Whatever happened with... (water bill, diet, wedding plans) and a new listing from Anne Powers!

There are so may things to tell you guys!!!

Last week, Glennis and I went to the Who's Who in Luxury Real Estate conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.  This is one of our favorite conferences.  They always have great speakers, and the conferences are always held in really cool places.  (Remember last year when we went to San Diego, and the year before when we went to Seattle?)

Except this time it wasn't cool, it was HOT! :)

But there were tons of pools there :)

On Wednesday we went to the awards dinner, and I got an award called "Outstanding Social Media Savvy."

I was THRILLED!  Over the years Beacham has gotten a lot of awards for our magazine, our print marketing and our marketing package, but this is our first award for social media.

It means so much to me because I run the social media campaign here at Beacham, and I am really proud of what we've accomplished.  We have this blog, which was ranked #5 real estate blog in the world last year.  A few months ago we launched a new Beacham Blog, we have more fans on Facebook than any other real estate company in Atlanta, we are very active on Twitter, and we even have a new Pinterest account.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is that people read THIS blog, and they remember what I talk about!  Every time it happens I do a double take.  Over the last few months I've run into people I haven't talked to in a year or so and they will say "what happened with your water bill," 0r "how is that diet going?"  A lot of times it happens when I'm introduced to someone for the first time.  I'll shake their hands and they say, "how are the wedding plans coming along?  I read about them on your blog?"  That happened to me a lot this past week in Arizona.  It made me realize two things... one, that people actually take the time to read the blog, and two, that I've left a lot of loose ends!

First thing's first... the water bill.

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Read this story to see the initial story of what happened with my $9,000 water bill.  A few weeks later I wrote this post explaining that the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management replaced my water meter and wiped away everything but $800, which they said I still owed them.  I decided to wait a few months and collect a few bills.  Every bill I've gotten has been under $50, so I clearly had one of those bad water meters that are all over the city.  Now I just have to go back before the board, argue my case one more time and hope they erase the final $800 balance.  WSB actually interviewed me about the water issue last week, but my hair looked so horrendous I just cannot post it here.  I've  since stopped using leave-in conditioner. ;)

In a huge karmic joke, I actually walked over my water meter last night and the top was off just slightly.  It slipped off and my foot fell INTO the water meter hole.  It left three big scrapes on my leg, and it's all bruised today.  I guess the water department is out to get me one way or another!

Next loose end?

The Dukan Diet.  I started the Dukan Diet about a month ago for two reasons. I wanted to lose a few more pounds before the wedding, and I was also just having a lot of stomach pain.  I did the Dukan Diet for about 2 weeks and lost 4 lbs.  I guess that's not a huge amount of weight, but it was 3/4 of the weight I wanted to lose, so I would consider it fairly effective.

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At the same time I started the Dukan Diet I also gave up gluten and dairy in hopes that it would help my stomach pain.  My friend Ginny also suggested I go see Dr. Tasneem Bhatia.  She is a holistic doctor here in Atlanta who was on Dr. Oz and went to Westminster.  I loved her!  When I went to see her I still had significant stomach pain even thought I had dropped the gluten and dairy.  I also had headaches and low energy, which was a result of all the meat I was eating.  She did a lot of test and got me all turned around.  She put me on a low acid diet, kept me off the gluten and dairy and got me some supplements.  I've kept the 4 lbs off and feel SO MUCH BETTER now.  If any of you are interested in holistic medicine I recommend her 150%!  She spent a lot of time with me and listened and really tried to figure out a way to help me.  Please email me if you have any specific questions about her.

And now a wedding update...

We did a food tasting, YUM!  The food at The Grand Bohemian is amazing.  I even liked the sea bass, and I don't even like fish!

And we picked out a save the date. We are so excited because it's orange, the best color ever.We picked out flowers :)  We decided to work with Flora in Asheville.  She is going to do a beautiful mix of succulents for me.  It was really fun talking to her.  She totally understood what I wanted.

And we will end with a house...

A few weeks ago I shot this house at 2128 Lucerne Lane.  Anne Powers has this house listed, and I loved it!

