Spring is definitely one of my favorite seasons here at Heron Bay. The flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping and the air smells deliciously fresh and clean! I always feel fortunate to be able to enjoy life here at home in our community. On the way home today, I picked a small bunch of wild flowers as a surprise for Helen. She was tickled pink! Ah, spring brings out the romantic side of me!

This weekend, I have another surprise for Helen and our feathered kiddos. I am going to take them to the Simply Southern Jubilee Bar-B-Que & Bluegrass festival held here in Henry County. We are going to have a great time.

I know that this event will be a hit with my whole family, especially with the delicious bar-b-que and live entertainment. Helen will love the Bluegrass music and listening to the Thomas Tillman Band. I’ve read some really great reviews for this guy. He is a country music singer-songwriter who will be rocking the stage and singing traditional country music with powerful vocals.

The kids will have a great time too. I know that Spalding will want to watch Robinson’s Racing Pigs – He’ll really get a kick out of that! And, of course, Haley will enjoy seeing all of the crafts and living history displayed at the (more…)

Hello Friends! I hope you all have had a wonderful week. I am so ‘egg-cited’ about next weekend! Haley and Spalding are bouncing with excitement, too, if you can imagine. Next Saturday, April 11, is our Annual Easter Extravaganza! It will be held from 11 am to 3 pm on the lawn of the Heron Bay Lodge and I hope to see you all there.

Spalding is planning a very intricate strategy to make sure that he finds the most eggs that he possibly can. Yesterday, I overheard him telling Haley that he was going to keep one to see if it would hatch into a little brother for him to play with. Spalding is so creative! Haley, my darling daughter, is looking forward to playing games all afternoon with her neighborhood friends.

Helen and I have been practicing our moves so that we can dance to the music on the lawn while the nestlings have a blast hunting eggs, playing games, snacking on treats and winning prizes! It is sure to be a memorable occasionfor the whole family.

Another great event this month is the Meet and Greet Your Heron Bay Committees event, which will be held on Thursday April 16 at the Heron Bay Lodge from 7 pm- 9pm. Helen and I will be attending because we love getting to know our neighbors and it is very important to get to know who in the community is making decisions on our behalf. We have such an involved community and Helen and I want to thank those that make life here at Heron Bay so stress-free and fun!

Then, on Saturday, April 18, our community will be hosting a community wide Spring Garage Sale from 8 am- 1 pm. Last year, Helen and I had some items that we sold in the Garage Sale and it was a really big hit! Around 40 homeowners participated in the sale last year and over 100 shoppers from the surrounding community came to buy our goods. Not only were we able to make a little extra cash, , but we also helped out a worthy cause because at the end of the day, our neighborhood donated all of the unsold items to the American Kidney Fund.

Hello friends and neighbors! Henry here, with new and exciting news! Remember the Heron Bay traffic light that I was telling you all about a few months ago? Well, our growing community just received approval from Henry County for the traffic signal at the entrance of Heron Bay! The signal will be placed at Highway 155 and Heron Bay Boulevard and it should be fully installed by July.

We should all be very proud or the hard work and dedication shown by Minerva Properties and Henry County Commissioner Warren E. Holder. Together, they have been working since December 2001 to secure the approval for this light. Remember to give them a big ‘thank you’ the next time you see them.

Helen and I are looking forward to the added safety and convenience this light will bring. Our wee ones, Spalding and Haley, are really excited about the new traffic signal, too. They are showing their enthusiasm through spirited games of “red-light-green-light.” If this game is any indication of the drivers our young nestlings will become, Helen and I will be proud. Our fledglings can stop on a dime and haven’t wrecked into one another in over a week! One can only hope their skill will continue to improve as they grow older.

With the final approval of the light from the county, construction is underway. Fortunately, this will not disrupt daily routines of residents because the developers of our community planned the roads to the community with foresight. Really, the only construction that should be required is the actual installation of the signal. Hopefully, we will be enjoying the added safety of our new traffic signal in no time!

Here at Heron Bay Golf and Country Club, we have a big reason for excitement! The 900th home was just closed in our community. America’s Builder, D. R. Horton Homes, built and sold the home in Meadow Glen at Heron Bay. I am thrilled about the opportunity to welcome our new neighbors all the way from Philadelphia, Mr. Thadius Nesbitt and his beautiful wife Mindy, who will be moving into their new home in Meadow Glen this summer. Helen is planning to bake a cake to welcome them and Spalding wants to make a mud pie, but we’ll have to save the mud pie until we know our new neighbors just a little better.

I know that reaching this landmark in home sales has been a real encouragement to the staff and development team here at Heron Bay. Helen and I are so proud of the success that Heron Bay has seen as well as all of the positive growth our community has experienced this year. Helen also talked to Marketing Director Lisa Brutvan and she said that reaching this significant milestone has energized the staff about the spring and summer buying season and that the future at Heron Bay looks very bright.

