I just got myself a zero hp, zero mpg money pit with 2 bedrooms and 1000 sqft of space.



I am now indept more than my net worth.

Congrats and welcome to the club! As much as it pains you to put down that kind of $$$ and then eat Ramen for the rest of your life it will still be worth it!

Are you still in San Leandro?

yeah - I'm still in San Leandro. This place is only 4 blocks from my parents and 5 blocks from my sister. Moving all my junk over is going to be a piece of cake.

You can afford Ramen? Shoot - I'm going to be eating white rice served with air.

Congrats! I see you have a residential speed bump in front of your house. Now you get to see (hear) who has squeaky suspensions in your neighborhood. Hehe.

Hmmm. Did the previous owner have a boat or camper? Only asking because it looks like that driveway on the right is part of your property since the fence/gate at the "end" of it butts right up against your house which would be really odd if it belongs to your neighbor.

I'm not finished measuring the lot and the bonus room... but here is a (more or less) scale layout of the house:



I surveyed and drafted it myself.

It's kinda annoying - cause of the amount of traffic that my street gets - but its sorta entertaining to see everyone slam on the brakes, then rev their engines up again after they cleared the "hump".

Good eye!!

Its mine - I can park a boat/car there or just back a truck up to do work in my backyard. Or if I ever have a project-beater-car I can park it there too.

I think I know where the next backyard "mod day" is going to be...

Congrats Kenny.

Yeah, that side yard/RV parking is nice to have!

my goodness!! those are like the world's tiniest closets ever! how are you going to deal?

congrats on the house! it's a cute place, nice layout. you won't feel like that for too long - give it a couple of months to grow on you or you get used to writing the big fat mortgage check. you'll love going home @ the end of the day!

we have a raised crosswalk @ the corner of our block (we're 2nd from the corner). you can tell the residents from the non-residents. we usually laugh about it. once someone hit the crosswalk so hard i think they hit their head on the steering wheel cuz i heard 'clunk-beep-clunk-screech.' he stopped for a few seconds to make sure he was alright, then continued to speed off.

have fun & welcome to to the wonderful world of homeowners!

I guess people had less clothes in the 1950's

There is also no hall closet - so I will probably look for a nice wardrobe or something in lieu of closet space.

The house came with this antique Wedgewood Stove. Its a beast with alot of pretty cool features - I would have liked to keep it but it sprung a gas leak on the first day and I had to shut it off. I decided that I don't want the headaches of restoring such an ancient thing - so I am selling it off. I found a place in Berkeley who will come and get it - buy it from me for $150-200 (SCORE!!) and then restore it and sell it for $5,000.

They will probably put several weeks of labor and about $1400 in chrome and another $??? in materials. Still they should be making a nice chunk of change off me. I am probably getting ripped off - but I don't care - I am getting some cash for an old stove.


Check out the Salt and Pepper Shakers:

Congratulations, KJ!

...Are you sure it is? Every time I hear you say that, I'm like "What's wrong w/ Huey...? What's fun about eating only Ramen and living in a house that you make payments for the rest of your life?" That's like buying super expensive vehicle and just watch it in your driveway parked 'cause you can't afford gas...

Congrats on the new home, Kenny! The layout is functional. Did the purchase wipe out your savings or do you have anything left over to do any upgrades? A new range will set you back quite a few...

Shortly after we bought our home, I bought a cool software program that allows you to lay out the entire property, including the floorplan and landscaping, and even furnitre, fixtures, and plants! You can then see a 3-D view of the layout. It's been a useful tool for remodeling concepts. It's made by Punch Software . It has fairly high computer requirements if you want it to be zippy. It's moderately tolerable on my 2.4GHz P4/nVidia FX5200.

I'm pretty blessed. I used inheritance $$$ for the downpayment so I actually have not had to dip into my savings - yet.

I have low standards for a kitchen (translation - I don't cook) so a simple range will be fine with me. Something in the under $500 range will do.

I would like to save up for central heating - since the current furnace is about 40 years old and will probably die sooner rather than later.

Bobvila.com has a 3d remodeling program for free. Its horrible for userfriendliness - but hey... its free.

That range looks almost exactly like the one that one of my buddies used to have in his old house over on San Fernando in San Jose - that thing is a classic. I can understand why those people in Berkeley would fix it up.

If I'm not mistaken, it does look like your windows have been updated. If that's the case, that's definitely a plus. You got a shed in the backyard, too?

that's too bad - they are fabulous to bake w/. you can always sell it on craiglist & get more than what they are offering you. just put in your ad 'you haul away.' you'd get tons of offers, they sell like hot cakes - especially since yours looks to be in good condition, too.

maybe down the line, you can enlarge the master bedroom's closet, by converting a couple of walls & taking over the other bedroom's closet. & just get a wardrobe for the 2nd bedroom. i'm guessing that will just be a guest room or something like that.

as far as getting a 'new' stove to heat food up w/. get a used one so you aren't set back all that much. a lot of people just upgrade their kitchens & have pretty nice & not so old appliances. just keep your eyes open.

The windows are updated. The shed in the backyard is all rusty - but its good enough to store the lawnmower and shovels and things. There is a rotting wood deck just outside the shed - and eventually I'd like to tear that out and concrete right up to the shed. There is also a large lemon tree in the backyard that I don't care for either.

One of the things I like most about this house is the backyard.



Great for entertaining in the summers. I guess this is why homes cost more than condos.

The garage is converted. The guy before me had a pool table and 3 TV's in that room. Its a pretty large room - and I'm not sure what I am going to do with it.

Wow, with just a 1000 sf home, I'm glad you got a huge back yard! You even have side-yard parking!

I'm jealous!

BTW, check your PMs.

Dang, that *is* a nice backyard.