"The Trashed Condo" for a pile of money

Here are some photos of the condo we looked at last week. As you can see I learned how to arrange photos on this blog from Karen, but I need practice. Sometimes I try to cut and paste and the photo just disappears. But I digress. Oh heck, now I've gone and deleted most of my text!!
At any rate, although the place looks very nice from these photos, the inside is a catastrophe that could only be fixed by throwing large somes of money into an already very expensive unit. Plus it comes with a boat dock that could very well cause a divorce if Mark got it into his head that he needed a boat (not that he doesn't already say that, this would just add fuel to the fire) So we've decided to keep searching.







As you can see I still have photo placement issues.
These pictures do not do the place justice - it looked far worse in person. For some reason they took out the bathroom floor, painted the fireplace grey and the back "yard" hasn't got a living thing in it. Apparently no one has lived in the place for three years and this is the first time it's been on the market. People in California are nuts!

Did you know mortgage interest is tax deductible? Did you know that you can get an interest only loan? Did you know that the housing market will rebound any second? Did you know that a real estate agent will keep telling you this until you finally buy a house? Don't worry Ma, we aren't crazy and will only buy if it's a good deal. I feel like I'm 25 again. By the way, wait til you see the place we're looking at Monday. Talk about resort living - you're all invited.

Family for the "May Long"

Victoria Day has always supplied us with the first long weekend of "summer" and it is a break to which every red blooded Canadian looks forward. Scott and Tiffany decided to spend their weekend in California with us. I'm not sure it's because they love and miss us, or that they had just survived a huge snow storm and needed to get someplace warm fast. I'll go with the first reason, because it makes me feel all fuzzy. It was a darn good thing they were looking for heat because it was fire breathing, fry an egg on the sidewalk hot.
We spent our time together doing our favorite Orange County activities. Even in California we have been able to develop certain traditions. A trip to the ball park, a huge meal of shrimp and fish in San Pedro and shopping downtown Huntington Beach. This visit we added the tradition of walking on the dog beach. Okay, that sounds weird. But there is a beach where dogs are allowed run free and chase sticks thrown into the ocean by their well meaning owners. I haven't seen a dog drown there yet but sometimes the waves come crashing over them and the come out of the surf, well looking like wet dogs! The real advantages to walking on the dog beach are that the owners always pick up after their dogs (not true on the sidewalks around here) and there are no seagulls. I have a strong dislike, one might even say fear, of birds - which I have passed on to Scott.

One day I will learn to put my pictures into my blog as I write (Karen, Louis and Evelyn have mastered this technique) but for now I'll just stick them in and they will decide where they want to be placed. It's like the pictures have a mind of their own! Like right now they just popped in at the top and I can't for the life of me figure out how to move them.

My next post shall be titled "Should Mark and Bonnie sink a whole ton of cash into a condo in California?" Don't even bother reading that one unless you plan on giving sage advice.