Househunting II
Two weeks ago we went to see a house in the Bronx. The broker refused to give out the address and told us to meet us at the corner of so-and-so street instead. We were very suspicious, but oh well, we had the time. We got there a little early and called him up to ask if we could meet him a little bit earlier. We ended up waiting for 30 minutes by a park. It was a nice day and various vehicles came by to drop parents and kids off at the playground. We sat in the car and made bets about how the broker would look. We made numerous calls to the mysterious broker, and unwittingly revealed which car we were in. (We later realized he could just be in the vicinity WATCHING us).
About fifteen minutes after our scheduled meeting time, a guy in a blazer and jeans finally got there, waving his official-looking folder in our general direction. The house he was going to show us was one we'd already seen several times, and had given up on because it had two offers for the asking and more back-ups.
My friend said a lot of real estate agents do this, i.e. put out listings of attractive properties already spoken for on the market hoping to bait potential customers to look at other, less desirable properties.
So that was a magnificent waste of time.
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Inspired by a recent viewing of Friends with Money, I finally saw Fargo the other night, starring Frances McDormand as a very pregnant sheriff. It's hilarious.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Monday, April 17, 2006
That's me trying
Exhaustion seems to be the running theme nowadays. I feel like I should be doing fifty other things than bloghopping. There's laundry and recycling, for one. It's no joke to have a massive magazine obsession. I find myself at Hudson News realizing that I already have most of this month's/week's mags. (By the way, whatever happened to Radar? I can't seem to find it on the newsstands anymore.) Sometimes I have to stop myself from buying a magazine that I'm already subscribed to.
The other thing that I really want to do (besides go back to school) that I mentioned a few posts back is buy a house. My lease is ending soon and it just seems to be a huge waste of money to keep paying rent. The major obstacle (there are a lot, but this seems to be the defining one) is that I am poor. It's very difficult to buy a house if one is unendowed in the funds area.
Every Saturday for the last three months all I've done is travel to unfamiliar places to look for a cheap, decent house that's close to public transportation. I've seen really nice houses and utterly deplorable ones. In one of the worst ones, there was a guy living in the storage closet. One room smelled suspiciously sweet. This week-end, one of the houses we went to see was in a block that looked so unsafe I didn't even get out of the car. The broker said even he wouldn't buy the house. One broker looked like he was stoned. Last week-end we saw a house that had abandoned cars in the community driveway. One house had a basement that could be a set for a horror movie.
It hasn't all been bad experiences. We saw a house set on top of a hill, with a nice little backyard and shiny hardwood floors, and when we went in the owner's mom was baking apple pie. But it was all the way up north and inaccessible. One house had chessboard floors in the kitchen and matching white appliances. But it had too many offers.
I know we'll eventually find one. It'll be nice and simple. Maybe the bathroom will be too small, or there won't be enough storage space. But it'll be homey and safe. Maybe in the summer we'll have little barbeques in the backyard.
Exhaustion seems to be the running theme nowadays. I feel like I should be doing fifty other things than bloghopping. There's laundry and recycling, for one. It's no joke to have a massive magazine obsession. I find myself at Hudson News realizing that I already have most of this month's/week's mags. (By the way, whatever happened to Radar? I can't seem to find it on the newsstands anymore.) Sometimes I have to stop myself from buying a magazine that I'm already subscribed to.
The other thing that I really want to do (besides go back to school) that I mentioned a few posts back is buy a house. My lease is ending soon and it just seems to be a huge waste of money to keep paying rent. The major obstacle (there are a lot, but this seems to be the defining one) is that I am poor. It's very difficult to buy a house if one is unendowed in the funds area.
Every Saturday for the last three months all I've done is travel to unfamiliar places to look for a cheap, decent house that's close to public transportation. I've seen really nice houses and utterly deplorable ones. In one of the worst ones, there was a guy living in the storage closet. One room smelled suspiciously sweet. This week-end, one of the houses we went to see was in a block that looked so unsafe I didn't even get out of the car. The broker said even he wouldn't buy the house. One broker looked like he was stoned. Last week-end we saw a house that had abandoned cars in the community driveway. One house had a basement that could be a set for a horror movie.
It hasn't all been bad experiences. We saw a house set on top of a hill, with a nice little backyard and shiny hardwood floors, and when we went in the owner's mom was baking apple pie. But it was all the way up north and inaccessible. One house had chessboard floors in the kitchen and matching white appliances. But it had too many offers.
I know we'll eventually find one. It'll be nice and simple. Maybe the bathroom will be too small, or there won't be enough storage space. But it'll be homey and safe. Maybe in the summer we'll have little barbeques in the backyard.
Monday, April 3, 2006
Oh snap
I haven't picked up my camera in months. I've been thinking of dragging it around since DST started yesterday and we'd been getting spring-has-sprung weather of late. But severe thunderstorms don't really make for picture perfect weather.
Oh, and also, I accidentally disconnected my external hard drive and I can't access any of my files. No iTunes, no pictures, nothing. I just hope everything is recoverable.
In other news, this eating out business has got to stop. Granted, every day is an adventure. Jellyfish? Been there, done that. (Pleasantly crunchy, very good) Vietnamese sandwiches? Food for the gods. I can't believe how much flak pate gets, though. People talk about it like it was MSG. (Vietnamese sandwiches are rolls with your choice of meat, chopped up pickled vegetables, mayonnaise and pate, yum!) Popcorn chicken and coleslaw at KFC? Almost up to my saturation point for it.
I've never learned how to cook. I only know how to make certain dishes: calamari, which I learned from a cookbook because it's one of my favorites; Filipino spaghetti, also a favorite; arroz a la cubana, buttered veggies, tuna salad, from college; and swordfish with stir-fried garlic mushrooms, which I learned to make over the three years I've live on this block where the fruit and vegetable stand is right next to the fish shop manned by the friendly Asian couple. But I should really learn how to cook soon. My dad always told me to scrimp on everything else but food. But I guess I should really start doing that. I probably spend as much on food as I do on rent.
I haven't picked up my camera in months. I've been thinking of dragging it around since DST started yesterday and we'd been getting spring-has-sprung weather of late. But severe thunderstorms don't really make for picture perfect weather.
Oh, and also, I accidentally disconnected my external hard drive and I can't access any of my files. No iTunes, no pictures, nothing. I just hope everything is recoverable.
In other news, this eating out business has got to stop. Granted, every day is an adventure. Jellyfish? Been there, done that. (Pleasantly crunchy, very good) Vietnamese sandwiches? Food for the gods. I can't believe how much flak pate gets, though. People talk about it like it was MSG. (Vietnamese sandwiches are rolls with your choice of meat, chopped up pickled vegetables, mayonnaise and pate, yum!) Popcorn chicken and coleslaw at KFC? Almost up to my saturation point for it.
I've never learned how to cook. I only know how to make certain dishes: calamari, which I learned from a cookbook because it's one of my favorites; Filipino spaghetti, also a favorite; arroz a la cubana, buttered veggies, tuna salad, from college; and swordfish with stir-fried garlic mushrooms, which I learned to make over the three years I've live on this block where the fruit and vegetable stand is right next to the fish shop manned by the friendly Asian couple. But I should really learn how to cook soon. My dad always told me to scrimp on everything else but food. But I guess I should really start doing that. I probably spend as much on food as I do on rent.
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