a blessing for the nest

if you don't already know, i live in deep rooted traditions and superstitions. my family goes to temple during chinese new year's eve, we observe all the holidays and special dates that requires ancestral worship and offerings, and we defer to the lunar calander when special events are planned. i even listen to buddhist chants when i need to meditate or refocus a bit. yes, i am a FOB at heart. actually, i'm just plain FOBulous.

before i could do anything for the house, we hired a "sifu" to come and bless it. he also goes around "scaring off" any potential spirits that might still lurk there. *ugh, shudders* he also identifies a place that i am suppose to place guanying "the goddess of mercy" so that she can watch over us and my house. i have yet to buy guanying.

if you look at the first post, you might notice a yellow piece if paper hanging above the door frame. that is called a "fu" and it's suppose to do all that protecting that i was talking about. we also had to move in a few items during a window period during a lucky day to maximize our luck while living there. ahhh...it is much needed for this fobby side of mine.

i'm so butch

closing escrow was one thing...but getting my house ready to move in was A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME. goodness gracious!! so much freakin' shit to do....SO much. i didn't know where to begin. thinking about it made/makes my stomach queasy and my wallet tremble. ugh. it's like a never ending laundry list of tasks...but did i tell you yet how much i love my house?

so my first task as a homeowner was to change the locks. this would deter past owners from "breaking in." i could have done it the easy way (which usually translates into mo' money) and hire a locksmith. but once i was equipped with my home depot homeowner's manual, i decided i can handle it. i went off to home depot and bought some locks. it took some time to figure it out, but once i got the hang of it, i changed the locks...MYSELF. whoo hoo. as i stood there changing locks on my front and back doors with a screwdriver in hand and with screws tucked into my baggy jean pockets...i felt so butch. goodness. but i got it done! whoo hoo! and i'm quite sure i saved a pretty penny too. yay me!

off.

on.

a rollercoaster of emotions

a rollercoaster of emotions indeed. it's tough checking out homes that you want, but perhaps can't get it for whatever reasons, or put in an offer and have to face multiple bids while you wait and cross your fingers. there were a few instances like that, but in this realm of my house hunting reality, truly, what was meant to be IS. i got the house that i liked the best in the area that i wanted. indeed it is not perfect, but you should have seen what i had bidded on previously. boy was i desperate with my limited budget. it took 6 long months, but it is all good. i got what i wanted after all.

my ultimate heart attack happened during escrow. helen was going through all the paperwork and a bomb fell...indymac (my lending bank) had to sell off a piece of itself (the freakin' department that helen worked in no less!!) because of all the foreclosures and people defaulting on their loans. i was in the midst of the sub-prime debacle...and here i am, waiting to get my loan processed. i think it was at that point that i decided that if this escrow fell through because i couldn't close in the allotted time then i'm DONE. i would take a break from house hunting...perhaps i can't do this on my own after all. :(

obviously, it worked out. indymac promised to process any loans that they have already committed themselves to. thank benevolent buddha. seriously though, buying a house is an absolutely emotional rollercoaster ride. well, to me anyways. i'm kinda skittish like that......

and then it began.....

i've thought about owning a home for MANY years now. definitely a dream i've always had. about 3 years ago, i started to look but only out of interest. at that time, the real estate market was way out of control. it is only with this sub-prime debacle that housing prices are finally pulled back down to "normalcy." for the first time in a very long time, first time home buyers are able to buy a house in l.a. no less (i know there are many arguments out there speculating if prices have bottomed out yet. if you are interested in knowing my viewpoint, let's have coffee. i can talk non stop about this shit).

i started looking and actually touring homes in february. i've seen TONS of property (all within my price range-ish) though all of varying savoriness. and here's one thing people don't tell you on these articles about plummeting prices. yes, properties are getting relatively cheaper, but people are also leaving these houses in a shitty way. you might get a good deal on the location and the size of the house, but some of these houses are pretty jacked. messed up foundations or other types of tlc required which would cost tens of thousand of dollars or so for you to fix. i guess it makes sense right? just cuz it's cheap doesn't mean it's a steal. especially in the area i want, there were few deals and no steals. and many are still out of my price range.

anyways, good guidance from my friend potsticker brought me to look into first homeowner's programs and loans for teachers as offered by our government. this in turn lead me to a really awesome lender named helen and who in turn lead me to an awesome real estate agent named dara. i was truly blessed in this journey. all the nuts and bolts were in place. i just had to find a house and i finally did. thank god for all the nuts and bolts that were at my side to help me realize this wee little dream of mine.

and potsticker, if you are reading this (um, yeah, of course you are), THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP. IT WAS INSANE TO SAY THE LEAST. THANK YOU!!!!

my real estate agent. she was a godsend after the crappy one i ried to work with through ziprealty. if you need someone, tell her, i sent yah! she's great and i still talk to her from time to time.

my first love

a mural in silverlake. so cute when you find poultry in love....

you might think my first love is chanel...or maybe even the chloe paddington. but it is not. my first love is silverlake. always have been, and i have the inkling that it always will be.

i was not born here, but raised and lived roughly 25+ years here (i didn't count the years i moved away). suffice to say, i know this neighborhood in and out and have seen it change with the times. it wasn't always that cool or hip. it was just an average lower middle class neighborhood that saw its fair share of grafitti and police cars. oh my how silverlake has changed!! it's now the "cool" place to be for hipsters and visitors alike. for me, silverlake is just HOME. HOME SWEET HOME.

not too recently (roughly the end of july a bit after my birthday towards the beginning of august), i closed escrow on a house IN SILVERLAKE :) it's not as close to the resevoir as i would like, but then again, there was no effin' hell that i would have been able to buy one close to it. given that, i still found a home in silverlake. walkable to my parent's place as well as the resevoir. all is good is what i say. all is good :)

my wee house has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. my sis will be moving in with me. i have no real yard, but a ton of fruit trees. i loves it a lot. meet my house :)

in the midst of cleaning and trying to paint. TRYING is the operative word here.

i really apologize for not fessing up sooner. please believe me when i say that i was ABSOLUTELY OVERWHELMED. the last thing i wanted to do was to answer any questions and give updates. but now you know so we are still friends :)