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This pic was taken from Bayside's (Fenwick, DE) point 

Local Events:

Summer Stage Calendar:

Rehoboth Bandstand

Bethany Bandstand

Bayside Bandstand

Events calendar DE & MD

 

News Flash: The Natural Resources Defense Council’s “Testing the Waters 2006 – A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches” ranked Delaware beaches the nation’s cleanest of the 29 coastal and Great Lakes states surveyed

Do we need a REALTOR to buy new construction? 8/21/2008

THE ANSWER IS YES!

  • The salesperson at the model represents the builder. The sales person is very knowledgeable with their lot inventory, home choices, and the Builder.
  • If you tell them that you will want representation by a Realtor they will respect your choice and agree to allow you to be represented. This will not prevent them from providing you with the information.
  • This will not add to the cost of your home purchase, they will have a buyer representative fee already built in. In fact they want Realtors to bring buyers to their projects. more.....

Thinking of New Construction? If so, you’ll need a Realtor more than ever! 8/21/2008

  1. Builder sales reps represent the builder, not you.

  2. More often than not, builder sales reps are not licensed.  As such, they are not bound to the same fiduciary responsibility that is required of a licensed realtor.  Translation:  your risk level goes up when no on in the transaction is required to represent your best interests first.

  3. All builders have a realtor commission built into their pricing.  They will not reduce the sale price just because you don't have a realtor representing you.  Why leave yourself exposed this way? more....

Dismiss the Myths; Choose a REALTOR® for New Construction 8/21/2008:

Just because you go directly to a builder does not mean you will get the best home and the best deal for you. The person at the new home site works for the builder. You should always have someone knowledgeable about the real estate industry on your side, working in your best interests. more....

 

 

Guest Article:
50 ways to cut cost:
By Liz Pulliam Weston

Lou knows his family is in a vicious cycle with credit cards. He's just not sure how to get out.

Bills and credit-card payments eat up most of the Mansfield, Ohio, family's income, leaving them little left over to pay for groceries and other basics. So they wind up charging more.

"My family has about $12,000 in debt to credit-card companies," Lou wrote in an e-mail. "We want to stop using these cards and get this fixed. But we are 'bridging the gap' with credit."

Like many families, Lou's clan already has trimmed some of the obvious expenses, such as eating in restaurants. But really getting your budget in line may require rethinking just about everything on which you spend money.

Look at the biggies first

The biggest savings often lie in the areas where you spend the most money: housing, transportation, food, insurance, health care and clothing. Here are some ideas for places to look for savings.

Average household spending

 

 

Average income (before taxes)

$51,128

% of expenditures

Average annual expenditures

$40,817

N/A

Housing

$13,432

33%

Transportation

$7,781

19%

Other

$6,153

15%

Food

$5,340

13%

Personal insurance and pensions

$4,055

10%

Health care

$2,416

6%

Apparel and services

$1,640

4%

more....


This Months Tips:

Smart tips for the savvy homeowner:

  • Have you tried baby wipes on carpet stains? They work so well, you'll be wondering why no one told you sooner!

  • Keep candles in the refrigerator several hours before use to slow down dripping and make them last longer.

  • The best was to attack cooked-on spatters in your microwave:  Heat a half-cup of water for two min on high. The steam will soften the food and the mess will wipe right off.

  • To eliminate cooking odors (fish, fried bacon, garlic, etc.) heat white vinegar in an uncovered pot on the stove. (Don't boil.) Remove after 30 min.  The light vinegar smell dissipates quickly, taking odors with it.

  • When run through your coffee grinder, a handful of dried rice will sharpen the blades.

  • After your next party, share flat, leftover beer with your garden; plants love the yeast!

  • Place unusable remnants of soap in a ventilated plastic bag and pact it away with seasonal clothes. This will keep the moths away, and your clothes will smell much better when you take them out of storage.

  • Ants hate anything spicy.  Sprinkle ground pepper, cayenne, even cinnamon, in their path, and you'll stop them in their tracks.

  • Your chimney will stay clean if you throw a handful of salt on the fire.

  • To clean tarnished silverware:  Line a large cake pan with aluminum foil. Fill 8 cups warm water (150 degrees) mixed with 1/4 cup of baking soda.  Lay silverware in pan, and watch the stains disappear.

