Clay Lee
Broker/Realtor®
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Kids, Family & Personal Stuff Category
Bryan College Station Local Grocers and Farmers Market
February 26th, 2010 Categories: Community Events, Kids, Family & Personal Stuff
Bryan College Station Farmers Market Century 21 Beal
Bryan/College Station is a very unique place. The sister cities have most everything you’d find in a big city, but alternatively it’s got quite a bit you wouldn’t. What makes it so special is the amount of farms and food producers around. This area of Texas is one of the agricultural boons of the U.S., not to mention A&M University has some of the most premier agricultural researchers. We are surrounded by some of the freshest, healthiest meats and vegetables in Texas; that makes Bryan/College Station one of the best places to shop for food. Be it our farmers’ markets, local grocers, or A&M’s meat market, you can find some of the most delicious foods in our quaint little sister cities.
HEB and Kroger’s are great grocery stores as well, but if you’re looking for fresh Read the rest of this entry »
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Luxury Pet Accesories: Is There a Limit to What Consumers Will Spend?
July 8th, 2008 Categories: Kids, Family & Personal Stuff, Restaurants & Fun, The Realtor's Life
Gucci Dog Collar: $195.00
Gucci Dog Harness: $355.00
Gucci Travel Bag: $820.00
Gucci Travel Bed: $290.00
Louis Vuitton Pet Carrier Bag: $1,570.00
Juicy Couture Cashmere Dog Sweater: $47.50
Today’s Luxury Market isn’t just about people anymore. The affluent buyer expects luxury in every aspect of his or her life including the family pet. It seems that there is no limit to what they will spend to have their pets live in the lap of luxury. So my question to all our reader’s is: “How much would you spend on your pet?”
College Station’s #1 Luxury Lifestyle and Real Estate Expert for over a Decade!
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The Republic Steakhouse: College Station’s Only AAA 4-Diamond Award Restaurant
July 7th, 2008 Categories: Award News, Community Events, Kids, Family & Personal Stuff, Restaurants & Fun
When I first came to College Station over a decade ago, I remember everyone complaining that we just didn’t’ have enough good places to eat. They also complained that what we did have wasn’t all the amazing.
Well just over a year ago, one of my long time clients and college friends Wade Barkman moved backed to College Station to try to change that. In 1999, Wade graduated from Texas A&M and moved to New York to attend the Culinary Institue of America. When he finished there, he moved to one of the “foodie” capitols of the world, Las Vegas, Nevada. There he ran several restaurants including the 808 Steakhouse at Caesar’s Palace. When Steve Wynn opened his new hotel, The Wynn, Wade was stolen away to be the general manager at a struggling restaurant called Corsa Cucina. Within weeks, Wade and the head chef guted everything in the restaurant and rebuilt it into one of the top restaurants in Las Vegas. Tired of being an employee and not an owner, Wade decided to look at how he could change that. His first thought was in his home state of New Mexico, but that proved to be an almost impossibility with the cost of acquiring property, excessive special fees and more. One day it hit him that his alma mater might just be the place to make his mark.
With College Stations Read the rest of this entry »
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Replacing Soles: The Key to Luxury Shoe Longevity.
July 3rd, 2008 Categories: Kids, Family & Personal Stuff, The Realtor's Life
I spend a lot of money one shoes. I guess it’s my thing. My broker spends a lot of money on fishing equipment and I think it’s insane. I have another friend that spends ungodly amounts of money on computer equipment that I also see as excessive. No matter who you are, you have that thing that you will spend a little extra on. Shoes has always been mine.
However, I don’t get rid of them easily. Good quality luxury brand shoes should and can last for decades! Now, if you don’t wear them at all, of course they would last a long time. But if you like to enjoy those great Ferragamo boot’s you bought, you are going to have to wear them. I have shoes that I wear all the time that I have had for years. As I write this article, I’m actually sporting a pair of black Donald J. Pliner boots that I bought in 2002 on my very first trip to New York City. They are classics and go with just about everything. Multiple times I’ve thought of throwing them away, but then I take them to my favorite shoe shop, Victor’s Shoe Repair, in Bryan. For anywhere from $10 to $45, they make them look and feel like brand new. I think they are probably on their 5th pair of soles and I don’t plan on replacing them anytime soon.
