Farmer's Market Fun

Tomorrow I am hosting the Corporate Table at the Summerville Farmer's Market and I'm really excited.  My purpose and goal in this is to get the word out about  this site, www.liveinsummerville.com.  I hope to make this the one stop shop for residents and visitors of Summerville.  Actually, you can help me by coming to visit me tomorrow, spreading the word about the site and checking it often.  Also, if you stop by my table and see me you can sign up to win one of these awesome sweet tea paintings done by Summerville resident Brian Lariviere.  I'll be raffling these off, giving out free water, giving away drawstring backpacks and talking about real estate needs if you have any.  I hope to see you there!

come win this sweet tea painting

If you have never visited the local Farmer's
Market you are really missing out. We love to
shop here and load up on local fruits and 
veggies and sometimes arts and crafts.

Don't miss this weeks!

Summerville, SC Sweet Tea

PSA - Palmetto State Armory

I'm not sure if having a shooting range is a controversial issue in Summerville or not. I find the topic of guns, gun ownership and gun control can be very divisive which is why I usually keep that opinion to myself.  But, the Journal Scene reports that the Palmetto Armory is under way with it's 30,000 sq ft building that'll have 18 shooting lanes.  I've been to the one in Mt. Pleasant and it's a gun owners paradise but no shooting ranges.  It'll be nice to have this open by June 2016 so the Heritage eyesore will finally be gone.  I don't understand how Earth Fare was build to quickly and PSA has taken 2 years just to begin.  Politics?  Slow Government?  What do you think?

Shooting Range coming soon to Summerville, SC

Funky Firken Fest - Say that 3x fast

     Once again Summerville is getting cooler.  Not only do we now have our own brewery (Oak Road) and Homegrown and Accent on Wine but now we are getting out very own craft brew festival.  It's called the Flowertown Funky Firken Fest and I can't wait. I dare you to say that 3 times fast at church!

     I was speaking with a bartender at Homegrown about this Firken Fest and he said it's going to be amazing.  With over 20 craft breweries and unlimited sampling it's a beer lover's paradise.  The Breweries are focusing on sour, barrel aged and wild brews (no idea what that even is) but it sounds good.  Brad, owner of Coastal said they are shutting down the street that Coastal and Oak Road are located on which is pretty cool and there will be food trucks.  I don't know what it is about food trucks but their food always tastes great.  I can only assume the food trucks are there to help absorb the alcohol from the unlimited tasting that will be going on.  The cost of this event is $55.00 which may sound a bit steep but the bartender told me these are one time brews that will not be made again so it's a pretty unique situation. I know I'm going to try and be there.  What's not to love? I love craft beer and food trucks!

Here's the Link to more information - LINK

Come out to the Funky Firken Fest for some of these!

Golfing in August

           

     Today was one of those days I could have made a better decision but because I am relationship driven I chose people over comfort.  I believe most Realtors do that every day because in general we are outspoken and community oriented which is why we try and help people find the right community.
      Today my brother, myself, Roy and Lou went out to play 18 holes in the close to triple digit temperatures and we had a great time.  Unfortunately, my back 9 was pretty horrific and I completely fell apart but as a minor league hacker I was not too upset.  How can I be upset with my golf score when  on average I play 2-3x/year.
     Because I am not actually a golfer but a hacker I tend to look for the best (aka cheapest) deals around but I also enjoy a decent course. This rational way of thinking led me to Pine Forest Country Club located in Summerville.  We got a great deal at $18.00/pp and this included the cart.  My 2 hot-dogs and a Gatorade cost me over 1/2 of my greens fee.      It was a beautiful, and hot, day and the course was in pretty good shape. The greens started to really show down around 12:00 but overall they were in good condition. The fairways were cut short but the longer grass on the sides was pretty challenging to hit out of.  I would say most of the holes have bunkers and water (yeah - I lost quite a few balls today) which does not make this course easy but still challenging enough for me and the typical golfer. Have a little accuracy here is important b/c of all the man made water holes and bunkers and they tend to lie in front of the greens.  On the greens, as mentioned are a little slow, but they do run true.  It's pretty tough to find a green that is flat which means you may have a lot of balls roll right past the hole.
     Overall I give this course a 8/10. If you have not played it I highly recommend it. It's a pretty course but watch out for those houses that lines most of the holes. Also, make sure you have a few extra balls in the bag because you're gonna need them.

-Jason

Pine Forest golf course view in Summerville

3 Home Tips to better living:

Well, I just got back from 2 weeks in Alaska and during my trip we had a bit of an air conditioning (AC) issue.  As a resident in SC a functioning HVAC unit is imperative to happiness and good health.  As we arrived in Ketchican, AK I received a text that said the fire department showed up in the middle of the night because my AC unit exploded with sparks.  My dog/house sitter woke up to 86 degrees in the house which is a bit warm.  If you're buying a home make sure you get the sellers to buy you a home warranty.  I can tell you first hand it was nice to make one call and 24 hours later my AC was working again.  This made me think, as a new home owner what do I need to be doing and in turn what do I need to be telling my buyer clients. 

