By Ken Wilson – The Dave Matthews Band played it. So did Corey Harris, and so did Sons of Bill. The hometown crowd heard these future stars, and heard them for free, at Fridays After Five, the April to September concert series set to begin its 30th season. Fridays from April 14 to September 8, […]
By Celeste M. Smucker – Comfortable rural living where you can see the stars at night is one way people describe life in Louisa County located just to the east of Albemarle. Others point to its vibrant economy and central location with easy access to the three major urban centers of Charlottesville, Richmond and Fredericksburg. […]
By Marilyn Pribus – “It’s critically important to have a house show well when it’s time to sell,” declares REALTOR® Byrd Abbott, an associate broker with Roy Wheeler Realty Co. “Some tweaking and paring down often needs to be done because it’s so much easier to present a staged home.” What Exactly Is Staging? Often […]
By Ken Wilson – “Gardens above all else are for sharing.” – Emily Whaley Would any gardener beg to differ? Emily Whaley knows: after all the planning and the plotting, and the digging and mulching and watering and tending have done their work comes a garden’s finest hour, when gardener and friends stroll through, approving […]
By Marilyn Pribus – “I can’t believe we’ve already had the AC on and it’s only April,” laments a Lake Monticello resident. “I don’t even want to think about our electric bill this summer.” She’s not alone. Air conditioning soaks up about five percent of all the electricity produced in our country, approaching $30 billion annually. […]
By Ken Wilson – Although it’s hard to say when exactly it happened this year, spring has sprung, and with it the hundred ways we show it. Whether it’s to make us parade down Market, run along the Rivanna, or jog up a mountain, spring energizes us all. Here are a few of the many […]
By Celeste M. Smucker – A big concern for home buyers is finding the right mortgage program, one they can live with for many years, and this decision is especially important for those who have limited funds for a down payment. Many move-up buyers have more than enough cash from selling their previous home to […]
By Celeste M. Smucker – When it comes to home and garden, you can count on one thing. The new year brings changes in everything from floor plans and style updates to interior and exterior color preferences and cutting-edge technologies. Home buyers and those thinking about remodeling an existing house can look online for trends and […]
By Celeste M. Smucker – When home owners are ready to sell their house, they usually have a good idea about what they think it’s worth. Similarly, buyer prospects have a strong opinion about what they are willing to pay for it. Sometimes these numbers are far apart. So what determines what a home is worth […]
By Ken Wilson – Jack Horn loves to build and he loves to travel. A couple of weeks after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated much of Haiti in January of 2010, Horn, the CEO of the Charlottesville contracting firm Martin Horn, Inc., found himself on a mountainside overlooking Port-au-Prince. He was in the country with Building […]