Tag Archives: House

Home

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday was quiet conceivably the longest day ever. We visited our new house and made the master list of things to do, holes to fill, walls to put up, things to tear down. The house is still occupied by the previous owners. Why haven’t they been able to move? While it might be easy to say, call the cops or come down hard on them, it’s easier said than done. What you must understand is that while they’re taking their sweet time moving out, there are moving out. It’s just taking longer than anyone hoped. It’s taking longer than it should. Why? Turns out, not only are they oldish, they’re also completely disorganized and they are, like on the TV, hoarders. Somehow, they’ve managed to avoid becoming Grey Gardens, but they have, over their lifetime, accumulated so much stuff it’s staggering. And like hoarders, they are unable to part with even the most insignificant possessions because…well, nothing is insignificant. Everything is important, everything has meaning, everything will be used for something or other one day. Both the husband and the wife have a tendency to fly off the handle – not with us, but with our real estate agent. They are easily aggravated and everything seems to upset them. They are also the kind of people who only hear what they want and only do what they want. They signed a paper saying they’d be out of the house by the 2nd, they aren’t. They just can’t get it done. AJB and I had a window of opportunity – the first two weeks of November – to start the pre-move in repairs (paint, floors, clean, electricity, etc) and this is slowly slipping by; which means we really can’t start until AFTER Thanksgiving. So when the wife asked me when we thought we’d be out of the Glendale rental, I almost laughed. You see, the longer they take to move out, the longer we stay in Glendale. If you recall, they want to move into the Glendale rental as soon as we move out. We can’t move out until they move out. It’s all complicated and annoying. They don’t seem to get it. Or maybe they do. I can’t tell.

I explained to the wife our predicament and hope she got it. I hope she got that not only are we annoyed, but we’re ready to be home. The husband, at this point, was covered heat to toe in dirt and looked like a boxer who’d just lost the most important fight of his life. Beaten and down, his wife laid into him exclaiming it was all this fault. I felt bad for him. Even when AJB reminded me how often he’d cussed and yelled at our real estate agent, I couldn’t help but see a man whose wife forced him to move – because she hates Altadena – and who had worked for 3 days straight to get this 70 years of possessions into trucks and into our garage. Yes, they’re using the garage. At this point, let them. Look, I know they should have started months ago. Why they waited until the last minute, I’ll never know. I get the whole hoarders thing and I understand the methodology and mindset better than most people know. I probably shouldn’t say how I know (it might hurt someone’s feelings) but I know, first hand that even the suggestion of throwing out something turns a seemingly rational person into a pile of melted goo – or the other side of the spectrum…a raging lunatic. I get it. I do, but if there’s a better way to go about this, someone share it. You can’t come down hard on hoarders. They’re like wild animals – it’s best not to agitate them, they’ll either fight back or run and hide.

I figure, they’ll be out at some point. Since we’re missing our repairs window and can’t start until after the holidays, there’s no point in fretting about it. I’m actually starting to get excited and think about all the things we’re going to do. I reminded AJB that Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s easy to let it all get to us and get us down, but the truth it, it’s happening. We’ll be in our new house soon.

In other news, this morning around 4am, my 2 year old nephew auto dialed me. The phone rang and when I saw my brother’s name, I instantly thought something bad had happened. I answered and heard lots of shuffling around, figured I was butt-dialed. And then my nephew started talking. Wow! I started talking to him and asking him questions and he talked back, answering them in baby talk. It was great! I know all babies eventually figure out how to do stuff, but what really amazes me is when communication clicks on. He’s always had a toy phone, so he knows how it works, but it doesn’t talk back. I think he might have been a little shocked that the phone talked back. I don’t think he knew it was me and I know he didn’t call me on purpose, he was just messing with the buttons. The amazing thing was that we had a conversation. He talked, I talked. I asked him what he was doing, he told me. I asked him where Mommy and Daddy were and he told me. My brother got on the phone a few minutes later and apologized, but I was so giddy from talking to my little nephew, I didn’t mind. I love that kid. I love when babies don’t quiet know words, but just make funny noises. Kills me.

Ah well. Life is complicated and frustrating. What else is new? At least today started off great.

Do Not Pass Go

Posted on by
Reply

Things have been crazy for years, decades, eons. I start it all counting when my Dad died almost 4 years ago. We moved into the Linda Vista house shortly after, two years in we got engaged, all the planning for that, got married, honeymoon, holidays, new year, decided to move again. In April of this year we started the staging and showing process for selling the Linda Vista house and we lived in turmoil with about 25% of our belongings. The house sold – finally – and now we’re in a temporary house in Glendale with 25% of our belongings. I haven’t been able to cook because most of my cookware is in storage. The new house closes escrow any day now.

As for the new house, it’s far from Barbie’s dream house, but it’s got loads of potential and it’s up to us to turn potential into reality. Some of it will involve hiring capable professionals to do the heavy lifting, but a lot of it is our job. There’s quite a lot to do and it’s almost impossible to know where to start. What problems need to be fixed before we can move in? First off, we’re going to re-do the wood floors, but I’m afraid they’re so old, we may end up putting in all new hard wood. I’m thinking bamboo. We’ll paint the inside – I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been painted in 20 years. After that, several hundred other dire projects need to be discussed and implemented. It’s a little overwhelming, but I’ve promised myself that we’re going to hit the ground running. It sounds like a good idea, anyway. Needless to say, the house is a fixer, but it’s got good bones, it’s a great size, I get a real office, we have a little pool, I get a studio, AJB gets a bigger office, and the teens get plenty of places to hide out in. It’s gonna be great. I know it, we just have to start.