Here are 3 major things to be checking on a regular basis because they are expensive to replace and repair.

     1. Have your HVAC unit tuned up annually.  This make it run smoothly and in turn will keep your utility costs lower.             My AC unit is 23 years old and I know it's gonna go any day now but thanks to my home warranty it'll be covered.  

      It's also lasted that long b/c it's been tuned up 2x/year for the life of it.   

     2. Have your roof inspected regularly.  Some people say annually but I'm not a roof expert so go with what the pro's               say.  I'm about to call a tree company and get estimates on having large limbs that are over my roof removed so there             are no issues down the road. 

     3. Here is SC when it rains it rains.  It's more of a deluge than even a rainfall.  So, keep those gutters clear.  If you have           a crawl space it's even more important to keep them clean so water drains away from your home properly.  I had a                 client lose a home because the FHA loan would not finance it because the crawl space showed too much moisture. 

Well, I'm off to Lowes, again, to update, fix, and repair my downstairs bathroom. This will include filling in holes in the drywall, replacing a sink, changing out the light and hanging a new mirror.  Let the fun begin!

Charleston Tea Plantation - Summerville roots

Beautiful drive into our Charleston Tea Plantation

     Wow, if you have not taken a drive to Wadmalaw Island and taken the tour of the Charleston Tea Plantation you are really missing out.  I took the wife and mother-in-law down there yesterday and we had a great time. I had no idea there was so much information about Tea!  What's really cool is that the tea plantation literally has it's roots in Summerville (pun intended).
     In 1888 Dr. Charles Shepard started the Pinehurst Tea Plantation in Summerville.  After his death in 1915 the tea plants grew wild until 1963 and then relocated to Wadmalaw Island onto a 127 acre potato farm.  Between 1963 and 1987 some experimentation and research took place, by Lipton, on the farm and in 1987 Mr. William Barclay Hall, a 3rd generation tea taster, took it over.  In 2003, he formed a partnership with Bigelow but there is no Bigelow tea in our local tea and vice versa.  To this day the Charleston Tea Plantation is the only tea farm in North America.  I found out during the tour the Bigelow imports all it's tea from overseas but our own local American Classic Tea is 100% grown and is all natural here in Charleston.

Charleston Tea Plantation history

     As a former educator I'm about to go back to my roots and teach you a little about tea.  Did you know that there are only 3 types of tea and they all come from the exact same leaf: Oolong, Green and Black.  Also, the only part of the tea leaf that our plantation extracts are the young sprouting leaves (which are "flushing" up) which taste the best and are less bitter.  The first cutting of the season is the called the "first flush" hence our local, traditional first flush festival. This tea is truly unique and tastes different than the rest of the tea harvested during the rest of the season.  I tried some and it was really good.  I prefer Black Tea because of it's bolder taste and color which I found out is due to it having the longest oxidation process. Oolong, which we usually drink with Chinese food, has the shortest oxidation is therefore a light colored tea and Green Tea has zero oxidation. It's leaves are extracted and taken right to the drier and then cut up into small pieces.

     Since we are the only tea plantation in N. America and Summerville is the Birthplace of sweet tea we have a unique relationship to our tea plants. They came directly from Summerville and because tea plants live hundreds of years I know my next cup of American Classic Tea is right from my own town.  It does not get more local than that and it's really good tea! 

The Island Mentality:  "Start your day off slow and taper down from there."

Our Trolley Tour around the 127 acre farm...I learned a lot!

   

Antique Mecca

Have you noticed all the Antique stores popping up all over Summerville?  It seems every time I drive around town I see a new Antique Mall somewhere and I like it.  As a person that loves history antiques are a tangible way to see what life was like back then.  It allows me the opportunity to place myself back in "those days" and wonder if I would survive or if I have become so accustomed to current every day living and our conveniences that I would not make it a day back then.  I'm also trying to pass my love of history and antiques on to my 15 year old daughter...this is not an easy task.
This past weekend we had an antique show in Hutchinson Square and my family and I took a walk through it in the scorching heat and then went to Newk's for lunch.  The show was pretty cool with some great antiques and very knowledgeable vendors. Although I did not buy anything we enjoyed our time and my next step is to go out and tour all our little shops and see what treasures they have.

For more information about our Summerville's antique stores click HERE!

One of Summerville's antique stores/vendors

Antique show in Summerville, SC at Hutchinson Square (sorry about the finger in the shot)

Love this antique bike found at the show

Live music and great tunes were found at the antique show