Colorado Springs Real Estate Facts & Fun

Colorado Springs Philharmonic

Ring in the new year with the best music found in town! The Colorado Springs Philharmonic performs at the Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts. The show starts at 8pm on December 31st, with tickets at $19 or $12 if you are a student. Classic and Broadway hits will get you in a party spirit. Make a date of it and hit up a great restaurant nearby. Try Shuga’s, the Melting Pot, Phantom Canyon, or the Blue Star (make reservations as soon as possible!)

New Years At the Broadmoor

Every year the Broadmoor goes all out for a New Year’s Eve celebration not to be missed. An entire package is available starting at $263 per person based on double-occupancy (no getting behind the wheel at the end of the night!) The package includes: Accommodations for one night, incidental service fee, Gala dinner and entertainment tickets for each person on the package (Ken Miller and the dazzling 25-piece BRO^ADMOOR Pops Orchestra, along with special guests and surprises galore) and 30% discount off of published Suite rates.

There is an exciting new business in Colorado Springs, 409 N. Tejon, Suite 106, to be exact. Epicentral Coworking has finished their build out and is open for business with members already signed up. 

Just what is Epicentral?  It is a coworking facility designed for anyone who is looking for a place to work (temporary or long term) that is also community oriented.  Coworking might be a great fit for your contacts who are freelancers, consultants, contract workings, telecommuters, entrepreneurs, independent professionals, creatives, people who work from home, people who need to leave work in order to get work done, and insomniacs because members can use it anytime.

Specificallly this facility was designed to be a low-cost downtown office space for people to use when needed and be able to connect with, network or just be around other people. For more information check Epicentrals website and Facebook page.

Colorado living, like many places, is great for outdoor recreation and having a dog.  With trails, National Forest, BLM, city & state parks there is a plethora of options for taking your dog along. But what do you do to get yourself and your dog ready for being the best dog and dog owner possible?

For me, Hope at Waggin Tails Doggy Day Camp and the obedience classes she teaches continue to be invaluable.  I learned just how much I did not know about being a good dog owner and the responsibility I had for my dog in her training, lifestyle, social interactions and perhaps most importantly her safety.

Waggin Talis offers day care for dogs and starting Nyah as a puppy was perfect.  Most of her buddies who were with her in puppy kindergarden continue to be with her every day in day care.  My Texas customers laugh on a regular basis about Nyah being in day care.  Yet most of them have been with me in either dropping her off of picking her up and have met Hope.  

After two years and consistent classwork Nyah has graduated from kindergarden, Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog International.  We have started hospital visits and will expand in 2012 to nursing homes, schools and hospice.  The gift of love from a dog goes a long way for patients, families and staff.

December 9th is the beginning of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Electric Safari! Come to the Zoo to visit with all of your favorite fuzzy, furry or scaley friends and ride the lift to the top of the mountain where hot cocoa and Santa Claus await your arrival! Over one million sparkling lights illuminate crisp winter nights, including over 40 animated light sculptures. Warming fires throughout the Zoo offer a reprieve from the chill, as do select indoor animal exhibits that remain open during the event. And if you haven’t seen the city’s lights from the Zoo at night, you’re in for a real treat! Say, is that Kansas out there?

Open 5:30-8:30 pm December 9-11 and December 16-January 1st. (Closed Christmas Eve)

Adults $8.25 Zoo only, $11.25 with sky ride

Children $5.25 Zoo only, $8.25 with sky ride, all kids 2 and under free, all members free.

The International Dance Club provides free beginner’s dance lessons for its members. Non-members can attend, but they will be asked to consider joining after trying out the program for three classes OR support the club by attending some of the Sat. night dances.  Locaated at 2422 Busch Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80904, the International Dance Club opened in 1997 and has been teaching Colorado Springs residents how to cha-cha, swing, polka, and move-and-groove ever since. Live bands come to play at the Saturday night club dances, and other times throughout the month.

“The polka is a dance of bohemian or polish origin, the name being derived from the Bohemian polka, which is the half-step characterization of the dance.  The invention of the step is credited to Anna Slazak, a farm servant at Elbsteinitz, near Prague in about 1830.  It was popularly introduced in Prague in about 1835, and in 1839 was brought to Vienna by the musical band of the Prague Sharpshooters, a military unit.  There both the music and the dance met with extraordinary acceptance.  In 1840 it was received with tremendous applause at the Odeon Theater in Paris and was soon the favorite dance at all the public and private balls.  It spread rapidly into every other country in Europe and is now popular all over the world.” – History of Polka, Encyclopedia Britanica.

If you’ve ever been to an Oktoberfest, this is the music. For more information about how to join in on this lively dancing fun, Call the Nelsons at 593-2011 or visit the website:International Dance Club, Colorado Springs

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It’s not too late to hit up the Farmer’s Market, in fact in Colorado this is thee time to hit the farmer’s market! Abundant, vine ripened tomatoes, summer squash and zucchini, onions, carrots and more await your culanary expertise at this growing market located in Acacia Park on the corner of Tejon and Bijou Streets.

The farm-to-table movement is really picking up steam, and Colorado schools are even leading the trend of cooking from scratch in the cafeterias. What better way to show your children how to eat healthy than to meet the person who grew the food. The Palisade peaches are amazing, and cherries should still be around. Apples will be coming soon, so even if you don’t have a lot of money to spend at the market, one morning and one piece of fruit can change childrens’ perceptions of where food really comes from.

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The Arts and Crafts or Craftsman style homes were an answer back to the Victorian style homes, exemplifying the old ways of building a house by fabricating it by hand.

Many homes are marked by beams with softly rounded ends, rafter tails that extend beneath the roof,  wide covered front porches and columns (sometimes square) supported by stone pedestals, that flare from top to bottom. 

Craftsman style homes are quite popular in Colorado Springs, particularly in the downtown, westside, Old Colorado City, and Manitou Springs areas.

They are often coveted homes, and new buyers are seeing the value of good bones to work with and restoration projects are common on these houses after years of neglect.

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Victorian homes can be found all over Colorado Springs, and all over the country. Why? It’s popularity ran from the 1860s to 1900. A lot of families were moving from the east to the west, bringing along those design elements which took inspriation from the newly available mass-produced trim work to create ornate yet affordable homes. These designs allowed middle class families to have a unique and beautiful home, without the grandeur and maintence of the previous architectural styles we’ve reviewed.

Victorian houses featured steeply pitched roofs, asymmetrical floor plans, and multitextured and multicolor exterior walls. Eclectic colors are not uncommon, nor are the mulitude of textures used in features such as carriage style garage doors, cobblestone foundation walls, and patterned shingles.

When most people think of eclectic Victorian homes, complete with turrets, bright colors, gabled roofs, and lacy ornamental woodworks, they are thinking of a specific type of Victorian home called the Queen Anne Victorian.

Interestingly enough Victorian Homes are not only found in Colorado Springs but also in mountain property location West of Colorado Springs.  

For your own search and review of homes and styles click OwnYourOwnMountain.com

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