Check out Christmas Eve on Canyon Road

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gs6F3RzQ2o

South Capitol, The Neighborhoods of Santa Fe, New Mexico

Since this is the neighborhood in which I live, I’m excited to tell you about this thriving district.  Settled at the turn of the last century there was need for housing close to the bustling Santa Fe Rail Yard. Homes here were built with Victorian architecture, Territorial brick design and Pueblo Revival styles; many of them made of adobe. From our house, we can walk to everything Santa Fe has to offer, including the new trains in the Rail Yard District, the downtown plaza, museums and the Santa Fe River.   The New Mexico Rail Runner will take you to Albuquerque for a mere $8.00. The neighborhood is home to The Farmer’s Market, fabulous art galleries, fine dining and cafes, and excellent shopping opportunities. Of course, the beautiful State Capitol building is here and is presided over by Governor Bill Richardson.  I’d love to show you the area along with our new office located at 314 S. Guadalupe, (which is .4 miles from my house). 

Be sure to take a look at Homes For Sale In The South Capitol Neighborhood, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Michael’s Bit of Real Estate

Not all remodels are created equal.  You may already be familiar with Remodeling magazine’s popular Cost vs. Value report, which documents the average return on investment expected for specific improvement projects.  But have you taken into account the latest design trends that will make your home more desirable and thus more valuable?  For example, many buyers are seeking homes with hardwood, composite or travertine tile flooring because they require less maintenance than carpet and give a home a beautiful and natural feel.  Replacing carpeted areas with these contemporary flooring options can give your home a worthwhile face-lift. 

My Business to Business Referral

Each week I present to you an outstanding business.  One of the unique services I provide when I take on the marketing of a home is to offer a complimentary “enhancement consultation”.  Let me introduce you to the professional talents of my wife, Tonia Prestupa. She is an Interior Designer, Professional Organizer and a Party Planner extraordinaire.  Tonia designs classic and modern interiors that create harmony and ambience within the surrounding architecture.  Precious touches and exceptional objects are selected and crafted with rare skill from the finest of materials.  Above all is her unwavering conviction that beauty and comfort elevate the human spirit. Her elegant and luxuriously designed interiors are showcased in Santa Fe, Chicago, Palm Desert, Los Angeles and North Carolina.

If you need help with a special area of your home, office, closets or garage that is overwhelmingly cluttered or disorganized, Tonia’s skill as a Professional Organizer will help you restore not only your area of concern, but your sanity!

If you want to entertain a small group of friends or clients but don’t know where to start or don’t have the time to put it all together, Tonia’s party planning company can design custom theme parties that are imaginative and memorable.  She can be reached at 505.470.5060 and her Email is toniasantafe@gmail.com.  If you need something, please call me on my cell at 505.470.4180 or Email me at mumphrey@prusantafe.com. 

Continued success,

Michael Umphrey

For a great post on South Capitol, check out Santa Fe Downtown.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPlDs3iuSac

For up-to-date info on Santa Fe Homes for Sale go to Santa Fe Real Estate Downtown

Price: $435,000         MLS#201000369   Contract Pending

With a fabulous sense of style and flair, the owners of this cozy South Capitol home have transformed it into a sexy hideaway. There is a heated 300 sq. ft. separate studio. Shoji screen doors separate the Formal Dining from the Living Room. Many upgrades. There is a possibility for a 3rd Bedroom/Office configuration. The landscaping includes Nectarine, Apricot, Peach, Cherry and Plum trees and Rose bushes.  Additional off-street parking in the driveway.

Step through the doors of  Kakawa Chocolate House and the smell of chocolate is thick, voluptuous, almost musky.  The downtown shop is tiny--just one room with an alcove--but with a charm both potent and engaging.  A tiny kiva, Tibetan prayer flags and exhibits by local artists add color and warmth to the cosy rooms. The register is flanked by two cases of handmade chocolate creations, mostly hand-rolled truffles--all made in house.  But what has us returning time and again is the elixirs. These liquid creations are complex, intoxicating, more like wine than desert.  Staff will cheerfully dispense small samples to try. Find a favorite, but use these tasting opportunities to expand your knowledge.  Kakawa offers a changing repetoire of historic brews drawn from traditional Pre-Colombian, Mesoamerican Mayan Aztec, Colonial American, 1600′s European and Colonial Mexican sources--all ancient, authentic recipes from 1000 BC to the mid-1900′s AD.

