Sandra White: June 2009

There is a wonderful farm in the very center of town called Collingwood Farm, complete with fields of vegetables and flowers, portable greenhouses, old farmhouse and farm stand.  I find this absolutely amazing because in the hot market of 2007 this land of approximately 4-6 acres could have been sold off for any number of residences, or mixed use projects.  This is one block from my home and a wonderful walk for me and my dogs.  There is a large parcel on the corner for sale for $1,000,000 plus zoned for retail, mixed use of condos and stores.

Sign on F Street in Port Townsend                                                                           View of fields from Non motorized trail

        Portable greenhouses                                                        Farmstand on F Street open 24 hours

Street signs on F Street. 

The vegetables from Collingwood are fresh, organic and sold at the Saturday and Wednesday Port Townsend Farmers market, as well as the vegetable stand.  Many times late at night I have stopped in at the farm stand which leaves its doors open 24 hours a day and has a payment jar using the honor system.  There are fresh vegetables, flowers, jars of honey, sauces and  organic coffee.   

This weekend the Washington Association of Realtors is sponsoring a statewide open house tour.  It will be held on Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 1 pm and again from 2 pm to 4 pm on both days.  This will give agents an opportunity to hold 4 listings open and the public will have a large inventory of of homes to preview.  Our local board is supplying us with special signs, balloons and print-outs of the tour and there is a full page ad in our local paper. 

I think we are all pretty excited about this idea and hope it will bring out some buyers.  Open houses are not the norm in our real estate area and there is not always a good turn out.  I think it is just not what people are used to here.  I always found in So. California the people at open houses either were not serious enough to hire a Realtor or just not ready to buy.  But, this is a different time and a different market, so I am going to go now and print more fliers for tomorrow. 

I will be in Uptown from 11-1 at 1234 Franklin Street, a wonderful historic Victorian on a R-3 lot with a seperate studio.

From 2-4 I will be in the Bell neighborhood at 4760 Bell Street, a beautiful and spacious NW style home with a one bedroom apt. and a 12,000 + sq. ft. lot. 

http://www.porttownsendrealestatesearch/

If any of you have read my blog comments and questions, you know I am not computer savvy.  One of my goals in joining AR was to move my website up on the search engines.  I have gone from #125 up to #7 on Yahoo and moved up considerably on Google and MSN with the help of my web-guy, Sheldon Broes.  This is how he explains it to me.  This info may be helpfull to you.

When your blog gets clicked on, it's called an impression and the search engines re-visit your blog more often when your blog is getting more impressions.

 Each time the search engine spider bots crawl any website or blog, they also crawl (or  re-crawl) every page that is being linked to.

 As your website or blog increases in size and relevant information for the goods or services your website or blog promotes, it is crucial that the search engine spider bots give you credit for your effort by increasing your page rank.

 Page ranks are from zero to ten, the higher your page rank - - the more relevant the search engines deem your site to be.

 The easiest way to determine any website or blog's page rank is to download the free google toolbar. In the middle of the toolbar, is a little meter that tells the rank of the page you are on.

(This is Yahoo's home page and it has a page rank of 9.)

As you hold your mouse over the meter a number will appear. This is also the best way to find out your competition's web rank and valuable in selecting websites to link to you (which I will discuss in my next blog) on search engine stuff.

One of the primary purposes of the blog is to increase the page rank of the website it links to. Search engine spider bots are attracted to blogs and Active Rain has done a magnificent job of getting Active Rain member's blogs seen by the search engines.

The trick is to get the search engine spider bots (usually referred to as just "bots") to re-crawl your website as often as possible. Before I joined active rain and agressively started writing relevant blogs to my local real estate market place, my search engine placement and rankings were terrible.

A site that has grown semi-agrressively for one year or more will rank as a 1 or a 2, depending on how relevant the site is to it's keywords and how competitive the key words are for that websites geographical market.

Happening today in Port Townsend!  We have sunshine, ocean breezes and a lot of people in town for this annual event.  There are nine private gardens on display, all located within walking distance in the Uptown area.  Featured gardens will demonstrate things such as drought tolerant and deer resistant plants, shade solutions, and a shared vegetable patch.  There will be composting techniques and lots of ideas on landscaping your own backyard. 

This event is sponsored by the Jefferson County Master Gardners, a group connected with Washington State University Extension.  A Master Gardner is trained under the auspices of WSU to provide information to home gardners about  practices for sustainable gardening, pest management, efficient watering systems, soil improvement and choosing proper plants. 

In addition, the Master Gardners group does plant clinics, speaker series, youth education, and advanced training.  These incredible gardners have their plants and flowers on display at the Jefferson County fair every year and they are truly beautiful and amazing. 

 http://www.porttownsendrealestatesearch.net/

I drove past this cute little dog guarding his truck and just happened to have my camera with me.  He was barking like mad, and daring me to come any closer.  I hope you will enjoy this feisty little guy as much as I did.

