Frustrations (02-20-10)

I am getting fed up with a certain real estate transaction... Our seller seems to be unpredictable and difficult to deal with.
The home buying process ought to be simple: one makes an offer and the offer is either 1.) accepted; 2.) countered; or 3.) rejected. There is no sorcery to this; unless it is our situation, of course :(

Garden Gnome Wanted (02-18-10)

I want a swell garden gnome, like the one I saw at the Garden and Patio Show.

Yard and Garden Show (02-13-10)

I raced through the Garden and Patio Show today (there was too much to see and not enough time to do it). A lot of the displays were aimed at the new suburban markets: dull concrete patios with fire pits, stock shrubbery, run-of-the-mill fence designs...

I am tired of living among boxes in a rental house. I want a house of my own. I want a garden of my own.

I wanna move! (01-30-10)

I am having a bad case of (rental) cabin fever. At least, the rental house has great water pressure and the water is really hot.

Some good news...and some not so good (01-21-10)

The sewer scope was done today. Good news: The sewer line is okay.

We're still at the stage of negotiating repairs. Negotiations still underway...(since December). ...Still negotiating... (this has got to be the longest process ever to buy a house!)

We found a house...I think (01-19-10)

This is the house we may be buying. We just had a home inspection yesterday. The thing that really freaks me out, though (aside from the many repairs necessary), is that there are hobo spiders...

House Inspection (01-18-10)

The house sale is "pending" (we are the buyers).

The home inspection was today (and it was scaryyyyy)...

All these efforts for nothing...so far (01-14-10)

So far, we made FIVE offers and several counter-offers on various houses...with no satisfactory results.

Back at it with another offer... (01-03-10)

Despite my feeling ill with a raging toothache, we made (another) offer on the "Ducks and Bunnies" house...

Still looking... (12-28-09)

We looked at houses today... Time to consider pros and cons again. It's totally a drag, honest.

I can't think of how many houses I've looked at that, and the minute I walked in, I wanted to walk out right away.

We've seen it all: stupid floor plan, close-in but minuscule house, dumpy, massive fixer, steep driveway, no yard, no convenient bathroom, really nice but unaffordable, an abundance of Home Depot kitchens...or a really cute house, but far away from the city. There is no perfect house out there.

We made an offer...again (12-14-09)

House offer revisited. Re-wait-and-see. I'm having mixed feelings about the subject; this house selling/renting/buying has been like pulling teeth.

Counter-Offer (12-07-09)

The terms of the counter-offer were so ridiculous, they were almost funny. The seller wanted to rent the house back from us, for a ridiculous price, and for an indefinite period of time. So, we rejected her counter-offer.

Offer (12-05-09)

We made an offer on a house. Now, it's time to wait...and...see.

Photo of the kitchen in our old house (10-09)

Here is a photo of my favorite space in our old house: the kitchen I designed. I think the project turned out fabulous, especially with the color tiles on the wall. The kitchen "made" the house and gave it personality. I hope to find a house where I will be able to get creative like this again...
(Incidentally, the kitchen was featured in the 2007 Rejuvenation Lighting Kitchen and Bath catalog; there was an article about it in the Oregonian in March 2008.)

The Seller's Lament (08-20-09)

A poem by Pascale Steig

My house on Woodward
is lovely and for sale now.
Great neighbors. Much space.

Three bedrooms, two baths,
The best kitchen in the world:
A gourmet’s retreat.

Time passes, so slow.
The house sits immutable,
while my hair turns gray.

Fickle buyers, all.
Only complaints: too spacious;
the tree...too much shade.

Complaints, excuses:
No lawn, no fence, tree too tall,
house and rooms too big.

What about agents?
Large or small, from the same mold:
"Make it bargain cheap!"

"Price low! Give it up!"
But one thing is sacred, one:
The commission, always high.

"Sell my house," I say
to all agents who come by.
No results. Nothing.

Victorian House in Verviers (ca. 11-08)

For all the talk about houses, as this pretty much the focus of my new blog, I want to include a few photos of my absolute Best of Best, the ultimate reference of what I am looking for in a house: high style, and a moody personality, or, as my daughter Valérie would say, "gloomy, slightly impressive."
But there is no such thing on the West Coast...and if there ever was, it would be in a place like rotten part of Los Angeles or San Francisco, would have been abandoned, condemned and/or demolished...
This gem of a Victorian house is in my hometown in Belgium. Like the setting for a 19th century dark novel, it is precariously
set high on the side of a hill and accessed by a narrow dead-end cobblestone path bordered by the river; a tall spiked cast-iron fence secludes it from intruders. But the modern world has encroached: the freeway runs right over the top of the house.