House Bagged


House #5 took the bait and was snared by our trap late this afternoon. Now let’s see how long it takes to get to closing. We optimistically asked for December 6th, but the realtor said inspections are taking up to 3 to 5 weeks to be scheduled and with only 4-1/2 weeks between now and the closing that doesn’t look promising. And how long will it take for loan approval?

As everyone knows it is not a real home until they are filled with Mountain Bikes, so this afternoon we visited the local bike store, Zack’s Bikes, and bought a couple. Mine is a size large in Matte Trek Black with 29 in wheels. We walked the mile and a quarter to the store, packing our helmets and cycling shoes to change into there. Hers is a size small in Purple Flip with 27.5 in wheels. We then rode them back the 1.25 miles to our Airbnb. Gonna take awhile for both of us to get used to the gear shifting of them…

House Hunters VIII

We are really making some progress, we have narrowed it down to four places, #3, #4, #5 and #16. So we asked our realtor for revisits today on 2 and a peek at one in the same neighborhood as one of the two.

House #3 – I still like this one, but Donna is still not liking it. She is right though, there is no real view. The outside of the house is inviting and now after a second look, I have to admit it should be better inside for the price they are asking. Cross it off the list.

House #21 – This is a split level and like one of the other 20 places we looked at, I can’t remember which, when you open the front door you have a 3′ deep landing and a staircase down (and up). At least the door was hinged correctly this time. Here was another one where the photographer was worth what they spent on him or her. It looked really nice in the photos online, but seeing it in person it was a big letdown and it wasn’t just because it was empty of furniture. There was no interest from either of us for this houses.

House #4 – This was a revisit of a place we both sort of picked apart the first time, but this was a Hail Mary on finding Brian a completely one story house. The pass was intercepted by the lack of A/C and the broken odd stove. It was an electric that was 40″ wide. Yikes, they are rare and expensive. Forget about it.

Over lunch Brian finally folded his last hand, House #16 as being to much money with the stuff we needed to do to it and then there was the $300 HOA fee on top of every thing. So we were discussing what we would offer on the winner, House #5, when a new house popped up on the market.

One last one story try for Brian, called Realtor and asked if we could see this place. It looked empty in the photos, so we thought we might be able to see it today. She called back and said could you meet me there at 2:00 PM. Why yes we could.

House #22 – The front view wasn’t dazzling, but not ugly by a long shot. It was the back view looking away that was the grabber, you were high enough up that you looked over town and some of the surrounding hills and mountains. Including Donna’s spirit mountain, Shasta. it was jam up with carpet though. I thought that the view would in fact trump the carpet, I was sure she would like it. Once again a quick look at twenty some odds photos, crash head first into reality. The house from the outside was good, the view was great, but the insides failed. The kitchen had a too large a refrigerator, the cabinets were ugly and the counter tops were outdated. The bathrooms were just as unappealing in person as the kitchen. The carpet was brand new. How did I know that they were new besides the smell. Well, when you first walk in the front door you are greeted by a handmade sign that said, “Please remove all shoes.” So to make this place workable we would have to spend, at least three grand on a new refrigerator and a new washer/dryer as there was none. Not to mention how much it would cost for those updates we would like. And for a while we considered offering on the house in spite of its issues, that’s how powerful that Shasta view was. But we came to our senses while traveling the best route to all the shopping and stores and businesses as it included several lights and was very busy.

Looks like House #5 is the winner. We’ll probably make an offer tomorrow.

House Hunters VII

On Monday we gave our Realtor a list of 6 more homes and a revisit to look at. So we met at the first house at 1:00 PM today.

House #15 – This was new construction and they are not even finished inside. There was one guy on a Bobcat leveling the front yard and there were two or three other sub-contractors inside doing plumbing and wiring and stuff. The house has a lot of high points, small lake view, all on one floor, 4 bedrooms and two baths in 1800 sq. ft., the finishes, the floor plan, the lighting and bath fixtures and the stainless steel appliances. But in our opinion the low points out weighed the high points. It is located on a short gravel road which may or may not ever get paved. They are putting carpet in the bedrooms which we will want to take right back out. There are open lots on either side of the house which probably means that once they get our money on this one, they will start building right next door.

