Latest Reviews on Trulia from happy Sellers and Buyers

• Annegrier reviewed Heather Vandermyde
 
• 10/13/2014
 
• Helped me sell a home

Heather helped me sell my house in Kitty Hawk in an unfavorable market and I am delighted to
 recommend her with great enthusiasm. Her creative marketing strategies really did the trick in
 terms of getting my house shown in its best light. She was always responsive to my questions
 and requests, is clearly well respected by her peers in the community and was a delight to
work with.In an endeavor that is often highly charged and emotional, Heather always acted in a
professional manner and with my best interests in heart.

• mcole62 reviewed Heather Vandermyde
 
• 10/13/2014
 
• Helped me buy a home

We would like to thank you for the countless hours you and the Vandermyde Team
 put into finding a house for us. We sincerely appreciate it. I think these things are
 destined to happen a certain way. You certainly are a very knowledgeable and thorough
 professional and we wouldn't hesitate for a second to recommend you to anyone.
We could not be more excited to continue enjoying all Kill Devil Hills and the
Outer Banks has to offer. Thanks again for everything. Mark and Frances 

• DARTAGNAN4 reviewed Heather Vandermyde
 
• 07/28/2014
 
• Helped me sell a home

PROFESSIONAL, SUPER COMMUNICATION REMAINED THROUGHOUT THE PROCESS,
KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LOCATION, VERY HELPFUL FINDING RELIABLE CONTRACTORS
TO DO REPAIRS ETC. BEFORE PUTTING ON MARKET, USED MANY RESOURCES ON
INTERNET TO POST SALE OF HOUSE, ALWAYS RETURNED PHONE CALLS AND
EMAILS,VERY DIPLOMATIC, KEPT US ABREAST OF VIEWINGS AND FEEDBACK ,
 A NEVER GIVE UP ATTITUDE AND SOLD OUR HOUSE WHEN OTHERS FAILED.
THAT'S HEATHER VANDERMYDE.. I COULD NOT HAVE ASKED FOR A BETTER
 AGENT AND HER TEAM.

Outer Banks Seafood Festival is 10/18 and Sharon Peele Kennedy will Present a Cooking Demo

Featured Story by The Outer Banks Voice-

Sharon Peele Kennedy: Art of cooking Outer Banks Catch

By Submitted Story on September 30, 2014

By Susan West

Sharon Peele Kennedy will tell you that she grew up with a spatula, not a baby rattle, in her hand.

Kennedy was born into a family with a rich culinary heritage that combined her father’s traditional Hatteras Island–style cooking with her mother’s readiness to add the unexpected.

“My father could stew a nickel and make it taste good,” the Buxton resident says. Her father used only basic ingredients — potatoes, onions, salt pork, flour, salt, pepper — in dishes like stewed shrimp with piebread dumplings.

Her mother cooked with a variety of spices and herbs, like the ones found in New York City where she lived as a child until the Great Depression set in and her father brought the family to Hatteras Island.

Kennedy’s favorite childhood meal was her mother’s baked fish, usually a large red drum or bluefish, layered with potatoes and onions. Other favorites were clam chowder, fried spot, roasted oysters, and shad roe with scrambled eggs.

She wasn’t introduced to the flavors of offshore species until she began her restaurant career.

“Fish like grouper and triggerfish taste very good, but the offshore species don’t have the distinctive depth of flavor like the inshore species that I still prefer to this day,” Kennedy says.

Her restaurant career started with a job bussing tables at a Hatteras village restaurant when she was 12 years old. Later she waitressed, but it wasn’t until she tried her hand in the kitchen that she knew she had found her food-service niche.

“The kitchen was where I wanted to be,” she says. “It was the place where I felt I could create art.”

Kennedy credits her culinary education to the women she worked with in Hatteras Island kitchens in the 1960s and 1970s, before pre-prepared foods became popular.

“I was blessed to have learned from the best,” she says. “Those women were all self-taught and knew how to make the most out of every ingredient.”

Kennedy continues to cook in a local restaurant and also hosts a local radio program on Beach 104.1 called “What’s for Supper with Sharon Peele Kennedy,” which features easy-to-prepare seafood recipes. Now in its sixth year, the program developed after a chance conversation about the flavor of soft-shell sand fleas with a radio station employee.

“The program is about as cornbread and country-fed as you can get because that’s how I am,” Kennedy says with a laugh.

Kennedy cautions consumers to avoid over-cooking and over-seasoning seafood.

“Seafood should be done simply,” she advises. “Don’t mask the flavor of premium seafood with sauces. Kick up your sides instead.”

No one type of fish is her favorite, but Pamlico Sound bay scallops clearly hold special status with Kennedy.

“The taste is very sweet and salty, especially when eaten raw,” she says.

---

Kennedy serves on the boards of Outer Banks Catch and N.C. Catch, two consumer education initiatives that promote local seafood, and she often presents seafood-cooking demonstrations in locations from the Outer Banks to Raleigh.

She will present a seafood-cooking demonstration in the Outer Banks Catch tent at the Outer Banks Seafood Festival on Oct. 18.

Traffic Study on the Outer Banks!

News

NCDOT looking into Outer Banks travel issues

• print

• Email this article

|

• MORE

by Philip Townsend, 13News Now

WVEC.com

Posted on September 1, 2014 at 4:58 PM

Updated yesterday at 11:01 PM

DARE COUNTY---The North Carolina Department of Transportation is studying how bad traffic is near the Outer Banks.

