With the crazy amount of driving around I do for work, I found myself eating a lot of crap on the go.  I felt it start to catch up with me and after one Mc-stomach ache too many, I decided it was time to make a change.  I wanted to eat clean, healthy food and I wanted it to taste good.  I'm no slouch in the kitchen, and I've food prepped for myself and my husband in the past.  The problem with that is lack of variety.  When you make things in batches, you better like them, because you'll be eating them on repeat.  Enter Black Market Kitchen!  Delicious, healthy food prepared fresh to my liking with lots of options every week!  I don't have to grocery shop as often, I don't have to prep the food myself, and every meal is so good that I look forward to choosing and eating them.  Signing up for The Black Market Kitchen's meal service is one of the greatest things I've done for myself in a very long time.  Aaaaaand, I'm not trying to brag but I'm already down a dress size after a few weeks!  

In addition to prepped meals, BMK offers bulk options for families, smoothies, juices, bullet proof coffee and all the healthy snack replacement options you could ever want, like high protein cookies and low carb corn chips!  The staff are super friendly and they even offer delivery!  Do yourself a favor and check them out today!  

14 Ford Hill Rd
Cornwall, CT 06796
3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom
1980 square feet
​5.72 acres
$435,000.00

If you’ve read any of my work-blogs than you know a couple of things already.  1. That I love my job and 2. That I love it when my clients are happy with my service.  In this case, I had past clients that were so happy with my service, that they were willing to recommend that their family members also work with me as a realtor. These types of referrals mean the world to me!

My new clients live in AZ most of the time and wanted to start spending summers here in the northwest corner of CT.  We started our search online and made plans to tour homes when they visited CT.  I previewed and ruled out a few homes before their arrival and when they got here, we looked at everything the northwest corner had to offer. There were a few possibilities, but nothing was checking enough of their “needs and wants” boxes.  They had to leave town and we had to keep looking.  Not long after they left the state, three great new houses were listed for sale.  They all looked beautiful online but now it would be my job to preview them in person on my clients' behalf!  No pressure there!  So, I set myself up some tour appointments and headed out to Litchfield county. I took the time to check out each house thoroughly myself before taking out my phone and recording a very detailed video tour.  I did two videos for each house, one interior tour and one exterior tour.  I uploaded the videos to my youtube channel and sent them a private link.  All three houses were lovely and I was glad I wasn't the one having to choose!  

After extensively reviewing the videos, talking with friends and family who currently live in the area and weighing the pros and cons, they decided to make an offer on this awesome house in Cornwall.  For the second time in my young real estate career,  I found myself writing up an offer on a house my clients had not yet seen!  What a wild ride!  We coordinated and handled everything long distance; the inspections, the repairs and the closing!  

A very, big, big thank you to Caitlin and Fred for trusting me to help you with your CT acquisition!  You easily and efficiently handled paperwork, deadlines, demands and stress through a long distance and a time difference!  It was a real pleasure for me to be a part of the process and I'm looking forward to spending more time with you now that you're part time CT'ers!        

87 West Shore Dr.
Enfield, CT 06082
3 Bedroom, 2.5 Bathroom
​$234,500.00

716 Old Stafford Rd.
Tolland, CT 06084
3 Bedroom, 1.5 Bathroom
$1500 per month

This was one hot little rental!  Anyone that has been looking for a rental in the I-84 corridor in CT will tell you that it has been slim pickings for quite some time.  The ones that pop up, don't last long and most have many potential renters apply.  The stiff competition even has very well qualified applicants being turned away.  When you've got great credit and income, it is very discouraging to lose out on a lease in an application war.  Thankfully, my client climbed to the top of the application mountain this time and walked away victorious, keys in hand!  

Your new house is pretty awesome, otherwise you would never have considered buying it. But, there are some things about it that are a lot more awesome than others. Take, for example, that kitchen floor. You wouldn’t say it’s ugly, but you’ve seen better design harmony in a restaurant trash bin.
​
It’s gotta go.

