How did we choose a realtor

Depending on your personality, choosing a realtor can be one of the "harder" task. Think about it,... you will be working with someoen to find a house. Sometimes, it may take months. You will be choosing a work partner or a team member.. or probably, you'll be choosing someone who can "live"with for a short period.

Well... my hubby and I had to choose a realtor to help us find a house. We had a "bad" experience with a realtor before, so we decided to really look for the right one that fits our work style.. It may sound like "hiring" an employee, but I think it's worth it and. I thought it worth blogging too...

First, we read articles on the internet and formulate some questions to ask when we meet a potential realtor. Other than technical questions like how long have you been working, licensing, if you are part of a group,... we also ask about how are you going to find us house, how many showings, where do you find listings... and on.

As I was shopping for a mortgage, I ask referrals for realtors. By doing so, I have list of names to start with. I also ask referrals from friends.

Then I called them, make an appointment for an phone interview.  During the phone interview, we could narrow down list of potential realtor that we want to interview personally. We also ask for references and interview them.

We narrowed down to 4 realtors and met them at Starbucks or their office. Still, we have lists of interview questions and we also tell them what is our work style... We then narrowed it down to two and this is one of the hardest part.

Knowing our buying habit, we tend to take time and really look at the features we want. I thought it won't much different with buying a house. One realtor tends to be lay back and may fit with our buying habit. The other is more the opposite. She's more structured and organized. We liked both but we can only choose one.

Hubby and I decided to vote. Since there are only two of us, we decided that if we came up with different names, we are going to discuss to make a decision that we both can agree.  We found Kleenex and pen and we voted.

I felt so relieve to find out that we voted the same person. No discussion or debate needed. We chose Dave Ipsen.

We worked with him since August 2011 for about 8 months. He has lots of knowledge about the area we are interested in looking. He takes time to explain every questions we have. He's very responsive with e-mails. He has information in his hands. He's lay back, very flexible. We never felt pressured to make quick decisions. He always take as much time as we needed to see the houses. We knew we made the right choice.

We wrote down important criteria for choosing a house. We saw 5-6 houses almost every Saturday. Since the house orientation is one of the important part, we would bring a compass when we view houses.  In addition to that, I learned about the city, neighborhood, the house structure and some details about how houses are built differently in CO compares to WI.

Even though it took about 2 months for us to decide a realtor, I think we indeed made a right choice.
Wouldn't you agree?

Unite 4 Peyton

Bigib is donating a pair of square earrings as an auction item for Par4Peyton, June 1, 2012 at Muskego Lakes country club.


It is a golf outing event runs by Unite4Peyton Foundation, a non profit organization for SMA research. If you are a golfer, it's a good activity while raising fund for good cause.

In addition to that, Bigib is designing a special wrap bracelet made for this event. It's made of hand stamped sterling silver charm, wrap around the wrist and ends with double knot. It needs 2 persons to wrap this bracelet. It's a symbol that it needs more than one person to make this event happen.

What do you think?

Flower power: a creative idea to manage TV time

TV....TV.... TV....!
Between my daughter and I, we always argue how much is too much TV time. She still can't read or understand how long is half an hour. I decided I need to create a system that is better than checking at the clock.

We made flowers from streamers and skewer, glue it and tie it with twist ties. I call it the "flower power...." One flower equal half an hour of TV time. Every time she watches TV for half an hour, I'll take it out from the pot. By doing that, she understands how much TV show she can watch and decide a head of time.

This really reduce the arguing and negotiation. E.g She likes to watch Arthur, Martha speaks, George, World word, Cyber space, Kratt brothers. If she watches all, it will take up 3 hours. Her TV time is 2 hours. So in the morning, she will decide which TV shows she wants to watch.

We made it flower because it's beautiful and skewer and streamers were the available materials. I think you can make it something else according to your children's favorite stuff.

So far, it works for me and I think it worth sharing...
What do you think?

Baked potato ooops...

Oops ... It happened many times.

Just like today, I suppose to make baked potato for dinner. I set the oven to bake to 400F, then I set the timer for the soup... not realizing when the timer went off, I actually cancelling the baking as well... I thought I had a nice warm baked potato... I actually have a cold, uncooked potato. Dinner should be ready in 15 minutes... What should I do?

