Afraid of Bugs – Tales from the Homestead of Casa Chihuahua

But I’d like to be done with this stage…

Last night we put in our 4th offer since October.

• The first one never moved forward as they had multiple offers and they wouldn’t budge on price.
• The second we went into escrow on and walked away after inspections uncovered a septic issue.
• The third dropped out during negotiations after our second counter.

This particular house is in Silver Lake and offers the view you see above (of the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory).  It’s a 1920′s Spanish Revival that thankfully wasn’t remodeled to death in the 70-80′s but It also means that the house needs alot of TLC because it was never remodeled.  We’re not getting our hopes up because we’ve come in with a very low offer – but of course i’ve already begun investing the period correct hardware and details for this style of home.  The best thing about the house is its a 5 minute walk to my favorite restaurant Alegria!

We’ll hopefully hear back some time on Monday….

Nothing else…but this

11/23/08 – this is in fact a REAL squid and is about 1″ big – teeny tiny.  It lives in the deep ocean and was recently discovered as a species.  Its “dentures” are actually flaps that cover its beak – awesome!  I believe it can still bitz me.

Life in L.A.

We are surrounded by a thick haze as a result of the Sayre Fires just north of us. Yesterday the winds must have shifted and the smoke filled the area making it really hard to breath. It’s still very smoky out and smells like burning wood…we’ve shut all the windows to try to keep the smoke out of the house. There have been several major wildfires in the area since we moved here over a year ago – but this is the first one that feels “close” even though its miles and miles away. Last night we were in Long Beach at a friends house and it was actually “snowing” ash on us from the other fires burning east of Anaheim. Really scary stuff.

On the house hunting front – we saw a few possible candidates on Friday. One in particular really stands out as being a gem. It’s in pretty rough shape and will need way more work than the last one but the potential almost makes my stomach hurt – it could be so great. I think both J and I are surprised at our reaction to this place but it just struck a chord. While we spent some time researching and checking out houses yesterday nothing really came of it. Today we’ll hit a few open houses and then will probably put in an offer on the one house (unless something amazingly surprising comes out of the open houses). Backing out of the Mt.Washington house has helped me realize just how much I love Silver Lake. It will have to be one incredible house to get me into another part of town – but it also opens up the search to think about how much time we want to spend looking and not feel pressured to buy before the end of the year. Its going to have to be the right house in the right hood. And we’ll find it.

S*** Happens

Well last week was eventful and strange.  I was in NYC for the week while J was here dealing with the final inspection for the house.  It turned out that there might have been a very good reason why the owner was dragging her feet on the septic tank inspection…..there wasn’t a septic tank to inspect.

The house still had the old cesspool system which was common in pre-1940′s homes but in this day and age is certainly not the safest or most effective option.  An expert, at our request, came out to test the existing system and it seemed to be handling the water volume but in the process he discovered that they had dug a second pool right along the side of the house to handle the failure of the first one he had tested.  The whole thing was a mess.  Long story short, this one last little step turned into a major issue.  To replace the septic and bring it up to code is on par with fixing a major foundation issue or replacing a roof – something we both had agreed we didn’t want to deal with.  So after a couple of days of long distance deliberation we walked away from the house.

In retrospect, it’s a good thing – the house was great, had amazing views and tons of space – but also needed a lot of cosmetic work that we wouldn’t even really be able to begin for a year.  Over the past 3 weeks i had pretty much redesigned every room in my head (and on paper) – picked out the furniture, the crown molding, the tile, you name it and so in many ways the “fun” part of the project i was already done with.  Sure things would change as we got into the actual remodel but i felt like i had the fun of dreaming up all the glorious things we could do to the house and it made it easier to walk away.

So today is a new day – we’re looking at 5 houses this afternoon and more over the weekend. We plan on putting down some offers with the hope of getting back into escrow again within the next 2 weeks assuming something else fits us.  It won’t be a rebound situation as i think we’re both realistic and informed on what we want and need.  While the experience of this last house was stressful and exciting – the best thing of all was it was great practice for the next one.  We know how the process works now and know what to expect.  I feel good that we didn’t let our judgment be guided by emotion (too much) and that we did all the right checks to make sure we didn’t make a bad choice.

So back in the car and back to house hunting!~

Airports, Public Protest and Mexican Food

small portion of the group from last night.

