So to date, we have put out 6 offers on 5 homes. We started house hunting on April 25, 2004.
Offer #1: 2bd / 1ba home with remodeled kitchen, center patio, 1 room & bath down, large lot, 2 blocks from the beach; sold for $132k over the asking price!
Offer #2: 2bd / 1 ba home with remodeled kitchen, wine storage, 1 room & bath down, 1 block from the beach; listed at $599k, our offer was ranked as the 4th highest offer.
Offer #3 & 6: Cute 2 bd / 1 ba home, with 1920s detailing, GORGEOUS yard, room & bath down, listed at $629k…they rejected our preemptive offer. We resubmitted as they had only handed out 6 disclosures. Offered backup status if we offered $740k. Non, merci.
Offer #4: 2 bd /1 ba home, french doors leading to terraced garden, 2nd bedroom, not really a bedroom, a bit smaller than the others, but nice locale, listed at $599k…we weren’t even a front runner.
Offer #5: 2 bd / 1 bath home with dine-in kitchen, 2 rooms and bath down, garden with a small cottage, listed at $565k. Offered backup status.
Though the interest rates are climbing up, there still is a great demand for homes. So, according to the rules of supply & demand – I don’t think that the housing prices will fall. Hopefully though, there will be less competition out there…
Yesterday at the park, Lucie met her Linus. It was too cute a moment. Linus was a mutt of some sort. Once they greeted each other, they went on their merry ways.
(Image borrowed from Snoopy.com)
Yes, yes. kellybean is back after a brief hiatus. Technical difficulties.
Was on cnn.com earlier, scanning the top headlines:
1. IL senator drops of out senate race
2. Ah-nold: CA’s strays should be put to sleep sooner
3. School bus driver reports 2 kids in klan gear at stop
And, lest we forget…#4: Britney is engaged to dancer boyfriend
Hmm, one of these things is not like the other. Wonder how long this will last?
So to recap the past few weeks:
Benedicte, Eric, Leo and Leeloo are all back in France / Tahiti. It was a fun and exhausting two weeks. Everyone ended up getting sick, going to the MD, coughing, sneezing. We had more OTC drugs in our house than Walgreen’s. Of course, as soon as everyone had left, I got sick.
We spent one weekend up at Gurney-ville / Russian River. Beautiful weather…we spent some time on the beach relaxing. Lucie enjoyed very much swimming in the river and swimming and swimming. We took the long way back and drove thru to Sonoma and stopped at a winery before finally arriving home.
Then we were off to Vegas. It was bit difficult to fully enjoy Las Vegas with two children – so we went our separate ways. I gotta say, I LOVE VEGAS! Absolutely LOVE it! When I board the plane, I am oh so tired and plan to nap for a few when I land. But there’s something about flying over nothing and then all of a sudden – lights! everywhere. Something about that just completely reenergizes me. For the most part I always have a good time. It’s probably good that I don’t live in LA or SD (which is always a possibility), because the proximity would just kill me. We weren’t too lucky with slots or blackjack, but we met a nice croupier at MGM who gave us some basic tips on how to play craps. So S & I took what we learned to IP and managed to come up $30 (from that night only). We had a lovely dinner at Mon Ami Gabi (Paris) and before ya know it, it was time to go home. We splurged and paid the extra $100 on America West for first class seats home. Yes, bien sur, we made a visit to the Bellagio buffet for lunch – yummy ribs! Oh we strolled by the poker room at Bellagio – tables and tables of Texas Hold ‘Em, moving at light speed. S mentioned that he & his occasional poker night buddies are definitely not ready for poker games there – especially md. (just kidding!) And of course, we went shopping…picked up some cute baubles at my fave French jewelry shop – Agatha.
Since we’ve been home, we’ve put two offers on two different houses – both of which got denied. So yes, we are frustrated. Oh, that first house we put the offer on…listed at $638k…found out that it sold for $770k!!! wtf, as S would say
Darling Katie and I ventured out one night to the musical, Hairspray. We thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd Act, as during the 1st, we were constantly maneuvering around the gargantuan heads that were in front of us. Katie made friendly with an usher and we were able to move to the lower balcony.
I cashed in on my Sur La Table gift card and attended a cooking class – A Taste of Creole Cuisine: Seafood & Sausage Gumbo, Chicken & Seafood Jambalaya, Succotash, Cinnamon Crepes topped with Bananas Foster. Sadly I didn’t pay too much attention to the dessert prep as I was noshing on my jambalaya (yum!), succotash (my first time eating okra), and gumbo (super yum! can’t wait to make it myself).
