pictures!

Here are a bunch of pictures of the house, with some before and afters of the painting.

we finished painting

Thanks so much to everyone who lent a hand! We painted the house in seven colors over Saturday and Sunday. For now you'll have to take my word that it looks amazing, but we'll post pictures soon to prove it.

The internet guy came by on Saturday to install our life line. He was banging around outside for a few hours to get it all set up. I haven't been able to confirm that it works yet (I tried plugging it into my laptop but it didn't seem to take), but I'm sure we can get it working by the time we move in for reals. Yes, I'm quite certain.

Also we met the gardeners who have been taking care of the place. They were very nice, and quite keen to continue working for us. At $30 a visit it's hard to say no. That's not more much than I would have charged when I was mowing lawns as a teenager, and these guys actually do a really professional job.

So for now they'll keep coming around every 2 weeks, at least until we come up with another plan. I think eventually we may want to take over ourselves, but we just have a lot of lawn that needs a lot of regular attention, and we need a chance to settle in and re-evaluate our yard master plan first.

...So next weekend is the move, and I guess the thing to do before then is to clean and pack. The new place needs to be cleaned and unmasked, but that shouldn't take more than an evening. That and we need a few more supplies. We got a few things from Target but we'll need to make several more trips (Ikea, Home Depot, Smart and Final, etc..) before we're really on solid ground for household supplies. Trash cans, trash bags, cleaning supplies, kitchen odds and ends...I love this stuff!

washers and dryers and fridges oh my

Over the past two evenings we solved our washers and dryers sourcing problem. We found a stackable, gas combo for the front unit and a regular pair for the back unit, all from the same guys. These guys run an appliance business on craigslist where they repair old appliances, deliver and install them, and offer a 30 day warranty, all for 40-60% of retail. Apparently business is going pretty well for them these days, since nobody's buying new appliances.

On Wednesday they installed the back units, and the washer started leaking when they were testing it. So on Thursday they brought another washer to replace it with, along with the stacker for the front unit. Everything is installed, tested, working, for $900. They also dragged off our old junky washer for us. All in all we are really happy about it.

On the refrigerator front, we have one for the back unit, but for the front unit we have a conundrum - we could take my parents' old fridge, but getting it here may not be worth it. They live about 50 miles away, and we'd have to rent a truck. So we're weighing whether to just go back to our new appliance-installing friends instead.

I guess we'll have to figure that out pretty soon here, ideally we'll start advertising the place around the 20th or so, and we'd like to have everything in place by that time.

keys in hand

We met our realtor at the house last night and got the keys. After our agent left we spent some time walking around the back unit where we'll be living, talking about colors and inspecting window hardware and things like that. Our plan is to come up with a color scheme and paint the house (interior) this weekend, and then move next weekend.

We also noticed some things that will need near term attention:

• we can't open the mailboxes (didn't get the keys)
• there's no cat-door for Chloe (though we want to make sure she's comfortable inside and can hold her own outside before we install a door that might let other cats inside....)
• we need to paint over some termite work.

This is in addition to our big list of mid-term attention items, which I won't go into right now. Yesterday I called around and set up our utilities:

• Gas
• Power
• Water
• Internet (Time Warner Cable, but no phone line or cable TV service)

And then today I got an email from LADWP saying that they don't service Hawthorne, so I had to set up water and power again. I went ahead and set up service for both houses. I'm not really sure how that will shake out yet, because I don't know exactly how they're set up in terms of meters. More stuff to learn.

Speaking of which, our agent recommended a book to us, Landlording. When we decided to buy a 2-unit property we talked a lot about what kind of land lords we wanted to be. Specifically, we don't want to be the evil/greedy kind. Which to me means that we need to be careful not to over-leverage ourselves, so that we don't depend on getting the rent in order to pay the mortgage. I suspect that reading this book will be difficult, morally strenuous, but also valuable.

...

Also, pictures coming soon, probably this weekend.

towards adventure

Well, we seem to have bought a house. Two houses actually, on one lot in Hawthorne, CA. With a couple of garages in between. And some yard space to boot. We'll be living in the back unit (2 bed), and renting out the front unit (3 bed). We'll most likely be moving in within the month.

Speaking only for myself, I'm a little stunned that this is happening. Being a homeowner doesn't yet fit into my sense of self. Which is not to say that I lack optimism or confidence, but it is to say that I'm out of practice. I'll have to get my hands dirty a lot more often, I expect, and overall I think that's a good thing.

In any case we've got tons of ideas for the place, and we're really excited about it. So here's to experimental homeownership: we are confident that we can make it work, that we can build a home, that by investing this place with our love, we can improve both it and ourselves.

So let's explore!