Just desserts, please, I'm fasting

/

They're bound to do better than the poor saps who built it

/

11 Round Hill Club Road, purchased new (well, old, but still-unlived-in) in 2019 for $8.325 million, is back on the market now at $19.9 million. This was built as a spec house in 2014-15 on land bought for $3.850 million and originally priced at $17.950. Buyer response was not gratifying, and the builders eventually accepted the aforesaid $8.325 from these owners and slunk away. How much of a bargain was that 2019 buy? We’ll find out.

Pending

/

156 Old Church Road, listed at $4.995 million 16 days ago is pending now. Listed last year in May for, first, $5.250 million and dropped to $4.950 before the owners gave up and rented it out for a year. It seems that the delay will have paid off.

And another Hooligans & Lawyers listing is also reported pending, this one at 103 Sheephill Road in NoPo, listed at $1.095 and gone via highest and best offer within days.

Just in the nick of time

/

After a judgement of strict foreclosure had been entered in August ‘24, and several motions to reopen that judgement and set new sale dates had been granted, time was running out, but buyers did appear for 17 Highland Farm Road, and it has sold for $1.635 million.

Case history’s here, if you’re curious to see how CT foreclosure procedures wend their way ever so slowly down the path towards judicial resolution.

Lake Avenue sale price reported

/

968 Lake Avenue, $2.7 million. The owners paid $2.750 for it in 2005 ($4,515,000 in current dollars), so no home run here. I’m just guessing, but those look like Acorn windows in some of the pictures, with failed seals. Acorns were commonly used in inexpensive homes back in the 70s when this one was built, and there was a design/production flaw with them that caused the seals to break. The manufacturer stood by its guarantee until it went bust as the result and since then homeowners have been on their own. Very expensive to replace them all, but that’s usually the best solution, and this price might reflect that cost.

I’m always wary when listing agents mention the dreaded “R” word in their property descriptions, as here: “Enjoy the home as is or renovate to your specifications.”

Learning tricks of the AI trade

/

I asked Chatbox to draw a picture to illustrate the story below, but my request was rejected as “inappropriate”. Okay, you can’t argue with a pre-programmed idiot, computer or human, but you can usually find an easy way around it.

In any event, here’s the actual item I wanted to comment on.

Connecticut's budget committee presides over the deaths of dozens of bill

Another bill that died that day  would have banned the sale and use of polystyrene food packaging and containers along with plastic straws, starting on July 1, 2027. It would also mandate water fountains in state and municipal buildings to be replaced with water-cup-and-bottle-filling stations at a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 per fountain.

A well-deserved fate for this idiotic bill, but as demonstrated by our Hartford legislators year after year, decade after decade, lunacy is forever, and this one will resurface:

Co-chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee State Sen. Cathy Osten said she thought the ban on plastics will … come back to the General Assembly next year.

Fight, fight, fight.

The idea was to get him re-elected, step aside and put the Puppet Lady in office for the amusement and manipulation by the Obama troika; they just couldn’t get him past the debate

/

February 28, 2024: Biden 'fit for duty,' physical 'identified no new concerns,' his doctor says

President Joe Biden underwent his annual physical Wednesday morning at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in what could be the final health update before the November election.

Biden, 81, last received his physical on Feb. 16, 2023.

A written summary of the physical released Wednesday afternoon from Dr. Kevin O'Connor, the president's physician, said "the President feels well" and that the test "identified no new concerns."

"President Biden is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief," he said.

He "continues to be fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations," he said.

July 8, 2024:

And, absolutely related, this: