Undefeated Little League Team Advances to District Championship

STORRS, CT – Mansfield Major’s All Star Team advances to the District Championship after a 13-6 win over Willimantic to clinch their pool on Saturday, July 5th. They play Woodstock on Friday, July 11^th for the District Championship, and the winner of that game will advance to the state finals. The Mansfield team of 11 & 12 year old All Stars have been undefeated this All-Star season!

“The kids have been playing very well together and are working hard,” Head Coach Mike Haggerty said. “They have strong skills and great fundamentals.  It is important to me to see they are also having fun while working so hard this season.”

The Major’s All Star Team roster is: Xavier Capo, Alex Cornell, Anthony Duclos, Brendan Evans, Justin Haggerty, Hunter Hamlin, Alex Kochenburger, Cody Kozin, Shaun Lee, Lukas Miniutti, Austin Scigliano, & Steven Vampetella. Joe Evans is the assistant coach. The team is sponsored by local real estate agents, Tom & Elaine Burns (The Burns Real Estate Group), whose grandson, Alex Cornell, plays on the team.

“It’s great watching these kids grow as a team,” said Elaine Burns. “The support of family & friends helps the team tremendously, and we’re proud to support Mansfield Little League again this season.”

The Burns Real Estate Group supports several local & national organizations in addition to the Mansfield Little League including the Brain Injury Association of Connecticut, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Children’s Miracle Network, Board of Connecticut Health Charities, and Windham Area Relay for Life. For more information, visit www.BurnsTeam.net

In the Conn area, there has always been strong interest in quality homes – for years, Conn faculty and their families have held to the idea that a home should not be without good, interesting features.  The Storrs, Mansfield area has many examples of architecture that are quietly becoming of stonger interest to today’s buyer’s.  One form of construction that is unique and with great benefits is called berming!  A wonderful example of a home with this type of construction is currently for sale in the conn area.

This great home takes advantage one of our greatest natural resources – the earth!  Earth berming simply means that earth is packed around some of the exterior wall, sloping down away from the house.  This conn area home is still above ground and yet takes advantage of the natural resource of the earth to help with insulating the home.  During the energy crisis and the oil embargo in the early 1970′s, there was a surge of interest in using the earth to help shelter some portion of a home in an effort toward self-sufficient living. 

Techniques of earth sheltering have not yet become common knowledge and many people are unaware of the process or benefits of this type of building construction.   As a thermal mass, the earth provides extra protection from the elements and significant energy savings.  In the Conn area, with the rise in oil costs, many buyers ask about the energy/utility costs of homes they are interested in purchasing – this very pretty home, with 4 bedrooms, tile floors, interesting architectural features, stunning stone patio out door living area and the added benefit of berming fits many of today’s buyers needs. 

With Berm construction there can also be an element of privacy, efficient use of land, low maintenance requirements and earth sheltering commonly takes advantage of passive solar.  You can take at look at this wonderful home located in the Conn Storrs area on the following link – the current owners have loved living here and hope that the next buyer will enjoy it as much as they have:

a title=”Berm Construction – 14 Pollack Road” href=”http://www.connareahomes.com/property-detail.php?data_id=7388″ target=”_self”>Example of a Berm Construction Home - 14 Pollack Road in Mansfield Storrs

Traditionally, the Conn area Spring real estate market is “buzzing”!  Everyone is watching for signs of “buzzing” this year as both buyers and sellers cautiously decide to either move forward with their real estate plans or keep things on hold, waiting for a sign that the downturn is ending.

Based on our very informal survey of the Conn area builders, we do indeed hear some very good sounds.  One builder asked me if he was dreaming, or if buyers were really getting back into the Conn area real estate market and making decisions to move forward and upward!  More people are  also considering building green and  are thoughtful about building with the cost of energy in mind – efficient, well designed homes are becoming more and more in demand. 

We are very supportive and knowlegable about this type of construction and and have some wonderful builders and designers ready to help you determine if this is a great option for you.  As the Conn area real estate market changes, we will continue to keep you up to date with the latest news!

We are holding an Open House this weekend!  Sunday, May 18th, 12PM-1:30PM, 77 Balazs Road, Willington, CT. – please stop by and say hello if you have a chance – you can sign up for a free gift card to your store of choice!

Welcome to our real world Conn area real estate blog! We will be featuring all kinds of local real estate information and lots of information about upcoming events in the Conn area, if you have an event you would like to publicize, please let us know about it.

We have been holding a number of Open Houses over the past few weekends and the beautiful weather has made them very enjoyable – lot’s of great people have stopped by to say hi and many have asked about the current Conn area real estate market conditions.  The March 2008 housing statistics were still notably down from the previous year, but we know, based on our listings and sales, that there are many people successfully and happily buying and selling homes.  We will not be holding any Open Houses this weekend as it is Mother’s Day and also the Conn graduation – next weekend we will be hosting more Open Houses and will be happy to keep you updated!