Triumph!!!

Well…. not over anything in particular. It’s Shane’s new motorcycle. We got it yesterday up in Santa Rosa. After the misfortunate incident w/ the last one (Academy of Art bus hitting it, dropping it and totalling it), Shane’s been without transportation for a few months now. If it wasn’t for the pending move this wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but getting to work for him is about to become difficult. This is what his new ride looks like:

The trick now is to convince him he doesn’t need all new gear to go with his new bike. His last one was red, so his helmet isn’t exactly “matching”. I’ll be quite happy to finger-paint it. I’m cheap labor, too

We got THE house!!!!

Ok, so it happened a little quicker than I thought, but we are now the happy home owners of 3 bedroom house in Belmont. We placed a bid on Wednesday morning and filled out paperwork until our hands cramped up (seriously, warm-ups should be mandatory prior to this), and as of 3pm today we are the happy recipients.

So the story of the house: when you walk in it’s an unassuming home. We walked through it, impressed by its size, its loft-like feel (it’s a little hard to give it up), and it’s potential. It has a beautiful view from the living room, master and back-yard. We look into a canyon, which as of right now if rather un-populated.

The house is in very good condition. It’s livable “as is”… pending a re-carpeting and a coat of paint, but we’re planning on making some changes in the master bedroom to fit our lifestyle needs a little better. I’m gonna be a little mum on the details until we know that what we want to do is feasible.

What’s amazing is that I’ve felt calm all day. I’ve had 3 major life events that I’ve had anxiety about: getting a tattoo, getting married, and buying a house. Each of these was surprisingly less stressful than the one before – that’s right, getting the tat was the most nerve-wrecking of them all. At this rate, I hope that deciding to (and hopefully having) kids could be a walk in the park. So no bad dreams, no antsy morning… just waiting for the news. In all honesty, doing open houses was scarier than signing the paperwork.

I did wake up feeling a little sad yesterday though before we went in to sign the offer paperwork. This loft is wonderful! We’ve remodeled it to be everything we’ve needed so far. Most importantly, our relationship started here. There is so much sentiment that it’s a little hard to think of it not being ours anymore.

… I hope Neko likes his new home.

We’re in the market for a nice (but affordable) house… got one?

So house-hunting is not really as much fun as I thought it would be. I wasn’t exactly glamorizing the process, but I didn’t expect it to be as stressful as it is. It isn’t the process that’s distressing per se as much as it is the price tag.

Here’s a quick overview for you non-scouting/non-Bay Area folk: a “moderate” 3 bedroom, 2 bath home on the Peninsula of North California (or specifically Belmont, San Carlos, San Mateo area) ranges anywhere from the high $700 Ks to $1.2M (yep you read that right). Now the 700 K homes come typically w/ small rooms, needing a fair amount of repair or renovation, or are simply not in an area you’d want to live in. On the high end, it’s just not something I can swallow too easily. A $1.2M home!!! Do you know what the property taxes are on that alone?

And hence the stress – I feel like you have to make a decision moderately quickly. Bids are taken as they come in, not on a specific date, so I feel like you have to make your mind up fast. It’s kinda scary, especially in the beginning of a search because you don’t really know what’s out there and how to compare. Now, from those of you that know me, you know I like to make decisions fast and I’m generally an impatient. This should be an easy thing for me. Sadly, “No!” You have to make a quick call, but not so quick such that you overlook important details… especially when you’re committing entering into such an obscene loan.

Last week was our first official week of looking. I had house dreams for the first three nights and I’ll just say that I didn’t wake up especially rested or in a good mood the next morning. Tomorrow will be formal Open House day #2. Lets hope the recovery from this one will be faster

Now, I am discovering an interesting side effect: I’ve grown to despise the show “House Hunters” on the Design Network. Shane loves that show (or at least likes it a fair amount since he records every episode). I don’t hate it because of it’s poor performances, but rather for the homes that people buy. We’re talking brand-new, 5 bedroom mansions for under 500K. I WANT that!!!! I’m honestly starting to consider buying one of those and then purchasing a helicopter. The running cost to and from work would probably be no more than the full loan for a house here, right?

So we move on. We have a good agent, which helps a lot. Wish us luck!