county - my area of town. It hit other parts of Georgia as well. It's estimated that there was $10 million in damages throughout the state. Many homes were damaged as trees were uprooted or snapped and fell on them. There were injuries but I have not heard of any deaths, thank G-d.

As many of you know, I work at night (midnight - 8am) at AT&T and sell Real Estate during the day. Between 6 and 6:30am, I heard the rain pounding on the windows in the Data Center where I work in Alpharetta. It was kind of scary but it only lasted for maybe 15 minutes and then it was over.

At 8am, I left the Data Center to go home, walk the dog and then head on over to my RE/AX office in East Cobb County. There were trafic lights out in several places along my route making traffic terrible. I also saw where trees had snapped and fallen in the road on Mansell between Hwy 9 and Crossville Road. The debris was still there but thank goodness, the tree trunks that had fallen were moved off of the street.

I finally got to the entrance to my subdivision and was relieved to see no damage as I drove through to the back of my community where my house is. Then I got to my street. My mouth dropped open. The only tree that fell in the entire subdivision was the one that had once stood in my front yard!

My neighbor, JR, was clipping the branches off of the top of the tree that was laying in the street to make room for cars to get by.

Yep, I was lucky. The tree split and fell into the street away from the house. It even missed the mailbox!

I am also lucky to have such wonderful and helpful neighbors. I am so glad that I chose this neighborhood to live in.

This picture was taken while standing in my garage looking out

I called my insurance company to see what my deductible was. $1000. I would not be making a claim!

Then I Googled "tree removal roswell georgia" and got a long list of companies to get estimates from. I also called some friends, neighbors and my broker to get names of people they've used before. I called all that I got references for and then a couple that I found online. All were licensed and insured - that was very important to me. Everyone that I called was busy removing trees off of houses. They wouldn't be able to come over and give me an estimate until late in the day or until the next morning. I understood.

So now it's the next day. I have several estimates ranging from $350 to over $650. Thats a big range considering they'd all be doing the exact same thing. Cutting up the tree, cutting down what was left standing, grinding the stump and roots and then carrying it all away.

I'm choosing the cheapest but not because he was the cheapest. The owner of C&M Tree Service (referred to me by my broker at RE/MAX Leading Edge) will not only do what everyone else said they'd do, but he will cut some of the tree into firewood for me and also let me keep the chips to mulch parts of my backyard. I don't know if he'll be here this after noon or tomorrow morning. I'm waiting for him to call me back.

While I'm waiting... I'll take you back to yesterday and some pictures.

This is what I saw as I approached my house.

And then I got a little closer.

The view from my driveway.

I eventually looked in the back yard to make sure that no trees had fallen there, too.

All trees were standing but it looks like the chairs on my patio got thrown across the yard!

I have 2 neighbors that each have 2 boys.
They all loved playing in the 'jungle gym' that the storm left behind.
It fightened me to think that they could fall off or get stuck in the branches so their play time was very short.

Marshall with C&S just called. He'll be here in 20 min.
I'll write more later about the clean-up and post some 'after' pictures.

I went to a Super Bowl Party yesterday in Horseshoe Bend. It's a Golf and Country Club Community that sits next to the Chattahoochee River in Roswell Georgia. It had been a few months since I've driven through that subdivision and I'd forgotten how beautiful it is. It is so beautiful, that I just might have to blog about it some time soon. But for now.... I want to blog about yesterday's Super Bowl Party.

The party was hosted by Danny Thornton and Rich Dansereau,
ActiveRain Members that work in the Atlanta Area
for Home America Mortgage.

Hubby and I got there early so I could put
together the appetizer that I prepared.

We were greeted at the door by Rich who was surrounded by 5 beautiful girls that I will introduce later.

We walked into a house that was warm and inviting.... wonderful smells were coming from the huge open kitchen. Bubbling on the stove were 2 dutch ovens filled with some kick- a** chilim loaded with beans, meat and fresh tomatoes. In a very large crock pot was a wonderful vegetarian chili. Both chili's were made from scratch and served with Fritos, shredded cheese and sour cream. As Rachael Ray would say... YUMMO!
There were also platters of chips, smoky links and dips everywhere!

I brought spinach-artichoke dip in a bread bowl (pictured above) and Linda Futral brought some very yummy cheesecake bites. ==============>
Not one was left over. :-)

As other's joined the party, more food arrived. Someone brought a Vidallia-onion/cheese something or other that was to be spread on garlic toast points. OH MY... that was delicious! Someone else brought wings, there were brownies and veggies and I'm sure other wonderful snacks that I just can't remember. We all ate and when 6pm rolled around we were firmly planted in our seats waiting for the kick-off.

