Sassy Skelton

Continueing on with fun Fall things to do, this weekend and next is the annual Fall Festival in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Barring an early mountain snow in the next 2 weeks the Aspens should be in all their golden glory making even the drive up worthwhile.

The festival is over the next 2 weekends and features wine and food tasting and a variety of live entertainment planned. Apparently tickets are required to partake in the food and wine tasting. Tickets are $25.00 and available here.

For more information, visit our local NBC affiliate KOAA by clicking here.

A visit to any news website lists numerous stories on how the continuing plunge in the stock market is attributed to the ever tightening credit crunch. And it is spreading globally.

What does it mean to you the home seller?

It means that in addition to having a lot of competition on the market, the number of potential home buyers looking at your property with a mortgage in hand becomes smaller. Lenders have less credit available to lend. That translates to fewer buyers getting qualified. And that means fewer opportunities to sell your property.

What is a seller to do?

Not only is your PRICE important, the way your home presents becomes more and more critical. You need the first impression to be the RIGHT impression or the buyer will pass on by.

Professional home staging by STAGED RIGHT will make your home stand well above the others and improve your chances of selling sooner.

The costs of staging are almost always much less than those extra mortgage payments required as you wait and wait for a buyer to stop and say "I'm home.". Help the buyer visualize themselves living in your home by staging it to SELL.

Off the topic of real estate and home staging for a moment...

A little public service tip for Colorado Voters who are planning to vote early.

Please visit this link to find early voting information including dates, times and places to cast your vote.

This is an important election year so please vote if you're registered!

IF YOU ARE VOTING BY ABSENTEE BALLOT: If you have not received your voting materials by the end of next week, you can visit www.fvap.gov for the Federal Write-In Ballot.

Either way, PLEASE do your civic duty and ensure your vote gets counted.

Now back to our regularly scheduled home staging programming!

Fall weather brings crisps nights and mild days here in Colorado. As the leave begin to change and the days grow noticeably shorter, I can't help but recall the fond memories of the trips I made with my husband to Cape Cod and the differences between a Rocky Mountain autumn and a New England fall.

In Colorado we have mostly the golden colors of the Aspen trees here in Colorado with their striking contrast with the green of the various pine trees. However, Cape Cod is graced with a firestorm of color due to the larger variety of tree types native to the area. The road out the arm that is the Cape is lined with trees of orange, red, yellow, purple and brown leaves. It just ‘feels' like fall.

At the end of the Cape is a treasure of a town called Provincetown, or P-town by most locals. P-town is an eclectic artsy town renowned for its surrounding beaches, local artists, art galleries, and theater companies. The high street, called Commercial Street, is a mostly pedestrian street lined with unique and interesting shops sell all varieties of items.

If you ever make it to P-town in the fall or any other season, one NOT TO BE MISSED destination ought to be Ross' Grill. Located off of Commercial Street above the Whaler's Warf shops, Ross' Grill offers excellent food and wine in an intimate and romantic setting. The restaurant is relatively small and features a bar and dining area with views into the kitchen where the chef's work preparing a variety of offered meals.

The restaurant offers a deck overlooking Provincetown Harbor where you can relax with a glass of fine wine while waiting for your table. Ross' Grill is a ‘must-do' destination for us whenever we make it back to the Cape, or even for a drive from Boston. In fact, my husband asked me to marry him during dinner one special summer night several years ago. It's a special place, and while there are MANY very good restaurants to choose from in P-town, I highly recommend you check out Ross' Grill next time you're nearby.

Changing LINKS

Just to share with the locals that according to my husband's cube-mate who lives in Florrissent, the Aspens should be near their peak this weekend in the Woodland Park and Cripple Creek areas.

We plan to drive up this weekend somethime and will follow up with pictures if we do. Calling for some weather late on Sunday and the mention of SNOW in the forecast later next week may mean this coming weekend will be the best opportunity.

I recently had a request for some additional information or suggestions on 'where' exactly to go to see the aspens. Here are a couple of suggestions, bearing in mind that we haven't driven up yet.

From Colorado Springs:

Hwy 24 through Ute Pass to Woodland Park. From here there are a couple of options:

- From Woodland Park, take Hwy 67 North to where it joins on Hwy105 South. Hwy 105 eventually takes you to Palmer Lake where you can either pick a direction on I-25 or continue East on 105 to connect to Hwy 83.

- continue out 24W to Hwy67 South (towards Cripple Creek). Great drive. If the weather is good and you have the time, Mueller State Park will be on your right and a great place for some hiking and a picnic. (Fees to enter $5 I think). Carry on to Cripple Creek. Numerous places to pull off and take pictures. You can either turn back at Cripple Creek or carry on further.

-- One drive we've done in the past has been to take Phantom Canyon Road all the way to Hwy50. This is a gravel road but seems to be passible for cars as well as SUVs. There is a loop back road we've never taken called Shelf Road. The Round Trip from Cripple Creek is 65 miles or so with breathtaking scenery.

- WARNING: Shelf Road isn't for the faint hearted. Shelf Road is less maintained and considered by most sources to require 4x4 to traverse. Here are some links for more information:

• Shelf Road Review on Travel Advisor
• Great Review with PICTURES!
• Details and a MAP here!

Hopefully we get out there too!