Flew back from a snowy cold Minneapolis early friday and headed into the office upon arrival.  It was a really really long day but it happily ended with Jesse at Alegria on Sunset.  I, as always, got the cheese enchiladas with the homemade mole sauce…sooo good.

Saturday was mostly a catchup day – unpacking one suitcase, laundry, packing another suitcase -but in the evening we went out to the monthly gallery opening at Monkey House.  There were tons of fantastic pieces, including several from some of our favorite artists – Jennifer Lewis and Walt Hall.  We looked at a few but the house now takes precedent over art- so we didn’t get anything.

After Monkey House we joined some friends and approximately 10,000 other people at Sunset Junction to protest the passing of Prop.8.   It was wonderful to see so many people turn out – and i think it was the biggest protest so far in LA for this issue.  The crowd was mellow but vocal – so luckily there were no arrests like previous nights, even though the crowd ended up marching into Los Feliz before turning back towards Silverlake.  You can read a bit more about it here.

Things haven’t moved too much on the house front.  We are still waiting to get the reports from the termite inspection and the septic.  The owner has dragged her feet on this a bit…but we should have it early this week.  She has also agreed to pay for half of the tree removal if we pay the other half but we said it would depend on the cost – because really she needs to just do it!  I drove to the house in the afternoon to have a look and took an alternative route that is all well paved wide streets (as opposed to barely single lane twisting roads) which will come in handy when we have to bring a U-Haul up there in a few weeks.  Also discovered just how dang close we are to Auntie Ems!

Today, i’m off to NYC for a week.  Its been tough being gone while were in the midst of house stuff – but J has been handling everything with amazing grace and thoroughness.  Only 22 days and counting!!!

Kinda says it all.

Roaming through the Los Angeles, Phoenix and Minneapolis airports today – everyone was buzzing about the election – lots of smiles – people were friendlier.  It’s like a huge weight has been lifted – the Hope was palpable.

On a personal note, the house plans are moving forward nicely.  Interest rates have dropped and the owner has to do one last inspection and then its a done deal!  I can’t wait for us to move in – it’s so exciting!  On the plane I read half of The Urban Homestead.  My head is swimming with landscaping ideas and where to put the veggies, the fruit trees and the chicken coop….i know this will all be things to do after the house stuff…but i still love dreaming about it all.

Life is good.

What is our house built on?

One little pig built his house on rock…and one little pig built his house on…okay, you get it….

Our Geo/Seismic inspection is later today.  This is one of the last inspections we have to do and hopefully it will be good news.  The general inspector didn’t notice any major flaws with the foundation he saw so we’re not expecting any surprises.

Oh one last thing – GET OUT AND VOTE!

Uploading about 300 photos now..but here’s one peak of the house.

Yep, that baby says SOLD!

The general inspection went great – we’re having a few more things double checked -and then we’re pretty much good to go!

side note – had a zombie nightmare last night without the aid of a horror film – trying to think how zombies translate into home buying anxiety? not sure how that works….

All our house photos are here and here!! Enjoy!

Another step towards our house

Today we’re meeting over at the house at 2pm to begin the general inspection. While the inspector does his thing -Jesse and I are arming ourselves with multiple cameras, sketch pads and measuring tapes. I’m going to try and capture the size of all the rooms, windows and closets and also note the location of all the electrical outlets. I really want to see whats under the crazy green wall-to-wall carpet (had a dream last week that i pulled it up and there was the original wood under there- not likely) and to also see up inside the attic crawl space (to check out insulation status and opportunity for storage and/or expansion).

At 2:45 the Arborist will show up to check out the half dead tree off our back deck but is also going to give us a yard grid labeling out each existing tree and ways to keep them healthy (there is a black oak, a pepper tree and an orange tree and some others that i’m not familiar with). She will also look at the location of our septic leach field so we can properly plan where our veggies can grow. Fruit trees are fine near the leach field as long as they are not too close to the tank itself (root systems poking a hole in the honey tank- not such a good thing – as you can imagine)

Afterwards we’re going to check out some more of the surrounding neighborhood – down the hill from us is Heritage Park and the Southwest Museum – oh and the Lummis house…i could go on…but i’ll save it for when i have photos to back it up.

Tomorrow i’m heading over to Silver Lake Farms, a community based teaching garden, for a class in planting winter vegetables…

quick link madness of the moment – modern homesteading thanks to Mother Earth News and how to build anything thanks to Instructables.

Lots of photos tonight and tomorrow of the adventures and outcomes.