Yep...we're sellin'! We're looking for a "real" house somewhere on the westside. (gads it's pricey here in LA!)

www.10396almayo3.com

for a comparison...check out our neighboring unit's website. www.10396almayo1.com

I'd say we've got the better place, the better price, and certainly the better agent - they did a heck of a nice job on the site and photos!

Best of luck, Craig.

Thanks!

We've been watching "House Hunters" on HGTV. It depressing to see how much cheaper real estate is all over the country.

*cries*

Yeah, prices in LA are still sick, even compared to the rest of the country.

There has been an interesting series on NPR this week about how the housing market is affecting suburbs. The gist of the question is, will rising gas prices and a bad economy force Americans to give up their ~70 mile commutes? Walkability and sustainability seem to be getting a lot more press lately, which is encouraging.

Anyway, Craig, I hope you and Roger will have a fun and successful adventure finding a new home.

Yeah, Tom, it'd be nice to see a reversal of the flight to the suburbs that left our cities old and dying. I always enjoy cities that have made strides in revitalizing areas with things like art-friendly First Fridays.

Say I as I prepare to commute 8 miles to my McMansion suburban subdivision.

An 8 mile commute in LA would still be in the heart of the city.

We're looking to stay "inside" LA as well. Partly because we like it, and also for that very reason. I believe a lot of people who've been commuting waaaay out into the burbs are going to be looking to move closer to the city again. Though prices are dropping somewhat, inside the city has been FAR more stable than outside (here in LA at least)

Craig, you were right, your web site blows your neighbor's away. Slick.

The prices in that area are not too much higher than my area of northern Virginia and probably comparable to those a couple of counties north of here. It's cool that you're close to those studios (and the golf course, as I saw on Google maps)

Google also told me that I could be there in 39 hours if I drive the 2632 miles to get there. Hmph - they've not met my lead foot.

Anyway, I like the paint schemes. It looks like a lovely home. Ditto to Tom's good luck wishes!

Our place is about as cheap as you can get into the westside for - especially so close to Century City/Westwood. If we wanted a house in this neighborhood it's about $850,000 for complete tear down/refurb place.

Thanks for the well wishes!

Curse you and all the other people who aren't upside-down on their homes!

5 of the last 10 people to join my unit here in Phoenix came from California because houses were to expensive for them I there.

... and they're still commuting to their California jobs!

You laugh, but one of them does. He’s a part time Air Guard mechanic with a house here but full time he’s a cargo pilot based out of LA.

That's just crazy. I work too many hours a day to add any more with a commute. 30-45 minutes each way is my limit. (and in LA that's not far away!)

That's not unusual at all for a pilot. I have a friend that used to fly for United who lived in Orlando and was based out of NYC, a couple of the Delta drivers I knew were living in Orlando and based out of Atlanta and I also know a UPS capitán here in Vero who is based out of Miami. What's up with a cargo pilot wrenching for the Air Guard anyway? I thought most often those folks were pilots straight across the board.
_______________________

Nice place Spiff! The blue on your walls is darn near identical to the same color we have in our den and master bedroom, good luck with getting it sold. Your prices seem to be very competitive with similar real estate here in Florida.

This guy was a C-130 crew chief on active duty but got out before making it to retirement. After becoming a civilian pilot he decided it was worthwhile to come in the guard to finish out his military retirement but was too old to become a military pilot. So he came back as a KC-135 crew chief because his prior experience meant he could OJT instead of going to a formal school.

We also have two crew chiefs in situations similar to the friends you mentioned. However, in their cases they joined the guard as mechanics to help pay for their collage degrees and flight school. They are flying as civilians to build up their hours and get guard pilot jobs. One of them is based in Chicago IL. And the other is in Newark NJ. But they actually live where they are based and commute back here to Phoenix once a month for their guard drills. They keep their guard jobs or they would have to pay back their education benefits and also being in the unit gives them an inside track to getting a slot as a guard pilot.

