Alessandra Branca
Did you see the island home
designed for her clients featured in the July issue of
? I fell in love with it immediately.
All images courtesy of
I want to live like this! You can see more of this home and other
Branca Interiors projects here
.
Do you have a favorite digital magazine? My iPad reading is depleting quickly.
I'm Not Ready
September? Where did the summer go? I will be virtually sitting by the pool for another day or two. It's still in the 90's!
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| Howard Design Studio |
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| Conte & Conte |
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| Northworks |
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| Catalano Architects |
At least we should all be back to school by now.....week 3 for us. How about you?
Mecox....Again
I know I have professed my undying love for Mecox Gardens, so it should be no surprise that on my most recent trip to Palm Beach.....I had an uncontrollable desire to visit, again.
This ginger jar looks exactly like my pair.
I could barely contain my excitement when I saw this lucite wave sculpture.
It is identical to the one I brought home from Boston!
I'll be back in about five weeks, Mecox.....wait for me!
Selling Our Home
Since we are all blog readers and stalkers, it should come as no surprise that the agents I interviewed unanimously agreed in today's market, selling a home is all about the internet. Gone are the day's when people open the Sunday paper to find an open house....well, maybe a few do, but most of us know how to search and stalk homes online. And that makes it all about the picture.
My agent's company has an in-house photographer that shoots all of their listings. Unfortunately, I was not impressed with the company photo's and included hiring a professional photographer as a requirement to earn our listing. The photographer she hired was amazing and I really liked working with him. The goal is about selling open space not personal taste so nothing on the counters, all lights on, and shoot from the furthest point possible.
I told my agent that I only had one chance to get this right. We purchased our home in a hot real estate market and it looked like we were headed into one again....fifteen years later. I left nothing to chance the house was about to have its biggest audition. The home went on the MLS's on a Monday with specific instructions, "No showings until the Realtors Tour on Friday". There was an open house on that Sunday.
That Friday, the Realtors Tour broke our agents record of most agents to attend. The previous record was set in 2009. Six agents brought clients with them, as well. That night we got our first offer. They say your first offer is your best, but that was not the case for us. Because our listing stated a company relocation, this potential buyer thought we were desperate for a quick sale. According to the letter that accompanied the offer, he is a Neurosurgeon with a very pregnant wife. Not only did they want to buy the home at a low price, they also wanted us out before school ended. We chose not to counter his offer.
There were non-stop showings from Friday through the open house on Sunday and shortly after the open house, we got our second offer. It was from a professional couple and unlike the first offer, it was a good place to start. Meanwhile, the Neurosurgeon's agent was begging for a counter offer. We counter both offers at the same price.
While couple one and two were contemplating our counter offer our home was being shown at a steady pace. It was exhausting to keep the home looking perfect and ready for show at a moments notice.
You can see that this picture was taken before Jennifer's artwork arrived.
I was told that a 'New York' couple was seriously interested in our home. They came to see the home multiple times. One time was in the pouring rain so they asked to come back again the next day. They submitted a good clean offer that gave us the terms we wanted. We accepted.
The entire sales process was a little over one week. I met the couple during the home inspection. They were lovely and she even brought her father along to see the home. He and I had an interesting chat about covering a/c units in the winter :).
The only thing that I regret is that I won't be able to be their neighbor, although that would be impossible because we would want to live in the same home.
Remember when I told you my home would sell between (A) & (B) leaving me with a specific number in my head? It sold for almost that exact number.
The moral of this story, don't ask your Neurosurgeon for real estate advice.
I sincerely wish the 'New York' couple all the love and happiness we felt when we lived in this home.
Win $500 to One Kings Lane
Happy Daylight Savings Time Monday! I don't know about you, but I am already feeling the positive effects of the longer days....I hope I don't jinx it, but it is going to be 60 here, tomorrow, and we won't talk about the possibilities of snow on Thursday (say what?).
Today, is the beginning of my Polyvore feature for Project Decorate. You may have already seen it around... Polyvore features a blogger in front of their 20 million subscribers and everyone has a chance to win a $500 gift card to One Kings Lane. There will be 2 lucky winners. This contest ends next Sunday.
$500
Here is my Tropical Coastal look. I have been telling you about this look for quite some time. Remember when Chinoiserie Chic wrote about it? I want it....everywhere!
Coastal Living, Take Me Away
Raise your hand if you have A-N-O-T-H-E-R snow day!
Yes, the call came in the wee hours of the morning. Two teenagers and a dog. Although our driveway gets plowed, or walkway does not. I actually enjoy shoveling it with my son. Since I don't play video games, and know nothing about NASCAR, it is one of the few things that we can do together....and laugh.
Other than the walkway, I am sure there will be a whole lot of laziness going on.
I subscribe to Coastal Living, and because of that I can read it on my iPad too. Magazines on iPads are great for taking screen shots and blogging about them :-).
I am looking forward to reading it end to end.
All images via Coastal Living
I know I will miss these days, so I am going to enjoy the time and remind myself that life really is short.
How are you spending the day?