We could not have had a more picture-perfect Christmas, at least up here in Underhill, Vermont, at the foot of Mount Mansfield! We received a good six to eight inches of the fluffy white stuff on Christmas Day, and I enjoyed a morning of photographing lots of happy people up at Smugglers’ Notch Ski Resort. Here’s a look at what’s happening at Smuggs over the New Years holiday.

Family Fun

Families and having fun is what Smuggs is all about. Imagine being able to leave your little ones at the Discovery Camp while you go check out the freshies on Doc Dempsey’s Glades, feeling confident the kids will be having as much fun as you. Lunch is provided for them, along with afternoon entertainment. Since two- to four-years-old kids can’t spend all day on the slopes, they will need a break, and The Discovery Camp is well versed in this arena!

Smuggs Village Overview

A quick tour of the Village at Smuggs shows us retail shops, ski rentals and demo shops, restaurants, bars, a game room, lounges, an indoor pool, hot tubs, The Fun Zone, The Teen Center, and a small grocery store offering some of our locally made wines. The super-friendly staff is all decked out to ring in the New Year and holiday!

On the Slopes

My husband is an instructor at Smuggs, where this past weekend they had over 600 skiers from Wayne New Jersey, and all from the same ski club! The standing joke for New Jersey is “What exit?” My husband, a New Jersey native, could relate to these good folks. I have never seen Sir Henry’s tube sliding look busier.

This Week’s Activities

Here are just a few of the things listed for fun this week:

Cross country skiing center opens and back country tours are available
Latin/ Salsa and ballroom dancing lessons
Magic shows
Children’s fun feast
Kids night out
Family karaoke
The Great Race cookie race
Sir Henry’s tube sliding
Fun Zone Jamboree
Snowshoeing night tour
Good time trivia
Skiing and riding!

For up to date information regarding the skiing conditions, check out the No Bull Snow Report.

So get out, enjoy the holiday, go ahead and have some fun. Once you arrive you can park the car and relax, knowing everything will be taken care of.

Happy New Year, everyone, and take care! When you’re ready to move to Vermont and ski every day, contact me!

One of my favorite expressions when I try to describe what life is like in rural Vermont is this: We drive to work, but come home to play.

Recreation Options

By this time of year (December 20, or so) I am generally up for skiing, but sometimes Mother Nature does not bless us with enough snow to go sliding, and that includes downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, and sledding. And if you’re not into sliding, there’s always snowshoeing. But snow will come, it always does, and in the meantime there is always some sort of outside entertainment to be enjoyed!

Little River History Loop

Today there was just a dusting of snow and just enough frozen ground showing to make it perfect for a walk in the woods with my good friend Kate Carter and her two border collies. With Pheobe and Brewster leading the way, Kate and I enjoyed a two-hour hike through Little River State Park, located in Waterbury, Vermont.

Once I start walking or hiking I don’t want to go back inside. I absolutely love being outdoors, no matter what (okay, I don’t like hours in the rain, I admit it). Little River State Park has scenic camping sites overlooking the reservoir, but today I enjoyed a great history lesson as well. The Little River History Loop is a journey through time. The miles of stone walls, cemeteries cellar holes, jeep trails, and orchards give evidence of life one to two hundred years ago!

The walk started uphill and we walked and talked and took pictures with my phone, as neither of us had brought our cameras. The dogs were running around and barking at each other and I kept seeing these little posts with numbers on them that I thought indicated camp sites. I finally commented to Kate that the camp sites looked awfully hilly. She chuckled and told me that they were not camp sites but part of the history walk of Little River, and the numbered posts marked the different family farm plots that made up an active community over one hundred years ago. Well, that made a lot more sense, and gee, perhaps if I had read the signs I could have figured that out myself!

As we came close to the end of our hike we saw this old house and I gave my phone to Kate to take a photo of it (she is, after all, the photographer, and she trained me but she is still better!!). The following is a description of that house, which is one of the family farms that existed long ago:

Almeron Goodell (14 acres)

Almeron Goodell bought this land around 1863. The house frame is made of hewed timers.

Almeron Goodell homestead. Photo by Kate Carter.

Goodell hand-split the original shingles during his evening hours. This is the only farmhouse still standing in the Little River area. All other buildings were destroyed or moved when the land came into public ownership.