I see now Grunt, several years ago I tried joining the Army Guard to fly the OH-58 helicopter but I was just past the age limit for pilots and they wouldn't give me a waiver even with my prior service. I'm talking a matter of just a couple of months.

KC-135, that is one cool machine!


Sorry Spiff, we got a little off track.

Same thing happened to me except it would have been the UH-60.


I like it since except for the avionics it’s 1950s technology which makes it fairly easy to work on. One of the coolest things you can do with it is a boom pod takeoff. Well it’s against the rules but it still happens. It’s where you go to the back and lay down in the boom pod from where the boom operator refuels other planes. When the aircraft rotates at takeoff your face is about 4 feet from the runway.

Also sorry for taking this off topic.

Ecch, those prices are nuts.
For 500k here in the 'Peg you could buy a 3500 sq ft house with about 2 acres just south of the city by 10 min.

Chess...I hate you.

He hates your winter weather, though.

Probably.

500k in Indy gets you a 5000 sq ft house (including the finished basement) on a golf course. 20 mins to downtown.

But who wants to live in a cookie-cutter McMansion in a neighborhood that looks like it popped up from razed farmland devoid of trees?



(Don't mind me. I'm moody because I'm painting my small, crappy house this weekend.)

I have one of those too, but I sure don't mind.

I know my problems aren't very significant, in a big picture way, and I really wouldn't mind so much if my small, crappy house didn't feel like an anchor. I bought at the top of the market, so it's worth about 80% of what I paid, and what I'm paying monthly on it leaves little discretionary funds. When I realized that people who bough just two years before me are paying significantly less per month for their larger, nicer homes....


Wahhhh, I know. I need to move on and look at the good stuff, which there really is a lot of.

For instance, it's freshly painted!

You just have to learn to embrace the cold while you sit inside a well insulated living room with a hot fire snapping sipping cocoa with marshmallows flavored with a splash of peppermint schnapps.

I'm lucky in the fact I bought over 11 years ago when the market here was low. Nice LOW payment, my neighbor pays over double what I pay. He bought in the middle of the big boom.

There Peter, now doesn't that make you feel better?

Sorry Peter

I can't afford to get into a house at all because of the boom.


Thought I'd join the complaining. Again.

Peter, every county you move further away from D.C. gets you more house for your buck. I know of some nice homes for sale in, say, Spotsylvania County ...

mmbbmm, mmmmbbbb, -- <reaches for bucket> -- *BORK* <splatter>

Is that part of the painting?

Well, now that all the priming, masking, and ceilings are done, I've settled down a bit. I'm off to the store to pick up a gallon of paint in the color "Sweet Corn". Then I'll knock the walls off my list tonight and finish the trim tomorrow. Then all that's left is one wall of the master bedroom. (My wife and I decided to put more thought into color coordinating the rest of the room, so I'm off the hook for that!)

Well, your one step ahead of me. My ex wife is living in the crapppy little semi I busted my nuts and burned out to pay for. I was bought out just as the market started to rise. When I settled, I had sufficient funds for a down payment but not enough income to cover a mortgage. 4 years later its the other way around. Some days I feel like I just can't win.

*High five* to the other member of the bitter club.

How many pints of bitter before we're in the club?

One pint for every $1000 that your house is worth now less than you paid for it.

Yeah Peter, real estate do fluctuate. So at the moment you're irritated and Jenni's real happy, but things will fluctuate some more. Relax and enjoy that music.

We had someone look at the place today...ahead of our first scheduled open house. So that's a good sign.

We also went around looking at open houses today. Found one very appealing place. We've been looking around for about 4-5 months, just to see what's out there and the place today is only 1 of 2 that we've really, really liked. Our place can't sell fast enough.

If you can make the payments and you don't plan on going anywhere soon the fluctuations don't matter, the market always cycles back up.

Yep, I totally agree with John and Michael. Peter, hang around and don't beat yourself up ... this ain't the first little bump in the road for the economy it certainly won't be the last. It's not going to last forever.

You guys aren't telling me anything I don't already know, but I appreciate it being repeated.

