Lancaster PA Real Estate Blog

Just on the market - a very nice multi-story condo at desirable Riverbend Park in West Lampeter Township!  3 Beds, 2 Full Baths and a great floorplan including full family room below and grand staircase heading up.  There are nice views from every window and especially out on the private deck overlooking wooded grounds - with no maintenance!

Call me today for more details or to see this home with a private showing.  Visit www.41riverbend.com for more details and photos.

________________________________________

 For Lancaster PA homes for sale click here. Jeff Geoghan is a top real estate expert in Lancaster County, PA, and an involved community member. Jeff's work has been featured in the Lancaster Newspapers, WGAL Channel 8, PA Business Journal and Wall Street Journal. Jeff's blog on Lancaster County and its homes is nationally-featured. Contact Jeff for more help with your Lancaster PA Real Estate needs. Jeff is also a photographer - view some of his portfolio. Comments are welcome!

I am very pleased to announce the affiliation of Brian Schulman with the YourLancasterHome.com team as of this week.  Those of you on Activerain will know Brian from his prolific Lancaster PA real estate blog.  Brian is the top real estate blogger in Pennsylvania and has a reputation for integrity, professionalism and energy in the Lancaster County real estate community.  He brings over 25 years of experience to the team and an irrepressible "can-do" attitude! 

As an integral part of our team, Brian will be available to answer all of your real estate questions, so fire away!  You can reach him at 717-735-6265 or 951-5552 or at BSchulman@CBSelectpros.com.  Look for changes to the YourLancasterHome.com website reflecting Brian's addition and services offered.  I'm proud to be associated with him and look forward to the future.  This has been a great summer - first Coldwell Banker and then Brian Schulman!  If you are interested in joining the YourLancasterHome.com team yourself, feel free to call me at 717-799-0851. 

More about Brian:

Brian's professional career started as a Marketing Engineer with Texaco, Inc.  He was promoted to Credit Manager of Western Pennsylvania, and for several years ran a $25 Million per month Division consisting of customers such as major steel producers, national trucking companies, and large road contractors.  Brian was chosen as a local spokesman in Texaco's Speakers Bureau, where he spoke about energy policy and answered questions at many clubs and schools.

Eventually, Brian's love of historic homes and South Central Pennsylvania's ambiance and history led him to take up residence in Lancaster County and start a new career restoring architecturally significant houses.  From that beginning, his real estate career developed.  Brian is well known for his knowledge of historic homes and American architectural styles, and for his advocacy of protecting and preserving them.

Brian has owned, managed and restored some twenty historic buildings in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, including homes in Lancaster, Marietta, Columbia, Elizabethtown and Mount Joy.  He saved two of them from condemnation and demolition: an eighteenth-century log and stone home in Marietta, PA, and the Linden House mansion, built in Marietta by lumber magnate Henry Castle in 1805 (see Brian's post of May 12, 2007 entitled "Historic Marietta").

One of Brian's guiding principles is that we are given two ears and only one mouth for a good reason: so we can listen twice as much as we speak!  Brian doesn't dispense one-size-fits-all "canned" solutions - he wants to hear what your individual situation and needs are.  Then he'll give information and options that fit your unique goals.

Brian has been a member of the Professional Standards Group, Dispute Resolution System of the Lancaster County Association of Realtors (LCAR), and an Alternate State Director, Pennsylvania Association of Realtors(R).

________________________________________

For Lancaster PA homes for sale click here. Jeff Geoghan is a top real estate expert in Lancaster County, PA, and an involved community member. Jeff's work has been featured in the Lancaster Newspapers, WGAL Channel 8, PA Business Journal and Wall Street Journal. Jeff's blog on Lancaster County and its homes is nationally-featured. Contact Jeff for more help with your Lancaster PA Real Estate needs. Jeff is also a photographer - view some of his portfolio. Comments are welcome!

Thought I'd pass along this little piece of intel that may help you with your search for the elusive "best deal" for gas in your area.

http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=Netx

This is a neat tool that seems to be updated around the country.  Try it out!  Here's a screenshot:

You get a map with all the local stations, a cute price-range graphic, then the details on each station wiht the current prices. You'll note the dates at the bottom  - 7/22/08 - right up-to-date.

Play with it and tell me what you think!  Just trying to help you win the war against high fuel costs...

Some of you may be wondering "what's Jeff been up to this year with the green thing"?  Well, I've got a 3-part series for you straight from my backyard 2008.

1. Building a Compost Bin using Home Depot lumber and a couple of screws
2. Installing a RainBarrel to catch downspout water for garden and pool re-use
3. Installing a solar pool heater on the roof of your garage

Today, let's talk compost. 

Susan & I have had a small compost bin I made with some old 2x4s a couple of years ago.  It was a basic design - called a "one-chamber" because that's all there was.  I've really loved not having to put the grass clippings out for 2 years!  Also, everything organic from the kitchen has gone out to the pile daily.  We got a great compost harvest the second spring but this year didn't go as well.  The pile had gotten too high and was a bear to turn (which is required for the stuff to decompose properly) with the pitchfork.

Solution: Rip the thing out and rebuild.  Today I finished the compost bin (level two)!  It's a "two-chamber" design which will allow me to turn the piles more effectively by going from one side to the other, and pulling out the finished compost as it happens.  I would have preferred to have done a "three-chamber" so I had a pile for only finished compost, but space did not allow for that. 

I stopped at Home Depot and picked up some PT (pressure treated) 2x4s (the last ones rotted) and 1x4's for the side slatting.  I also bought some green-coated chicken wire in 24"x 25 ft (one roll - I already had 25 foot - you'll need two rolls to build this compost bin design).  I used 2" deck screws to fasten everything together.

