Easter Egg Hunt in Olympia, WA!

Easter is the time for springtime festivals, a time to welcome back the Tulips, Crocuses and Daffodils, a time of chocolate bunnies, marshmallow chicks, colored eggs and so much more!

Want to help those in need this Easter season?

"Project Easter Bunny" provides free Easter baskets to those children who would otherwise go without! They plan on giving away 500 baskets. Contact 'Barb's Family and Friends' if you can donate to the basket-makings or can help put together baskets. April 3rd, 2010, 11am-3pm, United Churches, 110 11th Ave SE, Olympia. For more information, contact: Rodney O'Neill 360-786-9835
email: barbssoul@yahoo.com
website: http://www.mixx96.com/ext/index.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fhome.php%23%2Fpages%2FBarbs-Family-and-Friends%2F94235289775%3Fref&ad_frame=1

Olympia has the best places to hunt for eggs! Below are a just a few in our area...

Lattin's Country Cider Mill - Join us on the the day before Easter for our Annual Easter Egg Hunt! http://www.lattinscider.com/events.html

Tumwater Easter Egg Dash - Tumwater Parks and Recreation invites all Thurston County residents to attend their free Easter Egg Dash. Groups for ages 10 and under. April 3rd, 2010, 11am, Tumwater High School, 700 Israel Rd SW, Tumwater, field behind THS Stadium. For more information, contact: Stephanie Klein 360-754-4160 sklein@ci.tumwater.wa.us
website: http://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/

Easter Egg Train: Climb aboard for a leisurely train ride on the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad steam engine! After a 30-minute train ride with the Easter Bunny and Chicken Little, children 13 and under will be separated into three age groups and invited to search for hidden Easter eggs filled with candy or prizes. $8. April 3rd, 2010, 10:30am, 12:30pm, 2:30pm, Chehalis-Centralia Railroad & Museum, Chehalis, 1101 Sylvenus Street, off I-5 Exit 77. For more information, contact: Centralia Chehalis Railroad 360-748-9593 http://www.steamtrainride.com/

Community Easter Egg Dash: Hidden Creek Community Church invites you to join them for a Community Easter Egg Dash! Rain or shine! Over 5000 eggs! Three age groups – four and under, 5 years & 1st grade, 2nd–3rd grade. Grand prize in each age group! Lots of great prizes! April 3rd, 2010, 10:30am SHARP!, Hidden Creek Community Church, 1807 9th Ave. SW, Olympia, 4 blocks east of Capital Mall. For more information, contact: Sheri 360-357-3739 theOffice@HiddenCreekChurch.com
website: http://www.hiddencreekchurch.org/

Easter Egg Hunt: For children, toddlers through 3rd grade, there will be two opportunities to hunt for Easter eggs! Face painting, special prizes, a free raffle, and tons of fun! All are welcome! Sponsored by Church of Living Water. April 3rd, 2010, 9-9:45am and 10-10:45am, Charlie’s Safari, 5400 Martin Way East, Lacey. For more information, contact: 754-5830 www.livingwater.com/go/egghunt

Easter Egg Hunt: Olympia Moose Lodge 1759 presents an Easter Egg Hunt for all children ages 12 and under. April 4th, 2010, 1pm, Lacey Senior Center, Lacey. For more information, contact: Fred McHenry 360-491-1759 lodge1759@mooseunits.org

Green Building EXPO This Weekend

If you have ever been curious about energy efficient alternatives for your home, or thought you would like to build a brand new Green home, this weekend there is a great opportunity to explore the world of Green Building Products and Technologies. The expo is on location at a new 5 acre subdivision, Palomino Ridge. Palomino Ridge is near Lake St. Clair in the Evergreen Valley, just off the Yelm Highway. On Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28, from 1-4 PM, as part of the Olympia Builders Tour of Homes, Palomino Ridge, will be hosting a free demonstration of Green Building products.

Wayne Medrud, with Smart Energy Systems, will be there to demonstrate how geothermal heating systems work to use the earth's heat energy to drastically reduce your heating expense and conserve energy. Whether you are interested in solar hot water systems, radiant floor heat, solar elecric systems, or even hot water to air heat pump systems, Wayne has the experience to answer your questions and give advice for your home application.

James Peterson, Lanza Premier Homes, will demonstrate the use of ICF (insulated concrete forms) building blocks. ICF's have great insulative values and create a clean, quiet, green home. Come see for yourself the benefits of ICF's.

To make your trip to Palomino Ridge even better, Coldwell Banker listing agents, Dan Barrett and Anita Marriott will be serving free BBQ sandwiches. Dan smokes his own BBQ--you'll love it.

Directions: Palomino Ridge is located just off the Yelm Highway at Thorobred Lane SE. (just west of the intersection of Lake St. Clair Drive and Yelm Highway)

Coldwell Banker TV Campaign

Check out this video compliments of our exclusive YouTube channel On Location!

Retailers Looking to Olympia's Westside

Commercial markets continue to correct locally and nationally. Retail has been one of the harder hit segments. However here are a couple of bright spots on the local retail front.

http://www.theolympian.com/2010/02/19/1143591/discount-clothier-to-open-shop.html

http://www.theolympian.com/2010/02/18/1142121/mall-finds-long-term-tenant.html

Spring Forward...

It’s that time of the year again! Daylight Saving Time (DST). That means time to set your clocks ahead and spring forward one hour. DST begins this Sunday, March 14, at 2 a.m.

Although it might take us a couple of weeks to adjust our internal clocks, DST gives us extra hours of sunshine which we can take advantage of this spring to keep our households running smoothly. Here are a few spring cleaning ideas to keep in mind:

Wash windows both inside and out. It would be hard to enjoy the signs of spring with dirty windows.

Get ready for the upcoming outside parties. Start with brushing off your outdoor furniture and deck or patio. Check your home’s exterior and other structures for any needed repairs. Continue lawn and garden maintenance to keep your yard beautiful.

Don't forget to change the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors to ensure they are working properly. This is a simple task but a very important one.

Enjoy the sun! After winter we all deserve a little sunshine!

Coldwell Banker 2010 TV Commercial

Check out this video compliments of our exclusive YouTube channel On Location!

Home Sales Still on the Rise

Home Sales Still on the Rise

Thurston County home sales logged another solid month in February. Pending sales, those under contract but not yet closed, were up 11% compared to February 2009. The 308 pending home sales made for the fifth strongest February on record.

Closed sales were also up over last year. There were 178 home sales closed during the month, a 22.7% rise from last year. The percentage gain is big but tends to overstate the proposition. The dismal 145 sales last February was the worst that month had seen since the year 2000, which was abnormally low due to the Y2K scare happening at the time.

Still, the increase in activity is a good sign. It is the result of two factors: affordability and first-time buyers. The median sales price of homes sold in February was $233,440, down 10% from last year at this time.

That drop in market-wide price overstates the decline for most individual properties. That is because so many homes are selling at the lower end of the price scale and relatively fewer homes are selling in the upper price ranges. That imbalance in sales is certainly distorting the data.

So even if prices on individual homes aren't down 10% since last year, most homes throughout the market are down double-digit percentages since the peak of the market in 2007. With those prices coming back to sustainable levels, we are seeing people become shoppers again. First-time buyers, armed with the soon-to-expire $8,000 tax credit, are making the lower-end of the market move again. Right now, seven out of ten buyers are purchasing homes $250,000 and under.

We are seeing prices moderate in the mid-tier price ranges and we expect to see more activity there as a result. Sellers in these price ranges would be wise to make any needed price adjustments sooner than later. The repeat buyers looking to put their own $6,500 tax credit to work have less than two months to use it.