On November 3 and 4 of 1927, torrential rains caused local rivers to rise and drove residents to their roofs. A second flood in 1934 spurred the construction of Waterbury Dam. Between 1935 and 1938 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, constructed Waterbury Reservoir. The CCC camp here was a fully operating, thriving community with more than 80 buildings, and housing 2,000 men at its peak. Now, half a century later, only a few solitary chimneys and concrete foundations remain.

So, today was not only a wonderful hike with a friend, but a history lesson as well! This is a perfect example of what can happen in A Day In The Life in rural Vermont, where we drive to work, but come home to play!

Please contact me if you’d like to move to rural Vermont, where we sure do play a lot!

Both my husband and I are transplants to our lovely state of Vermont, both of us having attended college here (I went to St. Michael’s and my husband, Charlie, went to Johnson State). Both of us decided to stay and make our living here. However, that means we both have families who live out of state!

Road Show

Christmas for our daughter, Shelbe, is about seeing her aunts, uncles, and a multitude of cousins. This translates into what I affectionately call “the road show.” Every year we pack up a big sack of gifts and drive first to my family in Syracuse, NY, and then on Christmas Eve we get back in the car and drive to Bloomfield, NJ, to visit Charlie’s family.

I love my extended family and feel blessed to have them and to spend holidays with them. But really, Christmas in New Jersey instead of Vermont? We live in Underhill, Vermont, and it is very rural, not to mention being situated practically in the mountains. From my kitchen window we look out at the “Chin” of Mt. Mansfield, and I can go cross-country skiing right out my door. I love winter, and Christmas is so pretty with all the decorations reflecting off of the snow and the crisp cold air, but since we have been married we have traveled out of state for Christmas every year.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas

This year we are actually staying home. I can wake up in my own bed, I don’t have to worry if I have remembered everyone’s presents, and we can go skiing at Smugglers’ Notch and see our friends and their families. However, all this is possible this year because Shelbe is spending a semester abroad in Spain and does not return until after New Year’s. So while I am excited about being home in rural Vermont and skiing at Smuggs, there is a caveat…. No Shelbe!

In addition there is hardly any snow! Well, it will come, it always does, and besides, ski resorts are absolutely magical this time of year and offer plenty of other festivities in addition to skiing. It is cold and they are making snow like crazy, so I think we can count on skiing at Christmas. I have pasted links to our local skis areas, so be sure to check out their holiday festivities and the various activities they offer, both inside and outside.

To all my friends, customers, and prospective clients — have a wonderful holiday season from Pleasant Valley Real Estate.

This time of year I generally get a lot of chores done—clear out the house of excess stuff, do a good house cleaning, clean out the garden and put it to bed before winter, paint rooms that need repainting. The list is always long, and every late fall or early spring I attack it with gusto! You know… I get ’er done!

Between the Seasons

I always reserve these types of chores for between seasons, because the rest of the year we put off chore-type activities, as wonderful as they are, to play outside. How can you possibly work on house projects when the weather is beckoning you to come out and play? Well, when November rolled around this year, one of the first things I got done was putting my garden to bed, an easy enough task because the weather was gorgeous, and downright warm!

However, due to the unusually warm and sunny fall, I have had some problems getting all my indoor chores completed. Mind you, I am not complaining. It has been a real fall, not a September and early October fall followed by a gray and dismal pre-winter, but a real and extended fall! As great and enjoyable as this has been, it has kept me from by ability to, well…

Get ’er Done!

It is raining today, so I went to the store and bought some primer so I could finish painting my bathroom. I did manage to sand down the peeling paint areas and clean the walls, but until today, I still found myself wandering outside to do chores, instead of tending to the inside ones that are begging for attention.

How does one get past this dilemma? I have chores that must be done at certain times, like gathering bows for my window boxes and making wreaths for my windows. I repeat, it is raining today, and I am choosing to paint the bathroom!! So, wish me the best! I will take pictures of the finished product and I will GET ’ER DONE! I will do the wreaths over the next couple of days. I promise.

Community Events

When you live out here in Underhill, where there are always fun things to do outside, you have to remember to plan for those “chore days.” We drive to work, but come home to play. Happy Holidays folks, and find sometime to have some fun outside, as there are always those rainy days for chores!

Here are some fun holiday community events to check out:

December 10, 7-9 p.m.