Your bedroom carpet is pretty hairy, too, but your agent assured you that these things are fairly easy to deal with, especially if you have the flooring replaced before you start moving in. And it’s true, replacing flooring is easy. Choosing the new flooring, well, that’s tough.

Your Flooring Options: A Journey UnderfootWhether you’ve owned your house for a day, a year or a decade, picking the flooring you’re going to have to live with for a while can be stressful. There are so many materials available and within those, a huge array of colors and designs. It’s the paradox of choice at work, you have so many options you may literally freeze. That’s why we’re going to break it down for you, in hopes that the overwhelm is minimized when your time comes.

Next time you’re in the mood to look at flooring patterns online or in your home improvement stores, here are some things to consider about the most common flooring options available.

Carpet
The fuzzy stand-by for living areas and bedrooms, wall-to-wall carpet has been a popular flooring choice for a century. The materials may have changed, but the basic configuration is the same. All carpets are just a series of fibers woven onto a flexible grid, topping a uniformly thick padding.

When choosing a carpet, look for one with a face weight of at least 30 ounces. These are just above builder grade and should last six to 12 years. Always choose the best mid-grade carpet you can afford, you can’t go wrong that way. It’s where value and durability meet. Don’t skimp on carpet pad, either. Let the carpet shop match a pad to the carpet you’ve chosen so that you get the most life out of them both.

• Best places for carpet in your home:
• – Bedrooms
• – Living rooms (excluding the traffic zones)
• – Offices
• – Formal living rooms
• – Dens

Tile
Today’s tile comes in a huge range of colors, shapes, sizes and materials, but it all shares one thing in common: it’s nearly indestructible when installed properly and should be considered a permanent decision. It’s not that you can’t untile your entryway, but it’s going to be a difficult job, so take this decision carefully and skip the trendy stuff.
There are several grades of tile, but in general, they’re divided into two camps: wall tile and floor tile. While you can use floor tile on the wall with the right adhesive and a lot of patience, you should never use wall tile on the floor. It’s simply not hard enough and will end up cracking or otherwise failing.

The other major consideration is your floor. Is it a perfectly smooth, flat floor, or does it have some minor bumps and ridges? Even minor settling needs to be kept in mind when you’re choosing a tile size. Small tiles are far more forgiving of uneven floors than huge tiles. When a tile doesn’t make full contact with the mortar bed, it will come loose, then others will follow.

Popping tiles can become a major problem in older homes that are built on crawl spaces or basements, and although there’s a certain amount of compensation offered by cement board, it’s just better to hedge your bets by choosing smaller tiles.

• Best places for tile in your home:
• – High traffic areas
• – Kitchens
• – Bathrooms
• – Dining rooms
• – Mudrooms
• – Laundry rooms
• – Sunrooms

Wood
Wood floors are timeless and sturdy, and these days, come in both solid wood and engineered formats. Solid wood floors will give you a floor that’s more or less just like those floors of yesteryear, completely seamless and total class all the way. Many people choose prefinished wood floors to make installation easier, but unfinished wood floors are still available and make a vibrant, albeit expensive, statement.

Engineered wood floors, on the other hand, are made from layers of wood and plywood. They look just like finished solid wood floors, but are not as durable overall. Most people won’t be able to tell the difference, however, and engineered wood floors can perform better than solid wood floors in wet places, so you’ll just have to strike a balance between your needs and the materials that are available.

• Best places for wood flooring in your home:
• – Living room
• – Bedroom
• – Dining room
• – Staircases
• – Entryways
• – Offices
• – Kitchens (engineered, with proper precautions)

Laminate
Laminate flooring is a very durable, flexible and affordable hard surface for all sorts of homes and situations. Like engineered wood flooring, it consists of several layers of material, including a clear wear layer, a design layer that can simulate wood, stone and a variety of other patterns, an inner core that provides the majority of the structural stability of the product and a backing layer that helps to protect from warpage.

