Archive for the 'Stuff I like to talk about and know nothing about' Category
It’s Crabapple Update Time Again | Builder Lots Available on the Cheap
categories: Announcements, Crabapple, Lots, Stuff I like to talk about and know nothing about
CRABAPPLE - It seems like the minute I write an update on Crabapple, a whole bunch of new stuff happens and I need to write another one. I promise, I’m not fixating on Crabapple, but it does seem like it’s getting a lot of focus on this blog recently.
Update number one is that it is snowing in Crabapple today.
Update number two is that it just stopped. That is how up to the minute the information in this blog can be! And for you Northerners reading: Yes, it does snow in Georgia, but only for about five minutes a year, if that.
Restaurant Update
Since it is the holiday season, let’s start with food: Two items to mention on the alimentary front. One is the surfacing of the Gastropub. I love that name, but what is it you ask?
Well, technically it is the old Fosters redone with a new menu and more service. The owner of the old Foster’s, Mr O’Keefe, decided the Foster’s franchise wasn’t working for him and punted. In its stead, he rebranded and reopened literally overnight as the Gastropub.
The menu is more than just burgers, fries and shakes. Now you can order a full array of entrees ($12-$17), foccacia sandwiches ($8) and pasta selections ($7 for half order and $12 for full order). There are appetizers too, table service instead of the counter ordering and a full bar to come. It looks like Crabapple will have two Irish pubs now, considering that the Old Blind Dog is going to be opening in the Crabapple Mercantile soon. You know, a town is judged by the number and quality of its Irish Pubs.
The second restaurant-related item is not really news but more a clarification. The Silos Grill was a fixture in the old Ingles shopping center. When redevelopment started there, Silos disappeared. Well, actually their lease was not renewed just like the Ace Hardware. Don’t ask me how the Nail Salon and Happy Wok kept their leases…maybe they are based on a Chinese calendar!
Anyway, Silos didn’t really disappear. It, too, resurfaced as a rebranded concept in Crabapple as the Cantina del Mar in the same building as Little Azio. You can read more details about the owners of the Silos/Cantina del Mar, Beth and David Riordan, here .
One last piece of restaurant news. Someone left a comment a while ago on this blog saying it would be great to have an all night diner in Crabapple. I’m not sure it will be open all night, but I noticed that a new Diner is going in where the Snooty Fox - or whatever it was called was near Kroger … who would go to a restaurant named the Snooty Fox, anyway … obviously not many because it didn’t last long. Let’s see if the Diner can take this traditionally dead location and make good there. I’d love to see something like the American Roadhouse in Virginia-Highland.
Crabapple Opportunity for Custom Home Building
Crabapple Crossing is sold out of single family homes, garden homes and townhomes, but they have some unbuilt upon lots left. The builder is trying to determine whether to build and sell homes or just sell the lots themselves.
If you are looking to build in Crabapple, this could be an excellent way for you to pick up a discounted lot. If you are a small builder, here’s an opportunity to pick up a small package of lots.
There are four single family lots left. They are $50,000 each or you could possibly get all four for $100,000, but you have to contact me for this deal! These lots are not currently listed but the owner will sell them.
The single family homes in Crabapple Crossing are approximately 3,000 - 3,600 square feet and cost the builder about $270,000 each to build. If you built something comparable that would put your "all-in price" at $320,000. Note, all homes must be approved by the Home Owner’s Association in order to maintain the aesthetic integrity of the community.
Single family homes were selling in Crabapple Crossing in the low $500’s in 2007 and in the low $400’s in the latter portion of 2008. Most recently, after an outside investor took over the neighborhood and reduced prices, the last one to sell was a 4BR/3BA on a slab for $363k. At an all-in price of $320,000, you’d still have a lot of equity even in this market.
There are also two or four garden home lots, depending on how you count them. Two garden homes are built on one lot as attached homes, so four homes could be built on two slabs. The garden homes that are currently built are actually just a large if not larger in square footage than the single family homes by 200-400 square feet. Garden homes range from 3,200 to 3,400 square feet.
The slabs are already poured on the garden home lots, so unless you wanted to tear them up, the footprint of the homes is already determined. It is unlikely the the HOA would approve different exteriors for these homes. This is an excellent opportunity for a builder who wants to finish for a profit what someone else started.
The current owner will also pre-sell garden homes (with same builder who built the existing homes) at discounted prices of $375,000 and single family homes at around $420,000.
