Sunday night was date night last week and Sean wanted to try Kaptain Jimmy's .  Kaptain Jimmy's is a micro-distillery & family-friendly spot for American classics in a pirate-themed dining room.  Sounds fun, right?  I had been there once before for apps and drinks and didn't mind checking it out again.  We sat in the bar which was surprisingly uncrowded around 7:30pm during the NFL Playoffs and our service was awesome!  We're wing people and we try them wherever we go so we started with the "parrot" wings ($6.25).  The wings come paired which is perfect for us because Sean likes drums and I prefer a flat and you cannot always guarantee an even split.  For dinner I had the Kaptain's Angry Pasta ($20.99) which was sautéed chorizo, chicken, shrimp, roasted red pepper and spinach in a spicy cream sauce.  On the menu it's made with penne, but I was in the mood to twirl some noodles so I asked to sub linguini and was accommodated.  Delicious!  Sean had the Roast Beef Dip, a sandwich of slow roasted beef that took a swim in au jus with melted swiss cheese and garlic aioli ($9.95).  It came with a boat of gravy and a side of mashed potatoes.  He loved every bite.  It's a good thing we didn't make any drastic New Year's resolutions like "we're going to eat healthier".    

They have a huge beer selection and make their own vodka and rum so we also tried a few cocktails.  I definitely like their vodka!  

Kaptain Jimmy's, we'll be back!   

We found this one the very same day we started looking which was almost too fast for my client.  He had to decide if he wanted to opt out of his current lease sooner than planned so that he could lock this new rental down.  This is seriously the unicorn of apartments... If you told me about it, I would have said it didn't exist.  A spacious, two bedroom, 1.5 bath, conveniently located in Suffield with a 1 car garage, laundry in the unit and heat and water are included in the rent?  Since rentals like this are few and far between, moving sooner than he originally planned was in my client's best interest.  I hope he's as happy living here as I was to find it for him!  Congratulations on your new place, Dino! 

2643 Day Hill Rd.
Unit E
Windsor, CT 06095
1 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom, 2nd Floor Apartment
$1200 per month
Heat, water and electricity included in rent!

I was able to find an extremely well qualified new tenant for my landlord clients and I think my new friend, Lisa is going to be very, very happy at her new place!  It's closer to work for her and the utilities are all included in the rent.  Another rental happily closed!  

80 Brush Hill Ave. 
Unit 49
West Springfield, MA 01089
1 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom 
$68,000.00
​Closed on 12/22/27

What a great investment property!  A steal at $68,000!  This condo was move-in ready and will be very easy for my clients to rent out for years to come.  

Have you ever thought about investing in real estate, but are unsure about becoming a landlord and don't know where to start?  Contact me!  As a landlord myself, I can help by sharing my personal experiences with buying, selling, renting and managing tenants!  

I had the pleasure of being onsite when the video was filmed in beautiful Waterbury, CT and I also have the pleasure of being married to THIS guy... 

Enjoy the video and pre-order the new record, I promise, it rips!   

Yesterday we kicked off the 2018 beekeeping season with the Hampden County Beekeepers' Association's first session of Bee School.  We welcomed 130 new students to our new classroom location in the Kittredge Center at Holyoke Community College.  It was overwhelming to see all these potential new beekeepers in one room!  So exciting!    

I've been a proud member of the HCBA for several years and seeing the club grow in numbers each year has been awesome.  Yesterday, I volunteered to help with registration and was happy to greet all of our new students as they checked in.  Meeting 130 people who are interested in something you are super passionate about is not a thing that happens every day... this is very exciting stuff for a bee-nerd!  Plus, all my favorite HCBA members were in the house helping out too and we always have a great time!  

We had honey bee expert, Ken Warchol, kick off the day by going over "Dynamics of the Hive" from 9am until 11:30am when we stopped for lunch.  After lunch, HCBA Vice President Andrew Preissner went over "Sources of Bees" so the new potential beekeepers know where the heck they can get some honey bees to fill their new hives.  We finished the day with club member, Lee Duquette, going over protective clothing and hive components and we'll get even more on that in next month's class.  

I'm looking forward to next month's class already and I'm loving the new format of 3 full Saturdays as opposed to how we used to do it with 2 Thursday evenings per month for 3 months.  Those honey bees will BEE here BEE-fore these new beekeepers know it, so now it's time to learn all they can so they are prepared for their April 1st hive installations!   

January, February and March are the slowest months for selling homes and moving. Planning to move from your home or apartment into a new place during the cold or wet winter months can be less than ideal. Moving during the winter months does require some more planning and adjustment due to severe weather possibilities. However, buying a home in the winter could actually work out in your favor. 

If you are selling a home in the winter, it is important to make sure that you have your home properly staged for selling. This will help the home sell quicker. Sellers are generally more motivated during the winter months to accept an offer. If you’ve found your dream home in January or February, don’t be afraid to make an offer! The chances of a seller accepting your bid during the winter months is higher than during the peak selling season of May through September. ​

51F Church St.
Enfield, CT 06082
2 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom
$1000 per month
​Rented 12/16/17

This apartment was a great score for my clients!  They were roommates at college who still have a semester to finish up but were fed up with living on campus with several other roommates who were not necessarily pulling their weight in the "clean as you go" department.  Since they've both secured post-grad work in the area, this was a great move for them!  Plus they've got Mark's Restaurant right around the corner!  Welcome to Enfield, Adam & Josh!  

If you've read any of my previous home improvement posts, you already know that DIY is not my style, so hold onto your hats!  I recently replaced not one, but TWO thermostats in our house!  Because of my work, I come across a lot of the smart home technology that is available today.  So I've got it in my head that we need to start updating our little multifamily house with some of these modern conveniences.  As with other home improvement projects, I'm a fan of baby steps, so I'm starting small.  Back in November we were forced to replace our boiler and now that I have a sexy new furnace, I thought an upgrade in thermostat technology was in order.  I did some research (thanks again, YouTube!) and decided that the new Nest Thermostat E would be the right choice for our more energy efficient upgrade.   

It was super easy to install, the first one took less than 20 minutes and I was even faster with the second.  Once you've installed it, you connect it to wifi, follow the set up instructions and then download the app on your smartphone. 

This thing is a game changer!  Because of our dynamic schedules, the traditional programmable thermostat never worked for us and we'd constantly be turning the heat up or down.  The Nest has "learned" our patterns of coming and going and turns itself down for us when we leave the house and when we go to bed.  It will also automatically pre-heat if it is expecting us home and I can adjust the temperature from my phone remotely up or down as needed.  I love it! 

Meeting strangers at vacant properties and calling it "my job" isn't scary enough?  Thanks, NETFLIX!  The trailer looks pretty good so I'm going to go ahead and add this to the queue even though it means I'll have to hire security personnel  to accompany me to every open house I host in 2018.