Denver embraces the Simpsons
Driving down Broadway the other day I did a double take as I passed what used to be a 7-11. It was turned into a Kwik-E-Mart as a promotion for the upcoming Simpsons movie. You can get your fix of Buzz cola, Krusty O’s and Squishees.
Denver is just one of handful of cities selected, the other cities are New York City, Chicago, Dallas, Burbank, Los Angeles, Henderson, Orlando, Mountain View, Seattle, and Bladensburg, Md.
It’s on 3rd and Broadway check it out today!
Tags: colorado, denverLinks: Moving up like George and Weezie!
Interesting links from the web:
The Denver Post has a great article, Sales surge for digs over $1M, on why the upper end homes are selling like hot cakes. Denver homes in the million dollar range are doing very well because move up buyers have done well with their investments in the stock market. Moving up like George and Weezie!
Speaking of luxury properties, I ran into my friend Dan at the Denver based real estate and mortgage blogger meet up last week. He now works for LuxuryProperty.com, a site that specializes in million dollar homes nationwide. Look for their launch very soon.
Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel discusses when prices rise, people remodel. Anyone who links to a Roxy Music clip is pure genius in my book!
Just like every kid, I grew up playing soccer. It’s the premier sport in the world. Somehow it just doesn’t have mass appeal in America. Consider that Denver just hosted the Major League Soccer all-star game, did anyone care?
Chinatown real estate is hot according to CBS. This begs the question where is Chinatown in Denver? My best guess is Alameda & Federal area with their wide array of Chinese restaurants.
Tags: denver, mortgage, property, real estate, vaAre you dead?
I got an email from a reader that was one line - “Are you dead?” Every now and again I get similar emails when things slow down on my blog.
I’ve been busy, extremely busy….
On Wednesday I spent most of the day at a Blogger Fiesta. The boys from Sellsius were in town and as an ex-pat New Yorker, I had to meet them. Rudy and Joe are two of the coolest mofo’s in the blogosphere.
Spending the mornings with my daughter. Rather than shuffle her off to daycare first thing in the morning, we’ve enjoyed watching Sesame Street before heading out the door.
Loans. Rates are in a holding pattern and people want to get those ARM’s fixed!
Software development. What can I say, once a geek always a geek so I have a side gig as a software developer/contractor. Microsoft Access database projects always seem to be in abundance.
Remodeling my bathroom. I told my wife I’d have it done in a weekend. Then a week. Now it’s looking like 2 weeks. So much for milestones.
August should be a fairly slow month. I hope!
Tags: denver, rateLowes vs Home Depot
Growing up in suburban NYC, there was one choice when it came to hardware stores - Pergament. When I went to college in upstate NY, there was one choice as well - Chase Pitkin. When I first moved to Denver, there were several choices including Builders Squares and Hugh M Woods.
Today, these stores don’t exist. They’ve been replaced by two home improvement mega centers: Lowes and Home Depot. These home improvement centers are growing at a rapid pace and leaving a closed hardware stores in their wake.
A few years ago we planned on remodeling our bath room but after getting two quotes from contractors we decided that our money was best spent on a Mexican vacation. This year we revisited the idea of remodeling our bath room but we decided to set a budget and keep things within reason since we’re planning to go to Mexico again next year. In order to keep things within reason, it means doing it yourself and going to Lowes or Home Depot.
To make life easier my wife and I ventured to Arapahoe and I-25 in the Tech Center where Home Depot and Lowes are about a block apart. Plus, if we didn’t like their selection, the Great Indoors, was a stone throw away on I-25 and County Line. We went shopping. I hate shopping but you don’t have to twist my arm to go to a home improvement center. We looked at flooring, vanities, sinks, counter tops, faucets, and just about everything in between.
This shopping adventure brought up a great question: How do you pick between Lowes and Home Depot? You can go with Nick Bakay’s “Tale of the Tape” method:
Number of Locations: Way too many (Home Depot) vs Not enough (Lowes) advantage Home Depot
Location of restrooms: At the Front (Lowes) vs At the Rear (Home Depot) advantage Lowes
Parking: Even on a busy day it’s not bad (Lowes) vs No matter what time you go, it’s just plain bananas (Home Depot) advantage Lowes
Checkout: Self Checkout (Home Depot) vs No Self-Checkout (Lowes) advantage Home Depot
NASCAR driver: Jimmie Johnson (Lowes) vs Tony Stewart (Home Depot) push
So far we’re even 2-2, so here’s the tie breaker:
Closing time: 10 PM (Lowes) vs 9 PM (Home Depot) advantage Lowes
So there you have it, Lowes wins 3-2!
Update: We ended up getting the vanity, sink, flooring and counter top at Home Depot. My wife simply didn’t care for my affinity to Lowes.
Tags: denver, shopping, vaColorado Real Estate/Mortgage Bloggers Meet
I’ve been blogging for well over a year here at Denver Lender. It’s my third blog iteration. My first blog was on blogspot, google’s blogging platform, however, I didn’t like the platform. My second blog was on Active Rain, a real estate networking site. Active Rain is a neat place but again, I didn’t like the platform. For my third blog, I chose wordpress as the platform since I’m quite proficient in PHP and MYSQL. For the name of my blog I had to choose between www.Denver-Lender.com and www.denvuh.com. Would people get the NY pronunciation of Denver? I wasn’t too sure so I went with a domain name that was fairly easy to say and even easier to remember.
In a few weeks, I’ll get to meet others who blog about Colorado at the first ever Blog Fiesta.
Here are the details:
Blog Fiesta will be held at Garcia’s Mexican Resturant, on July 18th, from 11-3. Garcia’s is in the Denver Tech Center (South Metro Denver), near I-25 and Belleveiw. We have a room reserved to seat 60, and can spill into another room to support as many 100 attendee’s.
Appetizers, soft drinks, lunch & expert blogging will be provided!
11:00-12:00 - Meet & greet with appetizers
12:00-1:00 - Our expert panel on starting your own blog with Q&A
1:00-3:00 - Have lunch and socialize!
The event is free, but registration is required if you want to guaranty a seat. Register Here
Tags: colorado, denver, mortgage, real estate