SWEET NOTES: Community dessert and open mic in Jericho, at the Community Center on Brown’s Trace Road, just outside the village green. Desserts are available starting at 7 p.m., Open mic is 7:30-9 p.m. Songs, musicians, story-telling, poetry… anything goes! Some walk-in slots; to reserve a 10 minute slot, call 879-4606 or email lmarkowitz2408@​gmail.com.

Dont forget to check out our local ski areas. Many of them have a few trails open.

Smugglers’ Notch

Stowe Mountain Resort

Sugarbush

The one real estate question I hear almost daily is, “How is the market?” Typically, this time of year the real estate market slows down as everyone prepares for the holidays. In addition, no one wants to move in the winter. However our winters have a tendancy to last awhile, so truth be told, a lot of people move in the winter. Mud season (April)… now that is the time of year I would not want to move.

How is the Market? Well to be brief, it is okay. It is not hopping and it is not crawling; it is simply okay. Things take longer to sell, there is more to choose from, and interest rates are LOW!! So, why wouldn’t buyers be out in the market right now?

Pricing

Homes that are selling vary in price range, as they always do, but predominantly the price range that is moving best right now is the mid range of $225,000 to $350,000, out in the eastern edge of Chittenden County. A spattering of high-end homes are also selling, but the condition, location, and the home’s appearance matter most.

Going Green

Another factor to consider is the “green gereration.” In other words, people who are looking for a home owner’s commitment or investment in environmental factors and efficiency.

Pick of the Week

Here is my pick of the week for “Home Efficiency Improvements and Upgrades.”

15 Ridge Road, Jericho, Vermont

This home, listed in a great Jericho neighborhood at the height of the cul de sac, has had $137,000 in upgrades, including high-end five-star energy rated appliances, PaperStone counter tops made of recycled paper, Argon Low E windows, slate floors with radiant heat, southeast to southwest exposure for full advantage of the solar effect, and really gorgeous views from Mansfield to Camel’s Hump (a small aside!). In addition, the kitchen appliances, all stainless steel, include a 48-inch Liebbher side-by-side refrigerator/ freezer, a Viking cook top with down draft, Kitchen Aide double-wall convection oven and dishwasher, and a stainless steel sink and trash compactor. All are located around a seven-person island. Meals have never been so pleasurable, and with such stunning views!

This home falls in the under-$350,000 price range and will steal someone’s heart, especially if that person is interested in those environmental and appeal factors!

Environmental Awareness

People are becoming more and more concerned about the enviroment. A shorter commute is desirable and a community feel is also important. When I grew up (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth), I lived on a cul de sac in a neighborhood and our mothers were always kicking us outside to play with the other kids whose mothers kicked them outside. When you came home from school there were other kids to play with. So, if you are looking to relocate your family to a home with a good school system, neighborhood, and recent home upgrades (with not just energy effiency in mind but great style as well) go to my Jericho page and compare this home with others you have seen.

Here’s another feature to this week’s pick – in addition to the great views, the property backs up to 60 acres of undeveloped land, with access to numerous trails. It’s a short commute to Essex and Williston, and about 4 to 5 miles from the Interstate for shorter commutes to the greater Burlington area or the Waterbury/Stowe direction. It’s located in the Chittenden East Shool District.

So, back to the question, “How is the market?” It is okay, but what is great is that  phenomenal homes can be bought at great values.

Come back next week for my next “Pick of the Week” house! And please feel free to contact me for a tour of this week’s “Pick of the Week” house at 15 Ridge Road, Jericho, Vermont.

My first date with my with my husband of 20 years was at Smugglers’ Notch Resort in Jeffersonville, Vermont. Charlie was a ski instructor there, and our date was just before Thanksgiving, when the ski school was holding their pre-season training. We made arrangements to meet and go skiing after his day of training, but truth be told, we changed our date to dinner and a movie because the wind was blowing sooo hard it seemed to make sense to meet somewhere indoors. Nevertheless, from the time we met our lives have revolved around this wonderful family resort.

Ski Town Living

We bought our house in Underhill in 1993 and we are still here. We live 15 minutes from Smugglers’ Notch Resort (affectionately referred to as Smuggs). When our daughter, Shelbe, was a toddler I would bring her to the pool at Smuggs and spend hours with her there while Charlie taught skiing. Shelbe didn’t ski yet, but Smuggs still offered us family-time fun. In fact, Shelbe was actually swimming on her own by the time she was three, and she started skiing right around that time, too.

