House stuff, lots of rambling
Kitchen adventure
I tried out a pot roast recipe in our brand new crock pot. I printed out a highly reviewed recipe from AllRecipes.com, bought the ingredients and prepared everything last night to cook today. I never pay attention to serving size because I figure that I can use the leftovers. HOWEVER...the recipe makes 8 servings. My crock pot has a 4-5 person serving capacity. Oh my lord, I stuffed that crock pot to the gills!
Another thing about crock pot cooking - I've never actually ate anything that was cooked in a crock pot before. So, you guessed it, I've never had pot roast before. I didn't realize how greasy it can be. Maybe it's because I'm having a visit from my special monthly friend this week, but I really didn't like the pot roast. Stringy, shreddy meat, the veggies were overcooked and tasted all the same. Yuck. D really liked it though and had 2 servings. Maybe it will taste better later this week, when my taste buds aren't so out of whack. But I have to admit, it was really nice to come home to a hot meal after work.
Closet adventure and musings
D knocked down the existing shelves and rods in our walk in closet yesterday. He also assembled the drawers for the organizer unit. We need to go to Home Depot and buy some spackle to repair the wall that was behind the shelves' support boards. I got an e-mail today that Ikea is having a storewide sale this weekend, so we're going to buy the rest of the organizer units then. We bought the units for D's side of the closet, but didn't buy mine because I keep changing my mind.
Most of our clothes are now in the spare bedroom. I swear, I really think I have less or the same amount of clothing as D! D claims that I still have more clothes because he's planning to donate some clothes that haven't been sorted yet.
Thinking about the quantity of clothes I have made me a little depressed. I am *so* not a fashionista. I mean, I've never been a fashionista, but I used to at least keep track of trends and buy a few trendy pieces each season. Now, I'm so out of touch that D probably knows more about women's fashion than I do. After all, he was the one who decided that I needed a pair of Seven jeans for my birthday 2 years ago. I was like, "What are Seven jeans?"
Homeowner musings
It seems like a lot of post-wedding brides are now turning their attentions to house buying. This is one of the things I'm actually grateful that D insisted on doing before we got engaged. Looking for a home was one of the most stressful times in our relationship. I don't think we ever had or since have fought so much. Wedding stress was nothing in comparison!
When I look back on the past several years, I'm amazed to realize how much our lives had changed. When D and I first decided to move in together back in 2000, it was still the dot.com boom and rents were outrageously expensive. We couldn't find a decent apartment we liked for under $1400. We ended up moving to Richmond Marina Bay into a spacious 750 sq ft apartment with an in-suite washer and dryer. After 2 years, the dot.com boom became bust and rents declined. We moved to a small one bedroom apartment in Emeryville to save money. Towards the end of our lease, we started talking about buying a home and moving to a cheaper apartment. It also helped that the owner of our unit wanted to sell the unit, which meant that we would need to move anyways.
To save even more money, D and I moved into a 470 sq ft studio apartment in the same complex. Insane, yes? But the studio was actually my favorite apartment of all the rentals! It had hardwood floors, a stove that worked (unlike the POS stove in the other unit), and lots of natural light. I actually enjoyed how it was so small because it suited my laziness. If I was in bed and needed to go pee, I just walked less than five steps, and voila, le bathroom! In the kitchen and suddenly need to take a nap? A few steps, and there was the bed. My friend once told me that the studio had good feng shui, while the other unit had bad feng shui, which is why D and I got along better in the studio. Another reason why we were able to save money while living in the studio was because we had to consider whether we even had space to store a potential purchase. I ended up saving more more money than I originally calculated.
When we started to actively look for a home, we disagreed a lot. I wanted to buy a cute little fixer upper house with a small yard in an established area. D didn't want the hassle of a fixer upper nor to get involved in the bidding process. He wanted a home with a 2 car enclosed garage in a new home development so we could just buy at the listed price, first come, first serve. I was pretty upset about this because I felt that D's wishes took precedence over mine. So we disagreed. And we fought. D became gung-ho about buying a townhouse in San Ramon. The townhouse was listed as having 1,250 sq. ft. When we toured the model, I knew immediately that the garage was included into the square footage because the living space was tiny. I put my foot down and told D that no way in hell am I spending that much money on a tiny condo in San Ramon - it was too f*cking far from the city, too far from friends, and too depressing. As much as I admired the new homes out there, I couldn't help but feel like my skin was crawling. I felt sad to see the lovely grass covered hills being covered with suburban sprawl.