Beragio Under Construction - Active Adult Community in Crabapple
I was mistaken about Beragio in a previous post. Construction is indeed on-going there. Slabs have been poured for three homes and framing has started. These will be 3BR/2BA Easy Living Home certified active adult community homes. The prices are listed at $595,000.
Braeburn Office Condos
The office condos fronting Birmingham Highway are popping out of the ground. It is amazing how fast they can build these things. Literally the structure shown in the picture on the right took a week to raise. There are three others like it and this picture was taken on November 10th. They are probably finished with it at this rate.
A Chocolate Dilemma at Crabapple Mercantile
What do you do with a whole palette of chocolate? Keep my kids away from it is what you do!
All kidding aside, that is the predicament of Scoops, the ice cream shop slated to open at the Crabapple Mercantile. They wanted to open by Thanksgiving but the schedule has been pushed back to January and they are trying to figure out what to do with all the chocolate they bought to sell for the holidays.
One solution they have is to sell gift baskets with chocolate and candy for the holidays. These baskets start at $49 and you can get more information at www. scoopssweettreats.com or call Lynn @ 770-876-7565. They will literally give you a taste of what Scoops will eventually offer.
The first merchant to open in the Crabapple Mercantile is going to be Faire La Belle, a hair salon that has hired staff and is ready to open. The building itself is finished for all practical purposes. Getting the certificate of occupancy is the next step and then business can commence. The Old Blind Dog Irish pub is scheduled to open in February.
It’s snowing again. Ok, it stopped again. That’s Alpharetta for you.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 10 Comments »
Doors Are to Houses as Noses Are to Faces - Exploration of Alpharetta Door Architecture
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Miscellaneous, Stuff I like to talk about, Stuff I like to talk about and know nothing about
This post is not really specific to Alpharetta or North Fulton real estate, but I’ve recently become minorly obsessed with doors. The door on a house is equivalent to the nose on a face. It makes a statement; and the nose and face should somewhat go together. 
Sometimes it is the homeowners who are responsible for a “bad nose.” This would be like poor application of face makeup. Yes, the door color on a house is your chance for self expression, but we have all see that lady in the mall who has eyebrows basically painted on her face. There comes a point when self expression is just plain misguided. Take this house for example, in the Hunters Oaks subdivision in Alpharetta.
Do you like this door? Would you put it on your house? Would you consider painting it if you owned this house and were going to sell? Would you want to live across the street from this house?
My wife actually likes this door. She thinks it looks Scandinavian. My wife likes IKEA, too. I don’t like either.
My problem with the door is not so much the color, but that the color doesn’t fit in with the rest of the neighborhood. This door might be great in a seaside neighborhood (or a suburb of Stockholm) where other homes had brightly painted doors, but in Alpharetta, GA, it doesn’t work. Neighborhoods definitely derive value from a consistent appearance of the houses. That is why homeowner’s associations have architectural control committees. The Brierfield subdivision on Mid-Broadwell Road has restrictions that require homeowners to paint the exterior of their homes from a defined color pallet. Apparently that is not the case in Hunters Oaks.
Sometimes - and more often - it is the architect who is responsible for a bad nose job on a house. Take this $800,000 house in Highland Manor in Milton. I love the floorplan of this house, but the architect was asleep at the drawing board when he penciled the front door and entrance.
This door/nose is way too puny for the house/face. The windows (called “lights” in door parlance) above and around the door are nice, but they don’t remedy the fact that the door is just too small. Putting the windows around the door is like piercing your nose: It might decorate it, but it doesn’t make it bigger or easier to blow!
An $800,000 house needs a statement door, not a single nostril after thought. You want to make a big entrance into a house like this, because behind that door is a nice open, tiled foyer.
We’ll finish with a rising trend I’ve seen in front doors: iron. Many high end builders in Milton are installing them in new construction and I’ve seen homeowners around Alpharetta doing “nose jobs” on their existing homes. They look fantastic on all styles of homes, offer great security, have a good heft to them and require little maintenance. They make a statement.
I wish I had before and after pictures of these two houses, but here are the after pictures of two recent nose jobs, one in the St Ives neighborhood and the other across the street in Medlock Bridge. These owners, in my opinion, have definitely increased the value of their homes and its marketability were they to sell.
I often get asked: “How do I increase the value of my home?” Or, “If I were to do something what would help me sell my house faster?” The usual answer you’ll hear is to upgrade the kitchen and master bath. I’d submit that you consider upgrading your front door. Give your house a nose job.