I was happy camper through the game as New England was ahead (Disclaimer: My family is from New England so that is where my loyalties were for this game).

We had fun watching the infamous Super Bowl Commercials and at Half-Time we got to eat again! I was even happier at the end of the game - didn't really matter who won - because the final score made me a winner! Cha-Ching!




Linda and I stayed after everyone else had gone home and helped cleanup just a little.
As much as we all ate, there were actually leftovers!
I think I know what our hosts had for lunch today! LOL

All-in-all I do believe that everyone enjoyed themselves.

Brande - we missed you.
You and I and Linda will have to have our own little get-together soon.

Oh Yeah... Those beautiful girls that met me at the door with Rich..... All dogs! At the risk of being silly - I'm going to post their pictures too. They wormed their way into all of our hearts - and laps. haha I'm also adding some pics of other party goers. WARNING: I can't figure out the red-eye removal for my camera - sorry.

Our calendar is meant to track a Solar year and after 4 years, those 4 extra 1/4 days add up.  The reason we have a Leap Year is to allow the calendar to catch up to the solar year.  February 29th, Leap Day, is added to the calendar every 4 years.

But wait....This still doesn't quite add up.  The exact length of a solar year is actually 11 minutes and 14 seconds less than 365 ¼ days. So Part II of correcting the calendar is to omit Leap Year 3 times every 400 years.

I got the scoop from a site called  Leap Year 101.  It was a pretty interesting article.

So what does this have to do with Real Estate....  
Well, it means that you have an extra day this year to buy and / or sell a house! 

So get moving! 

I'm available to assist you in the Roswell, Alpharetta and surrounding areas in Georgia. 
Call me anytime. 
404-229-8721

John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods are stepping up to the plate in the Atlanta area.
From Friday, Jan. 25th through Sunday, Feb. 3rd, they are offering what they are calling a "Sale of a Lifetime"

Every home in every John Wieland Homes Neighborhood will be on sale. Bonus dollars up to $100,000 will be given to buyers and can be applied to closing costs if they chose to go through Wieland Financial Services. They can also be applied to either reduce the cost of the house or for design extras.

On top of that, anyone who buys during this time frame will receive a lifetime structural warranty on their John Wieland home, for as long as they own the property.

If you'd like more information or would like to see a home in one of the John Wieland Homes, please call Nancy Rivera, Your Roswell Georgia Real Estate Agent.

Nancy Rivera
RE/MAX Leading Edge
RoswellGaRealtor@gmail.com
RoswellGaRealtor.GeorgiaMLS.com
NancyRivera.Remax.com
404-229-8721 (Direct)

Tomorrow is supposed to be a balmy 60° day. So unlike the weather we had just a week ago.
Just 9 days ago, the weatherman said it was going to snow in Roswell Georgia.
And, snow, it did.

A cold rainy and snowy day calls for a big pot of soup, dontcha think?
So the first thing I did that Saturday morning was go to the grocery store.
It was only 8:15am and the parking lot at my local Publix was full. Seems like the whole town was there buying milk and bread and whatever else they could before the streets got slick and they couldn't drive any where.

I bought all the ingredients that I needed to make a big pot of Sweet and Sour Cabbage soup with Flanken.
I got home to find Hubby snoozing on the couch so I put the groceries away as quietly as I could.
While making room in the fridge I came across 2 tubs of cookie dough that I bought from one of the neighborhood kids. So much for the soup. I decided to make cookies for breakfast instead. LOL

Six dozen cookies later it was snowing.

Poochie Neisa decided she wanted out. So Hubby and I bundled up. Hubby grabbed the leash, I grabbed the camera, we both grabbed umbrellas and off we went.

On our walk, we saw one of the neighbor's kids watching the snow through their storm door. I went over and told his mom about my baking. She bundled the boys up and they all came over. Cookies for all of us.

And then it was time to play.

We played in my back yard.....

This is Stephanos getting ready to toss a snowball to Neisa. She was so funny. She could not find the snowball after it hit the ground so she just nose dived into the snow and came up with a mouthful!

This is Stephanos and his brother Christos.

After eating about a dozen cookies each, they ran circles in my backyard trying hard to keep landing in the same footsteps each time.

We played in my front yard .....

This is Christos throwing snowballs at my mailbox.

He's got a pretty good arm for a first grader!

And then we all ended up in the cul-de-sac with our other neighbors children, Olivia and Christopher.

They're Tennessee fans. Can you tell?

Snowball fights and snowmen.

We all had a blast.

Here are a few more scenic pictures taken from my driveway...