Sonia's Real Estate Blog

While it’s still only January, the spring season will sneak up on you quickly, so if you’re planning to sell your Sherwood Park or Strathcona County home this spring, the best time to get started preparing it is now!

Obviously there is still snow on the ground and temperatures are still hovering below the freezing mark, so you’re a bit limited on what you can do, but you can use this time to get a head start inside your home.

Here are some ides to get you started:

– Cleaning and decluttering. Ultimately, you want your home to look open and presentable, so take this opportunity to remove clutter and items that you don’t regularly use. If there are broken or damaged items, use this time to recycle or dispose of them. If you have old paperwork that you no longer need, shred and dispose of it. Straighten out your closets and purge items you no longer wear. Give your major appliances a thorough cleaning so they only need a light cleaning in the spring. An in-depth cleaning of the house will also greatly help with the next task…

– Make interior repairs. A careful cleaning of the house will likely expose some things in your home that need attention. Maybe it’s a dent in a wall that needs to be patched up or a baseboard that has come loose. Pay particular attention to any repairs that may be needed in the kitchen or bathroom. A leaky faucet is a quick and cheap fix and will go a long way!

– Repair or replace fixtures. Took a good look over all light fixtures, cabinet hardware, door knobs and shower heads to make sure they are in working order and look great. If they are in need of some love, repair or replace them!

– Make a plan for what to do next. The snow will be melting before you know it. Make a plan for the exterior of your house and your yard so you can hit the ground running as soon as the weather allows you to.

For more tips and tricks, please call me at 780.707.6015. I would love to help you! The best part of my job is working with all of the great people in Sherwood Park and Strathcona County to help them sell their homes for top dollar. If you’re looking to sell your home too, then let’s put me to work for you!

Warmest regards,

Sonia

Easter dinner has always been a wonderful time to spend with my family and enjoy our table with joyful spring colors and items of great discussion. Here are some simple fun Easter projects that the kids can do with you, perfect for your Easter décor and sure to be a great hit at the dinner table.

“Egg-speriment” with Easter egg planters!

Easter egg planters are a great way to add a pop of color to your Easter dining table. Get a dozen eggs and crack them at the top. Drain the contents, clean them with water, and put them back in the egg carton. (You can dip them in dye if you’d like to color them. Fill the bottom of each egg with dirt and then fill them with your favorite flowers, succulents or grass. You can place them on your table or anywhere you like. You can keep them in the carton and fill in around them with colored grass. Or, you can place them in a dish or pot of your choosing.

“Egg-citing” Easter Table Runner

Another fun idea you can do with kids is make your table runner for Easter dinner. Here is one that has a vintage look or you can paint with wild colorful colors and trim. Measure the length of your table and cut to size. Take fabric tape (a Bright color would also look great!) and hot glue in between to seal the edges. Make a bunny rabbit stencil and sponge paint directly onto the burlap (again fun colors would be beautiful!) space them apart evenly. Make adorable puffy tails out of white yarn by taking a bundle at 3” wide and tieing them in the middle and sewing them directly onto the burlap bunnies after you have allowed the paint to dry.

“Egg-sotic” Painting for your Easter eggs using Rice!

Ever liked to get that great speckled look to your Easter eggs? Get 3 or 4 small plastic containers with lids. Make sure they are small enough to fit one egg – but large enough to have the lid on. Add a couple table spoons of rice to each container and several drops of food coloring. Depending on the color and amount of rice you may need at least 8 drops. Then place the lid on top and give that container a shake to make your rice is staturated with the food coloring. Then remove the lid and place your boiled egg in the container and put back on the lid. Then give it a shake again! Careful not to shake too hard and when the coverage looks good – the speckled look is done!

“Egg-stroidinary” Placement Name Tags

These egg and nest placecards come together super fast! The supplies are easy to pick up or you may have them on hand! Alphabet stickers can make this project extra fun instead of handwriting the names Start by cutting paper into 1″ by 4″ rectangles. Using the pliers, wind pipecleaners into circles. Each pipecleaner should make two nests. Hot glue the nests onto one end of each placecard. Lay out guests’ names on each card with alphabet stickers. Cut a triangular notch into the end of each card and place a chocolate egg in each nest. In the end, these will look great at an Easter table setting and a sweet treat!

We hope these decorating ideas are “Egg-sactly” what you are looking for fun ideas to do with your family. It is great to find items around the house that can make your Easter dinner table “Egg-ceptional”! If you have other Easter decorating ideas, we would love to hear them! From Sonia’s family to yours…have a wonderful Easter!

November is here and we all know what that means: Christmas is just over a month away! Which also means it’s time to start thinking about Christmas shopping, so break out the eggnog, grab your kids’ wish lists, and let’s get started!

Some people dread Christmas shopping – the crowds, the chaos, the stress of finding that perfect something for the hard­-to-­buy-­for person on your list, the endless looping Christmas music – but if you plan it right and get started early, Christmas shopping can be a ton of fun. Getting started early means you avoid the crazy crowds at big shopping malls, and – bonus – you aren’t yet tired of Christmas carols so they leave you feeling extra festive!

