Immobilienscout24 Expose 49002387

Wenn Sie sich auf Immobilienscout24 für eine Wohnung in 82319 Starnberg interessieren, die derzeit unter der Exposénummer 49002387 mit dem wonnigen Titel

"Frühlingserwachen: Sonnige Terrassenwohnung und Garten oberhalb des Sees" 

offeriert wird, dürfen Sie mich gerne zu Adresse und Hintergrundinformationen zu Wohnung und Vermietern kontaktieren.

A blessed New Year to you!

Thank you to all of our clients and friends, and a blessed, abundant and prosperous 2014 to you!

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©harrisongreetingcards.com

13 Worst Home Photos in 2013

Between all the heavy food for the Holidays, it may be time for some lighter fare.

In the Realtors' database of homes for sale (the "MLS"), one can see a lot of awful photos.

I'm a big contributor: I take a truckload of bad photos, but still, I must wonder if whoever took those photos – mostly the real estate agents, only with expensive properties also professional photographers – couldn't pour just a bit more love into it.

So as 2013 closes, here are my winners for this year:

This is one corner of one of the rooms in our house.

Someone else's belly, not mine

If you wake up drunk in your new home, that's the view.

Landscaping is for Loosers.

Everything here's for sale... if the price is right and if you really want it.

Our family believes in preparing for emergencies. Of all kinds.

Never mind the wet towel. It'll be gone by the time we move out.

My flash reaches farther than your flash.

I waited a long time until three cars came rushing by perfectly lined up.

My, what a big generator...

Sometimes when a boat comes by, it gets a tad darkish in the house.

Sorry, but I couldn't be bothered to A) hold the camera straight B) to open the window C) to turn of that flash.

The kitchen of this home comes with ceiling lights.

By the way, the last photo is of one of my masterpieces. It never saw the MLS, but my clients and I had a good laugh about it. – If you have a good contestant at hand, would you share it with me?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Snowmen kissing, Feldafing/Bavaria 2000. ©tckaiser

Art Miami 2013 - Impressions and Thoughts

In the choice between Design Miami and Art Miami, art won this year – I was blessed with preview tickets to both events on Tuesday evening.

A few thoughts, from a naive and uneducated layperson's perspective:

1. a friend of mine is a curator and gallerist - how much fun must it be to walk an art fair with a pro!

2. there was a clear differentiation from tent to tent (Art Basel - Context - Red Dot), becoming funkier and odder each time.

3. Lots of interesting art, but very little I would hang (which means nothing, coming from a terrone like me). Some of the exceptions include especially two lovely Milton Averys, at just under $1m each.

4. A flood of Calders, paintings and mobiles – where did they come from?

5. It seems odd that there is not as much gallery specialisation or focus – at least not visible to me – as I thought in this market would be. Is everyone really selling everything? (not a total serious question).

6. Miami is becoming so in. Art is already in. Both together: even inner. Best to be seen slightly unshaven, a bit sloppily dressed, driving a Maserati or at the very least a black Range (nice cars both), having a very pretty woman approx. 20 years younger hanging from your arm, with endlessly long legs and impossibly high Blahniks. Now you belong.

An LED-lit wire sculpture floating above our heads, by Michael Gard. Excellent.

"The Selfish Gene", painted bronzes by Marc Quinn at Forsblom

Didn't take any notes on this one. Bad Tobias! Likely at Rudolf Budja Gallery

"Reveur" (Dreamer) by Cyrille Andre, at Piece Unique

"The Conversation" by Milton Avery at arcature

Blue stones (marble?) moving up and down - riveting! By Paula Rivas at Aldo de Sousa

Not an objet d'art but a very campy Westie-vase

Lifesize bronze by Chinese artist Xie Aige, at Michael Goedhuis

(Three Bathers), another lovely Milton Avery

Render: "Chinoiserie" (vases inside out) by likeable and enthusiastic Molly Hatch, at Todd Merrill

Did you see the show? And what were your thoughts?

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Photos ©tckaiser

Gratitude

Every Thanksgiving, before I start the barbecue and make a turkey breast for the dinner invitation we have later that day, weather allowing I go for a motorcycle ride.

And already, that little custom of mine – both rituals, ride and 'cue, I celebrate without my wife's participation, who is busy preparing other dishes – hints at plenty of occasions to be thankful for. Typically this day's ride is slow and reflective, thinking of major events of the past months. I once had lost a riding buddy the previous summer, and found myself the whole ride in prayer for him and his family.

Unity of Fort Lauderdale taught me to thank the Lord for what I have and for what I affirm.

And if I open my eyes, there is so much more to be grateful for than to bitch about. Yes, I didn't close every single client this year I planned to; yes, my wife and I will have to move by end of January; yes, I didn't have time to do a major task this year so I have to face it next.

But when I look around, I am always astonished about blessings large and small, hiding within plain sight. A ride, a feast, a building, the love of friends and family, the fragrance of an orange groove  riding through it, recognition for a job well done, a happy client, a flourishing business, a beautiful basket of pears, my health, my marriage. I am grateful. Try it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Photo: Pears Bad Oynhausen/Lake Constance, ©tckaiser

Frank Lloyd Wright's Auldbrass Plantation

Few modern architecture aficionados know that Frank Lloyd Wright designed a complete plantation, located in South Carolina's low country: Auldbrass in Beaufort County, near the town of Yemassee.

Known since 1736 as Mount Pleasant, Wright renamed the property Auldbrass (from "Old Brass") and designed the (smallish) main house, stables and other buildings for an industrial engineer, Leigh Stevens, who had joined five parcels to form the plantation.

After quite a tumultuous ownership history – last in line a club of local hunters with little interest in modern architecture or preservation – movie producer Joel Silver ("Matrix", "Hudson Hawk", Die Hard", "Lethal Weapon" etc.) bought the property in 1986 for $148,000. With a permanent staff of ten including an architect, Mr. Silver since has sunk considerable funds into preserving and restoring Auldbrass, as well as finishing buildings designed by Wright but never built.

The plantation is open to the public every two years for only two days, thus tickets sell out within days of becoming available. During this year's window, I was able to visit Auldbrass on November 3rd with a fun troupe from NCMH, the North Carolina non-profit for the preservation of modern architecture.

The wait to get in was well over 1.5 hours – no timed tickets, yet – so I unfortunately did not have a chance to see every building; in addition, interior photos are strictly (and understandably so) verboten by the owner.

Entry

Path to the main house

Main house, pool on the right, entry on the far left

Dining room on the left, main house adjacent to the right

Dining room shows angled walls and copper rain spouts

Kitchen windows details

Clerestory windows, main house with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths

Window detail, main house

Window detail, dining room

Dining room from opposite side

Angled walls at bedrooms (not to be entered by the public)

Pool and main house

Stables

Gate

More details about Auldbrass and South Carolina plantations can be found here. If you have visited Auldbrass, I'd love to hear your impressions!
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All photos ©tckaiser