House #16 – This one is right down the street from House #2 which, so far, is the only place we both can agree on. It is another one that is near our upper limit and is on the list at my request even though Donna isn’t too thrilled by it from the pictures (lots of carpet), but is my version of House #6 which she wanted to see even though it was destined to be a no. Another reason she thought it wouldn’t work is because it is in a long line of homes that look identical and it might be confusing as to which place was ours. The Realtor verified that concern when she stopped in front of the neighboring house first before moving up one house to the right one. It wasn’t as bad as Donna thought, but it wasn’t as great as I thought. But remains as one of 4 finalists for now, because it is technically a condo, we need a look at the covenants and decide whether it is worth an extra $300 a month in HOA fees.

House #5 – This was a revisit of Donna’s lead pick. Brian was not too thrilled the first visit and while he didn’t want anything to do with it before, after seeing nearly a dozen other places in town in between, he was ready to admit that maybe he could live there.

House #17 – This one was near one of our two preferred neighborhoods and had some potential in the photos, but crashed on our visit. It had an older kitchen that neither Donna and I had a problem with. There was wood flooring through out the first floor and even a nice screened porch in the back. But it was just a one car garage (which looked like in a pinch, we could squeeze both of our small cars in), the only way to get into the garage was by going outside and the killer was the carpeted master bedroom was in the basement.

House #18 – Loved the Craftsman style look of the front and the wood floored living and dining rooms. The kitchen was a little narrow, but plenty of counter space and stainless steel appliances with a bonus of a gas range. But just like the previous house, the master bedroom was downstairs, it had a one car garage and it had no air conditioning.

House #19 – Here was another house that looked good in photos, but crumbled on visiting. It did have it strong points, a nice view of Mount Shasta, large kitchen, beautiful windows, wood flooring on the first floor and a retro bathroom that is actually cool. The downsides were many, the two bedrooms upstairs were carpeted and felt like they were in the roof (kind of because they were), the downstairs had a bedroom and no bathroom and a large open space that used to be the basement and one car garage. The only parking was a two car long carport. It was on a steep street with a steep driveway up to the carport. Plus is was at 2800 sq ft, a bit too large.

House #20 – This house was an interesting option, it is literally next door to the previous one. It looks small but it is actually has 1,800 sq ft with 4 bedrooms and 1-1/2 baths. It has a hobbit-like one car garage out front (it is dug into the hill out front and has a door in the back that leads to the basement.) Either way we didn’t get into it today. The owner has some strict visiting times and needed more warning than one day. It has no A/C and we would have to build a two car garage on the adjoining empty lot.

Yawn

One good thing about living way out west is Monday Night Football starts at 5:00 PM. When living on the east coast it started at 8:00 PM and usually ended around 11:30 PM, which is almost too late to stay up for the whole game.

The one bad thing about living way out west is it gets dark early in the fall, so that when Monday Night Football ends at 8:30, it is hard to resist not going to bed right after it is over.

I Got Your Windy Road Right Here

On yesterday’s day trip to Ashland, we went west on a couple county roads, Clover Creek Road and Dead Indian Memorial Road instead of the slightly shorter, but longer time way of OR-66 because both Google and the Garmin recommended it. To get to Ashland you have to go up and over the Cascades. Klamath Falls sits at 4100′ above sea level and on the way over we hit altitudes of around 5,500 feet. The Clover Creek Road section out of Klamath Falls climbs easily and steadily to the plateau section that hovers at about a mile high. After about 33 miles you turn left on Dead Indian Memorial Road and in short order you cross the Pacific Crest Trail. The road settles into a smooth run through ranches and by small lakes until you hit the last 20 miles where you drop down a couple thousand feet of elevation. But unlike in the east, the open land allows a more shallow drop per mile traveled, most of the way down is in 4th gear with occasional foray into 3rd gear.