Unlike a wood floor, laminate floors are installed without glue or nails, which is why some people still refer to them as “floating floors.” They don’t actually float, but walking on one for the first time can be interesting if you’re very sensitive to that sort of thing (many of them are also very slick, just something to keep in mind). Because the material is designed as tongue and groove boards, everything fits tightly as your jigsaw puzzle of a floor is constructed. When it’s done, all that’s required to hold it in place is properly installed trim.

It’s an easy floor. In fact, this is one flooring option you might even want to DIY if you’re the handy type.

• Best places for laminate flooring in your home:
• – Living room
• – Bedrooms
• – Bathrooms (choose one that’s water resistant)
• – Kitchen
• – Foyer
• – Office
• – Pretty much anywhere

Vinyl
It wasn’t that long ago that vinyl flooring meant tired patterns on reliable, but boring sheet material that had to be painstakingly glued to the floor. One bubble, one wrong cut, and the whole install might be ruined. Today’s vinyl is anything but fussy, with sturdier and more attractive tiles, planks and glue-free sheet goods. Vinyl is also an affordable solution that can be DIYed fairly easily.

It’s naturally water-resistant, making it a great match for basements and places that get damp. Unlike many other types of non-carpet floorings, however, vinyl can be fairly soft, so if you’re putting it in an area like a dining room, you’ll have to take a lot of care not to gouge it when you’re moving chairs under the table. Overall, vinyl provides a good bang for your buck, and since it’s time-tested, you know exactly what you can expect from it: a long, useful life provided you give it the minimal care it needs.

• Best places for vinyl flooring in your home:
• – Kitchen
• – Laundry room
• – Basement
• – Mudroom
• – Foyer

Time to Get Your Flooring On! Now that you know what your flooring options are, it’s time to get shopping. Even if you’re not confident in your flooring installation skills, you can still pick out the patterns and materials you want to use in your home. Let me know if you'd like some referrals for a great flooring contractor in your area! 

Original post from HomeKeeper.com

4 Ohear Ave.
Enfield, CT 06082
4 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom
​$150,000.00

Meet Cori... 

It's still early in 2018 but I'm thinking Cori is going to win my "best first time buyer" award for the year.  As a matter of fact, I challenge anyone thinking about becoming a first time buyer in 2018 to try and outdo Cori.  Cori is a high school teacher who was smart and savvy enough to know that it would be silly to pay rent and therefor someone else's mortgage when she could be paying her own.  She had good credit, was a very good saver and she was pre-approved for a home loan almost instantly.  We looked at a handful of houses, from fixer uppers with big problems to move-in ready updated houses and she was able to easily define her preferences which helped narrow her search quickly.  Next thing we knew... she was under contract and getting ready to close on her first home at the amazing age of 25!  I'm so proud to have been a part of Cori's home buying journey and I wish more humans followed her path at her age.  She is already building her wealth and living a life free of landlords!  Be like Cori!  

You already know I love Stephen King and I love our Stephen King Book Club at Blue Umbrella Books.  Our February book was Gerald's Game, which is one of my scariest reads of all time.  It's creepy and it just stayed with me.  For years.  The recent reread and watching the Netflix movie helped to loosen some of this novel's grip on me, but it was still very scary after all these years.  

Shouting out this particular SKBC meeting because it was the first time we had a member FaceTime in to the discussion.  Core member, Gail, was away in Georgia and thanks to technology, she didn't have to miss our meeting.  We now officially live in the age of The Jetsons.  

We had a great discussion on both the movie and the recent Netflix movie adaptation.  Overall everyone liked both.  If you want to give yourself the creeps, read, watch or  if you're really feeling wild do both! 

Stephen King Book Club is almost always held on the last Thursday of the month and all are welcome to drop in and join us any time!  Check the shop's website and/or facebook to see what we're reading now!