That’s the key, the soles. When your shoes start to wear out or look worn, it’s probably best to replace the soles and have them cleaned up. You can replace the leather and rubber soles on most shoes that you own. I’ve even had a pair of my favorite sandals re-soled. If you are a shoe person like me, it’s also like getting your favorite shoes new again.
So the next time you think those $450 Gucci shoes are ready for the trash heap, try getting them resoled and cleaned up. You might just be surprised how much use and wear you will get out of them.
For more information on living the luxury lifestyle or buying and selling luxury real estate, feel free to email me anytime at RClayLee@yahoo.com.
College Station’s #1 Luxury Real Estate and Lifestyle Expert for over a decade!
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5 Star Hotel Bedrooms – In Your Own Home!
June 25th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Home Improvement & Design, Kids, Family & Personal Stuff, Market Trends, Real Estate News
If you’ve ever stayed in a great hotel and when it came time to check out you didn’t want to leave, you are not alone. Today’s 5 star hotels and many 4 star hotels are making their beds and bathrooms more luxurious all the time. It’s almost as if it’s a competition between them to see who can top the other. The bathrooms keep getting larger and the beds keep getting fluffier with even higher and higher thread count sheets.
But going home doesn’t have to be the end of your stay at your favorite hotel! Due to an enormous amount of client demand, many of the 5 and 4 star hotels are now selling almost everything you need to recreate your hotel experience at home. If you had to pull all the materials together yourself, it would take extensive travel and weeks of internet searching to find all the bedding, accessories, towels, and plumbing products. Now with just a simple phone call you can have almost everything you see!
For example, W Hotels has a retail store in Read the rest of this entry »
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Someone Always Needs Your Help. This Week It’s The Brazos Valley Food Bank!
June 24th, 2008 Categories: Kids, Family & Personal Stuff
I will never know why things happen to me the way that they do. However, as I get older, I have come to the realization that EVERYTHING happens for a reason. Last week was a prime example of this.I was standing in line at the pharmacy to pick up my epi pen so that I could start a new allergy treatment program that would not be covered by my insurance. When I signed up for the program, I justified the $1200 a year with the hopes of not suffering through another allergy season ever again! So there I stood in line waiting to pick up my pen. In front of me was a dad with three kids in the shopping cart. The kids were not happy go lucky, they were not clean, and one of them had a horrible rash creeping up out of the back of his shirt onto his neck. There were not any groceries in their cart either. I smiled and started up a conversation with the dad who told me his son had swimmers ear which had then gotten infected and started to bleed. They had finally made it to the doctor a few days before, but their car broke down so they had to take the “trolley” to get there and get home.
Something came over me that instant. I’ve been very fortunate in my life and especially this year. I was standing there in a few thousand dollars of clothes, shoes, sunglasses, a watch, and untold amounts of facial care products. There they stood just trying to make it to tomorrow. While they were at the counter, I thought I would run to the ATM and take out a few hundred dollars and offer it to them to hopefully get them out of their rut a little bit. I had a new bank card, and stupid me had forgotten to set up the PIN number. I WAS FURIOUS. When I got back to the Read the rest of this entry »
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Scotty’s House: On It’s Way To A New Home
June 20th, 2008 Categories: Community Events, Kids, Family & Personal Stuff
Hopefully, you’ll never need the wonderful and caring services Scotty’s House of Bryan/College Station provides. However, for those that do, it’s truly a miracle in of itself. Scotty’s house is a non-profit organization that provides services to abused children and their families in a healthy environment that promotes healing in order to lay the foundation for a healthy future. They work with law enforcement and state agencies to evaluate, help, and rehabilitate abused children and their non-offending family members. They make sure they get the help they need to move on with their life at a time when they need it most.For years they have operated out of a small frame house on a tree lined street. However, soon they will start construction on their much larger and more modern facility so they can expand their services to more children in an even more comfortable and loving facility. This multi-million dollar facility is still in need of funds to pay for this construction, but it’s over halfway there and getting closer all the time!If you would like to help Scotty’s house by volunteering, donating to their building fund, or donating to their general fund, please CLICK HERE or go to www.ScottysHouse.org.