On the way home, we opted to try OR-66 because I kind of wanted to avoid the same road when going back. So the road profile is similar, just backwards, the 2,000′ climb is at the start, then plateau, then a shallower 1,300′ descent at the end. The Google map image above shows the approximate ascent. It is no Deals Gap, for one it is not really flat, it is a hill climb. And I didn’t count the turns, but there were probably about half the number as on the Tail of the Dragon, but I drove this road a lot slower than I do the dragon for a couple of reasons. The first is familiarity, we started going to drive the Gap in 1997, and in those intervening 22 years I’ve probably traveled that road a hundred times in one direction. The other is, on about 60% of the climb up on OR-66 there is no guardrail. And on the way up you are on the outside lane of the mountain! I don’t know about you, but I am not really afraid of heights, I am just not comfortable at all while at the edge of those heights. My testicles were residing somewhere up in my abdomen for a lot of the drive up.

If you look at the Google map again it says that stretch of road is 9.3 miles and it should take you 17 minutes. That averages out to be just under 34 MPH, I bet my average was more like 30 MPH. Now we were in the Mini, so when I get to drive the Miata and I’ve done it a few times that average speed will be reduced a bit. But I probably won’t get it below the Google estimate until I’m in the Miata and I’m going down on in the other where I’ll be up against the mountain not the edge…

38,000 Pieces of Hair Trimmed

Today was a much needed day off from House Hunting. We decided to take a trip east to visit Ashland, Oregon. Population-wise it is about the same size as Klamath Falls, but the two cities are as different as can be.

Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival which brings in people from all around world to its three major stages for around 800 performances over 7 months. Because of this it has a big city feel, with a vibrant downtown full of shopping and dining.

Klamath Falls is a city with has the heart of a small town and has a unique blend of roughneck and sophistication. Its downtown is the poorer cousin to Ashland, the businesses here are fewer and not as ritzy. But like Ashland you can find just about everything you with its large arrays of national chains in the surround area.

In Ashland you will be surrounded by Prii and BMWs while in Klamath Falls you are more likely to be surrounded by Subarus and jacked-up Pickups (some of them unfortunately spouting clouds of black diesel exhaust.) In Ashland a nice 3 bedroom/two bath house with a two car garage will set you back around $350K, while in K Falls it will be more like $250. All in all we still prefer Klamath Falls, even with its occasional redneck rolling coal, and we’ll leave Ashland for a dose of “culture” when we need it.

Last Wednesday was the day we would have gotten our haircut back in Aiken and one of the things we still have to do here is find a spot for us both to get our haircut. The human head has approximately 100,000 hair follicles, while Donna’s are probably all going strong, only about 38k are operating as designed. When we got to Ashland this morning it was about 8:30 and a lot of the stores were not open yet. So we stopped into a Starbucks for a snack. Afterwards while exploring more of the downtown we stumbled on a place that was open, called Hair City. They had just opened and there was no one in the joint. There were 2 stylists there and only one had a couple of standing appointments, so the other one took us in.

After the fresh haircut we headed over to Lithia Park, a 90 some odd acres of forested canyonland around Ashland Creek for a walk. It was in full fall color mode and it was crowded full of costumed runners participating in the annual Monster Dash. When I say crowded, it really wasn’t, the park swallowed all 250 participants and we hardly knew it was until we stumbled on the finish line while walking the tree filled trails on both sides of the creek.

We also managed to spend about $15 at the last farmers market of the year and spend nothing at the nearby artists market. Before we left town we had lunch of wood fired pizza at Pie + Vine and a few edibles to go at Breeze Botanicals.

Somewhere on Clover Creek Road west of the town of Keno the Ladybug zipped past the 38,000 mile mark.