The Nesbitts also complimented the friendly customer service they received from the development team, builder and sales agents at Heron Bay. Mindy said that the people here at Heron Bay are some of the nicest she has ever met in her life! I can confirm that this is true, as our family had a wonderful experience buying our home here. I know the Nesbitts will also enjoy all of the amenities that Heron Bay has to offer, like the aquatic center, clubhouse, tennis center, lake, golf course, parks and much more when they arrive this summer. Hopefully they will move into their home in time for our annual Luau by the Pool, which is sure to be a hit as always!

Join me in welcoming the Nesbitts as our newest neighbors to Heron Bay!

Hello all! Spring Break for our little nestlings is just around the corner and yesterday Helen and I were talking about gas mileage and fuel efficiency. With the children home, we may go on a short trip, or take them to see some local attractions here in Henry County.

My talk with Helen got me to thinking about fuel efficiency. We drive an older, well maintained car that gets about 25 miles per gallon. From a green perspective, it is a great plan to keep our old car and continue to use it and maintain it for as long as it is still running, especially because it gets such good mileage. However, Helen and I want to minimize our carbon footprint and a car can potentially leave a pretty big footprint if you aren’t careful!

I found some websites that offer tools to assess a car’s fuel efficiency and emissions. FuelEconomy.gov is a government site that provides fuel efficiency statistics for a wide variety of vehicles from as far back as 1985, which is really helpful if you have an older vehicle, like mine. Two sites that are helpful for tracking your mileage and improving your specific car’s fuel efficiency are TrackYourGasMileage.com and MPGTune.com. It’s amazing what you can learn on the Internet.

Helen and I also brainstormed about some other ways to maximize fuel efficiency. If your car has cruise control, using this feature will increase your gas mileage on long trips without a lot of stop and go motion. You can also really improve fuel efficiency through balancing you car and changing the tires on your car when the treads get really worn down. Another trick is to change your oil regularly so that your car runs cleanly and smoothly. Well, that’s all for now folks. I hope you all have a great week and I’ll see you around Heron Bay!

Hello, Neighbors! Henry here, wishing you a wonderful weekend! The weekends are a great time to catch up on household projects. In fact, my family will be getting a head start on a project Haley learned about. As you know, Haley is very passionate about environmental issues. She has been working tirelessly to ensure that our home is an environmentally friendly place and that we conserve our valuable natural resources.

Haley learned about a Henry County initiative to conserve water starting next week, and of course, she wants to be a part of it. When Haley gets excited about a cause, she usually inspires the whole family. Spalding is a good sport and wants to help his little sister conserve water. Of course, Helen and I are always happy to help our fledglings.

Haley did some research about water waste on the US Environmental Protection Agency website and found that as many as 10 percent of the nation’s homes have leaks, which waste 90 or more gallons of water each day. That is a lot of wasted water! I know that everyone likes to save money, and if we fix those leaks, we could save more than 10 percent on water bills.

According to her research, Haley found that here in Henry County we could save an estimated 11,000 gallons of water per household each year just by fixing household leaks. So, that’s what my family will be working on this weekend. We are going leak hunting. Haley and Spalding are both really excited about our family project.

A person may not realize the waste a leaky faucet can create. If not fixed, a faucet which drips about one drip per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons yearly! On the other hand, a toilet that is left running could waste more than 200 gallons of water a day. Fortunately, most leaks are easily fixed by repairing or replacing fixture parts.

We won’t be alone in our water conservation efforts. The Henry County Water & Sewerage Authority plans to participate in the first “Fix a Leak Week” event March 16-20. Hopefully, other residents in Heron Bay will participate in this week-long event, sponsored by EPA’s WaterSense Program. The whole week is geared toward raising awareness about water conservation and reminding customers to check their household fixtures and irrigation systems for leaks.

Yesterday, Helen and I attended the Georgia Charter Schools Conference. We learned that charter schools are public schools that operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. The type of charter established depends on the particular school’s mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. While charter schools operate separate from public schools, they are part of the local public education system, so are tuition free and offer specialized curricula in a more efficient manner than other public schools and set an exemplary standard of student achievement. Helen and I are interested in only the best for Spalding and Haley, so we wanted to see what we could learn from this presentation. We are excited to send our little fledglings to the proposed charter school at Heron Bay, Heron Bay Academy, when it opens.

The session we attended, “Green Schools: Dollars and Cents” made a lot of sense to us! The presentation was given by Stacy Patton who is with Minerva Properties, the developer of Heron Bay Golf and Country Club, and who is overseeing the planning of the proposed charter school that will soon serve Heron Bay. She talked about the benefits of a charter school from the perspective of the developer (which was quite interesting) as well as the importance of a charter school to a community like Heron Bay.

In her presentation, she discussed why going green makes sense financially for both the school and community. Ms. Patton seemed to be very interested and passionate about environmental issues. I know someone who would love to talk to this smart woman – my budding environmentalist, Haley, who is very passionate about going green.

She gave her presentation with Tom Sayre with Sizemore Group, who added a lot of interesting material about architecture and urban design elements.