Luxury living is more than our surroundings, it’s the tingle we feel each time we do good for someone else.
For more information on living the Luxury Lifestyle, please feel free to email me @ rclaylee@yahoo.com
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Lick Creek Park, A Rural Escape for College Station
June 19th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Community Events, Kids, Family & Personal Stuff, Pebble Creek, Restaurants & Fun
Did you know that the City of College Station owns a single park that is 515 acres? It does, and it’s called Lick Creek Park. It’s open to the public year round and is located off of Rock Prairie Road in South College Station. If you haven’t been there yet, you are missing out on one of the coolest and FREE things to do in Bryan/College Station. Now one of the most well known park’s in the country is Central Park in New York City that has 843 acres. At 515 acres, Lick Creek isn’t that far off in comparison!
There are equestrian, bike, and pedestrian trails that run for man miles throughout the heavily wooded park. It’s comprised of some swampland which makes the terrain very interesting and a lot of fun for exploring. A lot of people take their dogs with them and go for a long walk to just enjoy nature. Some people venture off the trails and make a true hike through the unexplored wilderness! The coolest thing is when you come up on someone riding a horse! You have to have a permit to ride your horse there, and I think they even have stables available for boarding. It’s a great place to go to just get away from everything without having to drive too far. With all the trees, it’s not as hot as being in the open sun which makes it a great place to go in the summer.
Don’t waste another Saturday playing in the backyard, head over to Lick Creek Park. To get there, take Highway 6 South and exit Hwy 40/William D. Fitch Parkway. Go East on William D. Fitch Parkway past Pebble Creek to Rock Prairie Road. Turn right on Rock Prairie Road and go about a mile. You will come to the Equestrian Center first, but go a little bit further and you’ll be to the public entrance of the Park! For more information on Lick Creek Park, CLICK HERE.
For more information on Luxury Living in Bryan/College Station, feel free to email me anytime @ rclaylee@yahoo.com
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Celebrity Sighting: Mr. Cellophane (John C. Reilly) & Gordon Ramsay (Hell’s Kitchen)
June 16th, 2008 Categories: Kids, Family & Personal Stuff, The Realtor's Life
Remember Chicago? On my most recent jaunt to Los Angeles, I was sitting in first class on Continental Airlines and low and behold there sat Mr. Cellophane himself, John C. Reilly! If you are a fan of musicals as much as I am, you would have been excited too. He was super nice and flattered that of all the characters he has played, that I instantly recognized him as that! You may remember him from “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”. He was super nice and very polite to everyone.
So then, I get my rental car and head over to LA’s coolest new hotel that is now finally finished! The London West Hollywood, formerly the Bel Age, is a sister hotel to the London New York City which has had rave reviews. After a 50 million dollar transformation, the hotel is now complete, and I have to say it’s one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed at. I
was in one of the smaller room, but it was still 750 square feet! Did I really need a hotel room that large? No, I didn’t. However, when you walk into your hotel room’s bathroom and the master bath is nicer than almost any home you have ever sold, that is pretty awesome! The bathrooms were the work of Waterworks which makes some of the finest quality bathroom products around. There was an enormous walk-in shower with two different Read the rest of this entry »
| Discussion: 5 Comments »
Get Your European Fine Goods While You Can!
June 1st, 2008 Categories: Kids, Family & Personal Stuff
We all know the dollar is very weak compared to the Euro and the English Pound. Up till now, we haven’t really been too affected by it when buying goods from those countries. Why?
Manufacturers order materials 1-2 years in advance of the finished products actually making it to store shelves. This lead time helps retailers establish pricing and keep it that way instead of having constant fluctuating prices based on the exchange rate and the ever changing cost of goods. 2 years ago, the dollar was stronger than it was 6 months agao against the Euro. European Manufacturers and American Manufacturers using European materials who are putting out goods this summer for their fall and winter lines will have to increase prices signifigantly in American stores to make up for the difference between the Euro and the American Dollar. This could increase the price of those awesome Gucci shoes you love from $400 to Read the rest of this entry »
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