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Isn't it pretty?  The kitchen is so wonderful.  it opens to the family room and breakfast area.  The whites and greens go together so well.  The master bedroom suite is also large and cozy with a huge master bath and fireplace.  The gazebo pictures show a large common area in the neighborhood.   To find out more about this house please visit beacham.com.

Talk to you guys soon!

 

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Beautiful home on Valley... and THOSE LAST FEW LBS!

Before I left for vacation I shot Glennis Beacham's beautiful new listing at  285 Valley Road.  Rod Collins went back a few days later and got some amazing night shots.  I wanted to share the photos with you. 285 Valley Road  060

The approach to this Frazire and Bodin house is breathtaking.

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The home was built in 1934 but totally renovated/updated by Spitzmiller and Norris in 2000. I love the look of ivy growing on a house.  It's such a classic Atlanta look.

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I loved the foyer as soon as I saw it.  A curved staircase gets me every time!

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285 Valley Road11The formal living room and dining room are perfect, and they both have that "old Atlanta" look.

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This is my favorite room in the house.  It's a study with a fireplace off the master where you can curl up with a good book.285 Valley Road59

The chef's kitchen has an office and looks out over the family room.285 Valley Road63

This warm family room with beams and a fireplace opens to an exquisite screened porch overlooking the pool.285 Valley Road72

Here it is!285 Valley Road40

The wine cellar has the coolest ceiling.  I could spend some time in there for sure.285 Valley Road35

This is my other favorite room, a cool office on the terrace level.  I would never go to work again.  I'd just be writing this blog from my own personal in-home office.285 Valley Road  053I'm loving this night shot.  It really shows off the porch.

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And we end with the darling play house. How cute is that?  I want it!

There is also a three car garage with a full apartment above it.

For more information on this listing please go to beacham.com.

In other news I started a new diet on Monday... gag.  I don't really like dieting.  About 2.5 years ago I went on a major diet/lifestyle change to shed leftover college weight.  I am not the most athletic person... and by that I mean carrying in my groceries and putting them away sometimes exhausts me, but I started doing bootcamp.  I got a "stress fracture" (questionable) within the first two weeks and decided to stop.  Determined to lose the weight, I started swimming at the Piedmont Hospital Gym.  With regular swimming and changing a few things I ate, the weight slowly came off of me.  After about 8 months I lost 20 pounds.  That's great, right?  Well, it is except that my goal was to lose 25 pounds for regular life and 30 pounds for my wedding day.  (Yes, I was thinking about my wedding day 2.5 years ago.  I've probably thought about it every day since I was like 18.  Pathetic?  Probably, but it's true.)  So, after I lost 20 pounds I accepted that it was about all I was going to lose and decided to stop dieting and enjoy life.  That's when I met Jimmy.  Throughout our relationship I've managed to basically maintain the same weight, which I'm pretty proud of to be honest. :)

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Now that the threat of walking down the aisle and having people stare at my back (not my favorite feature) is real, I've decided to kick it into high gear and lose those last few pesky pounds (I'll be honest, two weeks of sipping frozen drinks on vacation didn't really help).  While I was shooting a house on Monday someone mentioned the Dukan Diet to me.

I remembered hearing about this when Kate Middleton got married.

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And if it works for her it could obviously work for me... right? (fingers crossed).

So I decided to give it a try.  Click on this link to read Cosmo's summary of the diet.  Basically you eat just protein for a few days and then eat protein and green vegetable for a little while until you reach your goal weight.  Easy right?

I started on Tuesday and I've already lost 3.4 pounds!  It's like magic!  I'm pretty pleased with the results, except that it makes me feel a little light headed and makes my muscles ache a little bit. (Alarming?  Possibly.)

Yesterday was my first day eating vegetables, so I celebrated with a nice stir fry.

You can also eat oat bran pancakes.  I know they may sound gross, but believe me, after two days of eating straight meat they tast like the absolute best things in the world.  Ask Jimmy.  I think I sighed a little when I tasted them for the first time.  It was like cornbread right off the griddle.

I was really impressed with the meal and think I could probably stay on the diet for a little while.  So have a great weekend enjoying your beers and your french fries...  I'll be dieting.

Who am I kidding... I'm trying a gluten free beer right after work ;).

Love you guys!  See you next week!

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