Portugal Cove, NL

91 Skinners Road Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Newfoundland is SOLD.

Announcing the sale of this beautiful single family home in Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Newfoundland. The closing is due March 11, 2010. A very nice young couple is purchasing their first home and are looking forward to getting settled in the very near future.

The vendor is delighted with the new owners and is especially happy to now have a purchase and sale agreement in place so she can complete her move to the new home she has built. She is looking forward to taking care of just one home instead of two.

This all came about through my online marketing system and utilizing the power the Multiple Listing Service. The home was listed on over 50 unique websites on the internet, posted to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Greg's Real Estate Blog, and through my personal networking and corporate internal marketing efforts.

There have been over 2700 views from one website, over 78 Realtor views, over 1200 purchaser views from the MLS, over 15 on site viewings, and I have handled many phone calls and email requests.

If you would like to have your home marketed with one of the most cutting edge marketing programs today, give me a call. Its what I love to do and I would be happy to help you achieve your real estate goals too!

Remember, SOLD feels so good!

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About the Author: R. Greg Osmond is a Platinum Award winning Realtor dedicated to serving the people of St. John's, Mount Pearl, Paradise, Kilbride, Goulds, Conception Bay South (CBS), Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Torbay- Flatrock- Pouch Cove, and Logy Bay - Middle Cove - Outer Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador. For over 21 years Greg has been practicing in Real Estate. He can be reached at 709-895-2500.

Want to get in touch? Email rgosmond1@gmail.com. For more information, please visit http://www.rgregosmond.com. Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for helping my clients with buying and selling real estate! If there is any way I can be of service to you today, please feel free to contact me!

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I came home on Monday to a strange and desperate sound emanating from my wood stove. I was startled to hear the steel liner in the chimney bellowing a scratching sound and a rapid machine gun fire as though a Wood Pecker was trying to burrow into metal. There was no mistaking it. Something was inside the pipe.

On one other occasion about three years ago our wood stove managed to snag a Starling that found it’s way down the chimney and stage left at the elbow. I delicately retrieved it from the firebox and the little bird remained quite docile on our deck for several minutes before heading for the trees. But this time it was different.

As it turned out the wayward victim was not a Starling but a Northern Flicker. I didn’t know at first it was one of those beautiful birds. I just thought we had another Starling. So my son and I removed the stove pipe and discovered that this frantic creature was not in the wood stove at all but had gone down to the base of the chimney. It was unable to fly upward toward the hole where the stove pipe joined the chimney.

The only way to extricate the bird was remove the clean-out at the bottom and see if it would fly out from there. The chimney needed to be cleaned out anyway so it was good timing. We began digging out the soot that had collected at the base of the clean-out and it was not long before the anxious bird was hurtling itself toward the light and thankfully into the clear plastic leaf bag that I had placed around the opening.

Once I had the bird safely secured inside, I removed the bag from the house and opened it to the blue sky. The Flicker bolted forward and flew frantically toward the forest without even looking back to say thanks. Because they are very timid birds, rarely will one see them sitting around in a tree. It must have been quite traumatic for the little fellow to be right in my hands.

When I saw how fast it flew away I couldn't help but think of the phrase “Like a bat out of Hell”. Upon reflection though, a new phrase might just stand on its own to discribe a rapid exit into the wild. This one took off “like a Flicker out of a chimney”. I sure hope it passes the word around the local bird community. That black hole at the top of our house is just not a nice place to hide.

R. Greg Osmond is a Platinum Award winning Realtor serving St. John’s and surrounding areas, Newfoundland and Labrador for over 20 years and can be reached at 709-895-2500. Visit http://www.rgregosmond.com/ for further information.

When my wife and I built our new home in Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Newfoundland, twenty-four years ago we were enthusiastic gardeners.  Borderline hobby farmers we were.  Like any young couple taking on the world, we planted a garden on the grandparents land even before we had been married to enjoy watching the seedlings sprout and await with anticipation the delicious flavour of our own fresh carrots in the fall. 

When we finished building our house in 1985 the next project we jumped into was building a pressure treated wood frame greenhouse covered with 10 ml polyethylene for growing tomatoes.  It was not long before we were delighted with our own fresh tomato sandwiches made with home made bread, tomato quiche and garden salads with chunks of Big Reds.  We loved it!  Who wouldn't?

As several years have passed, our early enthusiasm for gardening has lost the race with functional pragmatism.  Raising our family, increasing workloads and a multitude of life’s pressures have pruned our gardening endeavors down to maintaining a few perennial bushes, spading in a few flowers around the yard and picking all the berry bushes throughout the summer.  Our hot house has returned to its naked pressure treated frame undressed of its plastic covering.

Often I have thought how nice it would be to cover it again and grow those delicious tomatoes but alas, it sits through the Newfoundland elements somewhat purposeless and forlorn.  I too have felt its pain as no longer do I get to enjoy the fresh flavor of home grown tomatoes.  Instead I must consume those tasteless substitutes, mass produced for the market.  With due respect to farmers, those red mush balls sold in the supermarkets just do not measure up to one’s own garden variety no matter how round they make them.

About five years ago we began feeding the local bird community free of charge.  It seems all the little members agreed that the arrangement was a good one though my wife and I have on occassion had discussions about what amount is affordable.  A hand crafted bird feeder on the deck post and the V shaped trough atop of the greenhouse wall has made an ideal place to serve up the smorgasbord of seeds. 

Now each day we have a steady stream of birds native to Newfoundland that visit our greenhouse.  For its part, the new role of feeding the birds and providing shelter among the raspberry canes within has been happily embraced. It has become a veritable restaurant for the birds.  I am not sure it will qualify as feeding the poor on the final day of reckoning but I figure it can't hurt since God knows when even one little sparrow falls. 

Here are a few of our little friends who have benefited from the demise of our enthusiastic gardening ambitions.  Below are a Blue Jay, a couple of Juncos, a Nuthatch, two Pine Siskins and a White Throat Sparrow.  If you look closely you will see a Junco in flight and a White Throat Sparrow messing up the garden floor.  There are many others but perhaps I will share them on another day.