Theobroma cacao, the botanical source of the chocolate bean, is indigenous to Mexico and Central America, where it has been consumed for millennia.  The name Theobroma, ‘food of the gods’ reflects the Aztecs’ view that chocolate was a hallowed substance, although there is no evidence that Linneaus, who named Theobroma, had any knowledge of the Aztecs’ perspective. To Linneaus, chocolate was simply a heavenly treat.  For the Mesoamericans, it was a sacred drink: a portal to health and wisdom, an extraordinary restorative, an aphrodisiac.

Kakawa offers two categories of drinking chocolates. Those from Mesoamerican are water based and sweetened lightly with honey and agave syrup.  Their rich flavors derive from herbs, flowers, nuts, and spices. The European brews are a bit sweeter and often creamier, making light use of ingredients such as evaporated cane sugar, and almond milk.  Recipes may be mildly spiced with cinnamon, vanilla, almonds and orange water, or exotically perfumed with jasmine, lavender, citrus and rose. They have none of the candy-sweetness of  Swiss Miss, but play over your tongue with the nuance-cluster of fine wine.

Elixirs are available to go, in round wafers or packaged with the shop’s signature blue pottery: an affordable, sense-satisfying gift.  Wafers are also sold, sans cup and saucer, in packages of three, each of which makes a 6 oz. demitasse drink. Kakawa also offers a brilliantly imaginative selection of truffles, with flavors like Ginger Limoncello, Mescal, Chile and Wine, and the unforgettably-named “Aphrodite’s Nipples” as well as flour-free and gluten free brownies and chocolate cake.

Kakawa’s atmosphere and savory products have the intimacy and integrity of hand-honed crafts, and owner Peter Woods is committed to keeping it that way. Yet, with its proximity to Canyon Road, the Plaza, and the South Capitol Roundhouse and a new website in the works, Kakawa is poised for prime time. Go now. Kakawa is unique, welcoming, laid-back, rich in tradition, and sensually alluring--just like Santa Fe itself.

Kakawa Chocolate House • 1050 E. Paseo de Peralta • Santa Fe, NM 87501
Tel: 505-982-0388 • Email: purchases@kakawachocolates.com • Hours: Mon-Thu 10-6, Fri-Sat 10-8, Sun 12-6.

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Real estate agents Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, AKA Changing Gallery, use their listings, where appropriate, to showcase the art, photography, sculpture and other creations of emerging and independent talents. Artists receive 100% of the proceeds from any sale. For up-to-date market info and full access to the MLS, visit: Santa Fe Real Estate Downtown.

For a detailed description of  South Capitol take a look at Santa Fe Downtown. Malissa does a great job highlighting the unique and wonderful features of this historic  Santa Fe neighborhood.

For an up-to-date list of homes for sale in South Capitol, check out Santa Fe Real Estate Downtown.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPaIDQ0TdAA

Rail traffic and an expanding middle class fueled the development of South Capitol in the early twentieth century. A rich and appealing collection of single family homes, condos, and small compounds, South Capitol charms with its architectural diversity. Craftsman bungalows intermingle with Pueblo Revivals, Victorians and Territorials. Construction materials run the Santa Fe gamut: adobe, brick, Pen-tile (a term for hollow bricks formerly made at the State Penitentiary) and framed stucco.   Mature trees abound thanks, in part, to the WPA.  Yards range in size from postage stamp patios to 1 acre spreads.

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation and  Temple Beth Shalom are both within the neighborhood’s confines. Nearby, on Old Pecos Trail, are the Santa Fe Children’s Museum, The Center for Contemporary Arts,  and The Armory for the Arts.  The elementary school that serves much of the area is Wood Gormley; Capshaw Middle School and Santa Fe High School serve the upper grades.

Great amenities abound in easy walking distance. What’s available depends on where you’re located. The Santa Fe Railyard is an intersection of galleries, shops, housing and public spaces.  Kaune’s Neighborhood Market and O’horis Coffee, on Old Santa Fe Trail, are an easy walk from the neighborhood’s eastern end.  Cordova offers a superabundance of restaurants and shopping including several of our favorite dining spots: The Pyramid Cafe, Saigon Cafe, Backstreet Bistro, and Maria’s. For groceries, head to Trader Joe’s and Wild Oats.  The neighborhood’s Northern end is just blocks from the Plaza with its trove of dining, coffee houses and shopping.  Walkability is high for Santa Fe.  Check out the Walk Score of our listings at 111 East Santa Fe Ave., The Bella Donna. Unit #4 is one of five contemporary restorations.