Helen and I left the conference feeling more confident and knowledgeable about sending our kids to Heron Bay Academy and are very excited about the diverse curriculum and academic excellence that a charter school can offer. For more information about the proposed charter school at Heron Bay, I encourage you to learn all about it at www.heronbayacademy.org.

Yesterday, Helen and I had the pleasure of stopping by the Lodge, which is now the location of our new sales center at Heron Bay. The new set up in the Lodge was very informative and we had a chance to briefly chat with the new sales team from Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. We were both really impressed by their sincerity, professionalism and friendliness.

Helen was especially impressed with Director of Sales for Coldwell Banker, Meril Missbach. Ms. Missbach has been in the real estate business for more than 20 years, which means she really knows her stuff. She told us that she is excited about working for Heron Bay Golf and Country Club as the new sales manager. Helen was impressed to find out about all of her accomplishments. She is extremely qualified for the job! She is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors and the Atlanta Sales and Marketing Council, has earned her Certified Sales Professional designation and is working toward her Member, Institute of Residential Marketing (MIRM) designation. Whew! And on top of all of that, she is such a genuinely nice and helpful person. It’s no surprise that Ms. Missbach has received several recognitions throughout her career including being named one of Atlanta’s Top Realtors in 2004 by Atlanta Magazine, one of the Top 100 Agents in 2005 by Communities Magazine and being named a Lifetime Member of the Million Dollar Club.

We also enjoyed meeting the two on-site sales agents at Heron Bay, Sherry Driver and Josh Irwin. Ms. Driver told us that she has been in the real estate industry for more than eight years and what especially drew her to Heron Bay is that she specializes in golf and country club communities/custom homes sales. She is a member of the Metro South Association of Realtors (MSAR) and has repeatedly been named a member of MSAR’s Million Dollar Club, so she intimately knows about home sales in this area of metro Atlanta. Mr. Irwin, also told us a little about his work in the real estate industry. He also has been involved in real estate for eight years and was a member of MSAR’s Million Dollar Club from 2002 to 2007. His background is in new home sales and he has spent the last half of his home sales career in luxury sales, so he will definitely be an asset in our custom home division.

We were very pleased to have had the chance to meet our new agents yesterday. They were all very personable and kind and we all felt right at home. If you get a chance, you should stop by and meet them for yourself!

Hello friends and neighbors! Have you all finished making your Valentine’s Day plans? As usual, I am running a little behind, and I still have a few things that I want to pick up for Helen and the kids. However, I have decided where I want to take Helen for our Valentine’s Day date, and it is going to be so much fun! Last year, we decided to attend the HOA’s Valentine’s celebration, the Sweetheart Soiree. It was so elegant and the food was delicious. Helen and I had a such a special time that she talked about the Sweetheart Soiree for the next two weeks!

I love pictures because they capture memories and save a special moment in time for years to come. Last year, a photographer took a lovely picture of Helen and me dancing! I framed that picture and sat it on a desk so I can see it everyday. This year, there will also be a photographer at the Soiree, taking pictures of couples. As a favor, the HOA will be giving out frames to the couples to take home. This year, the romantic atmosphere will be set using soft white table cloths with floating candles and rose petals as a centerpiece, which will be quite beautiful!

Of course, this Valentine’s Day will be just as special for my sweetheart, as we have decided to attend the Soiree again, and we can hardly wait! It is going to be on Saturday, February 14, 2009 from 7 pm – 10pm. This year, there will (more…)

This week I have been looking at ways to protect the environment while saving money. Haley, my darling daughter, always turns off all of the lights when she leaves a room. I really admire and appreciate that she does this. I started thinking about other things (like lights left on in an empty room) that could be turned off to save electricity and money. One example of this is the computer. I do not work 24 hours a day and neither do you (hopefully!), so there’s no need for us to leave our PCs and printers powered on all the time.

I did a little research and found that unless you use a CRT video monitor, you don’t need to use a screen saver. I was surprised to find that screen savers are not necessary with newer flat-panel LCDs and some screen savers even draw extra power by using the graphics card, monitor, processor and hard drive to function. I learned that the average PC used in the home costs $55 a year in electricity if left on most of the time!
The good news is that your PC can regulate its own energy consumption with your guidance. Both Macintosh and Microsoft operating systems have built-in energy management features that enable them to be configured to turn off the monitor, the hard disks and the system at your specifications.

Here’s how: For windows-based PCs, you should select the Start Menu, then Settings, then Control Panel and finally Power Options. This should bring up a Power Options Properties dialog box that allows you to set the time to elapse until separate components power down. This is the same dialog box that can be accessed through the Display Control Panel under the screen saver tab. For Macintosh computers, select the Apple Menu then Control Panels and then Energy Saver. This will also bring up a dialog box for setting sleep times for the entire system, the monitor or the hard disk. Here are some suggested time periods to follow for shutting down different components: Monitors can shut off after 20 minutes, the hard disk can shut off after 30 minutes and the whole system can hibernate after 90 minutes.

This is just another easy, simple way to protect our environment. And saving a little money is icing on the cake!