A Little R&R--Our Trip to Long Beach Washington My hubby, Larry  and I wanted to try something new for our annual tryst to the Pacific Coast to celebrate his birthday and our anniversary.  This time, we decided to embark on a trip to Long Beach Washington, about an hour and a half from our Fishhawk Lake home.  Little did we know that our trip, planned a couple of months ago, would happen to land on the couple of days that 90 mile per hour winds would be hitting the very area where we would be staying on the beach!!! A little drama, OH YEAH! We managed to arrive during the calm-before-the-storm. We headed to a place called the Inn at Discovery Coast. I read about it on Trip Advisor and it had good reports, which is what I do when I head to great places that I want to support. (They don't... 12/13/2014

Inspection in Long Beach, WA a few years back revealed something very interesting... upon entry into the crawl space there was a fine dust, but it wasn't dust that appeared to have come from wood.  Looking up, all we could see was aluminum faced foam insulation.  While the inspection process typically doesn't "disturb insulation", as the Standards of Practice say, there was something that didn't seem right and our curiosity got the better of us.  We pulled back the facing to reveal thousands of Carpenter Ants which had decided to take up residence in the foam insulation.     09/10/2011

A day at the beach For the first time this year, here in Cowlitz County, we are experiencing the wonderful weather the kid have been waiting for. Since it was over 70 degrees on Sunday, we decided to take a trip to the Beach, Long Beach Washington to be exact. A lot of people just playing around, flying kites, having fun with kids, dogs and some just relaxing, enjoying the sunshine. It turn out to be a great ride down there, the kid had lots of fun burying themselves in the sand and playing with the dog and  even though the water was cold they still went in for a swim. As you could imagine, they are eager looking forward to do this again in the coming summer and having a lot of fun.   04/06/2009

We hear it so often...we see it on our fax cover sheets, on the back of our business cards, are told that we have to build our business by referral, and we should never be too busy for them...I could go on if I thought longer, but I won't. I love them (or heart them, however you prefer) too!  I got a call on Sunday from a Realtor in New York.  her brother-in-law is moving to the coast and needs an agent....I'm on it honey!  Oh, crap!  I just realized I haven't called her back to let her know that we've made contact and he will be WELL taken care of.  THAT, is the point of my post!  Let me take a moment to call her now. You see, this agent found me because she sees that I am doing a lot of activity in my neck of the woods.  That is how I search for an agent to refer to as well, if I don'... 10/01/2008

I am pretty excited and proud of myself after hearing from my broker this morning that I rank among the top 3 agents in the county according to our MLS.  The frustrating part is trying to figure out what statistics the ranks were based on.  The one thing I have figured out is that it is nearly possible to rank yourself any way you want to depending on what information you search by.  If I search ONLY residential sales in the past 6 months in our area, I rank number 1.  If I search residential AND condominium sales, I drop to number 3, BUT ONLY when you search by dollar volume!  If you search by number of listings, I jump back up to number 1!  Very interesting...I'm sure it all has to do with my bank repo's and that I will dual agency a bank repo in a heartbeat...but,hey! I don't mind be... 09/22/2008

Our local high school's soon-to-be-newest alumni came around yesterday looking for yearbook ad sponsors.  I was thinking of buying a small or medium sized ad and encouraging our nations youngest and brighteset stars to begin their financial future by purchasing a home...what better way to begin then going in with 3 or 4 buddies and buying a house rather than renting one for 4 years of college?  I'm in a small community so I probably would be encouraging purchases outside of my coverage area...but referrals are great!  Wonder what I should concentrate the bullet points on?  Getting a referral to your mortgage professional would be a good one probably...it is so easy to be taken advantage of! 09/19/2008

I spent the most beautiful weekend showing property and washing my windows...sometimes I wonder, "Can we just skip Monday?".  But thankfully it is a beautiful Monday as well, and allthough it was a succesfull weekend with 2 new buyer prospects (one already a homeowner), I'm feeling a little lost in the office.  Perhaps it was all that sun hitting me in the face through my sparkling windows this morning!  I keep thinking that I want to make my list for tomorrow and head out for the rest of the day.  And as I type, I see a bank of clouds headed our way so that must mean I should stay here and work.  Foiled again! 09/15/2008