Sassy Skelton

I just received an email pointing me to this YouTube video about the proposed 1A sales tax increase. I thought it worth the added exposure to present some information about how the County and City got to where they are today....atleast accourding to SavetheSprings founder Dave Gardner. Certainly a bit of humor mixed in with the message....

While recently checking out the latest news in home staging, I came across this article that appeared in the Rocky Mountain News. Bearing in mind that the article was written in 2006 when the housing market was still competitive, but not nearly as competitive as it is today in 2008.

The story and its findings are even more relevant today all across the country. There are a LOT of homes on the market and competition is high across all price ranges. Professional Home Staging can make a difference and more realtors are offering home staging as a service to their sellers. Consistent with today's prices, the article states that home stagers in Denver charge around '0.75 percent to 1.25 percent of the sales price...it will cost about $3,000 to stage a $300,000 house.'

One Denver home stager, Mary Beth Goodspeed, owner of Upstairs Downstairs Inc., is shown to have estimated that a third to 60 percent of the homes in the Denver area priced above $250k were being staged in 2006. That number is atleast the same in 2008, if not higher.

Stager Erica Starich of Star Interior Solutions said it is a small price to pay, especially in Denver's tough home-sales market. "It's cheaper than one price reduction," she said.

In the Colorado Springs area, home staging by Staged Right can give you an advantage over the competition at an affordable price.

As I stated in an 'update' to my May Farms pumpkin patch post, we headed up to Byers yesterday from Colorado Springs but went the back way, up thru Kiowa and Bennett instead of taking I-25 to I-70. Beautiful day, pictures will be uploaded later to the May Farms post, but along the way, we got gas in Kiowa, Colorado for....wait for it....

$2.59!!!!!

It was actually $2.69 on the way up, but 4 hours later the price had come down another $.10! Still about $2.99 at the Safeway near Falcon, but felt good to fill up for a few dollars less!

Have a good rest of your Sunday!

Of all the various Fall and Halloween things to do and see in Colorado, the Emma Crawford Coffin races in nearby Manitou Springs has to be one of the more unique and fun events that I am aware of so far.

This year marks the 14th annual race and festival and happens on Saturday October 25th. In addition to the coffin races that give the event its name, there is also a parade, an "Emma" judging contest as well as food and of course shopping the local stores along Manitou Avenue. All events start at 12 o'clock noon!

According to Findagrave.com,

"Emma Crawford lived in Manitou Springs, CO, at the turn of the 20th century. Sadly Emma died quite young, just before she was to marry Mr. Hildebrand, an engineer on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. Emma was laid to rest on top of Red Mountain. After years of stormy weather on the granite mountain, the granite gave way and Emma's remains were washed down the side of Red Mountain. Emma was later buried in Crystal Valley Cemetery in Manitou Springs in an unmarked grave. An official grave site was granted to her in 2004 to honor her life. Every year in late October, Manitou Springs remembers this beautiful young woman who loved the color red with an Annual Emma Crawford Coffin Race and Festival. The day-long celebration begins with a coffin race in the town's National Historic District and is followed by a Parade of Hearses and Coffins and a lantern-lit walking tour."

For more information about the festival click here!

Happy Halloween!

Today is the observance of Columbus Day.

Being British, some US holidays are still quite new to me, so I thought I'd do a little research into what exactly Columbus Day is and some history of the holiday. While I knew that the holiday was an observance of the discovery of the America's by Christopher Columbus, I did not know that the holiday was observed in countries besides the United States.

A few of the things I've discovered today:

• Columbus Day officially became a US Holiday in 1934.
• Columbus Day is also celebrated in much of Latin America, Costa Rica, the Bahamas and Spain
• Hawaii does not consider today Columbus Day but celebrate 'Discovery Day' in honor of not only Columbus, but also James Cook (who sailed from my native Whitby in North Yorkshire!)
• Columbus Day is still fairly controversial amongst native peoples of the countries 'discovered' by Columbus.
• Columbus Day was originally a largely a day of Italian-American cultural celebration.
• Last but not least, Denver Colorado is home of the longest running parade in the United States, its annual Columbus Day Parade.
  • NOTE: parade was apparently on Saturday
  • This year marked the 101st Columbus Day Parade
  • I thought the better known Macy's parade was the oldest but this year marks the 82nd

Who knew, eh?