Which house would you rather own? The green door house or the iron door house?
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 6 Comments »
Red Light Runners in Alpharetta and Roswell Bring in the Green
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Roswell Real Estate, Stuff I like to talk about, Stuff I like to talk about and know nothing about
This post is a little off my normal real estate related theme, but is something that affects North Fulton communities and something that affects its residents: Red Light Traffic Cameras.
The old saying goes that “Green mean go; Red means stop; and yellow means drive like hell.”
That is not the case any longer in Roswell and Alpharetta since the installation of cameras at two major intersections in Roswell and seven in Alpharetta. Believe me when I tell you that I know exactly where these nine intersections are and that I absolutely hit the breaks when the light turns yellow. I’m conditioned now.
I have no doubt in the effectiveness of the cameras preventing people from running red lights because I’ve noticed a change in my own behavior. I actually consider my actions before proceeding through a yellow light.
| Alpharetta Red Light Cameras North Point Parkway and Haynes Bridge Road
Main Street (Highway 9) and Academy Street Old Milton Parkway and North Point Parkway Old Milton Parkway and Haynes Bridge Road Old Milton Parkway and Main Street (Highway 9) West Side Parkway and Windward Parkway North Point Pkwy at Mansell Rd |
| Roswell Red Light Cameras Roswell Road (Highway 9) and Mansell Rd
Roswell Road (Highway 9) and Holcomb Bridge Rd |
When the lights were first installed I was afraid that I’d been caught a couple of times and wondered if I’d be getting a notice in the mail, but fortunately nothing arrived. However, the threat alone of a fine is enough to make me change my driving behavior. I’ve also learned that a violation is defined as crossing the “stop line” with your front tires after the light has turned red.
So why are people so upset with the cameras? House Bill 77 has been introduced in the Georgia House to do away with the cameras altogether. House Bill 590 has been introduced to reduce the maximum fine from $70 to $35.
I believe that people are upset because they see the cities making literally millions of dollars on fines from the cameras. Alpharetta has collected over a million dollars from its seven monitored intersections from July 2006 through June 2007. Roswell is on track to collect about $700,000 annually from its two monitored intersections.
Citizens feel it is sneaky, though, of their local government to use this “backhanded” way to fill their coffers. More accurately, I think that people are just very frustrated with traffic and fell they shouldn’t be fined anymore for occasionally slipping through an intersection. After all, the slow traffic is penalty enough.
To me it is a safety issue. As a realtor, I drive in Alpharetta and Roswell a LOT. I routinely see people run lights and stop signs and I’ve seen so many near misses I’ve lost count. If cameras change the driving behavior of other people like they have me, then that is a good thing and something I support.
The evidence is that is actually the case: Revenue from the cameras in Alpharetta is actually down in 2007 from 2006. That indicates fewer people running lights.
The City of Johns Creek doesn’t have any red light cameras yet, but is considering them – and frankly needs them along highway 141. Mayor Bodker says he is opposed to them if they are only revenue generators for the city.
First of all, I believe they actually reduce the worst kind of traffic accidents, but even if they don’t, what is wrong with enforcing the traffic laws and raising revenues that way? We tax “sin” in this country all the time with cigarette and alcohol taxes. Is running a red light a sin? If you T-bone and kill someone it is.
If it were possible to finance a government by fine revenues and sin taxes wouldn’t it be great to rely less on property and sales taxes? I digress…
In a recent survey of Alpharetta residents, 2,602 people responded to a question about various priorities in the area of traffic and roads. 
Installing more red light cameras was at the bottom of the list.
When asked how they would like to control litter, respondents overwhelming said enforce litter laws and impose fines. Yet when it comes to traffic, people don’t seem to want to enforce the law and impose fines.
To me, it is a lot like workplace drug testing. If you don’t have anything to hide, why would you oppose it. Now, if you don’t agree with the law itself, then that is a different problem, but the drug tests and the traffic cameras simply enforce the letter of the law. The problem is that they enforce them too well for some people.
In the end, traffic is the issue. More precisely, getting from point A to point B in a reasonable amount of time with limited frustration without killing each other is the issue. My vote would be for more red light cameras and earmarking the revenue for traffic improvements: more turn lanes, longer turn lanes, intersection improvements, light timing, etc.
Ask anyone around here and traffic is the number one issue. The red light cameras just bring it to focus with the right shutter speed.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 7 Comments »
