" . . . a cool piece of history."
I wish I knew more about the history of this piece. It was the last thing I'd ever expect to find at the little old ladies-run thrift shop I visit a time or two a month.
Thanks for the compliments on the house. It needs work both inside and out, and keeping up appearances doesn't come cheap. The original plan was to buy out my sister, spruce the place up, complete the parent-to-child transfer of Proposition 13 property tax rate, and put it on the market. The only problem was, this all started happening in the summer of 2008, right when the bottom fell out of the real estate market, so here we sit.
At this point, I dread the thought of moving. Since Dave had his stroke, every aspect of the job falls on my shoulders, and I did most of the heavy lifting last time because of his bad back, even though we hired movers for the bulk of the work. Much as I'd like to go back to a low slung MCM home that's more my style and preference, and as much as a single story living space would be better for Dave, it's a decision that needs very careful consideration. We can only move once and still retain the Prop 13 assessment, which offers a huge savings in property taxes.
I'm not ready to go house hunting just yet, and the market needs to recover further before it would make sense (at this point we're back where we were in 2008 where equity is concerned), so for now I'm trying to make the best of the situation by doing fun projects along with select improvements that make this home more livable while we're here.
This is also known as the "gay ZIP Code" in town, and we have a number of couples and single men in the vicinity, including one couple whose property borders ours. That's another reason I'm in no hurry to move.
