Virginia Tatseos

These feet are made for walking and that's what I'm doing.

The reason for our trip to DC was, http://activerain.com/blogsview/523831/Birmingham-Bloomfield-winners,and my husband and I turned it into a weeklong historical tour of DC and Virginia.

I haven't been able to take long walks for many years. In Oct., when I broke my foot, my foot has been in an air cast or surgical shoe lasting 6 ½ months.

That was earlier post.

Enjoy some of the photos of DC.

Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

World WarII Memorial

World War II Memorial

Once a year the police from all over the country meet to honour the police who were killed in action.

Museum Photos

This looks like Donald Duck to me

Face only a monther could love

This is art

Or is it?

looks like clothes hangers to me

This is all of DC

The next posts will be on the other 5 days of walking.

My Thanks to Dr Tad Sprunger in Troy Michigan for giving me my walk back :-)

My Uncle passed away in Ormond Beach in February.  

 I did a post on that earlier.

My sister and I arrived there as soon as we could to say our good-bys and do the family thing of looking for photos, memories and papers.

A month later we learned: 

Much to our surprise, we inherited the house because my brothers & sisters & I are the closets living relatives.

 This "forced" us to go to Ormond Beach again prepare the house.

Those of you who follow my posts know that I specialize in Estate work here in Michigan.  The process usually takes a few weeks with my team to organize, have an estate sale or donate to charity and prepare the house by staging.

This time, we had to look for all the items that a PR looks for, donate, clean and stage in ONE week. We intended to hire out the cleaning and staging.  The reason we didn't is a long story and would be one whole posting.

 

My uncle was a bachelor again since 1992 and the house showed it.  His touches were evident.

Here are my "before' and "after" photos of my uncle's Florida home

The cost of purchased staging materials was $200

These are adorable and were replaced with plain white ones. I know my friend Marianne would approve.

 

 

 

 

 

The office "before" photos have disappeared from my system

after

 

Dining Room

The big piece of art is now in the family room

 

 Family Room "before" have disappeared too. Darn it

After

The large art work from the dining room is on the left wall

 

 

These six are before of the Living Room.

The X-Mas tree has been there for years

 

 

 

 

 After

 

 

This is all we could do in a week. 

I'm working now with a stager in Florida to finish the job. 

 

 

Clean Sweep weekend continues this weekend to co-inside with Earth Day.

The snow hides so many things and when it thaws the cities can look pretty bad.

Over 500 residents sign up to clean up after the winter. The township gives the volunteers bags for the trash and yard wastes. Subdivisions clean up their front entries and get them ready for the spring flowers that are trying to poke thru the ground.

The day is perfect for it. The sun was shining with little hints that we might be getting a little rain in the afternoon.

These photos were taken at the entrance of the Hickory Gove Sub. in Bloomfield Township.

The township worker was delivering yard waste bags to the drop off points for those who needed more.

Helping to protect our environment, Bloomfield Township has offered residents an additional service. Today April 19,2008 with proof of residency, the township hosted a site for droping off Electronics, paper shredding and Medication Disposal.

The event coincides with Earth Day and Clean Sweep activities.

At last count over 450 cars drove thru the line dropping off their items

Cars were lined up from early morning to drop off their items

The system is great. Pull up and items are taken from the vehicles

Shredding vehicle

Volunteers help take items out of the vehicles and sort them

Old medicines that many of us would throw in the trash or back into the water system.

There was also a container for diabetic items.

The volunteeer pharmacist said one of the bottles was about 50 years old. Darn it -- I would have sold it on ebay.

These boxes are the old eletronic equipment.

It's wonderful

The norm was to get the listings of the office on ditto sheets that we put into a binder. We had no idea what the competition had until 'tour' day.

Shortly there after we had the MLS books. A new one every two weeks. WOW The book was old the day it was printed.

Shortly there after we went electronic. We had the MLS on line and down loadable to our lap tops.

The norm keeps changing.

Once online we could put A photo of the listings

Shortly thereafter we could could put multiple photos That became the norm

Then OH MY GOD we had virtual tours. That took awhile to become the new norm.

All of these have helped the consumer. Both buyers and sellers.

The NEW NORM should be staging. It's coming along slowly. When will it become the new norm?

It's human nature to look at change and wonder will this really help or is this a gimmick.

Are sellers and agents still wondering if what we do is best?

We sell properties faster and for more money. Give it a try with a PROFESSONAL