The Lovely Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library!

If you live in Clarksville and haven't been to the local library, you are missing out! Not only does the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library offer virtual means to your favorite books with a library card-- which you can read more about here-- but you can take advantage of so many amazing perks that come with our Public Library here in Clarksville!

For those with kids-- from small children to teens-- the library has a myriad of programs throughout the year! There are near-daily activities for children, both craft times and storytimes to be enjoyed in the children's library! However, once a week in the afternoon, there are also programs for tweens and teens. These crafting activities are extremely fun and usually based on popular trends! While it has been a good while since I went to the teen program, I remember that we made our own Sonic Screwdrivers, inspired by the popular series Doctor Who! Tweens and Teens can also apply to be on the library's Teen Advisory Board, which helps decide on the crafting activities and promote the teen and tween programs.

There are also all age and adult programs at the library. Some of these include the Lego Program, Sunday Movie, and the Anime Club! There is also a program for those of all ages with special needs and their caregivers. For adults, the library hosts a book club and crochet club as well as an open tech lab to get help with computer use such as navigation or setting up an email! For a full calendar of library activities, check here!

The Public Library is an incredible place and the staff has really allowed for great use of the space with all of their available programs. However, whether you want to attend the Sunday movie or just want to check out the wide selection of books, you should consider going to the Public Library soon! 

Prepping Your House for Showing and Selling: Safety Precautions

When you are trying to sell your home, you're usually still living in it. With that in mind, you need to make sure to keep yourself and your belongings safe as potential buyers move in and out for showings and open houses. Some of these things may seem obvious, but in the whirlwind of getting ready, it can be easy to forget the simplest things!

First: be sure to lock away valuables and secure any private documents! Move your jewelry out of the jewelry box, lock any safes you may have in the house. Be sure any important documents, such as ones from your bank, are securely tucked away. While an agent will be with potential buyers through a showing, there is always a possibility someone might get their hands on something they shouldn't.

Second: remove medication from your home. If you need to, keep your medication in a mobile bag you can take with you when you leave the house for showings or else put them away with other valuables in a secured spot.

And third: take down any decorations that include the names of your family, especially kids. While it is unlikely this is something a potential buyer would use, it is better safe than sorry. No stranger should have access to your child's name so be sure to remove any door signs and other such decorations! 

These steps perhaps seem simple, but sometimes the simple things are the easiest to forget! Be sure to lock away valuables, remove medications, and be sure to take down decorations with the names of your family. This will keep you, your belongings, and your family safe as you ready yourself to sell your house!

Ice Cream for Hot Days: Check out Golly G's!

The temperature seems to be rising a little more every day this week, and as we hit heat advisories in Clarksville, it's important to stay cool. Start up the sprinkler, jump in the pool, and get yourself a scoop of ice cream! If you're lacking ideas of where to go for a sweet treat, take my advice and go to Golly G's Coffee, Ice Cream, and Sweets! This local growing chain currently only has three locations within Tennessee-- Sango, Pleasantview, and Greenbriar. The Sango location is (obviously) the one I've attended most, but all of these shops have a certain charm about them reminiscent of an older ice cream parlor. 

Golly G's is the place to go for ice cream for a simple reason: it's made in-house. No generic ice cream in this little restaurant! While there are the staple flavors of chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and mint chip, there are also more creative flavors. Currently, at the Sango location, there are flavors such as blackberry cobbler, oreo speedwagon, whopper, and (my favorite) peanut butter honey. You get any flavor of the ice cream made into a banana split, a hot fudge sundae, a milkshake, or a shake with a shot-- or a milkshake with expresso. Though of course, there are other sweets including the famous Golly G's Giant Cinnamon Roll. If you have a real sweet tooth, order the Golly G: one of the famous giant cinnamon rolls topped with sweet buttercream ice cream and drizzled with caramel sauce.

While there are some lunch options-- and of course, coffee-- the ice cream is to die for. If you're needing a cold, sweet treat? Head to Golly G's at 2622 Madison St!

Clarksville Writers Conference - Sign Up Now!

Our city is lucky to have its own Writers Conference! Despite being a smaller event, having attended the conference twice over the past years, I can attest to its worth. This two-day event is a full buffet of writing workshops and presentations given by published writers. It is relatively inexpensive for a conference of this kind-- a complete package for $225 to include the full two days and the banquet, or different options of lesser expense.