It looks much better now that the walls upstairs are freshly painted, though. Today after work, I'm doing the trim with bright white semi-gloss so it's easy to scrub off kids' sticky finger marks.

Around here, for half that, you get get a 3 year old, three story, 4,390 sq. ft. custom built home with a water view. Small lot but it's indicative of the pricing trend.

I picked one with a winter picture just so it wouldn't make you feel too bad. Although annual taxes of only $2000 a year may send you for a loop considering it's only about 10 minutes from our cap. city of Charlottetown.

Waterview home.

Buy now though, people have finally figured out how much Americans will pay for a summer home up here and you can start to find a few waterfront lots listed for twice that much now. In comparison, I bought my acre of very beautiful waterfront property for only 30,000 about ten years ago.

Thankfully, general inflation has no way equaled waterfront property inflation.

Yeah, $2000/year for taxes would send me for a loop...a loop of JOY!

Just to give you an idea what we're up against price-wise...

This is the nicest place we've seen in the area we want, anywhere near our price range (the very uppper limit of our range) and we're only looking at it because the price was just dropped $65,000.

It sounds like you are determined to live in that area, the other option is to make a longer commute for more house. I used to commute from Huntington Beach to L.A., but then again the gas prices were much lower.

Wow! It looks looks like a nice place. Actually very similar to our first home that we bought in 1995 except that we bought it for about the amount that your price dropped.

yeah, moving farther away isn't an option.

You guys are killin' me.

Sorry. However, don't forget that our wages here also reflect the lower cost of living. So although I know nothing about the economy in that state, I'm thinking that the end result is not as far off balance as it seems. At least, I hope so.

I'm assuming (hoping) that's the case. I assume though I may make more per year, it's all gobbled up by the housing costs so it evens out. The real goal is to get a house here, build a huge pile of equity, then retire somewhere outside of southern cal. My dream would be to buy a nice year round cabin on a lake somewhere. (Getting Roger out of the city will be the tricky part - he's a total city mouse.)

When I finished residency in 2001 and moved to Virginia, I gulped when I bought a house for three times the price (but less than double the square footage) of the one I sold in South Carolina.

I'm glad I bought it, though, because even after the bubble of a couple of years ago bursting, it would cost me twice as much now to buy what I bought in 2001.

BTW, for $800,000 in this county, you get a 4000 sqft home in the county's most prestigious gated community, with Arnold Palmer golf course, private country club, huge private lake, and an Audubon-certified sanctuary.

Good luck in your search. Most times, especially in California, it's all about luck and timing. We've used up a lifetime of that. Even in the high priced Bay Area, we've been able to buy in great neighborhoods at just the right time. We've tried to buy the least priced house in the best neighborhood we could afford. Our previous house was bought in 2003 when Bush just declared war in the Middle East. We got it under asking and sold last year for a 65% profit. We lucked out in our current house because it's a mid century style that you either like or hate (Eichler). Even in this bad market, we figure we've made about 20% already, considering neighborhood houses have sold for almost 7 figures above ours. Yes, that a 7, CRAZY CRAZY market in the SF Bay Area. Blame the 25-year millionaires at Google/Facebook and the Venture Capitalists...

The moral is keep looking. You just gotta find that diamond in the rough. This last house took us about a year of looking, while at the same time we were drawing up plans for a remodel because we'd just about given up being able to afford a bigger house.

Good luck on your search, finding the right place requires patience, persistence and a little luck.

wow...interest in our place has been amazing. We had an early private showing on Sunday. Our "agent caravan" was today, and there were 2 1/2 pages of sign ins.

An agent sent a client to view the place at the caravan today, and now the agent is coming tonight to see the place herself before writing up an offer.

We've got more private showings Wednesday night, Thursday night, and Saturday morning. Our official first public open house is Sunday! At this rate, we may be packing boxes dang soon!

Exciting times are coming! I'm done painting now so I can be happy for you.

You missed a spot.

It's ok. It will be behind a bookshelf.

Beautiful place!! If it had an elevator I would consider leaving the great white north .