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Real estate agents Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, AKA Changing Gallery, use their listings, where appropriate, to showcase the art, photography, sculpture and other creations of emerging and independent talents. Artists receive 100% of the proceeds from any sale. For up-to-date market info and full access to the MLS, visit: Santa Fe Real Estate Downtown.

Related posts:

1. Santa Fe Neighborhood Quick Sketch: Acequia Madre
2. Barrio La Canada, Santa Fe: more neighborhood details
3. Neighborhood Market Watch: Casa Solana

We met Paul Rochford and Michael Violante through “The South Capitol Treehouse:” their moniker for the second home and rental property they own at 111 East Santa Fe Avenue.   Paul’s persistent good nature, preternatural politeness, and highly attuned sense of responsibility made me want to know more about him. In time, I met Michael–gracious and attentive–and learned that the two had just conjoined their talents and style to create VR Interiors: an interior design and staging company.  Work ethic, integrity, and professionalism merit the pair a blog mention and wave of the quill from this champion of local creatives.

Paul, a Santa Fe native, has owned and sold several successful local businesses (restaurant, catering company, and Canyon Road art gallery, among others) over the past 18 years. He began his entrepreneur career as small fry selling his arts and crafts roadside and door to door. His charm and moxie were so effective, the neighbors finally called his mom begging to have their finances rescued from the kid they couldn’t refuse.  Around age 9 or 10, he started trolling antique stores with friends, identifying an early passion for design.  After graduating from B-school, he turned his golden touch to a series of business that all did well, despite being opened in strange economic times.  Michael, meanwhile, developed and expanded his creative strengths as VP of Design for ACC (AKA American Country Collection) for 17 years.

” What we ideally like to do is clean lines and a mixture of contemporary and antiques, bridging the old with the modern, because much of the new and contemporary has been inspired by the ancient.” Yet while they “enjoy exposing people to new things, new ideas,” the best designs “depend on the clients’ sensibilities.  We [commit] the time to find out how they live.”

“A big part of what we do is bringing someone’s past into their present. Michael is really brilliant at figuring out how to bring a quirky sentimental item into context,” says Paul.

Violante & Rochford make strong efforts to be Green, both in their use of sustainable materials and their  support of local artisans and craftspeople. “Even though the world is our oyster and it can be very much easier to go to a manufacturer, part of our definition of being Green is supporting the local economy.”

Their clients’ homes, and their own rental properties, range through some of downtown Santa Fe and Santa Fe county’s most beautiful neighborhoods.  “We love South Capitol. It’s charming, sleepy, beautiful, moody, with well established gardens. The area is so different from anywhere else and yet completely appropriate to Santa Fe.”

No website yet, but Violante & Rochford Interiors can be contacted at: 983.3912 where you will most likely reach their assistant, Natasha.  Email: morafine@earthlink.net
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This week in Santa Fe’s alt/indie/emerging cultural scene….
“Bah Humbug: Twelve Artists Take on Christmas”opens this Friday at 5 PM at GF Contemporary, 707 Canyon Road.  This first annual group exhibition and benefit in support of The Food Depot and The Empty Stocking Fund involves some pretty fabulous talents in the local alt/indie cultural scene.  For more information, go to the BANG! Art Gallery website.

Red Cell calls High Mayhem “consistently interesting” and “the reason I didn’t just leave Santa Fe after a year.”  High Mayhem describes itself as “a not-for-profit emerging arts facility, record label and multimedia production collective based in Santa Fe. Join them this Saturday at 9 PM for Duos! Two very different possibilities in the world of drum and bass duos.  With Ray Charles Ives (RCI), MVIII Los Duo and Creatures of Routine. 2811 Siler Lane, Santa Fe.  Cost: $10.

ALSO NOTED:
Check out MyHungryEye™: the online home and selected works of Jenna Gersbach, an artist and photographer currently living and working in Santa Fe.  Jenna’s has strong creative muscles and manic professionalism.  Smart, driven, delightful and decent, she is one to watch.

