A taste of Orange County--992 Post Street, Alameda, CA
I'm not sure if the GI bill or general post-war blahs are to blame--I just can't fathom why early baby-boomer-era houses are so damn ugly. Today's Craigslist post (or Trulia, or Postlets, MLS #40332910) is actually one of the prettier ones, at least judging by the listing pictures--I haven't actually seen this one in the flesh. I did tour one of its neighbors 18 months ago (984 Post) and thought I was back in that moonscape of suburban desolation that is inner Orange County.
This home is currently listed for $685,000, perhaps to cover the cost of an extensive and expensive remodel:
Except the ugly home down the street I saw last year was listed at $729,000 and sold for $40,000 less than that, and that was back in January 2007, when even an inbred squirrel could get a mortgage.
The same scenario leaves these folks with $10,000, which covers moving expenses and security deposit on a rental, maybe? And that other home at 984 Post was almost 50% bigger--1,460 sqft to this home's 1,010. In all fairness, it was depressingly fugly on the inside and didn't have any of the nice things this home has--the kitchen and bathrooms were sad and the carpet was pathetic. I'm still reeling from the fact it sold at all, let alone for almost $700K.
Speaking of 1940s sociology, I wonder at the cyclical nature of social trends in America. In the 1940s and 1950s, people (read: women) were expected to do the cooking and spend a lot of time in the kitchen. The 1960s thankfully started to blow all that nonsense away, and by the rat-race 1980s, nobody had any time to spend in the kitchen cooking for themselves, let alone their extended family. Yet the single biggest remodeling trend of the 1990s and especially early 2000s has been lavish splurging in the kitchen, with professional-grade equipment everywhere (for what, I do not know) and other obscene displays of tastelessness and impracticality like non-heat-resistant granite and smudge-prone stainless steel. Thousands of manufacturing, retail and educational jobs have been created to service this new-found passion for the chore of chopping chives and sauteeing sausage. And the kicker is that together with so many HELOC-fueled remodels came a new-found sense of wealth which, conspiring with the ever-longer obtunding hours spent working or dealing with one's progeny, encouraged one to order in or eat out much more often than in previous times. I suspect a lot of those Viking ranges and Sub-Zero refrigerators are chronically underutilized, and will probably go for cheap on ebay or Craigslist in a year or three.
People have been spending orders of magnitude more money on the kitchen, a room you frequent because you have to, than on rooms you actually want to be in, be it to play, read, eat, drink, sleep, entertain or reproduce (another popular trend). Does this mean social interaction between family and friends has become such that the kitchen is now the ideal place in which to have social intercourse? As opposed to the more intimate, less garish ambiance of the salon, library, fumoir, parlor, den, family room, bedroom, or dining room, with comfortable sofas and the dim light afforded by the absence of practical function so antithetical to the necessarily bright, messy and utilitarian kitchen?
I say, screw open floor plans. Keep the kitchen modestly appointed and hidden behind a solid door, and let people do their people thing sheltered from the frying smells, clanging pots and other indignities of "civilized" nutrient organization.
Update 5/22/08: Price dropped to $649,000.
Just turn the key, move right in, relax and enjoy! Complete kitchen & bath remodel and many other systems upgrades. New plumbing, electrical, furnace & central heating, on-demand tankless water heater, dual pane windows, interior paint, flooring, slate fireplace facade, redwood deck & sewer lateral.
This home is currently listed for $685,000, perhaps to cover the cost of an extensive and expensive remodel:Subtracting a 6% commission and $40,000 for the remodel, the sellers would net about $50,000, which isn't bad.Last sale and tax info
- Sold 10/03/2006: $550,000
- 2007 Property Tax: $6,921
Except the ugly home down the street I saw last year was listed at $729,000 and sold for $40,000 less than that, and that was back in January 2007, when even an inbred squirrel could get a mortgage.
The same scenario leaves these folks with $10,000, which covers moving expenses and security deposit on a rental, maybe? And that other home at 984 Post was almost 50% bigger--1,460 sqft to this home's 1,010. In all fairness, it was depressingly fugly on the inside and didn't have any of the nice things this home has--the kitchen and bathrooms were sad and the carpet was pathetic. I'm still reeling from the fact it sold at all, let alone for almost $700K.
Speaking of 1940s sociology, I wonder at the cyclical nature of social trends in America. In the 1940s and 1950s, people (read: women) were expected to do the cooking and spend a lot of time in the kitchen. The 1960s thankfully started to blow all that nonsense away, and by the rat-race 1980s, nobody had any time to spend in the kitchen cooking for themselves, let alone their extended family. Yet the single biggest remodeling trend of the 1990s and especially early 2000s has been lavish splurging in the kitchen, with professional-grade equipment everywhere (for what, I do not know) and other obscene displays of tastelessness and impracticality like non-heat-resistant granite and smudge-prone stainless steel. Thousands of manufacturing, retail and educational jobs have been created to service this new-found passion for the chore of chopping chives and sauteeing sausage. And the kicker is that together with so many HELOC-fueled remodels came a new-found sense of wealth which, conspiring with the ever-longer obtunding hours spent working or dealing with one's progeny, encouraged one to order in or eat out much more often than in previous times. I suspect a lot of those Viking ranges and Sub-Zero refrigerators are chronically underutilized, and will probably go for cheap on ebay or Craigslist in a year or three.
People have been spending orders of magnitude more money on the kitchen, a room you frequent because you have to, than on rooms you actually want to be in, be it to play, read, eat, drink, sleep, entertain or reproduce (another popular trend). Does this mean social interaction between family and friends has become such that the kitchen is now the ideal place in which to have social intercourse? As opposed to the more intimate, less garish ambiance of the salon, library, fumoir, parlor, den, family room, bedroom, or dining room, with comfortable sofas and the dim light afforded by the absence of practical function so antithetical to the necessarily bright, messy and utilitarian kitchen?
I say, screw open floor plans. Keep the kitchen modestly appointed and hidden behind a solid door, and let people do their people thing sheltered from the frying smells, clanging pots and other indignities of "civilized" nutrient organization.
Update 5/22/08: Price dropped to $649,000.
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