The research follows numerous complaints from drivers that congestion has increased during the summer months this year.

"You get a backup there every time you stop to make a left turn," said driver Robert Aldreige.

Aldreige is referring to the intersection of Highways 12 and 158 heading towards Corolla.

It's a common trouble area for traffic backups.

"My experience is that I've sat in traffic a lot there," added holiday traveler Rick Taylor.

This fall, commissioners in Dare and Currituck counties will get an update from NCDOT.

After Labor Day officials will start analyzing the amount of traffic, the time it happens and the number of accidents near the Outer Banks.

Money for major projects likely won't materialize, but smaller changes like increased signage and traffic light adjustments could make the problem better.

Duck Blind Villas MLS#81023- Affordable oceanfront condominium in Duck Village NC

Duck Replenishment Article in Outer Banks Voice

Duck given legal tool for access during beach nourishment

By Sam Walker on July 30, 2014

Erosion was evident today from the Corps of Engineers pier.

The Town of Duck can now use eminent domain powers during its future beach nourishment project to allow work on areas considered private property.

A bill finally passed the General Assembly last week allowing Duck to join other towns with the legal alternative if a property owner fails to give written permission to pump sand onto the beach.

Generally, private property extends to mean high water, or the wet sand beach. When Nags Head widened its beach, it received easements from most owners.

Duck is joining Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills in planning a beach nourishment project.

Town leaders are considering a plan for a 20-foot-high and 20-foot wide dune line with a berm width of 60 to 80 feet along 2.5 miles of beach.

That plan would need about 1,050,000 cubic yards of sand.

Coastal Planning and Engineering is leading the project, which is scheduled to start in 2016 in conjunction with those planned in Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills.

The Duck project would cost $14.4 million, Kitty Hawk’s, $16.5 million, and Kill Devil Hill’s, $10.9 million, according to early estimates.

Dare County’s Shoreline Management Fund would provide much of the funding with the rest coming from property taxes and municipal service levies in each of the towns.

Mirlo beach nourishment

Bid awarded; Mirlo Beach widening set to start next week

By Rob Morris on July 9, 2014

The ocean can easily wash over N.C. 12 in storms. (NCDOT)

The company that finished Nags Head’s 10-mile beach widening project ahead of schedule has won a contract to pump sand onto the shoreline at the troublesome S-curve on N.C. 12 just north of Rodanthe.

Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. of Oak Brook, Ill. bid $20.3 million for the Hatteras Island job.

Great Lakes will use two dredges to pump 1.26 million cubic yards sand from offshore onto 2 miles of beach — the equivalent of 60,000 dump-truck loads — by September, if the weather cooperates.

The first dredge is expected to arrive July 16 — next week — as the pipeline from offshore is being installed.

A second dredge will arrive in August, a North Carolina Department of Transportation statement said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is coordinating the project for NCDOT, which will next look at the possibility of building up the shoreline to protect areas of N.C. 12 farther south in Rodanthe, in southern Hatteras Island and on Ocracoke.

Great Lakes raced to finish pumping 4.6 million cubic yards of sand onto Nags Head’s Beach in August of 2011 just before Hurricane Irene swept through the Outer Banks.

N.C. 12 has become increasingly vulnerable to storms and has been shut down by sand, ocean over wash and breaches numerous times. The most serious damage in recent years came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Irene in 2011.

Last week’s Hurricane Arthur sent sand and water onto the road and buckled some asphalt near the temporary bridge on Pea Island, but it was reopened within a day.

The widening project north of Rodanthe at Mirlo Beach is intended to protect the road while planning for a permanent bridge is completed.

It took two tries to get a contractor. Only one bid was received in January because so many companies were doing work in the northeast after Sandy.

See a a graphic detailing the project »

What should be included in your home listing

Did you know that what you say and how you say it can have a big impact on how effective your home listing is? The results can be selling your home more quickly and for a better price.

By the same token, using the wrong words and phrases can turn a buyer off as quickly as the right one can motivate a buyer to learn more. Here are some tips to improve your listing:

Be specific

Give as many details or facts about a property as you can. Include updates such as a new roof or driveway and items that differentiate your home from competitive properties. If your kitchen is a draw, don’t be afraid to drop brand names.

Use good grammar

Bad spelling and grammar, and using abbreviations that aren’t easily understood can be a big deterrent to potential buyers.

A photo’s worth

In a buyer’s market there may be more properties available than buyers to purchase them. With that much competition, sometimes the photo can draw the attention of a buyer or agent. Make sure you’re putting your home’s best foot forward with great photos.

Mention amenities

A great view or privacy won’t be apparent in photos or property details. Use the description to talk about features that aren't obvious.

Avoid exaggeration

Be realistic in your listing. Building a buyer’s expectations with a fluff-filled description only to have it fall far short in reality can turn a buyer off.

Use the right adjectives

The words you use can make a difference. Use descriptive opinion words if they are appropriate. Also use descriptions of the property within the copy. Using property descriptors and opinion words were found to increase the sale price by just under 1% for each instance. However, there is a limit. Don’t overdo it and turn off prospective buyers.

Motivate the buyer

In advertising, sometimes saying something is enough to make a large number of people believe it. That goes for pronouncements on pricing. Telling them it’s a good deal is enough to motivate them without being dishonest, even if it priced competitively with other homes in the area.

Remember that you have a very short time to attract a buyer’s attention. Make sure to deliver the biggest selling features in the first couple of lines.