  • Fill nail holes with a paste from cornstarch and water. Works just as well as putty.

  • Leather needs to breath, so never hang coats or jackets in plastic.  Instead, make a dust cover from a pillowcase by cutting a hole in the top for the hanger.

  • When a wooden door or gates sticks, bring out the hair dryer. By blowing hot air directly on the wood where it's sticking, you'll remove the moisture and the swelling will go down.

  • Squeaky doors?  For a drip less solution, use petroleum jelly on the hinges instead of oil.

  • Simmer a sliced apple and a couple of cinnamon sticks in water on your stove. Your whole house will smell like an apple pie.

 

Finding your hidden storage space

By James and Morris Carey

Associated Press

Published in the Resort Homes paper on Oct. 11, 2006

Looking for extra places to put things?  Your home has all sorts of hidden storage space. 

Behind your drywall and paneling lie countless hidden spaces nestled between the two-by-four studs.  While some are filled with pipes, wiring, and sheet metal duct work, others are wide open and ready to be put to use.

The best time to note which are which is when a home or new room is under construction.  Take photos or make diagrams of empty spaces that you can open up and later develop into various types of storage. 

However, this is only for inside walls, as outer walls use this inner space for insulation.  If your rooms are already done and the walls are finished its not too late.  It just takes a bit more investigation to determine which areas are storage-ready.

 

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Wrecks dating back approximately 400 years lies off Delaware's coast. Here are four representing the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries:

China Wreck: There is a certain amount of confusion, if not controversy, about the positive identification of what is commonly called the China Wreck by local divers. What is certain is that some 10,000 pieces of pottery have been plucked from the wreck site, about a dozen miles off Cape Henlopen. Hence, its nickname, the China Wreck.

In all likelihood, the muddy, coral and salt-encrusted mound 39 feet down is the hulk that was once the proud Principessa Margherita di Piemonte, out of Naples, Italy. She was sailing from Plymouth, England to Philadelphia with her holds stacked securely with tons of stoneware and pottery. On March 12, 1891, the Principessa foundered and wrecked on Hen and Chickens Shoal.

Discovered by the NOAA vessels "Rude" and "Heck" in 1972. The ship's nearly two-ton anchor has been salvaged, and thousands of neatly packed ironstone earthenware has been recovered. Much of the pottery is marked and clearly identifiable as being from British pottery makers of the late 1800's. (See info about Dewey Beach's Coin Beach.)

The Faithful Steward, bound from Londonderry, Ireland to Philadelphia with 249 passengers, ran aground near Indian River Inlet, Delaware on the night of September 1, 1785. When a sounding was taken, it was found the ship was only in 4 fathoms of water, though there was not the slightest appearance of land. Every exertion was used to run the vessel off shore but all failed.

On the morning of September 2, the ship was near Indian River, about four leagues to the southward of Cape Henlopen. Every effort was made to save the unhappy sufferers, who had remained on the deck during the night.

The ship was only 100 yards from the shore. On the evening of Sept. 2, the ship broke to pieces. The long boats that had been put into the water drifted ashore before they could be manned. All relief was cut off. The only chance of survival for the remainder of the passengers was by swimming ashore, or using pieces of the wreck as life rafts.

By dawn’s light only 68 of the 249 passengers had survived. The inhabitants from Lewestown (present day Lewes, DE) came to the beach to plunder the bodies of their goods. Of the 100 women and children aboard, only 7 were saved.

Among the cargo aboard the ship were 400 barrels of half pennies and gold rose guineas. (See info about Dewey Beach's Coin Beach.)

Ghostly apparitions of the ship under sail, a guardian water witch protecting the site from discovery, and the fabled wealth of millions of dollars of gold aboard are stories forming part of the many legends, traditions, and myths surrounding the ship and its tragic loss nearly 200 years ago in 1798. This is but a small part that has secured the DeBraak is prominent place in the Maritime history and lore of the Delaware Coast.

