Joel Burslem (VP of content for Inman News) recently presented this video. I think it’s a great piece on Social Networking. Enjoy!

I have been thinking about what to say for my first real estate related blog. I thought I would talk about what I say to buyers as they are looking for homes to buy.

I always say, do me a favor, take the home off the lot and concentrate on the lot itself!! Do you like the location? Do you like the shape and the contour of the lot? Is it isolated; is it on the busy corner? You are buying a location, not a house!!

Sometimes, buyers will be enthralled with the inside of a brand new house with all the bells and whistles. They don’t concentrate on the outside. A new house gets old, but the location remains the same.

My advice is to first find the desired location and be open to a home that may not have all updates desired. A home can be changed to suit your needs, but you can’t change where it is. If you say to yourself, if only I could move the house, don’t buy the house.

Among our great neighbors on the East Side of Providence are Brown and RISD. Their contributions to the fine and performing arts make the East Side a culturally rich place to live.

Most recently at RISD, the Chace Center, which houses a student center, classroom and studio spaces, expansive exhibition space, as well as a bridge to the existing RISD Museum, opened two weeks ago. The Chace Center serves as a new entrance to the museum with an address of 20 North Main St. Designed by prominent architect, Jose Rafael Moneo, it works beautifully on the site where it is bordered by three historic buildings. The opening exhibit, a show of alumnus Dale Chihuly’s glass, is a fitting, as well as exciting, inaugural show. Chihuly is known for making large scale colorful pieces. His work is in many collections and public venues.

The RISD owned shop, RISDWORKS, moved into the Chace Center on the street level, enlivening that space as well as making the building appear active from the outside facade on South Main Street.

There is a great article on Moneo’s building at on: www.arcspace.com

I tap the top left corner of home plate and slowly raise the bat high above my right shoulder. I bend my left foot and press up on the ball of my foot to balance my weight. The crowd is present, but in a cloud of silence. The pitcher stares down the mound towards me in an effort to rattle me. He wants to make me think about where I am, not just react to the situation.

The situation is a warm September evening, playoff implications on the line.

My left foot acts like a tension spring, controlling the push behind the torque that is necessary for a solid cut. I release my grip on the bat to a loose handshake and wait. The pitcher goes into his windup and releases a textbook knuckler, dancing its way to me. I get a read on the rotation and arc and begin my swing. Easy does it. Don’t try to hit the moon. Just level a connection and follow through. My jaw tightens as the ball approaches. I begin to shift my weight forward. When the physics of a ball and bat align at that perfect point, you can’t even feel the collision. But, the sound is both sweet and destructive.

On this night, however, I swung a millisecond too soon and my bat casts a slight incandescent induced shadow over the ball. By the time I wrapped the bat around my left shoulder I knew what was in store for me.

“Nice swing, Epstein!” “Did you drop a contact lens, gramps?” “Let your kid grab a bat and hack.”

Yes, I had just struck out in slow pitch recreation league softball in South Kingstown.

This has become a two season per year tradition for me since I moved here from North Kingstown four years ago. Many people associate South County with beaches and beautiful tourist areas, but for us locals, it’s all about the sports. From a state championship caliber youth soccer league to countless
adult leagues in all sports, South Kingstown is one active place. Maybe it’s the more laid back atmosphere we enjoy, but we make activity a priority. Friendships are born and honed. Rarely am I not with my team in Meyer’s Man Cave for a Red Sox or Patriots game. Rarely is my daughter not planning something with her soccer team, especially in the off seasons. And rarely do we ever wish to trade bike paths and outfield grass for bright lights and big cities.

I will never be a Newporter but I hope to come close to it! Being married to one doesn’t count. Having lived and worked in the City by the Sea for almost twelve years, I am at my happiest in life with my surroundings for living, work and play. I will live the life of a Newporter, but will never be one. What does it take? To be born in Newport!That’s it!

If I were born in Newport I would remember seeing Doris Duke drive her Rolls Royce down Bellevue Avenue or be witness to the many brawls on the wharves between the sailors and the fishermen or I would remember how the locals on hot summer days would take the Jamestown Ferry, pay fifteen cents and ride all day, and I would have known the man who became known as “Louie the Fisherman” who toiled the fruits of the sea and had State Pier Number 9 named after him, Louis Jagschitz State Pier.

But I guess I can enjoy all that Newport has to offer as I live, work and play, whether I am a native Newporter or just live in historic Newport.