Hubby googled how to make a baked potato using microwave. It's pretty easy. Cut a deep 'X' on the potato, cover it with wet towel and microwave it according to the size. Not knowing the definition of big or huge potato, I just do a trial and error. I set for 5 minutes for 1 potato and it turned out beautifully. I put all 3 potatoes and set for 5 minutes it turned out OK. I needed more minutes, so I added another 3. The dinner is ready on time. Everyone thinks it's a good baked potato dinner.

It's one of the time when I said to my self that I'm glad I made a mistake as now I know how to make baked potato using microwave.

Wouldn't you agree?

Picture link from howtobakeapotato.com

Make your own toy: A creative, green and economical ideas

Boxes-boxes... we got a lot of boxes. Toys-toys-toys... I do need some toys for kids activities. We decided to collect those boxes and choose one day as a "make your own toy" day.

I challenged my 5 years old to design a toy out of boxes. I threw some ideas, including designing a cell phone, camera, laptop, robot, car...

Then, I gave her a piece of paper. The challenge was she needs to plan her design... mom will help cut.

She decided she wants to make a robot. Here's her plan.

She will need two boxes for head, butt, arms and toilet paper rolls for neck and legs.
Along the process, there are some design changes... including some "improvements" in adding eyes and choosing a lighter material for arms.

I helped her cut the holes using scissors and knifes and helps construct the pieces. We never attach the arm as it keep falling out. Besides, the bot long neck was good for grabbing. She played with the bot for tow days before she started asking when she could make the lap top.

That would be our next project...


And the next one she wanted to design a car... We need to collect a larger box for that...

I like the idea of designing your own toys from. First, it challenges your creativity and imagination. Second, we recycle. It's a two fold activities that is really economical.
Wouldn't you agree?

Tween + moving + 10 years old = problem solving

Ten years old... who wasn't too happy to leave her best friends behind... Plus new location, new school, new neighborhood, new friends... makes it even tougher...
In addition to anger, I also get some tears for not liking her new environment.

She started to say... "I don't like school". It has been bugging me since about 1 month ago. I have been listening to her, giving empathy, trying to find out what is it the real cause of that,... she still came home with tears.

I almost gave up. I'm so ready to e-mail her teacher and perhaps look for a professional help. I guess my creative, thinking out of the box gene kicks in.

I decided to ask her what she wants to do to make her "happier". She said... "no school". So I asked her if she meant for a different school or if she meant stay at home. She wants to stay at home with me...
"Sure...", I said. "But you also have to tell me what do you want to do when you stay at home. You can clean up the house, cook and you need to work because we have to make a living...."

Then the conversation starts around her skills, what is it that she can do to make a living. I gave her some options what she can do to find work and I asked her to think about it and tell me what's her decision, tomorrow.

I was worry... I'm not sure what's the outcome. But I think it's a good idea to involve her with problem solving rather than giving solutions...

Tomorrow afternoon I asked her... "So what is your decision..."
And she said "school".... And then I said "What are you going to do with new friends, new school...?" She thinks she could handle that part too...

Starting that day, she changed. No more tears on the way home and she looks happier. I guess I did the right thing... It works for me... so I thought I should share it in my blog...

The Med at Boulder... a reasonably priced restaurant to eat

Last Sunday afternoon, we were in Boulder. The kids just done skating at One Boulder Plaza and it was around 4:30. We want to get something to eat and go to church. We found out there is a church on Sacred Heart of Jesus on Mapleton and 13th in Boulder that starts at 6pm.

Where to eat?
We learned there is a restaurant called The Med (Mediterranian ) in Boulder, on Walnut and Broadway that serves tapas. Plus... they have happy hour from 3-6:30 pm every day.
That sounds perfect. So, we decided to drive there. We arrived at almost 5. The hostess said it will take about 15 minutes before we get our seat. 5-10 minutes later, our name was called. We ordered the tapas, get some bread for a start, tapas arrived, we have happy tummies.

We left at around 5 to 6 and we still have enough time to go to church. Everyone have their own favorite. My daughter likes the baked feta, and mozzarella cheese. I like bacon wrapped dates, prosciutto with melon and calamari. There are a lot of good tapas choices. With the happy hour price, their tapas and service are unbeatable.

Wouldn't you agree?