[vash]

wow..

EFFEN HUMBLING. i took the weekend to spend with my wife. she took full advantage of my committment to her for a solid two days and dragged me house looking. we are pre-approved, so we know our budget. (banks havent changed their MO a bit since the implosion). talk about a wild emotion swings..mostly involving the fact that on the grand scheme of things..i am a broke ass bastard.

houses are all over the place: but i want to talk first about the flipper house. we saw three beautiful homes..perfectly staged, cookies in the oven, those paper booties you put over your feet so you dont soil the flooring, etc. a parade of hopeful shoppers, all asking about bid opening dates and stuff. ME? i had a flashlight and grubby clothes. one house had great work done. i peeked under it's skirt. rusty galvanized waterlines and paper wiring..NONE of them had that backflow prevention thing that gives your sewage a way to flood your yard instead of your home. (Motion, too soon?) this one house had the niche for the future uber front loader washer/dryers, and i could peek into the water lines and see the rust. no ground faults in the kitchen. i kinda think i want to buy a more original but clean house..so i can just kinda work thru the checklist fixing things. the flipper house pushes up prices, and still will need work.

i was sent to another house by the agent. it was not on the market yet.still a few weeks out. priced way low for the neighborhood. she described it as "unique". owner was a tile and carpenter guy. i drove by, it looked normal from the front. maybe way too many skylights. this guy steps up to me, looking like he is from the early 70's. feathered hair, nice guy. he asked me was i was doing..i told him, early shopping. he invites me in!! we go in, and i almost had an epileptic seizure. it looked like he collected extra tile from all of his jobs and incorporated it into his house. nothing matched. no surface was untiled, or unsheathed in wood. there wasnt a right angle in the house..he treated every corner like is personal homage to his mad-tiling skills and OCTAGON(ed) EVERYTHING..everything was chamfered with his treatment. he had cubby holes..yes, octagon shaped cubby holes everywhere. the colors!! the colors! oh my God, the colors!!

his biggest sin? he built out his home. he cut out the entire right side of his home and pushed it out. the wall is about 2/3 height and he used those skylights you see in sun-rooms to do the roof/ceilings. his bed, you sleep under the stars. of course you sleep under the sun as well. without digging to deep, i think he will not meet seismic codes. his ceiling and missing wall, are not shear walls and diaphrams.

we got home late and exhausted. i was unloading stuff and came into my house after my wife. she was standing in the living room doing circles like a drunk person. she utters, "our house is really really good". i'm not done yet, but i am working from the inside out. new copper, new sewer, updated electrical...

buying a new house is a wild experience. i think i am going to try to keep my old one and rent it out. but reading Motion's thread..that seems like a moving target as well.

sorry for the ranting..my mind is racing on overload. redline, almost.