715 Nolden

It's been six months this month since Monk and I started the journey of finding our 'home'. It has been a process unlike anything I have ever been through. I am completely consumed with it. I have pretty much placed all else on the back burner in the past few months and landed focused, if not obsessed, with finding a home. I have not made one hat, shot one woman, touched my non profit business, or really talked to friends or family. Like I said obsessed. 'It's a buyers market' is pretty much what I thought when we applied for our home loan in May of this year and now I can say it has been anything but that. The slogan should have been 'It's a buyers market if you have cash in hand to buy the home in order to eliminate the competition, sit on it and flip it for profit'. You know the saying there ought to be a law, well there should be to protect first time home buyers from people buying multiple homes in order to make money. Monk and I would see homes we loved and put in our offer- day one- only to learn there were 35 other offers - most of which were conventional loan holders- which would beat us out. Lots of entering homes, looking around, visualizing decorating and having family/friends over, only to have the house gone in 60 seconds.

Behold Nolden. We first looked at this cottage- a term I have grown to understand as small- about two months ago. It had much work to be done, squatters had visited leaving holes punched in walls, graffiti all over inside and out, and was smaller in size then what we had been looking for. We re-evaluated our expectations. The house is lovely, built in 1906 and entirely from redwood, it is a small craftsman just waiting to be recognized for the beauty it used to have. We saw it and moved on it.



We are about to close escrow- all that can happen has happened and it has been one hell of a bumpy ride however when I paid my rent yesterday I took a picture of the money order as it may possibly be my last rent payment forever. The first six months will be very hard as I am going to make the monthly mortgage payments on my own, until I have paid half of the $20,000 payment Monk put down. But after May 2010 we will split everything making it quite comfortable. It has two rooms, yay guests!, and we are going to build a deck in the back for that all important fire pit under the sky. Dogs. We are going to get two dogs- hopefully one big one small, the memory of Poochinie always in tow however I feel it's time to adopt two more.
We went to home depot to get some ideas are going to utilize an additional construction loan to put $20,000 back into the home. We had it officially appraised and when our fixes are complete we will have about $60k in equity already, which makes me feel a whole lot safer. My cousin Brian will be meeting with us on Monday to take a look at the construction bid and inspect the house and check if prices are fair. Yay Brian! We did opt to have tin ceilings installed- pricey yes- but it will make the home ours and once again restore the victorian feel to it. We are going to take out the ugly sixties floor tiling and try to restore the original wooden floor and strip the paint down to expose the wooden base on all moldings. It, I feel will be ever so splendid.



It has been hard and now that I understand we are to close escrow and have the key in hand in about ten days I feel the relief and also the nausea of being a home owner. I have begun packing and donating so much stuff to my clients at work. Nolden has helped us re-examine all the Knic Knacs we have and I had to get rid of a lot of stuff which is good. 'If it doesn't fit in your coffin' has been a slogan I have been repeating throughout this process to remind me I don't need much. I would like apologize for anyone who reads this and wonders why I have been so distant, not returned phone calls or much less made them, but this life changing process is nearly complete. My best friends Steven and Todd also closed Escrow and are proud home owners themselves. Happily, they are living two hills over from us. These two are equally as impressive- to note that we all have arrived at the point in our lives where we are able to buy a home is so remarkable I cannot express the pride I have in my friends. I am also happy to note that this home will place us in East LA which puts me closer to two friends I never get to see and plan to see more often.

You know it's weird. I never thought I would possess the resources to own a home, much less in LA. I have really seen changes in myself in the past five years. Monk and I are doing much better- he focused on Culinary school and doing quite well and the stability we have is curious to say the least. For me, who loves to live impulsively fly by the seat of my pants and plan nothing, it has been one strange journey this growing up bit. However I feel changed for the better. I know this house will not be able to be the center of holiday family gatherings- since it won't hold us all- however I look forward to sharing this experience with all those I love- even if you may only come in one at a time.

Now it's saturday and I am off to look at estate sales for some new furniture!