It’s all coming up so quickly. The current owners are still there and have been trying to guilt us into moving out later rather than sooner. You see, they’re a bit older and have accumulated about 16 families worth of travel knick-knacks, furniture, art, tchotchkes, and things and doodads. They’re hoarders, but in a “ooh, that’s cool” kinda way. They have lots of neat things, they just have lots and lots of them. The basement reminds me of the ending of Citizen Cane. Needless to say, they’re having a hard time getting rid of stuff or moving it out – thus the request for more time. They’ve had 4 months to deal with it and an extended move out date put us moving in a week before Christmas. Not gonna happen. Sorry guys. I’ve been living this life with half my wardrobe, half my kitchen, half my life since April. I’m done. I’m ready to be home. Plus, the house needs so much work I’m ready to start.

The current owners are indeed laying in some heavy guilt. They’ve somehow managed to make us feel as though we’re evicting them, despite actually selling us the house. Aside from that, there’s the uncomfortable meetings, phone calls, and messages though 3rd parties. I don’t know anyone that has THIS MUCH contact with the sellers of a house. I kind of just wanted to buy the house, meet them once, and then send them a thank you card with flowers. The other problem is they don’t actually have anywhere to go once they move out. When we sold Linda Vista, we were in a similar situation and were looking for an in-between rental, not having much luck with our space needs. Finally, we got this house in Glendale – it’s owned by the guy who bought Linda Vista. NOW…the current owners of our NEW house, want to move into THIS house when we move out and into their old house. Still with me?

Us: Sold Linda Vista to the B’s, are renting Rossmoyne from the B’s, are buying El Molino from the A’s.
The B’s: Bought Linda Vista and own Rossmoyne.
The A’s: Sold us El Molino and want to rent Rossmoyne.

Yeah, it actually does sound like a game of Monopoly. The only people truly making out here are the B’s. They bought Linda Vista for a steal and are getting their Glendale house rented consistently. We on the other hand, paid too much for the El Molino house – for a down economy. In an up economy, it’s worth about half a million more. The A’s were hesitant about selling their house and didn’t make as much as they could have if the economy were better. It’s all a lot to process. Should I sell Park Avenue or Indiana Avenue? I also have 2 railroads, but I’m in prison and need a Get Out of Jail Free Card if anyone wants to barter. The end result is we have a great house which, let’s face it, we got for a good price, I just wish it didn’t need so much work. In about 50 years she’ll look amazing. I’m just kidding. I think we can have her looking pretty damned amazing in just a couple of years. The floors and paint will do wonders and slowly but surely she’ll become Barbie’s dream home.

I forget how much blogging makes me feel better.

Getting Specific

Posted on by
Reply

I have this trick that more recently, people call “The Secret”. It’s not really a secret and I don’t want to call it that because I never read the book. Also, it sounds dumb. This trick is simply asking for what you want and being as specific as possible. Seems that whenever I do this, commit my desires to paper or embedded thought, they come true. For example, at one point in my life I was frustrated with dating, hating all the idiots who’d slithered into my life and was ready for a change. As I was walking to work one day, I began thinking specifically about what I wanted out of a mate: Funny, smart, have common interests, doesn’t have to have the same taste in music as me, has a car, is responsible, already has a career, and adores me. If I’d known that two weeks later I would meet my husband AJB, who is all of those things, I might have asked for David Bowie. Just kidding babe. I love you :)

I believe this system works. Call it whatever you want. Whenever I’m vague things don’t turn out the way I envisioned them. By the way, this also doesn’t seem to work for gifties like a new car radio or new lenses for my camera, although this does work when it’s close to my birthday or Christmas. Go figure.

With this in mind, I’ve been trying to get specific about what I want in a new house. AJB and I get a do-over and are on the market. What do I want? When it came to this house, I asked for a house I didn’t hate – and I don’t hate this house. This time, I’m getting detailed.

I want:

A house with 3 bedrooms and two office spaces – office spaces can be located off the main house (on property), but will need to be insulated and be a proper working environment – not a garage; unless it’s a converted garage. A formal dining room and a kitchen large enough to cook a family meal in. Specifically, I want lots of counter space. I want a built-in breakfast nook. I’d prefer a kitchen with 1940′s to 1950′s style upgrades with newer equipment. I like white cabinets in the kitchen. The bedrooms don’t have to be large, but I want a big walk-in closet. I want bathrooms like the kind you see in Martha Stewart Magazine, you know, where everything looks like it was bought at Restoration Hardware. I want pretty tile and Craftsman fixtures in the bathroom, none of this jacked-up Middle-Eastern-friendly tile you see everyone using. I don’t want to have to re-do the bathrooms. I want hardwood floors throughout the house, but won’t complain if some parts have carpeting. The house must be a Craftsman built between 1901 and 1920 with lots of original details. Is a Batchelder tile fireplace too much to ask for? I want that too. We like Clinker Brick or River Rock as details on the front of the house. A want a nice sized backyard with enough room for fruit trees and a small Victory garden; a place we can hang out in during the Spring and Summer months. This house should be located on a quiet, safe, tree-lined street with trees that look like Bruce Ave. in Glendale. No junky neighbors, no busy streets; preferably in the Historic Highlands or Madison Heights area, but as long as the other conditions are met, the neighborhood is flexible. I want a nice little front yard with grass. I want a wrap around porch or a porch large enough that we can sit on and watch the world go by; maybe even a porch swing. I want this house to be up to date with electrical and plumbing and not require too much work to fix up. There shouldn’t be any structural problems, it should have central air and heating. Most importantly, this house should take my breath away and make me feel at home. It should be comfortable and it should feel like the house I was meant to live in.

So far that’s it. If I come up with more, I’ll add it later. I may also start collecting photos. OK Universe…get to work.