For the francophiles…from my beau-pere
Imaginez que chaque matin, une banque vous ouvre un compte de 86 400.
Simplement, il y a deux règles à respecter. La première règle est que tout
ce que vous n’avez pas dépensé dans la journée vous est enlevé le soir.
Vous ne pouvez pas virer cet argent sur un autre compte et ne pouvez que le
dépenser. Mais chaque matin au réveil, la banque vous ouvre un nouveau
compte, avec à nouveau 86 400 pour la journée.
Deuxième règle: la banque peut interrompre sans préavis ; à n’importe quel
moment elle peut vous dire que c’est fini, qu’elle ferme le compte et qu’il
n’y en aura pas d’autre.
Que feriez-vous ? Vous dépenseriez chaque franc à vous faire plaisir ainsi
qu’aux gens que vous aimez ?
Cette banque magique, nous l’avons tous, c’est le temps!
Chaque matin, au réveil, nous sommes crédités de 86 400 secondes de vie pour
la journée, et lorsque nous nous endormons le soir, il n’y a pas de report.
Ce qui n’a pas été vécu dans la journée est perdu. Chaque matin, cette magie
recommence.
Nous jouons avec cette règle incontournable : la banque peut fermer notre
compte à n’importe quel moment, sans aucun préavis, car à tout moment, la
vie peut s’arrêter.
Alors qu’en faisons-nous de nos 86400 secondes quotidiennes ?
Alors profitez-en !
Just in case you HAVEN’T heard…Michael Moore’s film, Fahrenheit 9/11 is being released Friday, June 25. If you’ve been living under a rock, it won the top prize at this year’s film festival in Cannes!
View the trailer here.
Go see it. Get others to see it. I hear that is strategically being released on DVD in October. Hopefully, those who see it will be motivated to vote in the upcoming election.
After watching the trailer, I’m trying to figure out how a…je ne sais quoi…could be elected president?
Read an interesting, heartwarming article in the NYT today.
I read / saw somewhere before, probably Animal Planet, that some correctional facilities are allowing inmates to train young labs to prepare them for future schooling as guide dogs for the blind or bomb-sniffing dogs for the police.
But 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at a facility, the dogs don’t get to experience the “real world”.
So, the woman who started Puppies Behind Bars (www.puppiesbehindbars.com) further developed the program that matches up these pups with voluteers in Manhattan to “city train” them.
Read the full article here.
I still can’t believe that there are three, yes three!, Starbucks coffee houses in Paris: Opera, Montparnasse, et La Defense. I guess it’s more of a beverage for the Parisians than it is actually “prendre le cafe”.
The sad thing is that we’ll probably visit them while we’re there. :o/
In the span of a few hours I have become tata Kelly. Tata is short / slang for “tante”, which means “aunt” in French.
The Thomas’ arrived, a bit earlier than expected. Try 5 hours earlier. But no big deal. I think that they were glad to not be on a plane longer than originally expected.
Leo is cutest thing. The last time I saw him, he was 1. Now he is almost 4. And it’s even cuter when he speaks to me in French and I have no clue as to what he’s telling me. He’s getting along very lovely with Lucie. (Poor Lucie is probably wondering what all these people are doing in her house.) He’s not so cute, when throwing tantrums, though.
Leeloo is 7 months now and looks just like Elisabeth, her grandmother (Sylvain & Benedicte’s mom). Big blue eyes and strawberry blond hair. It’s funny to think that my nephew & niece are blond with blue eyes.
Luckily for Sylvain & I, the kids slept through the night. If they didn’t, we didn’t hear any of it.
And so begins their vacation in San Francisco…
It’s a very comfortable 80-something degrees in Palo Alto today. So at my break I decided to treat myself to a Jack in the Box choco milkshake. I hadn’t had one in soooo long. And, yes, they are still the best milkshakes of all fast food joints.
Lucie met my aunt & uncle’s cat, Toonces, yesterday. Though Toonces was safe in her little cat carrier, Lucie was cautious of treading near it. When Lucie was trying to check her out, I swear I heard that cat…growl.
Benedicte, Eric, Leo & Leeloo arrive tomorrow night. Got a lot of cleaning and arranging to do before they get here. Thank goodness their flight arrives at 10 tomorrow night!