While we have four seasons in Vermont, winter is by far the longest. Charlie and I met in 1989 and we have skied at Smuggs every winter since. Charlie still teaches skiing and now Shelbe teaches there as well. Me? I just ski.

Family Fun at Smugglers’ Notch Resort

Make no mistake, Smuggs is a family resort designed to offer the whole family enjoyment, with ski-in and ski-out condos, a great children’s ski program, afternoon entertainment for kids, a teen center, restaurants, and evening entertainment for families, and just down the mountain road is the quaint town of Jeffersonville.

So, 22 years later, we still ski at Smuggs, where our our relationship got its start. I hope we are still skiing in another 20 years. Like I always say, “We drive to work but come home to play.”

It has been an unseasonably warm November, but skiing will begin any day now, and my family and I will once again enjoy another great season of skiing at Smugglers’ Notch Resort.

Please go to www.smuggs.com to find out more about the numerous opportunities they offer. And if you want to live in a great ski town, don’t hesitate to contact me or visit my web site to see the real estate listings I have near Smuggs.

Nancy Davis

I have the good fortune to have my office for my business, Pleasant Valley Real Estate, located above the Underhill Country Store, right in the heart of Underhill Center, Vermont. As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, I sit here above the store and smell all of the wonderful baked goods owner Nancy Davis is preparing. I convinced her to share one of her wonderful recipes with me so I could post it on my blog.

My daughter and my husband’s favorite Thanksgiving desert is pumpkin pie, and here is the recipe a la Nancy Davis!

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Filling

In sauce pan mix:

1 envelope gelatin

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 cup cold water + 1/2 cup milk

Heat to dissolve gelatin

Add 3 egg yolks and cook until thick

Add 1 can pumpkin

Next:

Beat 3 egg whites until stiff

Add 1/3 cup sugar

Beat 1/2 cup cream until stiff

Fold egg whites and cream into pumpkin-egg mixture

Chill

Ginger Snap Crust

2-1/2 to 3 cups crushed ginger snap cookies

1/2 cup butter +/- enough so that the crumbs pat together

1/3 cup brown sugar

Mix the above and pat into a 9-inch buttered pie pan

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees

Cool crust, then pour the pumpkin mixture over crust and put in the refrigerator to set

Serve chilled

Shop for the holidays at the Underhill Country Store

Please come visit the store this week and sample some of these wonderful delights shown below: an apple tort (left) and cranberry nut bread made with fresh cranberries.

Whatever you decide—make it yourself or indulge in one of Nancy’s creations—I hope you enjoy this wonderful day and Happy Thanksgiving!

And if you have a recipe to share, click here, and send it to me!

Boyden Valley Winery, Cambridge, Vermont

The Boyden Valley Winery is located in a restored 1875 carriage barn at the Boyden Farm in Cambridge, Vermont. The Boyden Farm is a family farm that has operated as a traditional Vermont beef and dairy farm for many years. Fortunately, Boyden family members had the foresight to think out of the box when considering the future of their land in a time when Vermont farms are disappearing like water down the drain. They had a vision to turn their farm into a vineyard. The Boyden Winery became a reality 15 years ago, and just the other day I had the good fortune to enjoy a wine tasting there.

The Wine Tasting Experience

I have driven by this winery many times and I have seen the signs for “wine tastings today,” but it took a friend to convince me to come along and sample their offerings.

When I bellied up to the bar, the first question I asked myself was, “Why haven’t done this before?” I have been to wine tastings in California and the Finger Lakes of New York and even in Germany, yet I had never bothered to stop and check out the winery right here in my own back yard! Thank you Kate! I enjoyed it thoroughly.

For $7 you can sample seven of their fourteen flavors. Since there were two of us, we each took seven and shared our tastes. I actually enjoyed several of their wines, even the sweet ones. Before I talk about my favorite, I want to first talk about the experience.

I am still amazed that the winery is just a mere eight miles away from where I live and that I never took advantage of the wine tasting or even their wines. It is fun to stand at the counter and have someone pour you a sample and tell you all about the wine as you taste it. You cleanse your palate and try another, while listening to a wonderful explanation of the grapes, varietals, and blends. At the end of the tasting you even get a nice wine glass to take home!

My New Favorite

Not only is the wine made right in Cambridge, Vermont, but many of our local stores carry their wines. In fact I now insist that the Underhill Country Store carry my favorite, which, if you haven’t figured it out by now, is… BIG RED BARN, as the title of this blog suggests.