We're officially in escrow! We should be homeless in four weeks!

Congratulations on being ejected into the streets!

Woo-Hoo!

Into the wonderful world of panhandling they go!

Just start singing that "Homeless" song by Ladysmith Black Mambazo from Paul Simon's "Graceland" album.

It helped me.

Congrats, Craig. I'm happy and excited for you.

...use the Beer, Luke...

Love it.

Just about a week away from our buyers being at the point of no return, and we just yesterday put an offer on a place we like.

Pictures

Nice looking house and I love the pool, good luck.

We're already talking like we own this new place. Without a doubt a pair of Axiom Algonquin speakers are going out on the deck for pool parties.

Dude, you have to let us know well in-advance so we can book out flights.....

It'd be cool to host an Axiom party. Beer, wine, grillin' and Axiom. Nice.

Sounds good, although I most likely would never be able to attend.

Nice house Craig, looks like they put some decent money into upgrading it, I love the kitchen and the living room.

That looks like an awesome property! I look forward to the pool party!

Wow! Count me in. I can be there in 22 hours.

Congrats, Craig! I'm insanely jealous.

Off topic: I have one of the songs from your mix CD v2 stuck in my head--the bit about "Don't let the walls cave in on you"

+1 cool house!

Hey, if I vacation in the LA area, then that means I could meet up with you, HomeDad, and St_PatGuy in one fell swoop! Or one swell foop, as I like to say.

This needs to happen.

We don't have it yet. Fingers crossed though!

Very nice house indeed!

Finally, a get-together I'm close to!!!!






Hey, where'd everybody go?

Really nice house, Craig. Nice location, too. Hope it all works out for you.

Googled the guy who owns the house we're bidding on...came across this very cool old LA Times article.

Yeah...that's the story the new upcoming Robert Downey Jr/Jamie Fox film is based on.

How cool is that?

Only in LA.

Thanks for the warning about the four pictures to the right of the article in the first link....

Very nice story, thanks for sharing it.

Wow, some story. Man those pics were a dissapointment!

It is stories like this, particularly ones that don't have a positive outcome, that make me realize how trivial my hardships are compared to so many others out there.

Home inspection went pretty darn well today. We'll have all the details tomorrow. In the mean time...

What's the best way to heat a pool? I figured gas would be cheapest, but I'm reading on the web an awful lot about heat pumps. Anyone have experience in pools? We want to be able to enjoy the thing year round.

I dunno the answer, but suggest we move your open house party to February!

Heat pumps are probably the eco-friendliest, unless you want to go geothermal -- but that'll be expensive.

Craig it sounds like the house is almost yours, congratulations! Heat pumps cost the highest initially and use electricity but are less expensive to run in everyday use. Gas heater are cheaper but are more expensive to run if used everyday.
I use a gas Sta-rite, mainly because ours is a small indoor built in pool spa that we only use a couple times a month. Get a good pool cover, as that will also save you money on the heating expenses.

Where the heck is Shawn (real80sman) when you need him?

My understanding is that you can get a heat-pump that runs on either electricity or gas. I'm a big fan of gas, myself, but I suppose it depends upon the energy pricing structure in your area.

Ditto Michael's comment on the cover. That's a big deal.

When I was younger, a friend of mine had a pool with a hybrid solar/gas system. That was really cool.

Packing has begun! All day we've been packing boxes. Sadly, it looks as though we've hardly made a dent!

I think it's always like that. Good luck and don't forget to take breaks.

And don't forget the biggest rule of all: A stereo system is last to be packed and first to be unpacked....

2nd to last... Beer last.

Beer never gets packed, it's always consumed to save weight on the truck. Gas is expensive you know.

So it makes a difference in weight when the beer is in your belly vs the bottles? I suppose if you've belched off all the carbon dioxide -- which is heavier than oxygen -- then you might have a point.

You have to pee before the move.

On a side note, the McMansion is expanding...



