Do you need help just figuring out if buying a new home is an option for you? Do you need help planning to save money for a down payment? Do you need help understanding why your credit score went down instead of up after all that work you did? We have answers for you! We are offering a FREE Home Buyer Class at our Crescent Springs Ranch location this Wednesday, August 10 from 7-9 pm. Call the office at 817-704-7532 to register today! We will have a finance specialist on site to help with planning for a home in your future!
We often have buyers who have a home to sell. The most common advice that their Realtors tell them to do to sell their homes quickly is to work on their curb appeal. Now to some people that might sound like a huge task, but it can be pretty easy and fairly inexpensive if you are willing to put a little elbow grease into it!
We have a home for sale at 7017 Meandering Creek in Parkview Hills that has an elevation that we don’t have any professional pictures of. We decided that we wanted to get some photographs of it, but the “curb appeal” was a little blah. We usually save our professional photos for our model homes and they usually have a little extra landscaping, so this was going to have to be a quick project. I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to demonstrate curb appeal!
So, of course I volunteered to be the landscaper for this one! Since it is a new home, there weren’t any dead trees to remove or major overhauling to do. I thought that a little black mulch would stand out against the white limestone accents on the home and pairing that dark mulch with vivid pink flowers might be the most eye catching combo. I was really excited to be able to buy beautiful sun loving flowers since my own personal garden is so limited. I was going to live vicariously through this East facing sunny garden!
My first stop was Mike’s Garden Center. I love Mike’s because they warranty their plants and they have early bird specials and sales all the time. If you catch a good special you can find flowers for sale at $0.73 per 4” pot. Amazing! Another reason I love my particular Mike’s on Crowley Road is because they are pet friendly. They have their own birdcage and their own shop kitty and three small dogs. One of them accompanied me as I selected my flowers. I loved it!
I bought Vinca and Moss Rose. I love Moss Rose because it is a creeper. It will fluff out and go everywhere. Also it drops seeds like nobody’s business and you will have Moss Rose coming back every year. And, it doesn’t need a whole lot of water. Don’t get me wrong, it needs to be watered, but it is very forgiving of this Texas heat and doesn’t mind drying out a bit. So I loaded up my three flats of Vincas (on sale!) and my one flat of Moss Rose and bought my black mulch.
Of course with all of these plants I needed help getting out of there. The folks who work at Mike’s are always so nice and one guy helped me load up my car. No, you don’t need a truck to haul plants and mulch. I have a two door hatch back and I can get anything in there! I laid down my seats and spread a blanket over the trunk and seats to keep it from getting soiled and me and my Mike’s buddy loaded up my car.
Filler Up!
There's room for more!
When I got to the home I quickly took a couple of “Before” pictures and got to work. I have found that it is easier for me if I lay the plants out where I want them to go first. So I unloaded all of my flats and got to work. I knew I wanted the Moss Rose to go along the walkway to the entry since it would look pretty there as it began to creep out of the flower bed once it became established. Vincas will get thick, so I also wanted to make sure I placed them far enough apart to not compete with each other for sunlight. I also wanted to make sure I planted thickly against the ugly white washout stub in the flowerbed. You know that thing that looks like a pipe with a lid on it? You have got to be careful when you are gardening not to completely cover it since you need to know where it is in case you have to snake your sewer line out to the street.
Ready for planting
Once I had my flowers laid out, I just had to get to work! I used a little gardening spade to dig in the earth.
Washout pipe
As I was digging I quickly noticed that the ground was very clay-ey. When I was at Mike’s I wondered to myself whether or not I should buy some potting soil, but I decided against it. Well, I regretted that decision! But, since I wasn’t removing the old mulch, just adding the new mulch on top, I figured it would be ok. In my opinion the best way to convert a clay based flower bed to better soil is to dump lots of mulch on it every Spring and Fall. That’s what I did at my home over the past six years and now I have this incredibly rich soil full of grody earth worms! They make for healthy plants and occasional frights while planting.