Additionally, if you start your shopping early, you have plenty of time for research, browsing for stocking­-stuffers, and exploring what great gifts you can find locally, right here in Sherwood Park and surrounding area. In a day and age where we can do our Christmas shopping in our PJs in bed with a laptop, it’s important to also remember that Sherwood Park has a wealth of awesome stores, boutiques, one­-of-­a-­kind shops, and Christmas craft fairs where you can find unique gifts you just won’t see anywhere else.

Local Christmas Craft Fairs and Handmade Markets

More than any other time of year, Christmas is when local entrepreneurs, craftspeople, and extremely talented local artists have a chance to show off their goods and really shine. There is a huge amount of talent in the wider Edmonton area, and at many of these sales you’ll find hundreds of local “makers” who love their community and create awesome products. From unique jewelry and clothing to lovingly hand-­built toys and seriously delicious food items, these are great places to find gifts you’ll never see online. Seriously, you can find the BEST stocking stuffers at these events!

Here are some great upcoming craft shows and sales in the area you won’t want to miss:

• Silver Bells Winter Market
  November 29, 10am – 5pm
  The Agora, Sherwood Park Community Centre, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park
• Festival of Trees
  November 14 – 16
  The Agora, Sherwood Park Community Centre, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park
• Sherwood Park Farmers’ Market
  Every Wednesday, 5pm – 8pm
  Sherwood Park Community Centre, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park
• Butterdome Craft Sale
  December 4 – 7
  Butterdome, University of Alberta, Edmonton
• Make It: Handmade Revolution
  November 20 – 23
  The Enjoy Centre, 101 Riel Drive, St. Albert

Local Shops, Boutiques & Events in Sherwood Park

Sherwood Park has a lot of awesome, unique stores and boutiques you won’t find in any mall, all owned and operated by locals who live right here in Sherwood Park. Shopping local means you contribute to our local economy and keep it thriving, and the success of existing businesses make our city an attractive place for more cool people to create more great things!

And remember: Buying someone a gift doesn’t mean you have to get them a “thing”. You can also get them a great experience, like a gift card or certificate to a cool local restaurant, tickets to an upcoming concert or comedy show at Festival Place, or a pass to their favourite local recreational facility.

Also, think about trying out one of our great local bakeries if you’re tasked with bringing a dessert or dish to an upcoming party rather than hitting up a generic grocery store. You’ll be helping a local business grow, and you’ll be the talk of the party for bring something extra­-special!

Below are some curated lists of unique­-to-­us places to get you started.

• Shops & Boutiques
• Gifts & Collectibles
• Unique Restaurants
• Bakeries & Specialty Foods
• Festival Place Events
• Chamber of Commerce Business Directory

Local One-Stop Shopping

Living as close as we do to “the mall” in Edmonton (you know the one) it can be tempting to do a “one­-stop” there, steel yourself against the crowds, and get it done in one go. But why drive all the way to the west side of Edmonton to get stressed out by crowds?

You don’t need WEM to one-­stop your Christmas shopping, not when we’ve got two great local shopping centres right here in Sherwood Park. There are lots of great stores (pretty much everything you’ll find in WEM between the two), you don’t have to drive as far, and you won’t have to wade through all those people. Even closer to Christmas when the stores get busier, our local malls don’t get anywhere near as crazy.

Also, if you need more convincing, remember how long it took you to find parking at WEM last time you went on the last Saturday before Christmas? Stay in Sherwood Park: there’s lots of parking here!

• Sherwood Park Mall
  Over 60 stores and services
  2020 Sherwood Drive, Sherwood Park
• Emerald Hills Centre
  Over 40 stores and services
  5000 Emerald Drive, Sherwood Park

If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in Sherwood Park or the wider Edmonton area in the next 6 months, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the monthly market stats to see where the trends are.

Sherwood Park Real Estate Market Stats

In April, single family home total sales were up 33.8% from March, and up 12.6% from last April. That’s a great sign that more people are looking at buying Sherwood Park real estate and bringing their families to our great city this summer, which is good news if you’re planning on selling.

Looking at average price, the average selling price of a single family home in Sherwood Park has fallen slightly from last month, down around $6,000, or 1.4% from last month. When we dig deeper into the numbers, what we find is that more people are looking to buy homes at a more modest budget: Starter homes and first time home buyers are extremely active right now. We see this in particular when we look at the condo market where sales are up and the average price has increased by 3.5% over last month.

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Welcome to my website: SONIASELLS.com! Whether you’re a new visitor, or an existing client, this website will look different to you. Well, that’s because it’s new. Over the past few months, I’ve been working to ensure SONIASELLS.com is a direct reflection of who I am- not only as a REALTOR®, but also as an individual. So for those of you who don’t know, who is Sonia Tarabay? 

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