Visit WineCountry

Feb 23

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Spring Cleaning!

By Mirjam | Around the house, Buyers, Sellers, Visit WineCountry, Wine Tasting | No Comments

The spring is in the air, trees are blossoming, it’s beautiful. Although it will be a rainy weekend, it’s beautiful outside, perfect for some wine tasting -> just an excuse to drive through the county side, enjoy the scenery and taste some great wines (make sure you have a designated driver). Next 2 weekends will be the annual barrel tasting weekend which will be extremely busy. So may I suggest a visit to Alexander Valley this weekend, should you go, drop by Alexander Valley Vineyards, my favorite is their Wine Club Reserve.

Of course, don’t forget to check out Sue Bonzell’s XtremeGuide, there is a Wine and Cheese reception at Graton Ridge Cellars today.

Should you decide to do some spring cleaning, while your at it, you might as well take a home inventory. According to the Insurance Information Institute, in the event of a fire or other disaster, a current, detailed home inventory can help you obtain enough insurance to replace the things you own, get claims settled faster, and substantiate any losses on your tax return.

An other interesting fact to keep in mind while going through your house:

Nearly 30 percent of home electrical-wiring fires can be traced to the misuse of electric cords, such as overloading circuits, poor maintenance and running the cords under rugs or through high traffic areas. Source: InsWeb.com

Have a great day!

Mirjam (mirjam@c21alliance.com)

Dec 16

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Life is good in Sonoma County…

By Mirjam | Buyers, RE Investing, Sonoma County info, Visit WineCountry, Wine Tasting | No Comments

Did you already get a chance to drop by WineSpectum in downtown Santa Rosa’s Rail Road Square? I did meet with a friend – the best chiroprator I know: Patrick Pisenti -> just opened his office in Santa Rosa- and it was a great experience. Roland Hankerson the manager is extremely knowledgeable about wine and the selections is unusual. WineSpectrum is a wine bar, the store next to the bar and you are able to buy the wine you enjoyed at the bar. Often they put wines on the list before they become famous. It’s worth going there and try some unknown wines.

We enjoyed a Cabernet Franc from Kenefick Ranch, it was Caitlin’s Select and it was delicious. You should try it before it’s sold out. It was a wine Roland recommended and it surely was a great pick.

Which brings me to my Real Estate thought for the day: the interest rates have come down over the last week, there are plenty of good deals around in Sonoma County, NOW is a great time to buy. We are already seeing multiple offer situations on the super deals : investors are jumping in. For anybody renting and thinking about buying: NOW is a good time to look at the numbers. You’d be surprised how ‘affordable’ Sonoma County has become for starters and how many interesting deals there are for investors.

Have a great day!

Mirjam de Rijk

(707) 486-2638

Nov 18

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Beautiful Healdsburg – great destinaton for wine lovers

By Mirjam | Buyers, Sonoma County info, Visit WineCountry, Wine, Wine Tasting, Winery with picnic place | No Comments

Seghesio is one of our favorite wineries, members of their Centennial wine club are invited to club events, visit with family members and get to taste the limited production wines. Yesterday’s November Wine release party’s theme was a taste of Italy. We agreed that the Tuscan seafood dish that Ashley served was the best. From the wines that were paired with the food, we liked the Westphall Zin the best. And the winner of the evening was the Venom, Peter Seghesio shared some with us since we were also impressed with the Sangiovese.

Quick note, Seghesio is located on Grove street, beautiful grounds with picnic places and a bocce ball court. Enjoy your picnic while playing a game of bocce.

I did do the count this morning: should you like to move to Healdsburg, there are 139 active listings in the MLS system, 25 are in escrow and in the last month 8 sold. These numbers might not be that great for sellers but great for buyers. And the 8 that did sell, sold rightfully so.

Open houses this afternoon: check the Press Democrat, they have a list of open houses, don’t forget to visit 95 Kennedy Lane, a large vintage fixer and 1231 So Fitch Mountain Road, it needs some updating but has beautiful views.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Mirjam (707) 486-2638

Nov 10

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New Restaurant in town

By Mirjam | Sonoma County info, Visit WineCountry | No Comments

Yesterday Mary’s Pizza Shack officially opened their doors for the newest restaurant at the Santa Rosa Court House plaza. I had the honor to meet Cullen Williamson (he married one of Mary’s grand daughters) and he told me a little about the history and that it’s their intention to keep the restaurants just as Mary intended it to be.

She passed away a few years ago. Mary loved to go to garage sales and used the things she found at garage sales to decorate her restaurant. That’s just how the restaurant feels. A great place to enjoy some good food and it’s a great place to go with kids. They also have a small room you can reserve for a party. It’s great asset to the Court house plaza.

Enjoy the weekend, should you decide to have lunch or dinner at Mary’s: try the Linguini Pesto. It’s delicious.

Mirjam

(707) 486-2628

Nov 07

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Sonoma County in the fall

By Mirjam | Buyers, Press Democrat, RE by the numbers, Sonoma County info, Visit WineCountry | One Comment

As my husband always acclaims: Sonoma County is the most beautiful place in the world to live. Well there are other beautiful places but the fall colors in Sonoma County together with the dramatic skies never fail to catch my breath. Our dear friend Vernon Nelson has taken some beautiful pictures, feel free to visit his website for some beautiful pictures. His wife owns a spa and is one of the best massage therapists I know (A Place To Relax on Cleveland Ave).

Anyway, this morning The Press Democrat had a gallery with beautiful pictures: The Colors of Fall.

Just some Real Estate numbers for your information: As of this moments we sold a little bit over half the amount of properties that were sold in the all time high top year 2004. Considering that 2004 was a crazy year in Real Estate and that we are now paying the price for the ridiculous lending practices, it’s not that bad. Also, isn’t it interesting to see how fast the median home price went up? That was not healthy either. It was time for a correction.

By the way, should you be interested to see these numbers for your neighborhood, please contact me.

Enjoy the colors of the beautiful fall and enjoy the day.