gonzales Archives • Your Real Estate Whisperer

Top 5 Things To Do In Ascension Parish With The Kids; Some FREE Or Not Too expensive.

March 16, 2017

As of a parent of two girls of my own I have heard from their cute whining little lips, “MOM…… I’m bored”. The battle cry for many children is that all the toys in their room no longer entertain them and video games are no longer keeping their attention. Treasure this, and view it as an opportunity to take them from their iPads, Social Media and Television and physically take them out to see the world. It’s a beautiful place here in Ascension Parish, We have some cool fun places, some even FREE. (My favorite price)

The Oak Grove Park.

It’s right on the corner of Highway 42 and Old Jefferson. It has playground equipment, sand volleyball net, picnic tables that are covered and the best part of all, for the scorching summer days, is the squirt park area. My kids have had hours of fun playing there while I just sat and read a book under the covered picnic area. The best part of all, it’s FREE!

The Public Library

Who doesn’t love to curl up with a good book, and the kids love to go. It’s not just books! They have videos you can take out and also provide some e-reader materials. A public library is always a favorite place for our family and a great resource for kids projects for school. You would be surprised by how excited kids get by telling them “we’re going to the library today.” Their eyes just light up. Best of all… You guessed it, it’s FREE!

For locations for the closest to you visit this website http://main.ascension.lib.la.us/index.php?page=library-branches

The Jambalaya Park

Located at 1015 E Cornerview St; Gonzales, Louisiana 70737.

This place is a cool place to take your kids, Not only does it has a squirt park area, it always has a swimming pool. The pool area is not free but it’s not that expensive either. (Visit this link to get pricing and dates of opening https://jambalayapark.swimtopia.com/pool-fees) During the summer you can get a season pass to cut down on the expense and the kids will get to make new friends outside their neighborhoods. Great family fun and CHEAP! (my second favorite price) Note that the rest of the park is free so don’t miss out visiting there.

Premier Lanes Bowling Alley

Located at 1414 N. Airline Hwy. Gonzales, LA 70737

225.621.2695

Great place that has not only bowling; it has bumper cars, video games, laser maze and a small restaurant with good family food to snack on while you are bowling the afternoon away. At night on a Friday and Saturday after 9 pm they have Cyber Bowling where they turn down the lights, turn up the music and it has a fun techno atmosphere with laser lights streaming around the bowling alley. It’s really fun.

To visit their website, click here. http://www.premierlanes.net/gonzalescopy.php

The Movies!

Right next door to the bowling alley. Is the Malco movie theater. How convenient! The theater is clean, well kept and has great comfortable seating. I take my kids there often since it’s so much closer than Baton Rouge theaters, and they always have the latest movies playing and we have never found it overcrowded. Since this one had opened, our family hasn’t seen a movie anywhere else. This would be the most expensive place I’ve added but I wouldn’t count it out for family fun.

“Because You Matter”

Your Real Estate Whisperer

Kristina Smallhorn

So…The Sellers Of An Ascension Parish Home, Not That Into You?

March 1, 2017

It happens from time to time. Buyers here in Ascension Parish find the home of their dreams, put in an offer they believe is fair and the sellers won’t budge. It doesn’t seem fair to you
and your Ascension Parish Realtor® have gone over comps and studied the area thoroughly. It happens, so what are you to do when the house of your dreams seems to be slipping from your fingers?

Try your MAX!

Discuss this with your Ascension Parish Realtor® and see if they agree with your plan to go to the maximum offer. It can’t hurt to try this tactic if it looks like the comps can support the offer. You don’t want to be in a predicament where you make an offer, but it doesn’t appraise. If a seller isn’t that into you, they could just put the house back on the market and not negotiate the appraised price. Maybe it’s simply time to move on!

This could be tough if you are absolutely in love with a home but some relationships do need to be broken at times, even with a dream home. To stand back pouting, crying and wasting energy on a house that’s wasn’t meant to be could make you miss out some great properties that come on the market, especially in our current market when houses go FAST! You just never know, sellers at times do come to their senses and revisit old offers. Yours might be one of them.

Don’t Try To Figure Out A Sellers Motives.

This just a waste of your energy and can drive you crazy adding unneeded stress. Only the seller knows why they turned down your offer. You can ask your Ascension Parish Realtor® for more insight into the matter, but if the seller is unwilling to cooperate, don’t get too emotionally annoyed.

A Learning Lesson.

Take your experience from this seller as a learning experience when negotiating on your next home using it as a litmus test of the current market. Your knowledge can make your next offer stronger and less likely for a stubborn seller to walk away. Ask yourself some questions before you go into your next deal.

Analyze what you could have done differently. Could you have gone your maximum at the beginning? Did you take too long to respond to a counter? Did you ask for too much in extras like closing costs or furnishings? Just take your time, sit back and think what you would have done differently.

Losing a home of your dreams, to put it mildly, really sucks but I promise there are other houses out there that are just as nice if not better. I have seen it time and time again when a buyer loses a home only to find one that was much better at a later date making them feel like they dodged a bullet from a bad home buying experience with stubborn sellers. I tell you all of this “Because YOU Matter”

Your Real Estate Whisperer

Kristina Smallhorn

Tea Glorious Tea

October 12, 2016

Tea glorious tea

I know the trendy thing is to love coffee. Every time I mention the fact I’m not a fan I get “the look”. You know the one where people make that face that shows they think you have some kind of major problem. Their face gets mildly less screwy when I say, “I love hot tea” which in turn usually I get the response “I just love a chamomile or green tea”. I try to hide my disgust for such the mention of these kind of teas, They do little for me personally other than make me feel like I’m trying to do some deep, cleansing colon treatment before a colonic. It’s like a punishment to my soul to have to drink them, Seriously, GAG!.

The tea that makes me want to open my eyes in the morning, that soothes my tummy when upset and warms my soul on a bad day is the black ones. Watching that boiling hot water pour over a tea bag, making that golden hue of lovely liquid begins my day with pure joy. (a tad over dramatic, but I seriously love the stuff.) If you don’t drink tea often, black teas are the dark rich teas like Assam, Earl Grey and Darjeeling. There are many other varieties but these are my favorite.

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to visit a tea shop in Baton Rouge called Red Stick Spice Co. They have many varieties of black tea blends (and even my not so favorite ones as well). The black teas they do have are super, mega, delicious. I’d highly recommend them if you are wanting to jump into tea drinking.

I buy my everyday teas are at World Market in Baton Rouge. They have many varieties of daily black teas, including PG Tip’s, Typhoo, and my personal favorite, Barry’s Irish Breakfast. It’s just a hop, skip and jump from Ascension in Siegen Lane Market Place.

I know that this blog post has nothing to do with real estate in Ascension Parish. I just wanted to share my love for good tea and where you can find some good ones (in my opinion).

“Because YOU matter”
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