i saw houses, chatted with a stranger, and saw a movie
went to two open houses today - one condo and one actual house - and the condo had quite possibly one of the worst new kitchens i've ever seen. (the whole (big!) house had been renovated into condos, so this was kind of new construction in the sense that the kitchen wasn't at all original to the building, and they could've done whatever they wanted with it.) very narrow, practically no cabinets, no pantry even tho there was a nice space for one right next to the fridge, in all a really stupid way to design a kitchen. my guess is the developer thought "we'll put in granite countertops and new appliances and hope the high ceiling and open floor plan are enough for people to overlook how tiny and badly designed the kitchen is". also the bedrooms each had only one window, you essentially had to share your patio space with the second-floor unit (the condo for sale was the third floor), both showers - it was a two-bathroom - had sloping ceilings on account of the condo was right under the roof which would make it difficult for tall people to shower, and there was a chimney going right thru what was set up as the dining room, which effectively split the space in two and turned it into one fairly cramped dining room and one cute sitting area. and did i mention that you had to go down the fire escape to the ground to get to your outdoor space? (as opposed to having a deck off the kitchen or something.) and that the fire escape was accessed from one of the bedrooms? they dropped the price on it, and no wonder - it's still SO not worth what they're asking.
altho it did have central air.... and an off-street parking space. :D which, for the price they were asking, it damn well should have. i didn't even bother to ask if it had any basement storage.
and the other place i found randomly as i was walking back, and i went in because i was so surprised to see a single-family house in my neigborhood. the street is this tiny dead-end road lined with all single-family homes with little side yards and patios and signs saying, basically, "you can only park on this street if you actually live here" and it was very cute and cozy and neighborly, and if i was in the market for a house i'd probably love living there. the attic was unfinished but i think it had the same footprint as the second floor, and there was an actual staircase with an actual door leading up to it, so if you wanted you could totally finish the attic and have three full floors of house. but, you know, it had four bedrooms and there's just one of me and i can't afford an actual house unless i want to move an hour or so from boston, which i don't. but it was fun to see the place, and the realtor was really sweet and didn't mind that i was just looking because i'm nosy like that.
(when i was a wee thing, my mom used to take me to open houses on sundays, just to see how other people lived. not, like, "this is how the top 1% lives", but, like, "how do other people decorate their ranch houses? how are their houses laid out?" we, uh, still do that sometimes. when i went to visit my parents in florida in january, mom and i saw a bunch of open houses on sunday, and considering we're talking vacation homes selling for upwards of $800k - and the one that was like $7.5m - we were CLEARLY looking out of nosiness, and not with any intention to buy. saw some nice places, tho.)
i ran into the same guy at both houses - i think he was looking just to look too - and after the second house we walked back to the square together and talked about the housing market. his mom's a realtor in western mass. and then he had to go to the bank and i went to see toy story 3 because it was HOT and the time was convenient. it's a really good movie (this did not surprise me), funny and touching and really cute and very much a toy story, er, story. also i may or may not have sniffled once or twice. i recommend it if pixar movies are your kind of thing.
dark room sign - why you should keep the door to a darkroom closed.
oscar the cyborg kitty - he lost his back feet in an accident, and thanks to modern medicine and little metal pegs grafted onto his leg bones, he now has prosthetic feets and can walk and jump like he used to.
altho it did have central air.... and an off-street parking space. :D which, for the price they were asking, it damn well should have. i didn't even bother to ask if it had any basement storage.
and the other place i found randomly as i was walking back, and i went in because i was so surprised to see a single-family house in my neigborhood. the street is this tiny dead-end road lined with all single-family homes with little side yards and patios and signs saying, basically, "you can only park on this street if you actually live here" and it was very cute and cozy and neighborly, and if i was in the market for a house i'd probably love living there. the attic was unfinished but i think it had the same footprint as the second floor, and there was an actual staircase with an actual door leading up to it, so if you wanted you could totally finish the attic and have three full floors of house. but, you know, it had four bedrooms and there's just one of me and i can't afford an actual house unless i want to move an hour or so from boston, which i don't. but it was fun to see the place, and the realtor was really sweet and didn't mind that i was just looking because i'm nosy like that.
(when i was a wee thing, my mom used to take me to open houses on sundays, just to see how other people lived. not, like, "this is how the top 1% lives", but, like, "how do other people decorate their ranch houses? how are their houses laid out?" we, uh, still do that sometimes. when i went to visit my parents in florida in january, mom and i saw a bunch of open houses on sunday, and considering we're talking vacation homes selling for upwards of $800k - and the one that was like $7.5m - we were CLEARLY looking out of nosiness, and not with any intention to buy. saw some nice places, tho.)
i ran into the same guy at both houses - i think he was looking just to look too - and after the second house we walked back to the square together and talked about the housing market. his mom's a realtor in western mass. and then he had to go to the bank and i went to see toy story 3 because it was HOT and the time was convenient. it's a really good movie (this did not surprise me), funny and touching and really cute and very much a toy story, er, story. also i may or may not have sniffled once or twice. i recommend it if pixar movies are your kind of thing.
dark room sign - why you should keep the door to a darkroom closed.
oscar the cyborg kitty - he lost his back feet in an accident, and thanks to modern medicine and little metal pegs grafted onto his leg bones, he now has prosthetic feets and can walk and jump like he used to.