Prepaid interest, sometimes called “points”, is generally tax deductible when a person pays them in connection with buying, building or improving their principal residence. When points are paid on a refinance, they are not a current deduction but have to be taken prorata over the life of the mortgage. For instance, if $3,000 in points were paid […]
When you’re buying or selling, the obvious source to get your real estate question answered is your agent but where do you go the rest of the time? As a homeowner for many years to come, you’ll need reliable help and solid suggestions. Our business goal is to have a select group of our friends […]
Among the most important numbers to home owners and potential home buyers are home prices. What are prices doing? What are they expected to be doing? This graphic shows at a state by state level price change year over year. However, as always, I caution you that real estate is an extremely local commodity. Just because a number is […]
We took advantage of the nice weather and the girls being away at Equismartz to visit battlefields. We visited 5.
This is Beaver Dam Creek, the first battle that happened immediately after Lee took over the Army of Northern VA in 1862. It was a resounding Union victory, but they retreated anyway as the Army was split up.
This is Gaine’s Mill, only a few miles from Beaver Dam Creek, and the battle here was only a couple of days later. Lee was tryng to push the Federal’s away from Richmond. The battle was a tactical draw, but the North retreated again away.
Then we moved on to Cold Harbor, and also jumped forward to the Overland Campaign in 1864. The resident historian says the 7000 casualty number is a Southern myth. It was more like 4000.
The trenches at Cold Harbor are amazingly well preserved, as you can see in the following photos. It’s kind of strange to think that 150 years plus 3 months ago thousands and thousands of young men we huddled in these trenches, trying to avoid death.
Then me moved on to Totopotomy Creek Battlefield, a little north of Cold Harbor. The park service just got control of this land in 2011 and there isn’t much there. The house was there for the Civil War. The house was there for the Revolutionary war. The Shelton family owned this land from Colonial times to 2011. Patrick Henry married a Shelton, allegedly in the parlor of this house. I thought that was cool.
We ended the day at North Anna Battlefield. Not a whole lot happened here as Grant realized that Lee had a very strong defensive position, so he swung east and continued his march South without getting mixed up in a major battle on land of Lee’s choosing. Southern myth holds that North Anna was an ingenious trap set by Lee, and only illness by Lee stopped him from unleashing the attack that would have severely damaged the North. The resident historian calls bullshit on that story.
North Anna Battlefield
The resident historian.
There are a few more photos at Flickr.
Along with acceptable CAPE (near 500) and decent speed shear (~40 kts) east of the Blue Ridge the vertical velocities are looking good for convection per today’s 12Z GFS run. Here’s the 700 mb chart for 18Z next Saturday:Vertical velocities at 850 and …
Whether you continue to rent or decide to buy a home, according to recent Zillow 2014 housing projections, the cost is going up. Zillow projects home prices to increase nationally by 3%, mortgages to rise to 5% interest rate by the end of the year and rents to go up by 2.5% on average. If […]
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Coffee should be hot. Beer should be cold. Mexican food should be spicy. However, if these things are less than the standard that you expect, there are not any lasting consequences. As the value of the object in question rises, either in price or gravity, the expectations usually increase and decisions become progressively more important. […]
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Click here to see more pictures and detailed information. Forget the weekend only concept, enjoy lake oriented living everyday! This stunning home is the epitome of luxurious living in one of the most desired Lake Anna communities. Fabulous gourmet kitchen with corian counters, upgraded stainless appliances, kitchen island with breakfast bar, beautiful family room with […]