The line-up for this year can be found on the Clarksville Writers Conference website, here! This program is sponsored by the Clarksville-Montgomery County Arts & Heritage Development Council, in partnership with Austin Peay State University and the Tennessee Arts Commission. It will be the sixteenth year of this conference being held, and it's doubtlessly bound to get better as it grows, so make that possible by signing up! If you'll be in town on August 12th and 13th? Sign up to go to the Clarksville Writers Conference! It is not only a chance to grow as a writer but a chance to meet the community of writers around you!

A Local Literary Journal to Support!

For those literary-minded or those just wanting to find something a little different than the ordinary novel to read, this is for you. If you've never heard of a literary journal, they are collections usually made of short stories, essays, and poems by different authors allowing for a broad range in subject matter and style. Perhaps the production of these kinds of books is common knowledge, but I didn't learn about them until I entered college and was able to work with Zone 3 Press at Austin Peay State University.

If you've never gotten a journal from Zone 3, you're missing out. Established in 1986, this nationally distributed journal is printed twice a year. It is a non-profit press that encourages emerging authors which is one of the many reasons you should try to support and promote this locally produced journal that publishes submissions from all over! Zone 3 offers book competitions for poetry collection and nonfiction publishing-- and I can say, owning some of these books myself, that Zone 3 only puts out excellent work. In addition, Zone 3 contributes to the experience of Austin Peay with their visiting writer series. They allow writers to visit and read from their works, and in several cases, these writers have stopped by the creative writing classrooms to share their knowledge. I have sat through a few classes led by visiting writers, and those were some of the most profound class days I experienced. 

If you live in Clarksville and have never heard of Zone 3, it is something you need to learn about now! You can check out the press's full website here, and if you have interest in purchasing one of their journals or contest books, here! I highly recommend An Imperfect Rapture by Kelly Beard as well as A Woman, A Plan, An Outline of a Man by Sarah Kasbeer. I was able to read through both of these during two different semesters of working at Austin Peay, and they were simply amazing!

Why Do I Need a Real Estate Agent?: Networking

Do you have a plan on how to advertise your home when you sell? There are sites, sure-- things like Zillow and even Craigslist. That will surely get some showings, but is it really enough? Friends don't often spread the word that a house is for sale, and sites like Craigslist can get some questionable interest. Overall, this kind of coverage may not get your home sold as quickly and efficiently as you might like.

A perk of having a real estate agent is eliminating the element of advertising on account of the seller. From watching seasoned realtor, Pam Cash of Crye-Lieke Realtors, I can say that advertising homes is one of the big parts of the job. This stretches from taking pictures to posting on sites to let both potential buyers and other realtors know a new home is on the market. Perhaps you're thinking "I can take pictures and post on different sites," but one thing you may be discounting? Seasoned realtors have a network that the average person does not. They know other agents with clients that may be looking for exactly what you're selling that they connect with. They have their own clients who may be searching for the perfect house you have. And if they have neither of those? They have an entire pool of a real estate agency in which they can spread the word of a good house on the market, circulating information that will likely reach the ears of someone who needs to hear about it.

While you may get buyers by self-advertising a for sale by owner home, the pool will most likely be far smaller than the network of potential buyers you'll get with an agent That means, most likely, you won't get as much money for your home as you could. Realtors have a large range of communication and come with a built-in network of connections. They are, overall, invaluable to a good sale.

Prepping Your House for Showing and Selling: Be Mindful of Odors!

This is something that may seem obvious, but in one's own home, this kind of thing might not be so apparent. The idea of 'odors' is not always necessarily a negative thing-- though you should definitely clean the litterbox and take out the garbage! 

The main idea is to try to keep the home's scent neutral. While the smell of a home isn't exactly a selling point, and may not have any large effect, it can help set the mood for the showing. Scents actually have a very large tie to emotions and other psychological factors, and moreover, a showing of a home is the opportunity for potential buyers to put themselves as the owners of the home. Furthermore, there are issues to take into mind such as a potential allergy to an essential oil or else a potential buyer having sensitivity to strong smells. So, be sure to keep this in mind when you're readying for a showing! 

Be careful with what you make in the kitchen before a showing is happening! The smell of cooked fish or sizzling bacon might be a little distracting. Even something as tasty as the smell of fresh-baked cookies may not be fully welcomed-- even though some may encourage the methods to make your home smell just like that. This might come out a stronger scent than anticipated and really-- can you focus when a delicious smell makes you hungry?

You also should be careful with any choice of candle or scent diffuser. Steer away from anything strong-- foods or flowers should take a step back. Look into something neutral, like linen or something foresty. You may also look into a scent exterminating candle.

While scents aren't always bad ones, it's important to keep in mind what your home smells like when you're getting ready for a showing. Be careful with what you cook, and what kind of scent you use when it comes to candles! It's best to keep things neutral as you allow potential buyers to view your home.

