MY Home Sweet Home?

With truly uncanny timing, my uncle sent us an email out of the blue along the lines of "Hey, for your wedding gift I'll help you guys find a house."

Okay, he's a realtor - it's probably not that uncanny. But given the recent circumstances, it seemed like a sign.

I've been a renter my entire life. Do you know how dangerous floating the idea of ownership in front of a chronic renter is? My mind suddenly dissolved, becoming slave to "the dream". Being able to paint the walls? To not share a wall with your neighbor? To do laundry in your own home rather than a laundromat where someone takes your stuff out of the washer and throws it all on the floor?

Dangerous.

Now of course, chronic-renter-Penga-dad reminds me that there's upsides to renting too - like maintenance. ( Assuming your apartment actually does any.) And no property tax or hassle. Which is true, and it works out just great for many people. I just don't know that I'm one of them.

The bait had been laid, and I fell hook, line and sinker. YES I WANT A HOUSE UNCLE!

Sak, ever the practical one, thought that there was no way we'd ever be approved for anything since we have a itsy-bitsy credit history. Like, I didn't get a credit card until after college - and I hardly ever use it. But after a bit of prodding from me and a couple more "encounters" with the resident riff-raff, Sak agreed to meet with a broker.

Surprisingly, there were no problems. Apparently a long credit history isn't so important. Having a "steady" job seems to be the main requirement (though in this day-and-age I don't see how anything is considered steady).

In any case, we submitted two years of W-2's, two months of pay statements, and copies of our driver licenses (although mine has a hole in it because the California DMV hasn't sent my new-name one yet...It's been over 3 months already!). Our broker pulled up our credit reports, we filled out some disclosures, and we were rather painlessly pre-approved.

Of course, at this point I was salivating over just about every house on the market. My uncle told us to put together some criteria to help us narrow the field a bit. Here's what we came up with:

1) Safety. Nothing near apartments, busy streets, alchy stores or anything that "just looks sketchy". Leering teenagers in big groups, obviously a red flag.

2) Something bigger than what we currently have. This is really a no-brainer though, since we live in a hole.

That's it! Not too specific, so it's no wonder we've seen a bazillion houses stretching from Millbrae to Redwood City so far. Though I'm getting antsy and our lease is (finally) set to end in March, we're taking our time trying to find a good house. We put an offer on only one so far, and it was flat-out rejected by some jerk trying to flip his non-lived-in house for more than it's worth. *fume fume* But I'm not giving up, we'll find something awesome, I'm sure!

Have you bought property before? Any tips?

Home Sweet Scary Home

Our quality-of-apartment-life has really gone downhill the last three years we've lived here.

I've been chased by scary dogs, while their owners sat back, laughing. Sak says I should kick the attacking animal, but I happen to like having intact appendages.

The door bell rings at 9 PM at night, with a thuggish teen asking us to buy magazine subscriptions. I tell Sak not to answer the door, and to pretend we aren't home. I won't even go near the door to look out the peephole in these occasions, as I'm sure the door isn't bulletproof. Years of living in a gang-infested city teaches you these things.

Speaking of thuggish teens, they like to sit in the walkways and stairwells "smoking funny things", their gangly legs in the way for you to trip on. Of course, when you do fall, they laugh. There's nothing scarier than a group of teenagers with that same evil, smug smile. Rebels without a cause?

Oh, but they are the cause of the 3AM Tuesday night police calls due to partying and violent fights. I thought after leaving college I wouldn't have to deal with that anymore?

There's also the frequently double parked cars, which make it impossible to move our car out of our spot, or the neighbor that always parks over their line, making it impossible to park in the first place.

And then there's the mail.

With the exception of like, one nice person - I've decided that our rental office is staffed of purely incompetent people. I'll try to pick up a mail package, but they "can't find it". Then the same night I'll get a phone call from the same person saying that if I don't pick up my mail, they'll send it back. I have to budget 2 or 3 trips in order to get my mail each time. And don't even think about Sak picking something up for me. That's "not allowed", even though we signed a mail authorization form in the beginning of our lease. When told about the paper, the lazy worker refused to look up our file.

This is a rant, a long time coming. But there's a point to it! And it's that Sak and I turned to each other, mutually stating - "We've got to move."

Dun Dun Dun!

Required Reading

If I don't consciously make an effort to eat fresh fruit and veggies, go to bed at a decent hour, and brush my teeth - I won't do them at all. Gross, I know. Luckily for my health, I do manage, but it's definitely not second-nature habits.

The same idea translates over to my literary/cultural "health". Don't get me wrong - I read plenty. We go to the library about once a week. But it's always straight to the fiction and the sci-fi sections for me. I aim for the ones with the shiny covers. Yes, I'm one of those people.

But similar to having two weeks worth of dirty laundry spilling out of the hamper and down the stairs, I always start to feel a bit guilty for my unfettered indulgence.

Pre-wedding I used to have a policy: for every silly pulp fiction book, I'd also read something classic or of literary merit. Such books are timeless for a reason, and I often do like them in the end. I think I have to force myself to start them because bigger words and more complex English take more effort. That and the whole thing just reminds me of book reports (the "summarize" kind), which I single-handedly blame as the reason kids don't like to read otherwise awesome stories. Straight regurgitation is so boring.

Anyway, with Star Wars was Pride and Prejudice.

(source)

With Sookie Stackhouse was Jane Eyre.

(source)

With Hitchhiker's Guide was Ender's Game.

(source)

With the Mortal Instrument series was Dune.

(source)

Well, not really. Dune was just moving waaaay too slowly and I lost patience while lugging the gigantoid book around.

But you get the idea. The system worked fairly well for me, the fun of light reading paired with something worth reflecting on. But then wedding happened and I stopped reading (well, there were blogs, that counts for something right?). Now that wedding is over, I think this process should resume. I've already tackled the light reading portion, as I'm on book 3 of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. (I don't know if I'd recommend, but it's a mix between eye-roll worthy romance novel and historical events. In the least, it has given me an interest in learning about 18th century Scotland, so I consider that merit-worthy.)

(source)

Now I need to pick a new English-class-worthy-book.

(source) Not quite what I meant.

Do you have any favorites? I'm partial to lots of adventure and some good old-fashioned love triangles. I also prefer books with happy endings. The happier, the better. My thought is - if I wanted a depressing "modern ending", I'd just read non-fiction. Or watch the news. :P
How do you make sure to get your literary vegetables? Or maybe you're already a vegetarian?