The House Work Continues
The bathroom walls and floor are getting filled with insulation and closed up. Soon, it'll be time for tiling. We're expanding the driveway, too! On the left are our contractors, Ed and Wayne, who are just as ready for this be done as we are!
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Please note: We did not CHOOSE to enlarge our driveway...stupid city MADE us rip up said drive way due to "drainage issues". Adding thousands to the cost and making a big 'ol mess!! Stupid permits! NEVER AGAIN!! Ugh! Okay, all better. Sorry. I just didn't want anyone thinking it was our idea! We have much better ways of blowing cash...like buying me presents :-)
Like I said...we're really ready for this to be done now! :)
I'm so jealous you have a house. My wife and I are down in Valencia, so. cal. and real estate is painfully expensive. I feel bad when I tell fellow students that I want to earn a good salary, the one and only reason is we want a house...our house. I'm excited for you! You must have al least one whole room for your toys and stuff, huh?
I have toys all over the place! It's time to scale down the collection again. I got carried away, thinking I had plenty of room after I got the house. Not any more!
Real estate isn't cheap here, either. To be honest, I'm not sure I could've done it without my stock money. The house cost about a half-million, and I think that's about average for what you'll pay in a good location. Even lofts are fetching that much these days! Fortunately, I think the value of our place has gone up another 100K since we bought it.
We're also looking at trying to buy something down south to use as a home base for Swazzle.
We're going nuts with the remodeling right now, but we do love our house!
Can't wait to see it when it's all done!
Yeah! It will look cool. The attic is already looking better - we had a new floor put in.
What a beautiful house, Jeff! How old is it? 1910s? Early 20s? Ah, for a Bay Area bungalow! Even though we're always hearing down here how insane your prices are, every 6 mos when I go up to Berkeley I see cute places that are considerably less than, say, Silverlake(where a 2 bdrm, 1100 sq ft place can be 880,000, easy).
And how satisfying to gussy up the place and improve its bones! : )
OK, I'm looking harder and it's gotta be...lemme guess: 1908? No later--probably earlier, yes? I'd go as early as 1890 with that narrow central upper window, porch style etc. I love old houses!
(We live in a c.1907).
We have paperwork going back to 1905, though it may have been built as early as 1898. We are very happy with it! It's a great combination of what we both like (Me - Monsanto house of the future, Anita - 21B Baker Street).
I've heard home prices in LA have gotten pretty bad. I don't consider ours cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but we did buy during a plateau in the interest rates, and a lull in sales. We only had three or four other bidders, so we didn't have to go nearly as high over the asking price as we'd thought we might.
We were lucky in a lot of ways. We found it in our first day of house-hunting. I mentioned to our realtor that I'd always wanted a Victorian. and he showed us our house! It was the last one of the day, as I remember.
Anita filled me in on some of the remodeling drama. Sounds like a big pile of fun. I'm sure the work you're doing now will add a lot to the value of the house. Hopefully it will be done by this summer, so I can see it!
If it's not done by then, we'll have to take in borders to pay for it all!
Why not live somewhere a lil' father from the city central to avoid all this hassle?
I'll take that question, s.stephani(if I may): because imho go a little farther from the city and there aren't going to be any affordble victorians-in fact I'm sure there wouldn't be anything pre-1947--more likely 1977. It's only in the settled areas(Oakland, Berkeley, the SF penisula)that people lived long ago enough to have these wonderful "proper" houses built; further inland were ranches, orchards, oaks, etc.--all long, long gone(except the oaks). And to add, my old neighborhood, which is 10 miles from Berkeley, Orinda, where all the homes were c.1950s-60s, is now akin to Bel Air, CA prices. That's the 'burbs for you!
As for me, Jeff--I'm with Anita(give me 221b Baker St.!). : ) Still, we do have a few midcentury pieces in the domicile. Not to mention "Big Loo" and "Garloo" in the studio! Remember Loo?
These days, you'd have to go quite a ways away from the city to have any sort of impact in property price. One of the things I really wanted for my house was a short commute to work. So I paid for it!
You have a Big Loo and a Great Garloo?! Wow! I don't have either of those yet. I do have Odd Ogg, though!
Anita is warming up to modern stuff, though - she's been buying more and more items from Design Within Reach, so that's been exciting for me!
I'm still gonna' try for some kind of antique cabinet in the dining area for my fancy-schmancy plates. I just cannot wrap my head around a modern cabinet. I conceded the table and chairs (and I love 'em!) but, am holding out for a fab piece! Besides, it'll match the rest of our historic/modern/weird toys decor! And lend some much needed gravitas : )
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