Monday, March 10, 2008

Homes

Eleven years. I realize that I've lived in this house longer than I've lived in any one place. Second prize goes to my family's home in Skokie, Illinois. (Ten years until I left at age 19 to join the Marines.) And my friend Dave's guest house in Hollywood takes the bronze medal. (Almost six years.)

These thoughts arose as we looked at condos yesterday. There was one smallish condo in a nice building in a quiet area and that has become our template against which other condos/townhouses were judged. And they were judged harshly. There were nice condos in rotten complexes and rotten complexes with ill-kept condos, plus decently-priced, roomy condos in squalid, gang-diseased neighborhoods.

I really don't like viewing places where the people are home. They remind me of pet store animals, eager to be purchased. When our house hits the market, I'm gonna be parked in a coffee shop with the laptop. The only words I want to hear from a potential buyer are: "We'll take it!" ("We'll take it above the asking price" would be even better.)

Finally slept in my own bed last night. Our bedroom has been covered in plastic all week as the painters stripped wallpaper, sanded, primed, painted and conversed in Korean. We slept on a futon in my office. The painters are still here this week. I have a feeling they like the place. Possibly they'll make us an offer and save everyone a lot of trouble. Certainly they'll know what colors to paint once we're gone.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My fiancée and I were looking around at places a few months ago. It's just so darn expensive to live here in "Silicon" Valley. We might just afford a teeny tiny place if we stop eating. (Which would do me a bit of good, as I'm over 120 pounds now -- egad! and I was so disappointed when I went over 100 in the early '90s...)

I just hope we can find a place where I can have my piano back. I've owned my 1924 player piano for about 14 years, but only lived with it for... uh oh ... I have to do a Pete Puma impression to finish this sentence ... three or four.

JP Mac said...

My sister used to live in Mountain View (I think) and said it was very dear.

Good luck finding a spot.

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