Brixx's Beer Special

So we sat outside at Brixx last night with a group of friends and enjoyed Brixx's Saturday night $2.50 beer special. It was a German Lager that I can't remember the name of. Every Saturday night Brixx has a different beer special. Its a great deal and considering that their list of about 30 import beers are all great it is a fantastic way to try out new beers. I also had a vegetarian pizza that was great as well. I have two slices left which I think I'll enjoy once I'm done writing here.
Birkdale's live music band was great last night too. They played a good mix of 80s rock. We really enjoyed the live music and wound up sitting outside until about 11pm. The live music ends at 9:30 PM which seems a little early but I guess that since people live right above the shops it makes sense not to keep them up all night. What we were amazed by is how little of the music we were able to hear as we walked towards the main strip. We figure that since the speakers are pointer towards Sam Furr that the houses behind the village don't get much of the music.
What was nice about last night is that we didn't get to Brixx until about 8:30 PM. Since it was so cool out Birkdale was lively but not packed so we got an outside table right away. Even cooler, is that Brixx has these outdoor gas heaters that throw heat down on the tables so even though it was a little cool out we were quite comfortable. I'm thinking of getting one of these Resnor heaters for my back deck. I wonder how much they run and how hard it is to tap in to the existing gas line?

Day Four and Counting

Today is the fourth day that we are waiting for Time Warner to come and hook up our Cable Internet. No kidding, but they've missed three appointments over the past week so far. I'm amazed that we don't move to the top of some scheduling priority after the third missed appointment. But, alas, here it is on day four at 10:55 with one hour left in the four hour window (8-12). The wife is very upset but the husband doesn't mind as we are now at $80 in credits for the missed appointments and today we found an unsecured wireless Internet that we just used to check email and write into the blog since we moved.
In case anyone is thinking of moving or changing their telecom services here in Birkdale or Charlotte we've found the best combination to be Direct TV for TV ($58 for two DVR connections), Time Warner for Cable Internet (High Speed Internet), and Sun Rocket for VOIP ($9.95 for unlimited calling). We originally had Bell South for DSL and Telephone but we could never get our bill below $80/month and often it was over $100. So we canned them and all of their fees and the combined Time Warner Internet/Sun Rocket Phone means that our combined bill in never great that $53. The other cool thing about Sun Rocket is that it allows us 200 free international calling minutes. It occasionally has some bad connection issues but most of the time it is just as good as a regular phone and costs a heck of allot less.
Well, Time Warner's install team finally called and they just turned into Birkdale Village.

Birkdale Village Live Music

Does anyone know when the music starts in Birkdale Village? Last year I thought it started the last weekend of April and went through the last weekend of October. What's strange is that we haven't seen any advertisements or fliers for the music yet this year. I searched the web and all I come across are other blogs talking about enjoying the music at birkdale. The The Adventurers Club was interesting because it claims that Birkdale is a great place to have a Rock concert. I'm not sure if I quite agree but maybe it depends on the definition of Rock. Any way about it though the live music is great and is very popular. We really enjoyed sitting out listening to the music, drinking wine or beer, and people watching. Its amazing how lively the village is on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

The best show we experienced last year was actually right after a rain storm. The rain storm was about one hour before the music started and everyone fled. So we sat outside at Brixx and enjoyed their Saturday night beer specials ($2.50 a beer) while listening to the music without having to feel rushed because they didn't need to turn over the table.

Well, as soon as I find out the schedule I will post again and link to it.

Pool Opens May 12th!

Great news. The pool is opening on May 12th. We got our 'Birkdale Villager' newspaper today and the main feature seemed to be the pool opening. We're excited even though we didn't make it to the pool even once last summer. I guess we spent all our free time on the lake. This year will be different though. We intend to enjoy the pool and the sun.
Its great that the pool is opening early. Last year we wondered why the pool only opened from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It made no sense given the nice weather that Charlotte has at least from April through October. I guess that having the pool open only for summer vacation for schools makes some sense. But they could at least have the pool open say on just evenings and weekends. This year they seem to be doing that by having the pool opened only 3:30 to 7:30 on public school days. The article also says that we have to get a pool tag, which is required for entry. Last year's tags are still good to go.
Well, enough rambling. We're looking forward to the pool opening.

Are there too many homes for sale?

As we walk the neighborhood, we can't help but notice the number of houses for sale in the village. They seem to be growing faster than the weeds in some yards around here. I did a quick search of the MLS on the Keller Williams website returned 19 homes for sale within Birkdale Village. That seems like a lot - It's actually about 5% of the homes in the village (there are 400 homes in just the village in case you are curious). Many people are probably trying to lock in their solid real estate appreciation gains of the past year or two. I'm thinking the village has experienced a 12-20% increase in property values in the past year. So I wonder if this is just the time of the year that everyone plans to move as school gets out and everything looks its best as the flowers and tress blossom.
I remember thinking last spring that there were many homes for sale and they all sold. I'm thinking that if between now and June we clear this backlog of homes then property values will spurt up again. If these houses sit for a while then we have probably reach a plateau while the rest of the surrounding area catches up.
Another concern that I have is the number of investors that seem to be buying homes in Birkdale to rent them out. I think that this drives up values in the sort term but at some point all of those investors have to get out as well. But I also know that most landlords in the village also live in another village home so that goes a long way towards ensuring that the landlords care about the community.
I also know that there seems to be many people moving here. In fact, have a family member and a friend both moving to Birkdale Village before June 1st - there goes 10% of the available housing stock. It seems that whole clusters of families are moving south together.
Well, I'll write more about this topic as it develops. I'm hopeful that Birkdale will continue to appreciate and remain the vibrant place that it currently is.

Cool Slide Show Addition

So tonight I added a cool slide show to the right side of this page. I found it on slide.com. It looks pretty cool and it displays pictures of the Birkdale area. Its too bad that I can't figure out how to save the pictures from the slide show to my computer. This slide show also has pictures of Exit 23's Presbyterian Hospital and Rosedale shooping center. Ah, well, they look good too. If you go to the link then you can also view slide presentations of other interesting areas in Birkdale.

For the Love of Maps!

If you've read a few articles on this blog you must realize that I absolutely love maps. I think hybrid and detailed maps can tell a powerful story about a community and its neighborhood. I love seeing sattelite or aerial photoes overlaid with street grids and points of interest of development names.

Ironically, this will probably be one post in which I don't post any maps.