Servicing the New Hampshire towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, North Hampton, Hampton, Stratham, Exeter, Greenland, Newington, Dover, Durham and surrounding areas, and the Maine towns of Kittery, Kittery Point, Eliot, South Berwick, York, and surrounding areas.

We’ve had such a gorgeous fall with all the brilliant foliage around our Portsmouth NH homes that I didn’t want you (or me!) to forget about setting the clocks back an hour this weekend…..

If you’re like me, and a little bit sleep deprived, you’ll get a treat on Sunday with an extra hour of sleep.  And of course, the flip side of that is that it’ll be dark way too soon each day.  ;-(

Enjoy your weekend!

Ann Cummings Portsmouth NH REALTOR
Check out other photos in and around Portsmouth – NH Coastal Living Photo Blog
Check out Portsmouth NH real estate and community information – Portsmouth NH Homes Condos

Below are examples of pictures you’ll find on my new photo blog:

So, with that in mind, I started my own photo blog – www.NHCoastalLiving.com.  And I invite you to check it out!

If you love Portsmouth NH homes, the City of Portsmouth, and just everything about living in and around Portsmouth, then you just might become a fan of New Hampshire Coastal Living Photo Blog!

I hope you enjoy the pictures there, and if you have pictures you’d like to share, I’d welcome your submissions, and will give you proper attribution.

Enjoy!
Ann

Servicing the New Hampshire towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, North Hampton, Hampton, Stratham, Exeter, Greenland, Newington, Dover, Durham and surrounding areas, and the Maine towns of Kittery, Kittery Point, Eliot, South Berwick, York, and surrounding areas.

May we all enjoy a safe, happy and relaxing July 4th holiday!

Servicing the New Hampshire towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, North Hampton, Hampton, Stratham, Exeter, Greenland, Newington, Dover, Durham and surrounding areas, and the Maine towns of Kittery, Kittery Point, Eliot, South Berwick, York, and surrounding areas.

To many, Memorial Day means the start of summer and the long holiday weekend means barbecues, parties, family gatherings, etc.  It seems that the true meaning of Memorial Day seems to be losing its real significance.  I truly hope that never happens, but it feels like it is…..

I read a couple of blog posts on Memorial Day written by friends of mine, and I thought I’d share the links to their posts, as well as a few quotes and reminders from them.

“Memorial Day and A Moment of Remembrance”, written by my good friend in California, Kathy McGraw.    Kathy reminds us of the original purpose of Memorial Day – honoring Civil War soldiers who lost their lives while fighting in that way.  She also reminds us of The National Moment of Remembrance, signed into law in 2000 by President Clinton.  I had forgotten about this, so very much appreciate Kathy’s reminder to all of us about pausing to remember all those who serve and have served to protect our freedoms.

“What are You Talking About Around the Picnic Table?” , was written by a friend of mine from Ann Arbor Michigan, Missy Caulk.  Missy also reminds us of the origins of Memorial Day, and includes some wonderful quotes from President Ronald Reagan that I thought were so important for us to remember.

These poignant quotes came from President Reagan’s farewell address, and I’ve included some here:

“An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?”

“So, we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important–why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. ”

And from another speech of his:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same”.

My dad, Harold Cummings,  served 29 years in the Air Force, my grandfather, R. Oakley Seaver, served in the Army, and my mom’s brother, Charles Robert Seaver, served in the Air Force.

I am most thankful to them for having served our country, doing what needed to be done to protect America, and fighting for our freedoms that we often take for granted.

My deepest thanks and appreciation to all who have served, all who currently serve, and all who will some day serve – thank YOU from the bottom of my heart.

Servicing the New Hampshire towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, North Hampton, Hampton, Stratham, Exeter, Greenland, Newington, Dover, Durham and surrounding areas, and the Maine towns of Kittery, Kittery Point, Eliot, South Berwick, York, and surrounding areas.

This week, in just the last 3 days, I’ve had the ‘opportunity’, and I lose that word quite loosely, of having to try to get some customer service from 2 companies.  The first company was one that I thought was local, LOCAL, like right here.  Until recently, I had always been able to make a call, get a real person to talk to and then be transferred to another person in the office here in Portsmouth NH.  Not anymore!

I dialed their phone number, got the same person who always answered, and then was transferred to the ‘department’ that was going to help me.  When the person came on the phone, I could tell right away I had ended up off-shore somewhere.  I asked the person on the other end of the phone where they were, and that confirmed what I suspected.

