Now that we’re settled in this lovely country home we just bought, my husband and I decided to go out and explore. Pollock Pines is quite a pretty little town and definitely worth a stop if you’re heading up to Tahoe for the weekend. Because it’s not too far from Sacramento, people live here (like us!) and commute to Sacramento (again, like us!)

It’s okay - it’s just 5,000 or so of us residents.

Last week, we went to The Bowling Alley. (Yes, we go to The Grocery Store, The Post Office and The Bowling Alley.) And it was a lot of fun. On Saturday nights, they have black light bowling. There are also approximately seven pool tables as well and a bar.

I tried my hand at it (pun intended) and came away realizing thirteen pounds is heavier than it seems. (I need my own bowling ball.)

The best part about all this - it’s not crowded. You are not shoving for space. So if you’re in Pollock Pines for the night, stop by. There’s a lot of friendly people here. And quite a few homes for sale, might I add!

And you thought anything more than $200,000 was too much to pay!

I just read about this house in the Sacramento Bee this morning and I must say - WOW! The virtual tour is worth taking a look at, if just to see opulence translated into real estate.

The Tuscan Villa is considered one of the most expensive listings ever to hit the Sacramento real estate market with 10 bedrooms, 10 baths and a total of 15,000 square feet of living space. My personal favorites are the “Great Room” and the gourmet kitchen. (Any home that has anything called “a great room,” I want to buy.)

It’s beautiful. Just beautiful.

Anyone with approximately $9,000,000 to spare on a house? Call me to see it!

I’ve fixed a few bugs and added data to support more community pages.

We now have basic community information and active and sold listing maps in place for:

• Sacramento County
• El Dorado County
• Placer County

There’s still a long way to go on the bug fixing and improving the look of the pages.  I was learning how to do map mash ups at the time, and at the same time sometimes being too clever with the fonts, so it’s none too pretty, but I can clean that as we go.

I woke up yesterday smelling smoke. “Someone’s burning something,” my husband said. Someone was actually trying to put something out. As I went through my morning routine (coffee, workout) I watched the news and realized my street was the last one the CHP has chosen as the last safe exit off highway 50. Everything from there on until the state border was closed and thousands of homes were being evacuated. 240 homes burned down yesterday.

Honestly, Realtor® or not, the sight of a fireplace being the only thing left in a home burned to nothing is a sobering sight.

While I prepared an overnight bag, just in case, I packed up the jewelry and the insurance documents, realizing we were not prepared for an emergency of any kind. See, I always believed I would pick up sentimental things if the house were threatened by fire. But I didn’t. Your mind in survival mode is cruel, but very efficient.

Every home needs a fire safe. Every household also needs a safe deposit box - about 30 miles away. And having home insurance yesterday for everything including valuables inside the home was priceless.