Into The Deep End

Re-focused and confident, our search surges with new possibilities. A 3-2 in Northridge is a little too Country. Interesting addresses in Lake Balboa are a little too Rock-n-Roll. Then we see it, glowing like the pool in “Cocoon.”

Kitchen cabinets painted FDIC green, but "that’s just paint." Ebony hardwood throughout all 1100 square feet and a spacious backyard, a blank canvas for my mini farm. All total, nearly 7000 square feet of 4D, customizable, personal-expression space!

Fredd picks me up after work. We’re sharing one car to save money and pay down our debt so we can qualify for more debt than we’ve ever been in?

So, yeah, Fred picks me up and we head west, discussing the PM Monday commute and the feasibility of public transportation. While just above our heads, four choppers point in our direction and a fleet of cop cars streak past, toward Universal City. Turns out it’s the last leg of a high-speed chase that ends with a Burbank PD bullet in the driver/ murder suspect.

Side note: California has more inmates on death row than any state and it costs 90K a year to keep them there. Death cheaper than Life?

The neighborhood is “ridiculously quiet”, Our Agent observes. The cupboards aren’t so bad. Fredd promises to wash dishes for the first year as the place is sans dishwasher. Okay. No air conditioning – no problem – we just get it in the contract. Phew! Good thing ‘cause we’ll sweat our butts off in 114° July and August.

We scan more papers for the Mortgage Broker. Thanks in part our One Car policy, we’re equipped with our best credit score ever. The offer will be ready to sign by EOD Tuesday.

That night, we’re incredulous yet compelled to talk details: we’ll have to buy a fridge, the windows are bare. We don’t even own a shovel and the soil is going to need serious amending. At the table, our life is transported to a garden home in Reseda. Ah yes, Max and a yard. The cats, they could finally set foot on real grass not that stuff we bring home in the 3” square white cartons from PetCo.

Tuesday, 5PM, we sign the offer but only after a finance call where our Broker tells me SHE’S worried about the fact that we don’t have any savings! "Imagine how worried that makes me?" I ask her.

Our Agent, calls before eleven on Wednesday, the offer has been rejected. They got offers over Asking with cash down, and no mysterious VA mess attached.

We’re going to need a strategy.