Two weeks passed so fast. Search goes on and it's getting tiresome. The new homes look so good. But small yard. But then, how much of the yard have we really used? Not even in summer. Yeah, we can excuse ourselves - it's not our house, does not feel the same, blah blah blah. Seriously, in the one year we've had this big yard, I think I can count the number of times I step out to the deck on one, okay most definitely two hands. That's how much I have used the yard. The Boy barely steps out except to take out the thrash every Wednesday night. House on big lot sounds good, especially to Asians where the need to have title to a piece of earth has always been in the DNA. Still, a new house looks so nice. Please please may I? The offers and counter offers and the termite inspections, house inspections, et nauseum, are a source of stress I can do without. And the price is not out of our reach yet. Please? 5,000 sq ft is good enough for me.
Enough of woes.
Last Saturday, the Man and I went to our very first ever football game. A friend gaves us two tickets, including car parking. And we cheered loudly each time CAL scored a touchdown. Results? CAL thrashed Washington State 49 to 17. Go Bears! It was a most pleasant way to pass a Saturday. Beautiful weather too. Couldn't ask for more. Especially with the Man who would never ever go to a game. Except this time round no one else would go with me and we have the tickets. Happily, he enjoyed the game as much as I did, I think.
And the evening before, we joined 10 sets of retired couples, all members of the SIR, to dinner somewhere in Livermore. Don't ask me where. We went in Jim' Quon's car with his wife, Joyce, and Gerald with the earring and his wife, Anne. Squeezed between the Man and Gerald with the earring, I was just focused on the conversation going on in the front row and did not pay attention to the journey. The six of us in Jim's family car. Never known a saloon to be a six-seater but there you have it. You learn something new everyday. Before we were allowed to eat, everyone had to introduce himself/herself and only I got an applause - as someone from Singapore growing roots in the US of A. Going out on these SIR events are fun - I get to be the youngest! Everyone of them is decades older. Maybe we should join them more often. The food that night - chicken and sausage paella - was not great and a tad pricey for the quality and quantity but having the fewest wrinkles and least gray hairs and the company of seniors is GOOD for my spirit :).
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Plentiful Paperwork
Getting a home here is a genuine pain the rear end. All that crap about home prices being a steal because of the bust... Maybe it is just the East Bay but the hassles and agents who don't seem to want to look for bargains for you just make the whole experience more painful than it should be. And the stupid bidding wars. People flipping houses or playing the field - this month, it is on the market, then it disappears and suddenly a month later it is back often at a different price. It is all just so complicated. It was so much easier in the little island.
In the past two to three weeks, I have had more cell phone calls from that one realtor than from everyone else in the entire three years I have been here. And it is so hard to hear when she is on bluetooth and driving around. Plus that lisp. Urgh! And the grounchiness that just stresses me no end.
Silently I call for help and the inner strength to stay sane. To stay calm in the swirl of words and not get drawn into the maelstrom coming from a verbose word swallowing high pressure agent and from another. All the while dealing with the mountain of paperwork from the change of employment status, trying to understand the legalese and carefully crafted lawyer word-smithed passages designed to ensure an entirely neutral stance that will never win you a court case. Why can't people talk and write in layman English? Tell it as it is?
Why can't I afford a new house with all the modern trimmings and fault free structures with a nice warranty and adequate land without having to change my son's school and pay astronomical property taxes? Instead of bidding ridiculously for old homes and combing through volumes of inspection reports that strikes fear into your core because of the reported dreadful sounding faults in your dream home?
Ah America.
In the past two to three weeks, I have had more cell phone calls from that one realtor than from everyone else in the entire three years I have been here. And it is so hard to hear when she is on bluetooth and driving around. Plus that lisp. Urgh! And the grounchiness that just stresses me no end.
Silently I call for help and the inner strength to stay sane. To stay calm in the swirl of words and not get drawn into the maelstrom coming from a verbose word swallowing high pressure agent and from another. All the while dealing with the mountain of paperwork from the change of employment status, trying to understand the legalese and carefully crafted lawyer word-smithed passages designed to ensure an entirely neutral stance that will never win you a court case. Why can't people talk and write in layman English? Tell it as it is?
Why can't I afford a new house with all the modern trimmings and fault free structures with a nice warranty and adequate land without having to change my son's school and pay astronomical property taxes? Instead of bidding ridiculously for old homes and combing through volumes of inspection reports that strikes fear into your core because of the reported dreadful sounding faults in your dream home?
Ah America.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Settling Soon
Here I am, sitting in the small dining nook next to the kitchen, hands icy cold, working on a document for a meeting tomorrow and going through a lot of forms from the lawyers. Seems straightforward enough but some corrections may be needed. Sigh. When I awoke, the house was at 63 F, after an entire morning, it has risen by a total of 1 degree F.
This is a cold house. I think the insulation is not as good as it should be. Strange that not that long ago, it was triple digit temperature. Yesterday was very beautiful outside. Just the perfect California weather but today is overcast and noticeably cooler. Leaves are already turnoing red just outside the kitchen window and soon they will start falling.
The year is coming to a close and when I look back, it seems like I have not accomplish much at all. Where did the months go? We did go to Jamaica. And Carynn was here with Brad. I brought them to Yosemite. Nic got her own apartment in Berkeley. She joined some sorority. And we all grew older. But these are not milestones. They simply marked the events in the normal passing of time. What have I done to better the world, even by an iota? What contributions have I made to mankind, my hearth or my workplace? What can I report to the heavens should I suddenly expire? I did not even take part in the company annual community help event this year because...
Next year promises a new beginning, a new era in our family history. The sprouting and reaching out of new tentative roots into a new bedrock of hope. A new bigger future for the offsprings with opportunities that the little place we originated may not be able to provide just because. My fingers are crossed that all go as planned. Until then, we are limited in our ability to physically reconnect with the homeland. But it will be worth the wait.
Meanwhile, the hunt for a new abode goes on.
This is a cold house. I think the insulation is not as good as it should be. Strange that not that long ago, it was triple digit temperature. Yesterday was very beautiful outside. Just the perfect California weather but today is overcast and noticeably cooler. Leaves are already turnoing red just outside the kitchen window and soon they will start falling.
The year is coming to a close and when I look back, it seems like I have not accomplish much at all. Where did the months go? We did go to Jamaica. And Carynn was here with Brad. I brought them to Yosemite. Nic got her own apartment in Berkeley. She joined some sorority. And we all grew older. But these are not milestones. They simply marked the events in the normal passing of time. What have I done to better the world, even by an iota? What contributions have I made to mankind, my hearth or my workplace? What can I report to the heavens should I suddenly expire? I did not even take part in the company annual community help event this year because...
Next year promises a new beginning, a new era in our family history. The sprouting and reaching out of new tentative roots into a new bedrock of hope. A new bigger future for the offsprings with opportunities that the little place we originated may not be able to provide just because. My fingers are crossed that all go as planned. Until then, we are limited in our ability to physically reconnect with the homeland. But it will be worth the wait.
Meanwhile, the hunt for a new abode goes on.
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