I felt like doing a fun little post about nothing after a day full of blog turned political, challenging  transactions, volunteer meetings, and so many phone calls and e-mails. 

During the Revolutionary War the heart shaped patch made of purple cloth was first awarded to three soldiers in 1782 by General Washington  for "unusual gallantry,extraordinary fidelity and essential service."

 It was not officially abolished, but was not awarded again until it's revival, and new design was recommended by Gen. Douglas MacArthur and approved by President Hoover in 1932.  At that time it was exclusively awarded to Army recipients.

In the years since, numerous changes have been made to both  expand and restrict eligibility for the Purple Heart, including eligibility for service members of all military branches, posthumous awards to next of kin, and wounds sustained from terrorist attacks or while serving as peacekeepers.  Eligibility has also been expanded to include wounds from friendly fire, and to former prisoners of war wounded before April 25, 1962.  In 1998 the government rescinded Purple Heart eligibility for civilians. 

Since George Washington's time the US Presidents and the military have honored more than a million soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen for wounds received during enemy engagements.

Some interesting facts:

•        It is a federal felony offense to falsely claim being awarded a Purple Heart
•        1.5 million Purple Hearts were produced in anticipation of the ultimatelyunnecessary invasion  of Japan, creating a stockpile of 500,000 medals after the war...Some of today's recipients could be receiving a Purple Heart created for their grandfathers.
• There is no master list of Purple Heart awards

        The American Legions is proposing a Purple Heart Forever stamp and asks for support:

http://www.porttownsendrealestatesearch.net/

                     This This private non-profit organization is all about preserving our land, open spaces, and habitat.  So far this group is stewarding 7865 acres in this area.

 The office is located in Port Townsend, but projects are county wide and donations of land and money from citizens along with the plans and ideas of members make it happen.

My first recollection of this organization is from the time one of our local realtors started a drive to collect $75,000 to retain trees that line the entrance to our city, as they were in danger of being cut down.  This realtor came to our office meeting with a flyer and pledge cards, and did make it happen. 

Examples of Recent Projects:

Chimacum's Glendale Farm     

An easement was created to provide a buffer zone for salmon and wildlife habitat.  This farm is 187 acres and is one of the largest farms in the county dating back to the 1850's.  By creating this buffer the land will remain in agricultural zoning.

Winona Wetlands

There is a new campaign designed to raise matching funds from the county of $100,000 to protect a 5 acre parcel that home to one of the most important habitat located in the Quimper Wildlife Corridor

Chimacum Creek

Heron Pond

This is a beautiful area of 60+ acres of non-commercial open space shared with 11 residential homesites on the perimeter.  This is a wonderful community of lovely NW style homes on 5 acre parcels with pasture and wetlands in the center all protected by a conservation easement.

 Today, June 13th there is a tour of Tarboo Farms, a resoration and protection project  which has been aided by the Jefferson Land Trust.  Tour is 11 am to 4 pm.  Bring your lunch. 

http://www.porttownsendrealestatesearch.net/

Last week I showed this home to one of my Buyer's and thought it was interesting enough to share.  I personally have never come across a home owned by a county, so presenting an offer on  this will be a first for me. 

The previous owner was growing canibus in his yard and I suspect in an attic that is quite large with very big un-characteristic skylights.  It is my recollection that this resident was warned a few times before the home was confiscated.  What I don't know is why a neighboring county owns this home, and not our county of Jefferson. 

MLS description:

"The J. W. Griffiths House is described on the National Historic Registry as one of the finest intact Victorian residences outside the historic district.This home offers spectacular water views on the second & third levels and a secret garden Morgan Hill location. Two and one half story, wood frame structure w/brick masonry foundation. Wonderful Vintage Victorian detailing throughout. scrollwork and gingerbread trim plus fish scale wood shingles adorn this painted lady."

This is a great house, on a wonderful 10,000 sq. ft. view lot in one of the cities most popular neighborhoods.  So much deferred maintenance, yet so much potential.  Gorgeous woodwook and flooring throughout, tall ceilings and generous sized rooms.  This home was originally marketed around $800,000, but after a few nibbles and an inspection the price has been lowered to the low $500,000 range.  This is not my listing.

Top photo shows front of home with date carving.

Right:  Dining room with door to front porch. This beautiful dark rich wood is an example of the woodwork and detail throughout the house.

Carriage House in back of house

http://www.porttownsendrealestatesearch.net/

                                                                            View of neighborhood and bay from upper deck

Disclaimer: Information is based on data available to the associate, including county records.The information has not been verified by the associate and should be verified by the buyer.

http://www.porttownsendrealestatesearch.net/

http://www.porttownsendrealestatesearch.net/