The existing theater (featuring Axiom) is behind that exposed basement wall on the left... The addition will remain a mystery... (NO, I am not expanding the theater, as the CEO/CFO would not o.k. that capital expenditure).

What are you doing?! Haven't you heard the ecomony is about to implode?! Oh wait. Is that going to be your bomb shelter / emergency rations storage bunker?

Buy in weakness, sell in strength. The bomb shelter is 3 levels below.

Oh, man, I thought we were supposed to get bombSHELLS.

Thread crapping an old post...

4 weeks down... 4 to go.

Wow, what is the SF on that monster?

Holy huge house batman!! Looks great. I'm jealous

Thx guys,

It was 4950 ft2, will be 5500 when done (not including outside changes... Still a surprise).

Front looks like this:

To make myself feel a little less jealous, I must ask how much it costs to heat and cool that beast.

That really is a house to make me jealous. I'll never live in anything remotely like that.

Did it come with a nav system when you bought it? Very nice place. Looking forward to the inside pictures too!

In the Midwest, not so bad... Electric/Gas bill combined is about $300 month (That's heating/cooling/power). But the house is new, and very insulated.

That really isn't bad, considering.

Depends how much I run the M80's...

That's what I pay in an 11yr old 1500sqft house!!

Hey, you live in Alberta. Can't you just drive a spigot into the ground and turn it on??

Nice pad indeed. Looking forward to hearing what the mystery expansion is all about.

what happened to the nice deck with the grill on it?

My guess is that it is a giant walk in humidor to house his collection of fine cigars

Well, there still is a flat roof next to the sunroom... Hmmm.

Nah, nothing like that...

The house is a 4BR. We use 3 of them right up, and with our families being out of town (and friends), we usually double book the last BR. Part of the expansion is to add a 5th BR on the lower level. We are also adding a playroom for the kids on the lower level (their toys are everywhere right now).

So, (so far), sun-room for the wife on the main floor, playroom for the kids on the lower level, 5th Bedroom for all the guests we have on the lower level...

Nothing for daddy stated... yet.

EP800. Just slide it in as furniture for one of the new rooms.

POOL TABLE! (or is there already one hidden away in the other 5000 square feet?)

If you were going to say now, before you answer, maybe you should go double-check to be sure as I'd imagine you could easily miss it in all that space.

Jason

Gorgeous looking home !!!

Thanks all,

No Jason, already have a pool table, and no Fred, I would need to add twice as much space for the EP800's!

All I wanted to add (from what you have not seen yet) is some outside space. The kids are getting to the age where they want to play outside. The back of the house faces south, and gets pretty hot in the summer. I'm adding a wrap-around deck on top, a paver patio with built in fire-pit, and pergola in the back. This way, the kids can play in the playroom if its nasty out, or come right out to play on the grass when it's nice, and we can relax on the patio. With the fire pit, we can have campfires and roast hot dogs too. Last summer, I pitched a tent in the backyard for me and the oldest to camp out... There was nothing to do out there. Now, we can really have a nice outdoor experience.

So, this is daddy's treat, and hopefully a treat for the kids as well.

Wow, nice. Please keep the pictures coming as construction moves along. Sounds like it's going to be awesome.

Jason

Well, here's some comedy relief...

We are extending our ductwork to heat/cool the new spaces. The general contractor asked my wife to cover the stuff in the theater a bit, since they would have to cut into the duct there to extend it into the new space. My wife (God bless her) knows how much I love my music (and my Axioms)...

She sent me a picture today of the theater, after she took the time to cover some stuff up...



Like I said... I have the best wife in the world!

Clone her already.

Hey there all! We're in the new place and surrounded by stacks and stacks of boxes. No time to stay online long, but I just logged in to order my Algonquin M3's! The wiring was installed yesterday. I should have ordered them last week!

Good thing you were not in there at the time.

Congrats. You must be really really excited right about now!

That's wonderful, Craig. Congrats! Pictures!

Congrats! Let's see pix (also with the new speakers when they come!)

The camera's battery charger is deep in a box somewhere. I'll be sure to post pics at some point though...promise.