The origins of the cutter DeBraak (Dutch for "The Beagle") are obscure. Although it was long believed that she was Dutch-built, analysis of the hull suggests that she was probably built in Britain. During the 1780s, she sailed against England under the Dutch flag, operating with a Mediterranean squadron out of Toulon, France. In 1793, she took part in the defense of Willemstad, uraçao, against a French Revolutionary army, and at the end of 1794, De Braak was ordered to escort a convoy of East Indiamen to Batavia. Not realizing that their country was again at war with England, the Dutch put into Falmouth where the twenty-four merchantmen and six warships were seized.

Brought into the Royal Navy as HM Sloop-of-War Braak, the cutter was re-rigged as a brig and rearmed with sixteen 24-pound carronades. She entered service under Captain James Drew on June 13, 1797, and remained on duty until dismasted in a storm at the end of the year. Upon her return to service in February 1798, Braak joined a convoy bound for the Virginia Capes, but on April 2, off the Azores, she was separated from the other ships. At the end of the month, she captured a Spanish ship worth £160,000 in prize money and on May 25, Captain Drew put into Delaware Bay. Shortly after a pilot boarded off Cape Henlopen, "a sudden flaw of wind" capsized the DeBraak and she sank with the loss of thirty-five of her crew, including Drew, and twelve Spanish prisoners.

Over the years, De Braak's seven-week solo cruise and the certain fact that she had captured one valuable prize became encrusted with myth. Over the years more than a dozen individuals and groups attempted to find the ship, and by the 1980s estimates of the value of the treasure aboard the humble convoy escort exceeded $500 million. Success of a sort finally came in 1984 when Harvey Harrington's Sub-Sal, Inc., raised a cannon, an anchor, and a ship's bell bearing the name "La Patrocle." Sub-Sal became legal custodian of the wreck on behalf of the U.S. District Court and with a one-year lease began working round-the-clock to retrieve as much as possible from the site. With almost total disregard for archaeological practice, divers tagged a portion of what they recovered and disposed of anything they considered worthless, including human remains, a rare stove, and objects too small to warrant their consideration.

In 1985, Sub-Sal was taken over by a New Hampshire investment group led by L. John Davidson. The state of Delaware began to take a more active interest in the project and assigned State personnel to tag retrieved artifacts, which ultimately included 26,000 items ranging from ship fittings, weapons, and ammunition to toothbrushes, combs, dominoes, a syringe, compasses and dividers, a mahogany telescope, an octant, a sink, 150 shoes, a sailor's "Monmouth" hat, three anchors, storage vessels, and hundreds of specimens of organic foodstuffs including peas, corn, and beans. The DeBraak is now
owned by the State of Delaware.
 

The La Galga is the wreck from which legend says that the Chincoteague ponies came. Have you read Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry?

"La Galga (The Greyhound) was a 50-gun frigate commissioned into the Spanish navy in 1732. It left Havana on its last voyage on Aug. 18, 1750, in order to escort a convoy of merchant ships to Spain. On Aug. 25, 1750, the convoy encountered a hurricane near Bermuda that scattered the ships and forced them westward toward the American coast.

"La Galga eventually sank off the coast of the Maryland/Virginia border. Most of the crew and passengers reached land safely. Capt. Daniel Houny attempted to salvage items from the wreck, but his efforts ended when a second storm came and broke up what was left of the ship. La Galga remains undisturbed for the next 245 years. The ship was carrying horses, chests of silver, coinage of silver and gold and a large cargo of mahogany and tobacco. Reports say that the Spanish, with the help of local Indians, recovered some chests of silver.

While the Spaniards were securing passage on another vessel, it is recorded that locals plundered the vessel, taking and selling the mahogany and tobacco. Today the resting site of the La Galga is known and is currently being investigated by DiscoverSea with local maritime historians.

To learn more about coins and ship wrecks, go to Fenwick Islands Discovery Shipwreck museum, on Ocean Hwy. or visit www.discoversea.com

 

 

Jen Hughes   Realtor Equal Housing Opportunity © 2006.  All Rights Reserved. This is not an official website of ResortQuest Real Estate, Carl M. Freeman (CMF) companies/properties or Bayside. Neither Bayside nor CMF companies are responsible for typographical errors. All information on this site is believed to be accurate as of the date posted. They also do not warrant the accuracy of any statements contained in the materials linked from this site, nor is Bayside or CMF affiliated with any of the entities providing information or authors of the linked materials on this site. This site was created and is maintained by Greg Hughes.

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