Replay Toys Clarksville

Looking for figurines? Vintage toys? Blind boxes, Funko Pops, or maybe some dolls? The new shop on Madison Street, Replay Toys, may be the perfect spot for you to check out! It is a recent addition to our community and an excellent place to find everything I listed!

I went to the shop, Replay Toys, just this week for the first time. Walking in, I was greeted by very friendly employees and several aisles of what were-- in my eyes-- treasures. Two shelves of pops and the unique bags of Loungefly on two more were the first things to explore. While these are newer, Replay Games sells ones that can be very difficult to find as well as discontinued and limited addition items. There is also a case of more delicate figurines that range from superheroes to Disney. While my boyfriend studied a board of Disney pins, I picked out some Hello Kitty blindboxes and then searched through loose figures that were marked incredibly low-- I was not at all disappointed with that I found.

My favorite area was the large expanse of vintage toys, however. There was a large collection of Carebears, boxed Barbies, porcelain Disney princess dolls, and even original in-box Furbies. Of course, that is only a small portion of Replay Toys' stock! I also had fun looking through the incredible supply of anime figurines (which can be difficult to find in without going to Nashville) as well as the vast array of horror memorabilia that included several replicas of Saw's Jigsaw doll. 

Overall, this shop is a place I will definitely be visiting again, and I would suggest to anyone else with an collector's heart. With a frequently fluctuating stock, it's somewhere to peek in whenever in the area!

Spot the Tiny Friend!

 

Why Do I Need an Agent?: Avoiding Emotional Sales

Your home is something personal, and selling it can feel just as personal. Saying goodbye to it can be an incredibly emotional process. It can be overwhelming, and it can feel very personal. Unfortunately, those kinds of emotions can make it harder to get to the end goal: selling your home for a fair price. 

Selling a home is overall a negotiation and it comes with criticisms-- what the potential buyers like and don't like, what they think of the property, and other such things. That can be hard to hear and sometimes may even cause an offense when emotions are already running high. Receiving a low offer can be upsetting, even if it's reasonable. It can be easy to overprice one's own home, having personally seen all of its worth. These are things no seller would see themself guilty of, but when it comes to the task of selling a home, the overwhelming emotions can make such decisions harder. A real estate agent does not have these hangups. They create a comfortable boundary between the buyer and seller; they ensure such emotions don't get in the way. Negative feedback can also be delivered in a way that's easier to swallow and help sellers work with the criticisms. 

All in all, selling a house can be much more personal than one really anticipates. It can be emotional, and many who sell their home themself can find such emotions affecting the sale itself. In the end, a realtor can provide a much-needed cushion when selling one's house as they do not have personal ties to a place that has fostered memories within it. 

Happy Sunday!

 

Prepping Your House for Showing and Selling: Check the Kitchen and Bathrooms!

Two of the biggest selling points in a house are the bathrooms and the kitchen. To top that, these are two of the most used areas meaning that when you are getting ready for a showing, these are areas that need extra attention when cleaning. When you are getting ready to have a buyer enter your home, it is extremely important to have the kitchen and bathrooms in tip-top shape! 

Obviously a deep clean is important for these two high traffic areas of the home. For the kitchen, the counters should not only be free of clutter but clean enough to eat off of. You don't want dirty counters in a showing! Wipe down appliances and cabinets, mop the floor, and make sure sure the trash is taken out. In addition, the surface of your refrigerator should be clear. That means it's time to take down vacation photos, children's drawings, and A+ tests. This is because, when showing the home to potential homeowners, you want to make sure it's depersonalized-- which you can read more about here!

For the bathroom, many of the points of tidying the kitchen can be the same. You need to clean the counters, of course, as well as the sink. Be sure to clean the toilet, the floor, and the trim! The bathtub or shower is also an important thing to take note of. Clean out any shower scum and check to make sure the curtain is clean. Finally, make sure any medicine cabinet or linen closet is clean and tidy. Put any dirty towels in the hamper, and hang new towels to help the aesthetic of the room.

The kitchen is often the biggest selling point, followed up by bathrooms. Because of that, and because those are two very high-traffic areas, they need some extra TLC! So if you have some potential buyers coming in, be sure to take an extra turn around the bathrooms and kitchen-- make sure they're in tip-top shape! 

