gonzai: (Dr Who)
Hoo boy, is it open. We went to a couple of open houses today, of houses I liked online but Mom didn't. Well, in person, she loved both. In particular she loved a house that didn't look like much from the street, but inside, party on dude! The realtor said the owner 'likes to entertain'. No kidding. The house included 7 - yes, 7 - bars, 5 of them wet and two of them full-on tiki style, with signs encouraging patrons to get their rum from 'Cap'n Billy's' (the owner was William). Also a professional poker table, a full-size pool table, an antique victrola and more booze than I could keep track of. And in the storage room, there was, tucked away on a shelf, a large plastic tub labelled 'gorilla suit'. Entertain, indeed.

However, there was also a stone patio and balcony in front, three decks, an enclosed two story sunroom and a huge stone patio with a waterfall and a pool in the back. Mom wants. OK, I want to, but Mom wants even more than I do.
gonzai: (Logan)
Mom will be 70 next week. On August 2nd, no less. I've asked her if she ever thought her 70th birthday would be the 'end of days', as it were. She doesn't think it's funny.

Anyway, I've been amassing little things here and there to give her a birthday weekend. Dinner Friday with her favorite gamers and they're making grilled chicken for her. Taking her out to dinner Saturday and I've zeroed in on a new restaurant which features a large rack of roast lamb (her favorite). Got her Season 1 of Royal Pains (she adores the show) and Toy Story 3 (she keeps complaining she hasn't seen it). Got a birthday card decrying 'little mutts that get into your frosting'. Don't ask. But considering her feelings about CJ, it was definitely appropriate!

I was going to round out her weekend by taking her to some open houses. There's a pair of houses she really likes. They're a quarter mile apart. Turns out they're both open on Sunday. Perfect, right? Wrong. They're open completely different times.  And her friends are giving her a party Sunday afternoon, so there's no way to do the second one. Shazbot.
gonzai: (Wat)
So there was that lovely mold issue at the Shore Leave hotel last week? And I wound up coughing all week. Then yesterday I took Mom to look at an open house she admired, and it turns out the owners split in February and the house hasn't been opened since. (I randomly picked some drawers and closets to open and found 4 bottles of wine, a fur coat and a vacuum cleaner. They split in a hurry.) And we beat the realtor there, so the house hadn't even been opened then and the AC wasn't on. Stale, musty, hot as heck and oh yeah, moldy. I was feeling bad before we even finished looking at the house. I nearly passed out driving home and hacked away all night. Then I went to the doctor this morning and darn if they hadn't remodeled the office. New carpet, fresh paint, new furniture. Fumes galore. And I start hacking again.

Great. All I need are allergies and/or asthma.
gonzai: (Owen)
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Ordinarily I would wait a while after winning to even claim the prize, but there's an awesome house on the market that I absolutely love. So as soon as I had the lawyer/accountant/adviser thing set up I would buy that house. (And a car with 4 wheel drive because the driveway to that house kinda requires it.) And that would be it for big purchases.

Dream On

Aug. 30th, 2010 01:39 pm
gonzai: (Tired)
OK, I'll fess up. I buy a lottery ticket every drawing. (Just one; I don't see where a second one appreciably improves the odds.) And I have a house on the market which is my 'dream home' should I happen to win the lottery. My most recent dream home was sold last week, so I had to find a new one. Found it already (and drove up to the front door yesterday):



Oh yeah - it backs up to the local reservoir and has an inground pool. Me want.
gonzai: (Dr Who)
The neighborhood where my office is located used to be the summer home area for Baltimore's bluebloods, and a result there are a lot of late 1800/early 1900 mansions here. One of them, at the top of the hill from the office perhaps 1/4 mile away, just went on the market Friday. I happened to see it was open this afternoon, so I had Mom stop by the office and I took a 'lunch' up there.

Holy. Mackerel. It's gigantic. 3 floors plus a full basement. Huge front lawn, more than twice the size of what you can see in the main photo. Equally large, terraced and flagstoned back yard. Garage, shed, outdoor kitchen and smokehouse. Two of the bathrooms are bigger than my bedroom. Two wraparound porches, one open and the other enclosed and including the kitchen and breakfast room. The furniture was really wonderful - mostly driftwoods converted in creative ways and simply beautiful. A lot of artwork in there, too, rather a weird combo of classic and kitsch, but there was what appeared to be an original Renoir in the dining room. (If it's original, a $six figure drawing.) A serious home for entertaining, were it not for one little problem - there's parking for only 3 or 4 vehicles. Oops.

The real estate listing photos are here. )

See if you can guess the asking price from the photos. No peeking at the listing proper.

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