I know that D still wishes we bought that townhouse in San Ramon. In less than a year, the value of that tiny townhouse increased almost $100k. Insane.
After the San Ramon incident (summer 2003), we decided to stop looking so seriously and just go to open houses for fun. In October, D forwarded me a link to a new home development outside Richmond. He wrote something to the effect of, "I know we're avoiding anything near Richmond, but these don't look too bad." We were slightly scarred from our year living there. When we lived in Richmond, there were the two chemical fires at the Tosco refinery, a string of drive by shootings at the high schools, and 2 kids were murdered near the closet fast food restaurant. A few years later, Lacy Peterson's body washed up next to the pathway I used to roller blade on. I still don't like Richmond.
Anyways, we toured the models and something just clicked. The floor plans were good sized, the HOA dues weren't too high, and the price was in our budget. D and I talked it over the next couple days. We knew that if we bought into this development, the value wouldn't increase as rapidly as in other better areas. But we also realized that we just wanted to get our foot in the door. We didn't plan on having children anytime soon, so we could deal with living in a not-so-great area for a few years.
Fast forward a year and a half...I'm sitting on our futon typing away on D's laptop in *our* home. Our home is rather empty...we haven't bought any furniture since moving in because we needed to save money for the wedding. That means that the same amount of furniture that we used to furnish our 470 sq ft studio now furnishes our 1350 sq foot townhouse.
Being a homeowner is nice. I feel a sense of security and permanence that I never experienced as a renter. But I don't think I'm necessarily happier. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my life right now. But we made a lot of sacrifices and trade offs in order to become homeowners. We stopped going to fine restaurants - one of our favorite things to do. We don't go on weekend getaway trips anymore. I stopped buying department store cosmetics, salon brand hair products (I still miss my Terax Crema, but I can't bring myself to pay $16/tube anymore), new clothes, shoes, PURSES (oh, I love purses)...silly material things that made me feel pretty and sexy.
I once read that after a certain income level, a person's happiness only increases for a short while after an increase in income. I think this is true. My happiness comes from feeling secure about myself, my relationship/marriage to D, and my relationships with my friends and family. Owning a home hasn't changed those relationships.
Hm...long rambling post. I guess that's what happened when I realized that Lost is a repeat. ARGH! Two more weeks until a new episode!
I tried out a pot roast recipe in our brand new crock pot. I printed out a highly reviewed recipe from AllRecipes.com, bought the ingredients and prepared everything last night to cook today. I never pay attention to serving size because I figure that I can use the leftovers. HOWEVER...the recipe makes 8 servings. My crock pot has a 4-5 person serving capacity. Oh my lord, I stuffed that crock pot to the gills!
Another thing about crock pot cooking - I've never actually ate anything that was cooked in a crock pot before. So, you guessed it, I've never had pot roast before. I didn't realize how greasy it can be. Maybe it's because I'm having a visit from my special monthly friend this week, but I really didn't like the pot roast. Stringy, shreddy meat, the veggies were overcooked and tasted all the same. Yuck. D really liked it though and had 2 servings. Maybe it will taste better later this week, when my taste buds aren't so out of whack. But I have to admit, it was really nice to come home to a hot meal after work.
Closet adventure and musings
D knocked down the existing shelves and rods in our walk in closet yesterday. He also assembled the drawers for the organizer unit. We need to go to Home Depot and buy some spackle to repair the wall that was behind the shelves' support boards. I got an e-mail today that Ikea is having a storewide sale this weekend, so we're going to buy the rest of the organizer units then. We bought the units for D's side of the closet, but didn't buy mine because I keep changing my mind.
Most of our clothes are now in the spare bedroom. I swear, I really think I have less or the same amount of clothing as D! D claims that I still have more clothes because he's planning to donate some clothes that haven't been sorted yet.
Thinking about the quantity of clothes I have made me a little depressed. I am *so* not a fashionista. I mean, I've never been a fashionista, but I used to at least keep track of trends and buy a few trendy pieces each season. Now, I'm so out of touch that D probably knows more about women's fashion than I do. After all, he was the one who decided that I needed a pair of Seven jeans for my birthday 2 years ago. I was like, "What are Seven jeans?"
Homeowner musings
It seems like a lot of post-wedding brides are now turning their attentions to house buying. This is one of the things I'm actually grateful that D insisted on doing before we got engaged. Looking for a home was one of the most stressful times in our relationship. I don't think we ever had or since have fought so much. Wedding stress was nothing in comparison!
