The drywall is up now & they’ve been mudding since yesterday. Everything came out very nicely - and everything is as big as it looked when it was just framed. The pic’s don’t really do the kitchen or master bathroom justice because the ceilings are low - and it makes them look much smaller than they feel. Here are pics:
The infamous “living room shot”
From behind the bar out into the living room.
I haven’t updated this in a little over a week…we hit the first speed bump w/ the rails & it set us back a few days. Regardless, they came out AWESOME! I’m really pumped to see how they’ll look when we put the wire in - we’re doing that last so the stainless doesn’t get crap in it. Also, we wrapped the rails in bubble wrap after they were done so that they wouldn’t get dinged up by all the subs. Here are pics:
Finished - living room side.
So…I’m trying out mybloglog.com - I noticed I was receiving quite a bit of links from the site, so I thought I’d check it out. If anyone has any experience with it, I’d love to hear about it. The purpose of this post is just to put the tracking script in….I’m typically not this boring.
I was reading Kid Disco’s SEO blog yesterday & he mentioned the SEO Expert Quiz that SEOMoz.com put out. I’ve never claimed to be an SEO expert, and now it’s official! I am an:
63%
Now…in my defense, I was on my way out the door to a wedding, the quiz is 75 questions, and some of them are rather tricky. The quiz’s difficulty level is pretty tough, too - so I don’t feel that bad about a 63% score. Disco got an 83% & he’s a full time SEO consultant - I’m fine with having an SEO knowledge base 20% below him.
If you get a chance, take the quiz & let’s compare scores!
Master marketer Mark Ecko purchased Bonds’ record breaking ball. He’s posted an online poll to decide the fate of the ball. Personally, I think this is a great marketing move, and a really cool thing to do. Check out the poll:
I was online chatting with a Realtor friend of mine in Orange County, NY & he told me a pretty funny/disturbing story. Apparently, a sales associate at Woodbury Junction in Orange County, New York called & told him that she does NOT want him advertising her community on his website. I do a pretty heavy amount of real estate marketing online, and I definitely include community profiles - buyers love the fact that they can go to my websites & educate themselves on an entire market & all the neighborhoods involved. I have never come across a sales agent who didn’t love the fact that I am pushing their community online - I’ve even gotten together with sales agents to design community profiles - like this one I did on Mayfield Ranch a few months back.
Regardless - it really got me thinking about why this on-site wouldn’t want the free publicity. Apparently, the community profile in question was outranking her website in the Google SERP’s - and that’s why she got mad. Now…I’m not a doctor or anything, but that sounds pretty ignorant to me. Isn’t that why they offer commissions to agents? Commissions are offered to agents so that they can outsource their real estate marketing efforts - and it’s very effective for everyone involved. The agent gets paid only if they perform. Man - I wish I could work out a deal like that with someone.
Anyways…the only thing that made sense to me is that the Woodbury Junction on-site in Orange County, NY doesn’t want her buyers to have representation. Now, this is only speculation - but can you think of any other reason why? As a real estate broker, I constantly eductate buyers & sellers on the importance of representation. If you go into a sales office - like the office in Woodbury Junction - the agent there does not represent you, they represent the seller. You really need someone to look after your own best interests.
If you’re interested in Woodbury Junction in Orange County, NY - give my agent friend a call. He has over 5 years experience as a buyer’s agent, and works with new home communities like Woodbury Junction quite a bit. Here’s his contact info:
Joshua Ferris - Real Estate in the NYC Suburbs - 888.218.8468
Just a quick disclaimer - everything above is based on what I heard from NY agent friend, and what I’ve written is merely my opinion.
Everything is still going smoothly with the remodel. We decided to go ahead & swap out all the original light fixtures with can lighting - which I think is a really smart idea. The old lights were really cool looking, but they burned through light bulbs in about 2 weeks & were a huge pain to change out. The biggest deal we’re working on right now is the railing. Lane is fabricating the railing - I met him a while back when he modified my boat trailer. He does really good work & his pricing is really fair.
Lane Schroeder = 512.299.0209
The railing is now built & Lane is sanding everything down tonight. It’s going to be really killer when it’s done - he’s basically sanding the steel down to almost look like chrome & then spraying a clear coat on it to protect it. Here are pics of the railing being built, and then the built rail.
These top 3 pictures are yesterday.
Here are pics of the fabricated rails.
I went to Austin City Limits yesterday & one of my friends hooked us all up with backstage passes. It was awesome - free drinks, air conditioned bathrooms, & golf carts to take us around between stages. The coolest part of the whole event was watching Ghostland Observatory - we were on-stage behind them while they were performing. Oh - I also saw Drew Barrymore making out with the guy from the Mac commercials. Anyways, here are some really crappy pics I took on my camera phone. ***edit - here are some good pics that Ben took from his camera, and then some crappy pics from my phone***
My girlfriend & me - look behind me, it’s the lead singer from Ghostland.
Jeremiah & Stacy
Awesome.
More Awesome.
Most Awesome.
I went back to my house this afternoon for a walk-through on the electrical, a/c, & framing. The plumbing is 100% done & good (knock on wood.) Everything is coming together fantastically, and we had our 3rd dumpster dropped off, so the job site was very clean. I’ve added in some extra work - can lights, some tiling we weren’t going to do, and a more expensive treatment on the wire railing - and we’re still within budget. We’re also ahead of schedule. I don’t want to get too excited, but it seems like everything is working out extremely well. Collins - my GC - is to thank for everything. He’s been awesome. Here’s his contact info if you’re in Austin, and you need some work:
Collins Johnson - 512.563.4105
Anyways - on to the pictures. Unfortunately, my flash still wasn’t working when I went over there. I fixed it as soon as I got back to the office - it was as simple as resetting the settings. Go figure.
This is the same picture of the living room that I take every time I walk in. As you can see, the job site is much cleaner.
This is the old closet converting to a half-bath. They’ve framed in the storage & moved the door over about 12″ so that you don’t open the door & see a sink. This 1/2 bath makes the living room much more functional.
Here is more master bathroom work. It’s going to be really tough to see how big this is until the framing is up - also, I’ll need to look and find some pics of the old BR so that everyone can see how small it was before.
Here is a really bad picture of the new stairwell. Now that I have my camera fixed, I’ll take more pics of it with the flash the next time I’m over there.
Alright - the two pictures above are what we’re really psyched about. This is a huge master closet that goes all the way to the ceiling & creates a utility closet in the loft for printer/fax/wireless, etc… The old master was HUGE but the new one is BIG & FUNCTIONAL.
As you can see, “functional” is really a big theme with this project. We’re basically taking a 3000s.f. 1970’s mod-house that’s designed with nothing in mind but “party” & turning it into a really cool mod-house that’s still good for entertaining, but much more functional - oh, and updated.
Between now & next Wednesday, we’ll have the railing & the drywall up! I’ll send pics of the drywall when it’s up!
First of all, I have to give mad props to Ryan Ward for getting me started with the WordPress plug-in’s. I deleted my old WP blog because I didn’t like the functionality, and I was getting spammed like crazy. I complained about it in the AWG @ Real Estate Webmasters, and Ryan gave me a great list of plug-in’s. I installed them, and then found a couple more that I like, as well. Here’s the list of plug-in’s I’m using, and why:
So…that’s what I’m packing at my WP blog. Let me know what you guys think - or if I’m missing anything major here!
