ZZZZZZZ…

Back from showing houses and so I’ve checked the accepted offers reported. One all day, that house on cat Rock mentioned earlier – under $2 million. For the week, there were 16 AO’s for single family homes, one asking $3.7 million, the next highest at $2.195 and the remaining 14 below that. No big fish.

122 Old Church

New listings? Only one of much interest, 122 Old Church Road, asking $10.750 million. That makes it the 49th house to join the inventory of $10 million + houses for sale and, given we’ve sold just two of those in the past six months, this could be a long wait.

But, but! If one of those 49 should sell, I hope it’s this one. A 1912 house just a block or two in from the Post Road on three (3!) acres. You won’t find this much great, flat land this close to town anywhere else. And, while I haven’t seen the renovations yet (open house next week)I’m already cheering the owners on. This was a stunning house but one badly in need of modernization. I feared for its life but these guys bought it ($5.2 million in 2010) and have obviously poured money into it. It’s a magnificent effort to save one of the town’s nicest houses and I applaud the effort. I really hope they sell this quickly for a tidy profit because it would encourage more such salvage/restoration projects.

221 Taconic

From the reduced price package one, 221 Taconic Road stands out. This is a great antique (1836) house extensively renovated but still gorgeous. 4.88 flat acres and really just a hop down the road to downtown, the owners paid $4.150 million for it in 2002, put in all those renovations and in 2008 tried getting $8.2 million. That didn’t work so well and today they’re back at the original 2002 price ($4.250 actually, but if you can’t negotiate, you don’t deserve this nice a house). So that’s 2002 pricing and all that renovation work tossed in for free. Good deal.

245 Riverside Ave

And, finally, from the “Old houses don’t sell, even in Riverside” department, here’s one that did sell and whose selling price was reported today: 245 Riverside Avenue. Good house and not bad at $1.55 million but probably a disappointing price for the sellers, who paid $1.775 for it four years ago in 2008. So it goes.

I shoulda been a cop

That magic sound of overtime accruing

$240,097.59 salary last year for Chief of Police Ridberg, and he’s retired! Nice work, if you don’t have to do it.

At least the plane was still on the ground

Cos Cob flight seat

Family tossed from Jet Blue plane when 2-year-old throws tantrum. Baby tantrums (and TSA goons) is why, if I can’t drive, I stay home.

(A little) life after death

60 Cat Rock Road has an accepted offer. Looks as though Cos Cob may be in for a good year, since so much of its inventory is below $2 million, and that’s what’s selling these days. But warning: sellers may be in for a disappointment if they expect huge sums for their property. This one, asking $1.895, sold for $1.560 in 1999. No word on final price yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not close to that 1999 figure.

Okay, I’m leaving the Tina Pray arena

Thief in the night

Turns out that, when she’s not sending me furious emails and profane posts, she has a sense of humor. I do appreciate that. So no more (well, probably not much more) on this woman I’ve never met. Here’s a picture sent of herself “stealing” her own art. Funny.

Hooray for the Internet

EOS just pointed out that Kat and her bandmates in Brown Chicken/Brown Cow reached the $10,000 goal for a new (to them) van. Thanks to all who contributed. Did I mention that they opened for New Riders of the Purple Sage in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago? Did you know that the New Riders were still around? They did and they are.

Kat, "Ossi" and friends

A vast conspiracy?

Car of the future, coming to Detroit via Paris

Government Motors moving to bail out Peugeot/Citroen. I’m not a huge conspiracy fan, but why would a socialist-leaning president pressure a subsidiary of the government to come to the aid of a car company from socialist France? Beats me.

Peugeot can undoubtedly use the cash.  Last year, Peugeot’s auto making division lost $123 million.  And on March 1 – just a day after the deal with GM was announced – Moody’s downgraded Peugeot’s credit rating to junk status with a negative outlook, citing “severe deterioration” of its finances.

In other words, General Motors essentially just dumped more than $400 million of taxpayer assets on junk bonds.

GM has said the deal is designed to give GM access to Peugeot’s expertise in small car and hybrid vehicle technology and ultimately allow both GM and Peugeot to save money by pooling their resources. But auto industry analysts find the deal mystifying.

An analysis by auto industry consultants IHS said it is “somewhat baffling that GM is willing to get involved in an alliance that it frankly does not need for size or complexity, while still avoiding any public plan to rationalise its European production, cut costs, or deal with labour rates.”

It’s 10:00 AM – do you know where your buyers are?

Waiting for Mr. Right

It’s still early in the day and the folks in charge of posting accepted offers on our MLS “hot sheet” may still be dawdling over their coffee but so far, the first hour has seen exactly one A/O, a rental on Greenwich Avenue.

I’ll be busy all day today and Sunday showing properties and obviously other agents are out there too so the market is not dead.

But I’d prefer to see some activity reported, if only to keep brother Gideon on track to meet his prediction that we’ll have 30 A/O’s reported this week. With just a few hours to go, we still need something like 20.

Another triumph for the Booboisie

Save the whales - we'll need the oil!

The Liquid Natural Gas project, Broadwater, is finally, officially dead as the consortium hoping to build it has abandoned its federal approvals. Politians rejoice. Here’s what Lonnie Reed, Democratic from Branford said:

“[T]o me, this is a powerful reminder of all we accomplished by working together on both sides of the Sound to protect this treasured resource we share.”

On Connecticut NPR this morning, the same dingbat explained further, “now we can focus on real problems, like the lobster die-off.””

So  what makes Reed’s panties moist is that she and her fellow zealots “accomplished” the denial of a reliable source of energy for Long Island and Connecticut, a loss that will affect millions of people and jobs, in exchange for freeing her to see about putting a dozen lobstermen back to work. No mention – there never is – what exactly Reed’s crowd intends to do to provide energy to the area and in fact, the same bunch is working feverishly to shut down the Indian Point nuclear plant which presently provides 30% of the region’s electricty. I realize that Reed is just a simpleton but hse and others like her are being led by the nose by others who are smarter and who have darker purposes, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose goal is the destruction of modern civilization.

Or he’s just as stupi and blind as Reed – he is a Kennedy, after all.

Obummer logic: a bulb for the 1%, perhaps to make it easier to find their Tesla in a dark garage?

Dim Bulb

$10 million award granted for the first “affordable” green lightbulb:. Expected retail price: $50.00. For the Golfer in Chief, used to prices in Hawaii and Aspen, this probably seems cheap.

I’d rather be governed by the first 100 names in the Boston phone book

NYT Editorial Board fixes the Constitution

William F. Buckley said (something like) that in response to a proposal that Harvard professors run the country. Now, attempting to do the Harvard prof’s one better, the editors of the New York Times dismiss the constitution of the United States as obsolete, failing to recognize and protect rights like the right to food, free MTV and cellphones while insisting on the right to own a gun.

Interesting to reflect that, if reelected, Obummer will have the opportunity to pack the Supreme Court with people who share his, and the New York Times’ views and make a new constitution unnecessary.

Finally, truth in advertising

Chevy breaks taboo, introduces the word “crapload” in an ad for its failed Volt.

Still climbing and ground has yet to be broken

The Greenwich High School Performing Palace, originally sold as a $23 million project and then later as “only” $28 million is now estimated to cost $37 million. We need a poll!