After hours of backbreaking digging and planting, the clouds parted (not really) and a ray of sunshine (it had been sunny and sweltering all day) fell on the pretty new flowerbed. I was pooped and the thought of adding the mulch made me have a heatstroke. So I popped on over to Mr. Bentley’s house next door to lounge on his deck and take a couple of pictures of his awesome view. He’s going to be the subject of the next Celebrity Gossip post.
Ruby says I need a pedicure...
The next morning I was at the home bright and early to spread the mulch. Sounds easy enough right? Right! Today I was wearing my heart rate monitor because I thought I needed to know exactly what my caloric commitment was to this project. It was a day late and the majority of it was done, but I figured I could do some math and guess. Mulching burned 640 calories! Yay! Ok, way off topic.
Anywhoo, I had four bags of black mulch and I laid them out near the places I thought they would be going. I opened each one and threw the mulch out and covered up all the old mulch. Occasionally I had to free some leaves or petals from under a little bit too much mulch, but it was pretty quick work. The only problem was that I forgot about the tree in the yard. That made me a bag short. So I spread it as best I could and it was a little thin at the end. I was regretting that I didn’t start at the entry and work my way out. So when I was running out of mulch, I was at the most important place! Oh well. Since I was sooooooooo tired after I finished, I decided I would finish the mulch the next time I was at Parkview Hills. By the time you read this, it will all be complete. But I did manage to take pictures with what I was able to cover and from the street, you can’t even tell I ran out!
By the end, I was pretty impressed with the effect that some flowers and mulch had on the appearance of the home. What do you think?
The Greater Fort Worth Spring Tour of New Homes is coming up in May and I am very excited! We love the Spring Tour because it introduces us to lots of people who have never heard of Antares Homes before. We really loved it last year because we won a lot of awards. Those awards made us feel really special.
What was so exciting about those awards last year is that our Model Home at 6836 Waterhill Lane was the Grand Award Runner Up! Now, I know a lot of folks who would say Runner Up is just second place, but it is second place over 51 other homes, many of which are in a much higher price range! That gives me warm fuzzies! The Grand Award winner was Sean Knight Custom Homes’ 4709 Santa Cova Court, valued at over $2 million! I’ll play second fiddle to that! 😉
This year the Tour has been completely re-vamped and there will be a lot of visitor interaction on the Tour website. It’s not complete yet; we builders have to enter all of our information on our entries! But, you will get to vote on your favorite homes and you will have access to customize your tour by choosing which homes you want to visit and printing out a map and route. There are a few more surprises in store for tour visitors that I am not at liberty to speak of, but I can say that I can’t hardly wait until it’s all completed!!!
Do you think of your pets as if they are your children? Well so do we! A few of our employees have agreed to a little show and tell with their furbabies!
Monique has three Dachshunds Misty, Ocsar and Audrey.
John has several pets!
This is Newton. He was named after Sir Isacc Newton. As a puppy he fell off the couch all the time. Just like apples. He is 77 in dog years and loves to fetch golf balls. He’s the old man. Pound for pound my baddest dog.
This is our new baby. His name is Tice. (From the game Army of Two) He only weighs about 40 pounds. He loves getting his picture taken and being chased by Newton. He is well trained. When he picks up something like the remote and we holler at him his training kicks in and he races for the doggy door and safety. You cannot catch him. At night you cannot see him. He is a ghost. Our baby ghost.
This is Maverick. As in TOP GUN! He is a 4 year old Shamrock McCaw. He speaks and is an escape artist. We should have named him Houdini or possibly MacGyver. He removes screws, throws food to the dogs, and intimidates everybody. If he ever escapes whoever finds him will think a police officer owner him. His favorite sayings, back up, drop it, shut up. Everything we say to the dogs.
This is Cool Hand Luke. He passed away last March after a long fight with bone cancer. He weighed 118 pounds. He was the most loveable and gentle dog. Me and Jonathan really miss him.
Jaimie has two dogs that are her children!