Why Do I Need an Agent?: Weeding Out Unqualified Buyers

To buy a home, there is a criterion that needs to be met. When selling one's own home, they may not have the needed questions to determine whether or not a buyer is qualified-- or, with all the other work going into selling a home themself, it may simply slip their mind. Like I talked about last time, selling a house is a full-time job and part of that job for realtors is knowing how to weed out people who want to see the home, but won't qualify to buy it.

You may be wondering what the big deal about showing a home to an unqualified buyer is. That is a relatively simple answer. On this blog, we have repeatedly put an emphasis on how much needs to go into a showing. Things need to be clean and organized and having to ensure your home is in tiptop shape when an unqualified buyer wants to view it is, in short, a waste of your time and potentially stopping someone who has the means to buy your home from seeing it in the taken time frame.

Overall, this aspect has to do with training more than anything else. Realtors have been through classes in order to determine the seriousness and qualification of a buyer. The end result is that you don't have to take the time to clean and show your home to people who can't afford to make you an offer. At the end of the day? An agent may be the best choice for you! 

A Day for Flowers

 

Why Do I Need an Agent?: Real Estate is a Full-Time Job

Everyone knows that 'for sale by owner' is a very legitimate way to sell a house. However, there is a lot to have in mind when you make the decision on whether to choose an agent for buying / selling, or going forward on your own. A house is a big investment, and you want it handled in the best way possible. The truth is a real estate agent is the best way.

The first thing to keep in mind is that for an agent? Real estate is a full-time job. And selling a house is a full-time type of task. The average working person can not take off time to open their own home for every potential showing, nor can they take calls while at work to coordinate what times they can do so. 

An agent, however, has all their working hours free for that very task. Pam Cash, an experienced agent, plans her days around showing her client's homes with nothing else set in her way. She can do it when it is best for those wanting to see the home, and she can take time throughout the day to set up different necessary appointments. 

In addition, there is a great amount of paperwork and contracting to do as well as a large amount of marketing to insure the house gets seen as much as it can. Most people do not have experience in such things-- real estate agents, however, do. This is what they are trained for and paid for. Agents like Pam Cash with the Cash Team have extensive experience with contracting, marketing, and seeing your home has showings lined up without you needing to interrupt your day to schedule them yourself. With her excellent communication skills, you won't have a thing to worry about and you'll know what's going on with your home at all times!

So why do you need an agent? Reason one: they are trained to do the things that you may not realize are incredibly time-consuming. With a big investment like a home, you need someone who is going to commit their working hours to get it sold efficiently. An agent is just that. 

Best Place for Cuddles: The Catio Cat Lounge

Another Nashville location on the top of the visit list! If you are in the market for a cat to bring into your home, or just feeling the need to snuggle some kitties, you need to take a day in Nashville to visit the Catio Cat Lounge. Close to Oprymills at 2416 Music Valley Dr, you can make it a day with a trip to the mall or any other close location as well-- that is if you don't get lost in the multiple antique stores in the same strip!

I discovered the Catio with my boyfriend while trying to find a cat cafe in Nashville. While this is definitely more of a lounge, there are beverages that patrons can buy to take into the lounge area. The prices are also relatively cheap for the number of cats to love-- $6 for a half-hour and $12 for a full hour. We decided to just take on a half-hour of Catio time, and it was incredibly worth it. Walking into the area, there are plenty of places for both cats and humans to curl up. I was immediately greeted by a former stray cat as well as an attendant that introduced the rugged kitty as Blackie. She was helpful throughout our stay, informing us of the names of resident cats but allowing us to roam around to play with grown cats and rambunctious kittens. 

With a friendly staff and even friendlier cats? The Catio Cat Lounge is an amazing place to visit for a cuddle puddle of cats or some much-needed kitten time-- or, of course, a potential adoption. If you're planning a day trip to Music City, take a detour to Nashville's (currently only) cat lounge. 

A Day for the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere!

While not right in Clarksville, the Nashville Zoo is not too far of a drive from our lovely city and it is an amazing site for a day trip. I have gone to the zoo in Nashville since I was a child, and it is easily one of my favorite places to visit. Through the years, it has grown immensely with additions. Until yesterday, I hadn't been to the Nashville Zoo since before the closure for COVID. Upon returning, I was incredibly excited for the new exhibits that included the Andean bear, the Sumatran tiger, and a view into the HCA Healthcare Veterinarian Clinic.

Located at 3777 Nolensville Pike, the zoo is a large space with 90 developed acres available for exploration-- with a total of 188 acres that they plan to grow into! Voted the Best Regional Attraction and Best Day Trip by The Tennessean, the Nashville Zoo is the 9th largest zoo in the country by landmass. Most of the attractions and animals are outdoors, but there are some that are indoor-- such as the reptile house, the Unseen World. In addition, many of the enclosures have coverings to allow for a reprieve from the heat and hold more information about the animal on exhibit. My personal favorite of these has become the Andean bear exhibit where a zookeeper even held a skull to show those exploring the interior space to see the bear in his expansive enclosure through a floor-to-ceiling window.

