Homown Hell?

So, you want to own the home you live in?  You're not alone, but things are changing rapidly. Big decision and it can be painful to change your mind.  I can't give you any help here except to say that I personally prefer to own my home, which is astonishing considering I don't even live in the home I own - no one does, because as you know, it's an empty wreck (a FH).

But it is interesting to look at what is happening in the U.S.

US homeownership rates

"Homowns" (I made that up just now), are going down, renters are going up.  Here is what a report from Morgan Stanley said recently: “The combination of falling home prices, limited mortgage credit, continued liquidations and better rental options is fundamentally changing the way Americans live…moving the country toward a Rentership Society."

But Freddie Mac seems oblivious.

From freddiemac.com

California, it turns out, has the lowest homeownership rate in the country, save one.  Here's what our neighbors look like:

Homown rate in California, Oregon and Nevada

The hovel is my second home, having sold my first years ago. My perspective is that buying a house and working on it can be pure hell, or it can be wonderful.  For me it's been mostly hell, but on the other hand, I'm not done. The whole story has yet to be told.

New Life In The Garden

Got Siding?

Homogeneous Ruts

I image most of us like to think we're different in so many ways.  We're absolutely incomparable on some level or another.  But are we?  Look around.  We all dress remarkably alike, especially us guys. In a culture that tolerates diversity, we don't really express it much. Why?

I'll give you 5 bucks if you dress up like this and walk around town. (Submit photographic evidence to redeem.)

Little Bit of Pretty

... in the midst of the not-so-pretty.

First Gardening Activity

Start the season with pruning.

Latest Setback

I decided to go with another gas company to save money. Mistake. Didn't save money because of turnover costs. More importantly we discovered a large leak in the pipe under the house. We could smell and hear it, but not see it. I'm really glad I asked the gas dude to turn it all on and light the stove pilot light because if I did it I wouldn't have noticed the leak and it probably would have accumulated under the house until it blew.  It probably would have been an explosion large enough to blow me to Mt. Lassen.


Now the tank is padlocked because it's unsafe to use and I have to replace all the pipe under house.

Lovely.

But am I angry?  No.

I'm used to this.  This house fights me every step of the way, and always has.  But I can't - won't - let it win.