The second ‘opportunity” was just today, which set me off on this post.  I had purchased a major appliance earlier this year, and have had need to have repair technicians come out several times to get it to work properly.  Well, once again it’s not functioning properly so I called to schedule a service call.  They were supposed to come out today, sometime between 1pm and 5pm.  Yep, that infamous time window – you know full well they can narrow that down a bit more, but they don’t even try.  Anyway, 5pm came and went, and no service person.  At 6:15pm, I called the service line, asking when the technician might be showing up, if at all.  Lo and behold, I found I had traveled time zones and countries to another off-shore servicing center.

Why does that continue to happen?  Do American companies think that’s better servicing for their consumers?  No doubt it’s cheaper for them, and it undoubtedly provides jobs in the off-shore countries.  But at what cost?

When you try to get help from those so-called ‘service centers’, they really can’t help you at all.  If you ask something that isn’t on their script, they’re lost.  They go right back to repeating their script, and that’s just flat useless to me, the consumer on the other end of the phone trying to get help regarding the product I plunked a lot of money out for.

I wish there was some way that would allow you to know in advance that the ‘service center’ for whatever company you’re thinking about doing business with is here or ‘over there somewhere’.  If I could know that in advance, I would think long and hard about whether I really wanted to buy that product or those services from that company, or not.

In real estate, we’re all abuzz about transparency.  How about the same thing in the general marketplace of regular goods?  I think that’s only fair and right – for my money, I want to know who’s going to help me when/if I need help, and what kind of rigmarole (sp?) I’m going to have to go through just to reach someone who really can help me.

Off-shore servicing centers – BIG-time FAIL!!

What’s been your experience with servicing centers?  I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below.

Servicing the New Hampshire towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, North Hampton, Hampton, Stratham, Exeter, Greenland, Newington, Dover, Durham and surrounding areas, and the Maine towns of Kittery, Kittery Point, Eliot, South Berwick, York, and surrounding areas.

If you like to go to home shows, we’ve got two
big ones coming up here in Portsmouth New Hampshire.

Mark your calendars and make plans to go and check out all the vendors
and displays.

There’s no time like the present to start planning spring and summer
projects!

• The New Hampshire Home and Garden Show -
  January 19, 20, and 21.  This show will be at 72 Pease Blvd on Pease
  International Tradeport, Portsmouth NH.  Over 120 vendors that will be featuring
  home improvement, indoor and outdoor projects, garden and landscape vendors.  For more information on
  this show…….

• The Greater Portsmouth Home Show – January
  26 – 27.  This show will be held at The Frank Jones Center, located at 400 Route
  1 Bypass in Portsmouth NH.  This show will feature plenty of hands-on exhibits,
  including numerous cooking demos, home improvement and home repair vendors, home
  decor, and more.  For more
  information on this home show…….  Make sure to check out that link for
  coupoons for free admission!

I love home shows!  All kinds of great ideas for my home
and gardens, and they also signal us that spring is just around the corner!

If you’re able to attend either or both of these shows, I hope you
get lots of great ideas for you home and yard.

Looking to make your next move to a Portsmouth NH home or condo?  I’d welcome the opportunity to
help make your dream a reality – I LOVE living here in the Portsmouth area, and
I know you will, too!  And I love helping buyers find their new home or condo…..

Ann
Cummings
RE/MAX Coast to Coast
Portsmouth
NH
ann@anncummings.com
888-349-5678 x
3839
Servicing the
Coastal Areas of NH & Southern Maine

The NH polls have closed and it’s just about 2 hours since the voting polls were closed for the New
Hampshire, “First in the Nation Primary”, and the networks are predicting McCain
to be the Republican winner.

I just watched Rudy Giuliani concede, and now Mitt Romney is doing the same -
both were done most graciously.

The Democratic winner likely won’t be called until later on because right
now, 9pm, it’s just too close to call.  Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama are neck
and neck.

Did you know just about 40% of all the registered voters in NH are
registered Independents?  It’s that state motto of “Live Free or Die”!

I’m a registered Independent myself.  And it’s been said all week long, and
especially today that the vast majority of those Independents didn’t make up
their minds firmly until they got to the voting polls.  And I’ll admit to being
one of those, surprisingly enough.

For
those of you who are political junkies, I’m sure you’d love being part
of what goes on here in New Hampshire during every election
campaign. 

The New Hampshire political scene does get the blood flowing, but not always in a good way……   

Being the home of the “First in the Nation Primary“,
we get to see all the candidates up front and in person.  We can
see them, touch them, hear them just about everywhere we go almost from
the moment the campaigning begins.  And as we get closer to the
primaries, you can’t help but literally run into candidates of both
parties all over the state in all of our cities and towns, large and
small.  And don’t forget all the media trailing them to get
whatever scoop, missteps, mistakes, etc. any of them make.