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For my two regular readers of my blog, you’ll notice that I had a writing lapse here.  The rest of you didn’t even notice I was gone.  Sometimes life just happens that pulls you in other directions and something has to give.  Alas…this time it was writing.

One of the things that threw me off kilter was a major leak in our master bathroom.  Lovely…the unexpected remodel.  True to form, I decided, hey, if we are gutting our master bath, let’s redo the master bedroom at the same time.  Without a thought, I hopped on down to Sherwin Williams for inspiration and to pick my new improved paint colors for our bedroom. Excitedly, I shared with my husband that our bedroom would now be purple and green.   Eyes rolled and masculinity was challenged.  Apparently, real men don’t have purple walls in their bedrooms.  Undaunted by his lack of enthusiasm for my improvement, I forged ahead.  “He’ll come around,” I told myself.

Carpet ripped up, hardwoods installed. Check.

New windows and craftsman style window trim. Check.

Crown moulding and larger baseboard. Check.

Purple accent wall painted. Check.

“Why do we have to have a purple wall, again?” questioned my exasperated husband.

“Because it will look awesome when it is all put together.  If you really, really, really (yes that many reallys…) hate it, I’ll paint over it with the green. “

After having our furniture in our living room for a couple of weeks, we get to move back into our bedroom.  The best part?  I think my husband is starting to like the purple wall in our room.    Well…maybe like is too strong a word, but his eyes aren’t rolling in the back of his head anymore.  So far, no requests to paint over the purple and when the furniture was in there he actually said he liked how it looked.

Sweet.  Real men can handle purple bedrooms to make their spouses happy.
The hardwood floors were done by Restoration Creek, the trim work by Lance Hamberger, and painting by Brian Gaskin (the ceiling looks wonky in the photos but it isn’t like that in real life…looks normal).  I was pleased with all of their work if any of you need contractors like that I’d recommend them.

I was supposed to write a thankful post.  That’s what every blogger does this time of year, right?

I’m supposed to write some thought provoking post about how I am thankful for the multitude of things in my life.  Gathering dust on a shelf are those “thankful” cards I’m supposed to send out to my clients to remind them to do business with me again because I love them so.  Never mind that you never talk to them any other time of the year…the how-to-keep-your-clients-using-you-forever-guide says I’m supposed to send Thanksgiving or holiday cards every year.   I’m supposed to write that I’m thankful for my kids, who alternate being driving me to the brink of insanity and touching my heart so deeply.

I say we start a new tradition.  How about instead of waiting to let people know that you are thankful for them just once a year, do it when they least expect it the rest of the year. Everyone expects the same forced thanking that we go through every year.  Imagine hugging your kid on January 23rd and saying “I’m really glad you are in my life.”  Imagine telling your client who is a dog lover that there was a recall on a certain kind of dog treat on March  14th because you care about their well being.  Imagine telling your spouse on June 4th that you appreciate that they cleaned the toilets.  If your household is anything like my household, getting my hubby to clean the bathrooms is indeed something to be joyous about.  Seriously, the man has issues cleaning a toilet.  We have gloves for a reason, people.

What am I thankful for?  I’m thankful that there are 364 other days in the year for me to express my appreciation to my friends, family, and clients.  So you won’t see all the things I’m thankful for scrolling on my twitter feed or Facebook status page right now.

Don’t worry though.  I appreciate many things in my life.  I’ll catch you the other 364 days a year.

August saw a bit of a jump up in home prices from last August.  I certainly wouldn’t say that home prices are appreciating in Keizer but last year was the end of the tax credit and July and August were dismal months in real estate.  Home prices really couldn’t get worse than after the tax credit ended.  With a current average of $175,297 and a median of $156,000, Keizer is fairly close to Salem median home prices.  

The 90 day absorption rate is 29.67 which means the current inventory of homes in Keizer is 7.3 months.  A bit better than Salem’s 9 months and just like Salem, Keizer is in a bit of a sweet spot for regular sellers as 50% of foreclosures have been pulled off the market temporarily.  In August 16% of homes sold in Keizer were foreclosures or short sales.  17% of active listings are designated as foreclosures or short sales right now.  Home sales were the best in three years in August, just like Salem’s numbers.  It wasn’t hard to beat last year so that doesn’t really count.  Overall good market numbers for Keizer.  If we didn’t have those stopped foreclosures looming ahead of us, I’d say Keizer is looking pretty darn sweet for real estate, but these numbers will probably get uglier in about 6-12 months, assuming the MERS foreclosure issues get resolved.