The House – part 1

Ok, this is the last time I am going to be answering the question of what we are doing with the house, It is not like I haven’t explained before (yes really, but I don’t expect anyone to remember what doesn’t personally involve them.

To backtrack – we bought the house here in Berkeley in 2009. Well, actually George bought the house and I just went along with it. Thought he knew what he was doing. Claimed it was just what we always wanted. Husband’s don’t exactly lie, but they are really capable of deceiving themselves when they find what they really want.  My criteria were access to public transport, near a synagogue and accessible.

The house is on a freaking hill and there are stairs all over the place. The other two factors are satisfied. Provided you only want the bus before 2000 at night and don’t mind hiking up the aforementioned hill from the shul.

We took the house back from tenants in fall of 2014 when Shana came out here to go to grad school and Noah decided to make a serious stab at University. They oversaw the third floor and bathroom renovations. George and I moved in Dec 2015.

Since the beginning, I have maintained this house is not mobility or age friendly. Trust me, this past six months have more than proved both of the above to me. In concession, a couple of years ago we started the process to finish the lower floor into a one level accessible unit. The permit process wound up being insane and took us almost two years from start to finish.

We are trading in dirt floor crawl space, totally disorganized utilities with vents going everywhere and a laundry room that doesn’t connect to the rest of the house. What we will gain is a self contained 1 bedroom unit with bath, great room and pullman kitchen. Did I mention the sunroom?

When I am old and grey I will move downstairs, sit in the sun and have meals delivered…

(Ok, I am already older and have a fair amount of grey…

actual construction pictures tomorrow…20

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About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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