After the wine tasting, surprise!… I bought a couple of bottles of Big Red Barn. I am a rebel and don’t care if I am eating meat or fish or pasta. I always drink red wine and now I make sure that the Underhill Country Store carries Big Red Barn for me. My husband has never been to the winery either, and I am going to bring him out for a date and enjoy our local winery and some really good wines. He can decide what his favorite wine is.

The Boyden family also rents their attractive barns for functions and parties. It was well worth the time I took to visit this family farm. So, while our area of Vermont is very rural and entertainment tends towards outdoor activities or gathering with friends, a great and wonderful “date” or experience can be had at the Boyden Valley Winery. Visit it soon on your own, or contact me. I’ll go with you!

Whenever it’s time to paint a room in my home in Underhill, I agonize over color choices and how to try and match them with the other shades and colors in the rest of my house. Ultimately I find myself mesmerized by the paint wheels at the local paint shops and I end up bringing home at least half a dozen slightly different colors. I paint test patches on the walls, and end up not liking any of them. Somehow colors just never look like what I’m expecting. ARG!!!

Bring Home Nature’s Colors

Shades of fall, Underhill, Vermont

A good friend once suggested, and I am sure all of the experts would agree, that I look to nature for colors that go well together. So that’s what I do. Since fall is my favorite season, I make a point to pay close attention to my surroundings this time of year, and I realize that nature would color my house in quite a bright fashion. My sixteen-year-old daughter would love the fall foliage theme!

If you look closely, especially now that the colors are waning, you will see subtleties that would easily feel at home in your home: on your walls, in the trim, the rugs, countertops, and cabinets. I see the faded yellows against the greens and I think, “Oh yes, a version of this would be lovely in my kitchen!” Remember… some colors might work well as an accent wall, but can be overbearing on all four walls of a room.

Fall Tones in a Jericho Home

I am listing a house in Jericho where the owner chose a pretty blend of fall colors. In the photo of the living room below, the owner chose a peach color to give the room depth, and a much softer accent color to complement the deeper color. If you have dark flooring, you might need a softer color for the walls. In the photo of the kitchen you will see she has a warm blend of fall tones.

I have to laugh when people glibly say, “It’s only paint, you can change it.” Really? Exactly how much do you love to paint? When I take on the task of painting a room it is a serious commitment, and it takes time, especially when you factor in moving all of the wall hangings, furniture, accoutrement, and the like. Then you have to do all that taping, so you don’t get paint where it’s not supposed to be. I have learned that with a good brush and careful planning you can avoid the whole taping step. But seriously, it is a whole lot easier if you can get the color right the first time!

So look to nature and see what colors naturally blend and bring them home. If you’d like to see the rest of the pretty Jericho home above, or any of my other listings, feel free to contact me for a tour.

One of my clients at Pleasant Valley Realty once described the view from his home in Jericho as, “Well, if you could live on a view…”

Living in Jericho and the Chittenden East School District

Many of us have purposely move to the Chittenden East School District for the quiet ambience of Vermont’s rural settings. We prefer country living to the busier, hustle-bustle of in-town living, and we are attracted to smaller schools and a slightly slower lifestyle pace.

A View to Live With

So, okay, how about living on 55 acres, with a view of the Adirondacks? This 2,900-square-foot Jericho house is nestled in the woods, with a meadow around the house and below it on the lower 30 acres.

Could you live on that? This property offers what most people think Vermont is all about: beauty, land, and privacy, yet it is only minutes to the Interstate. The long driveway is almost a mile off the paved town road, but it is not so different from many of our private roads throughout the towns of Jericho, Underhill, and Cambridge, where peace and quiet is a commodity many seek. In addition, it is only four miles to Exit 12 of I-89 at Richmond, Vermont.

Click here for a MAP to this house’s location.

This property was originally a 170+ acre parcel, and the current owner has gone through the town of Jericho’s subdivison process to create three unique and large parcels: 55+ acres, 60+ and 60+. All will share in the maintenance of the driveway and all will enjoy the uniqueness of large parcels of land with good proximity to Burlington, Waterbury, Richmond, Montpelier, and I-89, which will take you most places in Vermont.

So, this is why we live here!

For a tour of this Jericho home and any of my other listings, please contact me!