And, finally,  another shameless plug for The End of Being: an esoteric guide to difficult and unusual art, music, film, people and ideas (because any city worth its grit needs someone willing to explore such things….) Powered by Red Cell and Patricia Sautoff.
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Real estate agents Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, AKA Changing Gallery, use their listings, where appropriate, to showcase the art, photography, sculpture and other creations of emerging and independent talents. Artists receive 100% of the proceeds from any sale. Currently displaying work by Mark Frossard, Laird Hovland, Jonathan Tercero at 133 Sombrio in Casa Solana, downtown Santa Fe. To schedule an appointment, call: 231.7598.

To learn more about  us, and for full access to the MLS, visit: SantaFeDowntownRealEstate.com. **Access the MLS from your smartphone at: SantaFeDowntownRealEstate.com/m

In the heart of downtown Santa Fe’s South Capitol district, a Mad Scientist is stirring a cauldron of mind-spurring experiments and impressionable young minds to create a new generation of revolutionary thinkers.

At least that’s her hope.

Once a week, age-clustered groups of students gather to  build electric motors, dissect plants, peer at small things through microscopes, assemble and launch a hovercraft and otherwise engage in scientific play.  Sprung from the head of Janette Fischer, a PhD Biologist with a Masters in Elementary Education, The Mad Scientists’ Clubhouse is an after school program designed to give kids–”Natural Born Scientists–an opportunity to see just how much fun science can be.

“More and more, because lack of money in the schools, teachers will perform an experiment like a magic trick. Students just watch and take notes, ” says Fischer.   The Mad Scientists’ Clubhouse is an ongoing opportunity for children to explore entertaining scientific questions “with guidance and encouragement, but without pressure or haste.”

“Some students who come to the Clubhouse used to love science, but are now sick of it because it’s become all talk.  There’s no license to make mistakes because there’s no time or money for it. Yet, some of the best scientific discoveries have been made because of scientific error.”

Currently, Fischer offers classes on Wednesdays (grades 1-3) and Thursdays (grades 4-6), from 3-5 PM.  The next semester starts the week of January 11.  The  popular program usually fills up, but with enough demand, Fischer will add a third class on Tuesdays. For more information, call: 505.982.0677.

A Hovercraft

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This Week on the Santa Fe Creative Scene…

Friday marks the opening of the first annual Santa Fe Independent 2009 Film Festival, featuring underground, experimental and art films from around the world.  This invitational event begins Friday at 5PM and runs through Sunday at 9:30 PM.  The 10th annual Santa Fe Film Festival opens tonight and runs through Sunday.

Also on Friday, head over to the Baca St. Studios for the Annual Baca Street Arts Tour and a chance to sample new chocolate creations by Ryan and Beth Helean’s House of Sin. Sculptor Laird Hovland will be showing five new bronze pieces.  Artist Erika Wanenmacher, will be offering discounts at Ditch Witch.  For more info, check out Charlotte Jusinski’s preview in the Santa Fe Reporter or call 505.820.2222 for maps and info. Show runs Friday Dec. 4th- 5-9pm, Sat Dec. 5th 10-4pm and Sun Dec. 6th 10-4pm.

From 5-7 PM, The Lisa Chun Gallery, 533 Agua Fria Street, will be having a Holiday show and sale featuring artwork by Ben Haggard and Lisa Chun.  Chun’s handsome collage work merges poetic word with voluptuous image.  Look for 20% off on smaller items.

On Sunday the 6th from 1-3pm, Mike Tait Tafoya will be playing at The Collected Works Bookstore at 202 Galisteo St #A  (505) 988-4226.

Also of note, Alt Curator, Red Cell, has launched The End of Being, a news magazine and Esoteric Guide to Difficult and Unusual Art, Music, Film, People and Ideas.  One stop shopping for all the unusual stuff that draws Red’s roving mind.  Co-hosted by Patricia Sauthoff, former Arts and Entertainment editor of the Santa Fe Reporter. Watch for an interview with Red in a later blogpost.

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Real estate agents Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, AKA Changing Gallery, use their listings, where appropriate, to showcase the art, photography, sculpture and other creations of emerging and independent talents. Artists receive 100% of the proceeds from any sale. Currently displaying work by Mark Frossard, Laird Hovland, Jonathan Tercero at the Bella Donna, 111 East Santa Fe Ave. To schedule an appointment, call: 231.7598. For up-to-date market info and full access to the MLS, visit: Santa Fe Real Estate Downtown.