Happy FESTIVUS for the Rest of Us

Well it's here.... a green Christmas. At least that's helpful for those who have to travel.
The former Grapevine Winery and Jazz Bar (and former Coconut Bay ) will become a Scottish Bake Shop we are told. Speaking of Coconut Bay Rick Powell former owner and entertainer there has a Video of many years at the Bay.
Many exciting changes will be happening this Spring in the residential area of downtown Grand Bend. The former Wondergrove Trailer Park will become 19 single family homes and one Duplex. This is located on Queens Ave at Centre Street. At the corner of Warwick and Oak in the former Seven Dwarfs Motel property there will be 3 new homes. A new two storey home is under construction at the corner of Woodward and Walker St. Things are changing in what we used to affectionately call " The Jungle ".
This is a great area to live, it's close to everything, Downtown, Shopping, Nite Life and the superb North Beach. If you want to be a part of this excitement I have a 2 plus one bedroom cottage For sale at the corner of Elmwood and Walker St. That is the northern most point of Grand Bend downtown. Houses on Walker back onto Oakwood.
This will be my last entry before Christmas so I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays and Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us as well as a Happy and prosperous New Year....Larry

Check out the Lake

Well if you complain about the weather..it changes ( last weeks blog). It is again very warm for this time of year which won't please those who want a White Christmas. Personally I like it for getting around and every thing related but it doesn't do much to feed the spirit of the season.
Not much new in Grand Bend at this time of year. We had a power failure for a couple of hours yesterday, someone spun out on some black ice and wiped out a pole. I got to try out my new generator ,which I have just hard wired into the house, and see if I have the right circuits connected. I bought it last yaer after the big power failure we had on Super Bowl weekend but haven't had a chance to use it as that was the last outage we had ( this is not a complaint ).
Everything worked fine so I can say bring it on if you must.
Those renos are progressing and today I hope to get the floor laid so it will be up and ready by Christmas, maybe even by next week.
In the real estate world I haven't found out who bought the Grapevine but lots of rumours are flying. It is supposed to close next week, so we'll find out soon.
Lots of R.I.D.E programs around and they are nabbing people so if you drink please don't drive. If you are interested in seeing the Lake and or the weather here click on this link to a webcam located on the Grand Bend Yacht Club's building. It looks out toward the Lake thru the Harbour at the Bend. There is a link also on my web sites home page. http://www.gbyc.ca/WebCam/index.shtml

Tim's and Dogs

Winter has arrived along Lake Huron. Lots of snow overnight and although expected at this time of year it is a shock after last weeks nice warm early fall like weather. Here in Grand Bend plans are coming together for Winter Carnival in early February ( starting Feb 2 ) More details here ......http://www.lakeshoreadvance.com/Carnival%20schedule/index.html
Most of the excitement at this time of year is our daily morning coffee session at Tim's and watching the less intelligent among us try to drive out of Tim's the wrong way. What part of ONE WAY did you miss??? The other phenomina seen at Tim's is the large number of people who drive with their dogs on their lap, I'm sure there must be some kind of rule aginst that.
Renovations on my house are proceeding as quickly as ever which translates to Snails Pace. A wall came out yesterday and at least we can now see an end or at least a goal.
In other local news the Grapevine Bar, formerly Coconut Bay on Hwy 21 has been SOLD and hopefully end an eyesore that has existed for the last several years. Now about Main St.....

Next Week Already

Well here it is another week already. Boy time goes by quick. It is a slower time of year in the real estae world what with Christmas and all consuming peoples thoughts and time. It is however a good time to buy, lots of selection and not a lot of competition. What about buying him/her a new cottage for Christmas. Seems like a good idea to me. Personallly I'm in the middle of a massive renovation and hoping it will be mostly done by Christmas. This warm weather has been a real boon as I'm working in an unheated area and it would be much slower and more difficult if it was cold. We're insulating the area tomorrow and the heat will be in , just in time for it to turn cold Friday.
This week I also had several trees taken down and again the weather was great for that. I live in an area with large Oak trees and plenty of them. Unfortunately they grow in sand and many of them rot from the inside out over time, because of the lack of nutrients in the soil. In the spring I'll plant a bunch of new trees to keep the cycle going.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well this is actually my first post and it happens to be Thanksgiving Day in the USA. Up here in Grand bend there are quite a number of US property owners being one of the nicest beach areas in North America and just a short i hour drive to port Huron and 1 1/2 hours to Detroit. I see that both Thanksgiving parades Detroits and Macy's New York are 80 years old which is quite an accomplishment in both cases. Don't know what else to write about yet, as I said this is the first so I'll let it go at that..Larry