When I look back on the past several years, I'm amazed to realize how much our lives had changed. When D and I first decided to move in together back in 2000, it was still the dot.com boom and rents were outrageously expensive. We couldn't find a decent apartment we liked for under $1400. We ended up moving to Richmond Marina Bay into a spacious 750 sq ft apartment with an in-suite washer and dryer. After 2 years, the dot.com boom became bust and rents declined. We moved to a small one bedroom apartment in Emeryville to save money. Towards the end of our lease, we started talking about buying a home and moving to a cheaper apartment. It also helped that the owner of our unit wanted to sell the unit, which meant that we would need to move anyways.
To save even more money, D and I moved into a 470 sq ft studio apartment in the same complex. Insane, yes? But the studio was actually my favorite apartment of all the rentals! It had hardwood floors, a stove that worked (unlike the POS stove in the other unit), and lots of natural light. I actually enjoyed how it was so small because it suited my laziness. If I was in bed and needed to go pee, I just walked less than five steps, and voila, le bathroom! In the kitchen and suddenly need to take a nap? A few steps, and there was the bed. My friend once told me that the studio had good feng shui, while the other unit had bad feng shui, which is why D and I got along better in the studio. Another reason why we were able to save money while living in the studio was because we had to consider whether we even had space to store a potential purchase. I ended up saving more more money than I originally calculated.
When we started to actively look for a home, we disagreed a lot. I wanted to buy a cute little fixer upper house with a small yard in an established area. D didn't want the hassle of a fixer upper nor to get involved in the bidding process. He wanted a home with a 2 car enclosed garage in a new home development so we could just buy at the listed price, first come, first serve. I was pretty upset about this because I felt that D's wishes took precedence over mine. So we disagreed. And we fought. D became gung-ho about buying a townhouse in San Ramon. The townhouse was listed as having 1,250 sq. ft. When we toured the model, I knew immediately that the garage was included into the square footage because the living space was tiny. I put my foot down and told D that no way in hell am I spending that much money on a tiny condo in San Ramon - it was too f*cking far from the city, too far from friends, and too depressing. As much as I admired the new homes out there, I couldn't help but feel like my skin was crawling. I felt sad to see the lovely grass covered hills being covered with suburban sprawl.
I know that D still wishes we bought that townhouse in San Ramon. In less than a year, the value of that tiny townhouse increased almost $100k. Insane.
After the San Ramon incident (summer 2003), we decided to stop looking so seriously and just go to open houses for fun. In October, D forwarded me a link to a new home development outside Richmond. He wrote something to the effect of, "I know we're avoiding anything near Richmond, but these don't look too bad." We were slightly scarred from our year living there. When we lived in Richmond, there were the two chemical fires at the Tosco refinery, a string of drive by shootings at the high schools, and 2 kids were murdered near the closet fast food restaurant. A few years later, Lacy Peterson's body washed up next to the pathway I used to roller blade on. I still don't like Richmond.
Anyways, we toured the models and something just clicked. The floor plans were good sized, the HOA dues weren't too high, and the price was in our budget. D and I talked it over the next couple days. We knew that if we bought into this development, the value wouldn't increase as rapidly as in other better areas. But we also realized that we just wanted to get our foot in the door. We didn't plan on having children anytime soon, so we could deal with living in a not-so-great area for a few years.
Fast forward a year and a half...I'm sitting on our futon typing away on D's laptop in *our* home. Our home is rather empty...we haven't bought any furniture since moving in because we needed to save money for the wedding. That means that the same amount of furniture that we used to furnish our 470 sq ft studio now furnishes our 1350 sq foot townhouse.
Being a homeowner is nice. I feel a sense of security and permanence that I never experienced as a renter. But I don't think I'm necessarily happier. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my life right now. But we made a lot of sacrifices and trade offs in order to become homeowners. We stopped going to fine restaurants - one of our favorite things to do. We don't go on weekend getaway trips anymore. I stopped buying department store cosmetics, salon brand hair products (I still miss my Terax Crema, but I can't bring myself to pay $16/tube anymore), new clothes, shoes, PURSES (oh, I love purses)...silly material things that made me feel pretty and sexy.
I once read that after a certain income level, a person's happiness only increases for a short while after an increase in income. I think this is true. My happiness comes from feeling secure about myself, my relationship/marriage to D, and my relationships with my friends and family. Owning a home hasn't changed those relationships.
Hm...long rambling post. I guess that's what happened when I realized that Lost is a repeat. ARGH! Two more weeks until a new episode!