Lola is a Siberian husky. We used to tease and say she should get a job at the post office because when she was a puppy we couldn’t get her to stop licking people. She’s about 2 years old now and has turned into the friendliest dog on the planet. Her eyes are very very blue (almost white) and people have a hard time making eye contact with her. But she’s just a gullible lovable ham. She bounces around like a kangaroo when she’s excited and she likes to sleep in. She can sleep until noon.
We wanted a playmate for Lola so we found Lucy at the SPCA (last week!). Lucy is a scruffy rough and tumble blue heeler. She’s a lot more sprightly than Lola but just as friendly. She fit right in. The bond between her and Lola is very strong. They’re like tweedle dee and tweedle dum. They’ve only been together a week and can’t stand to be apart. Lucy loves dissecting squeaky toys, peanut butter, long walks through the neighborhood and when food falls to the floor
Sharon has a cuddly cat and dog.
Simon J “the Wonder Dog” is the most laid back sweet dog. He does no wrong and is a complete rules follower unlike his little sister Sarah P. His favorite thing, or rather MY favorite thing, is to stay in Bed & Breakfasts across Texas and go to pet friendly restaurants.
Sarah P is the trouble maker, but she keeps us laughing all day. She loves to snuggle up to Simon when she’s done thundering through the house.
Jerry has very sweet kitties.
Lexie was adopted at the Dallas SPCA in July, 2010, when she was two months old. Lexie is a common domestic shorthair cat, but we think there’s a bit of Bengal mixed in. She knows the sound of a particular drawer when it’s opened in the kitchen, mostly because her toys live in there. Go ahead and pull the drawer open a couple inches. She’ll stand up, grab the handle and do a pull-up to lift her body far enough that she can grab a toy with her teeth. Once it’s out, she expects you to play fetch. Throw the toy across the room; she’ll bolt after it and bring it back, drop it at your feet, and take up a launching position, ready for the next toss. Obviously, she’s part retriever.
Isabella, also known as Belle, Belly or Fatty had a rough start in life. She was brought into a Denver shelter in the middle of a blizzard with her two kittens. One didn’t make it and Belle was near death for a couple weeks while the volunteers nursed her back. This experience taught her the value of food–she’s gained a few pounds over the past four years. She’s known as a tortoiseshell or “tortie” with her mottled black and chocolate fur. One of the most tolerant and gentle cats I’ve known, Belle lets you know you’re in her exclusive club by nuzzling her face against yours. When not involved with eating or wrestling with Lexie, she loves to go outside on the rooftop patio and bask in the sun.
Send us your Pet Pictures or post them on our Facebook page. We’d love to see them!
Photo Credit: Stephanie Gatica via Inspired by Design
I think that sometimes when you walk into our sales offices you may have a preconceived idea about what the Salesperson is going to be like. And if you have been out looking for homes for a while, you might just stiffen up and brace yourself for the expected sales pitch. Well, expect something Different from us! And here’s a little help getting to know us, a look behind the curtain…
Most people find some time during the work day to surf the net and read some Blogs or visit our favorite websites. We do too! How better to get to know us, than to find out what interests US? Since you are reading a Blog, why not give you an idea of who we are by what we read? Here are some of our faves!
Carrie Davis (that’s me) says “Cute Overload is my number 1 choice! It’s always good for a laugh or an AWWWWWwwwwww!” I also like The Real Estalker, ‘cause when you like Real Estate, why not go big?
Our Sales Manager reads Forbes Woman. I know this because she recently sent me a link to a list of their favorite women to follow on twitter.
Stephanie Gatica, our Sales Assistant at Crescent Springs Ranch is a Blogger in her own right and has an amazing style and design Blog of her own titled Inspired by Design! Oh, and she also likes COCOCOZY which is another great design Blog.
Melanie, our Girl Friday at the Corporate Office really likes The Pioneer Woman. So Stylish! Melanie is also a photographer and has her own Photography Blog called Melovision.
Here are some Anonymous favorite Blogs and websites from our sales team:
CNN dot com! So polarizing, I know why you wanted to remain Anonymous!