I sunk the posts using a post-hole digger and an iron "digging stick" with a tamping end to pack the posts in place.  Lots and lots of measuring with a tape measure and level...The screws tightened the whole compost bin up nicely.  Took me an afternoon and a half (with 3 kids in tow). 

Right away I noticed how the extra 4 feet really helped separate the materials.  Note the difference between the more recent deposits and the almost-ready compost on the left.  My nagging problem had been the lack of consistent aeration - the stuff stunk!  Now with the ability to turn more often without the hassle factor I'll get better aeration, which means lots of good compost to spread on mama Geoghan's vegetable garden in the fall and spring!

Look for my next piece - on putting together a rainbarrel using a local Lancaster PA barrel source and easily-available plumbing parts. 

I went ahead and ordered my 16 gig IPhone 3G On Friday...oh yes, I DID spend over an hour on line at one of our two local Lancaster AT&T stores - along Lincoln Highway next to Dutch Wonderland.  Friday was the worldwide rollout on the hot new 3G wireless-enabled Apple IPhone - even here in little'ol Lancaster County PA.

There were about 75 people when I arrived about 8am.  At about 9:30 they announced that the 16 gig phones were out and the odds were pretty low that we could get an 8 gig version this far back in line.

Sigh.

I had called the Lancaster store the day before and talked to Ken Mowry (he's very good - use him first!) about the situation and Ken advised that I do a "direct fulfillment" should the stick run it (as it did).  So I was back in the late afternoon ordering a 16 gig for myself and an 8 gig for my wife as a gift.  It's going to be great to have the latest technology at my side to respond to real estate client & realtor emails, and even post comments on Activerain!

More on the IPhone once I receive it (7 days estimated) and have a chance to put it through it's paces.

Last weekend we got up to a family retreat in Huntington County, PA - a nice cabin in the woods.  Saturday, however, we took a short drive to the East Broad Top Railroad in Orbisonia, PA!

The Broad Top Line was built to service an extensive coal mining operation in 1856.  Coal transport peaked in 1926 when the railroad handled almost 26 million tons!  The line is a "narrow guage" - the trackes are only 36 inches apart...pretty small for full-sized locomotives and cars.  The railroad had hundreds of custom high-capacity hopper cars built, the only such fleet in the US for narrow-guage tracks.  After WW2 the line began to lose money and eventually closed in 1956.  A salvage company immediately bought the railroad and it's parent coal operation.  For 1960 the owner, Nick Kovalchick restored some of the line for Orbisonia's Bicentennial

Today, a five-mile section of the original line and four of it's steam locomotives are the centerpiece of the ongoing tourist attraction located deep in the heart of central Pennyslvania.  The yards are all still there, including the roundhouse!  It remains the only operating narrow-guage railroad east of the Rocky Mountains. 

Our trip started by greeting the all-volunteer train crew at the Orbisonia Station (still as it was inside - very cool).  Then we quickly mounted the train for the ride - we selected an open flatcar (upside - views of the countryside - downside - soot all over us)

The ride took us up the five-mile run through the woods with the whistle blowing and the soot flying as the engine climbed the grade.  The thing is pretty loud if you're up close like we were - note the kids holding their ears in the photo below!

It's a pretty bumpy ride, and the pace is pretty slow.  Definitely not for the video-game set...but if you're one who enjoys looking back into time and history, it's a "hoot" (I couldn't resist).

The outbounds trip ends with the train backing up into a siding and reversing direction on the same track, pausing for about 20 minutes at a wooded parklike area that has small pavilions and grass to picnic on.  Since the runs are 10,1 and 3 daily you can opt to stay up in the woods for the 2 hours and have leisurely lunch or read a book.

After a while the conductors shoo everybody into the cars and engineer fires the locomotive up and you're off on the return run.

The countryside views are nice and it's rather funny to watch the passerby stop their cars along overpasses and under bridges to gawk and snap pictures. 

The trip ends back at Orbisonia Station and the rail yards.

All a very good trip - cost was $12 for the open cars.  The covered cars were $15 as I recall.

My boys and I spotted a small "put-put" railroad cart that was offering rides for $2 each.  We jumped aboard and our operator, Cory, gave us a zippy ride down the back end of the yards and out about a mile in the other direction.  He explained that East Broad Top has the largest collection of these little workhorse 2-cycle engined carts, and that they were used as a replacement for the handcrank carts (you've seen those in cartoons) for maintenance workers to get out on the line quickly.  Cory claimed the thing would do 40 mph, but we couldn't cajole him into going for it... nothing to hang on to as you can see from the photo.

The place has a run-down and almost ghostly feel about it - the remains of a bygone era. 

However, you can sense the pride of the restorers and volunteers.  For once I'm sure the money's going to a good cause!  And hey, coal's coming back I'm hearing - who knows?

Hope you enjoyed your trip into Pennsylvania's past!

AFC First, financial provider of the innovative Keystone Help loan program that I have both blogged about and used myself, happily reported yesterday that they are nearing the 3,000th loan issued in PA.  New Keystone Help loans are up 40% over this time last year.  Here's a link to the press release with details.

Why?  Easy.  With more and more local contractors selling their services and the tremendously-increased interest in high-efficiency HVAC systems, AFC First has effectively cornered the market for energy-efficient loan programs.  I recently saw an ad in our local paper for a regional bank who was touting their energy loan program, but AFC First got it right by working with the state when it wasn't yet fashionable to do so.

For my own experience with the Lancaster PA Energy Loan, I was pleased with the way my purchase of a high-efficiency furnace went last summer.  If you are considering an upgrade of your HVAC or other installed system, and if there are high-efficiency options available to you, don't forget to ask the installer if they are a Keystone Help-authorized dealer.