The Nashville Zoo does a great amount towards education and conservation of animals, which is one reason I greatly adore it. The Wild Works Animal Show is a twice-daily viewing of different animals within the zoo where keepers allow their sociable critters to show off while educating the audience about the species and any endangerment. There is also the new HCA Healthcare Veterinarian Clinic. This area allows views into the nursery that currently holds Caracal kittens as well as two observation decks for interested zoo-goers to witness surgeries and other procedures. To top that off, the Nashville Zoo offers many different encounters such as "Rise and Shine with Rhinos" and "This Is How We Zoo." Recently, I was able to have a Face-to-Face encounter with my favorite animal, the red panda, and it was utterly amazing. Along with included zoo tickets-- allowing for a full day of exploration-- my boyfriend and I were taken behind the scenes into the red panda enclosure to view the animals up close and help feed them breakfast. The whole time, we were happily informed more about the beautiful creatures. After my experience, I highly recommend looking into the different experiences and backstage tour passes that the Nashville Zoo offers! 

With amazing enclosures for its resident animals and top-tier experiences for its guests, the Nashville Zoo is a place you simply can not skip out on! If you have time this summer, mark a day to take a trip to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Prepping Your House for Showing and Selling: First Impressions and the Front Door

 When you're meeting someone important for the first time, you want to make a good impression. Imagine yourself going to an interview, or out for a blind date. You'd want to make yourself look nice. You'd take extra care with your hair, iron out the wrinkles in your clothes, and make sure there are no specks of dirt on your shoes. The same thing goes for your house! When you have a buyer coming to view your home for a showing, that first impression is incredibly important and the front door area is that first impression to a buyer. 

The first thing is first. Just take a stroll out the front door and make sure everything is intact. No noticeable cracks in the sidewalk, no dead plants in pots, no cobwebs in the corners. This is the time to really focus and clean up that area. Give the door a new coat of paint, and shine up the hardware. Sweep off the front porch, knock down old bird nests on the windows, and dust away the spiderwebs. Put down a clean new doormat-- but note that it's advised to stray away from ones with personal phrases. You don't want your potential buyer to feel like a guest but a future owner. In addition, consider taking off any old screens or storm doors to allow your door to be easily viewed instead of hidden behind an unneeded layer.

If you have time to pressure wash your sidewalk or the sides of your house, take some time to do that big clean. And, of course, be sure to take a sponge to the mailbox to thoroughly clean it. If it's rusty or broken? Consider buying a replacement, even if it isn't the most expensive type of mailbox-- a clean, in-tact mailbox makes a better impression than one falling apart no matter the quality.

Overall, the door into your house is the first impression-- the first handshake-- out to a potential buyer. Because of that, you need to make sure to spruce it up for that meeting! 

Happy Wednesday!

 

Clarksville's Conservation Club

The Montgomery County Conservation Club is an organization I've been familiar with since I was a teenager. My father, Tim Cash, bought his first boat in my teen years and became a member of this boating club to be part of a local boating community. Obviously, as a child, I was not as active in this but all the same, I became familiar with the natural area and the large boat dock. With a boat slip-- a parking space off of the dock for a boat, allowing it to be surrounded on three sides-- we were quite frequently at the Conservation Club. My parents formed friendships with the sociable people who also frequented the club with interests in boating, and I was able to engage in several adventures. Some of them were large group plans formed by those who were part of the club. I have amazing memories of visiting a sandbar with a volleyball net set up, scavenging for shells under the gritty platform of sand that allowed us to stand only knee-deep in the middle of the river. Another time, we went through Lock-B and traveled up towards Nashville to dock at a seafood restaurant. 

With a membership of $60 a year with discounts for seniors-- or a lifetime membership for $600-- the Conservation Club is a rather affordable area to be able to unload your boat and become part of a community. Slips and storage units are an additional cost, but the prices are relatively reasonable especially given the friendly atmosphere of the riverside club located on the Cumberland.

There are other boating clubs to explore in the Clarksville area, but my positive experiences-- even as a teen and young adult-- with the Conservation Club call for my recommendation there. With countless catfish dinners and trips out to cruise on the river, if you happen to have a boat or are looking into getting one, the Montgomery County Conservation Club at 1182 7 Mile Ferry Road should be a place you check out.