Also, I know this may come as a shock to some of you, but some of us who shall not be named, still read newspapers and business journals printed on actual PAPER! DUN, dun DUN! Those People like the Dallas Business Journal, the Star Telegram and the Wall Street Journal.
Throughout the remainder of February, drop off donations with Sharon White at the Hidden Creek Model Home at 923 Hidden Lake Dr.
Each person who donates will be entered into a drawing to win various prizes from local businesses including Hidden Creek Golf Course!
Harvest House Most Wanted Items:
Size 4 & 5 diapers
Personal care items (shampoo, body wash, etc.)
Spaghetti & Sauce
Peanut Butter & Jelly
Mac&Cheese & other Boxed Meals
Canned goods
Harvest House was founded 25 years ago with the mission to assist in the alleviation of poverty, disease, pain and suffering by providing the needy with food, clothing, counseling, shelter, and medication.
Harvest House is operated largely by volunteers from many different faiths, working together. As they rub shoulders, they experience the joy of helping those in need, and develop a unity that leads them to respect the faith of others.
Over the years the BMAA Harvest House has evolved from an organization supported by only members of the BMAA to one supported by an entire community. Over 20 churches, along with individual donations, now help support Harvest House in assisting those in need in our community.
In 2008 Harvest House’s food donations averaged 150 families a month, 2009’s average was 250. Clients are eligible to receive money on their clothing assistance gift cards every 90 days. Harvest House provides financial assistance with rent, utilities, antibiotic prescriptions, dental care & gas vouchers. They make sure to equip children for school with school supplies, hair cuts, and immunizations.
Please join your neighbors in helping our community!
Although I was born and raised right here in Fort Worth, Texas, I am no stranger to snowy cold weather. I went to college in Iowa and followed that up with a job at a therapeutic wilderness camp in East Texas that was year ‘round. It was par for the course to wake up in your tent to a few mornings below 20◦ during January and February.
After that I worked at a high ropes course in Maryland that ran from March through October. More snow and cold. So, I have cold weather gear to say the least.
After several days of being snowed in I decided to hike over to Matador Ranch which is relatively close by to my home. Bandit, my American Mutt came along. My husband and I adopted him this summer to save him from a very bad situation. We were delighted to find a couple of days ago that he loves the snow and ice. We have taken him out and played every day and he loves it. So I knew he’d be up for the trip.
It Was Beautiful! Here are the pictures:
North End of MatadorLooking South on Crowley Road
Me in my Expedition Gear and Bandit in his fur coat
Monique Tinsley, Fearless Salesperson at Matador RanchHappy Homeowner!
Frozen Park!
Lonely Park BenchBandit!Here Comes the Sun
One of these home sites could be yours!
The only one of it's kind! A new floor plan completed.Looking north on Crowley RoadHeading Home, re-tracing our tracks...
By the way I forgot that it is possible to suck a snowflake into your nostril. Brain Freeze!
According to our research, we have found that most of our buyers purchase our homes because of our Guaranteed Heating and Cooling, our Energy Star Certifications and our fabulous Foundation. Those are really good reasons, but I have a different opinion. I think it is because of our Employees. Antares Homes employs the best folks! Everyone who works here genuinely cares about the quality of our Homes as well as the quality of the experience of our buyers. Our builders take pride in the job they do constructing our homes and it shows in the low rate of Warranty Requests that we have.
One of the best Teams we have is in Hidden Creek. Hidden Creek is a smaller neighborhood tucked away on a hill in Burleson overlooking the Fort Worth skyline. If you have ever been there, then you have met Sharon, our Salesperson and maybe you have met Brooks our Construction Manager.
What makes Sharon great? Well she has been with Antares Homes for four years and her decision to come to Antares Homes was not made lightly. When I asked her about why she chose to work at Antares, Sharon told me
“I shopped many builders but I wanted to join a company that I would be proud to represent. Once I saw how different the Antares Salespeople were and how great Antares reputation was I knew I’d be proud to work for this builder. One who not only built a spectacular home but cared about the homeowners even after closing.”
Sharon always makes time to help out her co-workers and I have seen her in action with her customers! She can’t be beat! No one is more compassionate or empathetic. Sharon has been named Salesperson of the Quarter and has also been labeled as Salesperson of the Month four times!
Brooks is an avid hunter and fisherman and enjoys those pastimes with his eight-year old daughter! Brooks is often found speaking with buyers and potential homeowners on the construction sites. Always helpful and on the scene, he is a big part of our Customer Satisfaction in Hidden Creek. Brooks is a Certified Graduate Builder and is currently working on his Certified Master Builder designation. When I asked him what he loves about his job, Brooks said,
“This job can be demanding and very fast paced and I enjoy that, but nothing makes me happier than when I get to give a buyer their keys to a brand new home.”
Brooks has also won a lot of awards and most recently was named Construction Manager of the 4th Quarter!
Visit Hidden Creek today and tell us why you like Sharon and Brooks!
The community pool is within walking distance of all of our home sites. Since our community is small, there is never any crowding at the pool!
Mansfield National Golf Course
Mansfield Nationalis just a golf cart-drive from our neighborhood. It really is within walking distance as well! It is a Par 72, 18 hole course situated on 225 acres. Kids play Free Monday through Friday and after 2pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Mansfield ISD
Mansfield is very well known for their Top Rated Schools. Check ratings on the TEAwebsite. The School District has aBlogand it is very informational. It gives an insider’s look into the personality of the school district. There is also aFoundationestablished to generate additional funds for the School District. Grant recipients are teachers who will use the funds for implementing special programs in their classrooms. What a way to take make education a grassroots initiative!
Hawaiian Falls
Guess where else you can walk to from your home? Season passes are very reasonably priced and there are different online clubs to join that offer discounts and weekly specials. You can find all of that and more on theHawaiian Falls website.
Joe Pool Lake
Garden Heights is a stone’s throw away fromLoyd Parkat Joe Pool Lake. There are tons of amenities at this location including camping and multi-use trails.
Mansfield Activities Center
TheMACas locals call it is a full service operation! This is your one stop for becoming involved in Mansfield. There are loads of Programs for the whole family as well as Senior Activities. ClickHerefor the full Brochure.
This Theater was founded in 1917 and is housed in a Historic Building in Mansfield. It is a very active place and they offer Musical presentations as well as movies and family fun nights.
The City of Mansfield built the replica fields andowns them. They host several leagues at the fields and the pavilion can be rented for special events. And guess what else? It is next door to Mansfield National Golf Course and Hawaiian Falls!
Garden Heights is our only Neighborhood in Mansfield, Texas. We think it is a great location and so do our buyers! We currently have four Homes available for immediate move-in. Call Stan Goldstein at 817-447-7502.
At our Holiday Party this year we were treated to a wonderful performance of the song “Antares Home” sung to the tune of “Mercedes Benz” by Janis Joplin. This version was written by Stan Goldstein who is the Salesperson at Garden Heights. It was too great not to share, so here are pictures and lyrics!
Melissa, Sharon and Stan. Picture by Monique Tinsley.
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me an Antares Home
My friends have ****** and all they do is moan
Worked hard all my lifetime, protected my credit score
So Lord get me an Antares and I’ll feel like I got more
Oh Lord, won’t you give me a home with low bills
Guaranteed heating and cooling gives me the chills
I am cool in summer and toasty in the cold
So Lord give me an Antares if I may be so bold
Oh Lord won’t you give me a real quiet house
My friends all hear boom boxes; I’m quiet as a mouse
No fiberglass for me I want cellulose can’t you see
Oh Lord it’s so nice to be able to hear my TV
Oh Lord give me a home with rebar slab
No post tension for me I think rebar is fab
A Certified Graduate Builder is who I want to see
So Lord give me a foundation engineered just for me
(Everyone)
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me an Antares Home
My friends have ****** and all they do is moan
Worked hard all my lifetime, protected my credit score
So Lord get me an Antares and I’ll feel like I got more
Jaimie, Melissa, Sharon and Stan. Photo by Monique Tinsley.
