h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's been a while since I posted a journal entry. So long so, that I've received a couple of inquiries after my well-being from people I don't really have contact with outside of hootoo.

Well, I'm doing just fine. I haven't had much to say lately that would warrant a new journal. If and when I have had trivial, one-off thoughts or moans, I've posted them on Facebook, partly because a number of my RL friends contact me there as well.

Plus it's a lot more private there than here. Many of you know that I was stalked and severely harrassed by another hootooer several years ago. In recent months it was brought to my attention by another hootooer who's aware of the old issues, that this person has been back. I'm not convinced that this person isn't still lurking, and I don't want this person knowing my business.

But anyway... here I am. I'll continue in a second post, so as not to make the page all long and unwieldy. I hate that!

In case anyone is wondering about the house-hunting, we're still looking, sort of. Our pre-approval has expired and some of our paperwork needs updating. There hasn't been much on the market that we've liked. Most homes have either been too far west (if we're moving that far west, we'll go with Plan B, which I'll discuss in a second), or have had the kind of DIY done that makes a home ugly.

Still looking, though!

Plan B has some pros and cons. The main problem is that one of the cons is a HUGE problem. So here's Plan B: my uncle plans to sell my grandma's house this summer. She left it to him (and he's willed it to me) but he feels it's too big for him, and he wouldn't mind moving closer to my dad, where the climate's warm and the houses smaller and without stairs. I'm going to list all of the pros and cons below.

PROS:
We know what's been done to the house, and what needs to be done. For example the garage, furnace and sump pump are pretty new. The roof will need to be replaced within a year or two, and some tuckpointing work needs to be done. It has central heat and air conditioning, and relatively new appliances.

It's the kind of house we want- a two-story brick Georgian with front and side entrance. There are ample closets, a finished basement, two bedrooms (both on the second floor) and one and a half baths. It has a decent sized yard, not too big. There are hardwood floors under all the carpet except the basement (which I'd leave) and the addition on the back (which could be tiled). Both bathrooms need some remodeling, but we know people who can help with that.

CONS:
It's in the suburbs. I *know* that property values are much lower in most suburbs (there are a few exceptions, this isn't one of them) and therefore the taxes and assessments would be as well. It's also reasonably close to a Trader Joe's and a Whole Foods, so we could grocery shop without driving forever.

But, while a city bus runs along the nearest major street, not all buses on that route go that far. It's serviced by commuter rail rather than CTA trains, so rather than running every 5-10 minutes, trains run once an hour (and that's only during rush hours), there's no 24-hour service like on CTA, and not all of those trains are local.

Given that it's in the suburbs, there's a dearth of independent shops and ethnic restaurants. There are mostly strip malls, fast food and chain restaurants, and chain stores. K would have to drive a lot further for DJ nights and band practces (though he wouldn't have to look for parking when he got back). It'd likely add an hour a day to my commute.

Plus the suburbs are where all the Republicans live, so the big thing is less taxes and fewer public services, so the library and parks are inferior. Plus it's not at all ethnically diverse: it's always been white, used to be mostly Italian and now mostly Polish.

So, we love the house but hate the neighborhood. Yes, we could drive to a CTA station or into the city to get to our favorite eateries and shops and all the museums, and the farmer's markets. It's quite possible that we could enjoy our home and yard while ignoring the neighborhood, which I grew up in and couldn't wait to get away from.

Or what could happen is we could find something similar in the city before then.

Either way, my uncle's willing to give/sell me some of the stuff from the house, furniture-wise, so if we don't find a house or buy that one, we'll need to rent a storage unit till we find at least a bigger apartment. If we're just moving to another rental, we'll need to wait till the lease ends in April 2012.

So that's that!

Yes...but someone's got to integrate the neighborhood.

I was about to ask you about the househunting elsewhere.

Hmmm...my gut instinct would be to go for it.No hassle with Real Estate Agents, keep it in the family.


As far as convenience for take-outs etc is concerned, maybe invest in a slow cooker & make your own yummy recipes that can simmer all day, or a fast stir-fry, or if you pass by a decent takeaway place coming back from work, grab that (you or K; needs co-ordination!)

The transport issue sounds complcated, not in a position to advise really. Here, i am totally without transport unless P is here with his van, but i have managed for two weeks with neighbour's help & store delivery of essentials; not easy but possible.

You seem to have doubts about the neighbourhood itself; what about throwing a party & seeing what the locals are like? It may be that they are fantastically great & you start a real community spirit!

zdt

There would indeed be real estate agents involved- that's the only way I can get the lender to approve the mortgage, is by working with the affiliated realtor. That's if we can afford what my uncle will be asking for it. I'm not sure yet what he'll want to get for it, though it will obviously be less than the same kind of house in my present area.

Re: take-outs and dining out- I have a slow cooker, obviously I can't use it much during the week because I am not home during the day and there isn't time to slow cook between arriving home and going to bed. I do occasionally use it on weekends or overnight. I do know how to cook, very well actually. But we do take-out a few times a week, go out for dinner Friday night and have Sunday brunch, simply because we enjoy it, not because of time constraints. Plus ordering take-out a couple nights a week really helps keep the food bills down. When I was cooking every meal, our grocery bill was around $350 a week; now it's down to about $200 plus $70-$80 a week for take-out.

There is no way I would ever consider inviting strange people into my home for a party! I don't really even like having people I know in my home that much. The community spirit angle isn't my concern- I prefer to be left alone and don't go out of my way to be chatty with my neighbors, leastwise with those with whom I wouldn't have much in common. In fact, given that the jerk across the street used to deliberately park in the handicapped space reserved for my grandmother because his daddy is a cop and he won't get a ticket would make me less inclined to pay them any attention at all.

The doubts with the neighborhood are because I'm a city girl, and that the house is an additional 30 minutes or so drive (or aywhere from 40 minutes to an hour by CTA) to get to any of the places we like to go.

Ed- integrating...

"There goes the neighborhood!"

Seriously, I doubt all of our lovely black and hispanic and Thai and Korean and Bosnian neighbors would follow us there... though it'd be nice if they did.

I'd really miss having access to such a great library system. The suburbs all share with each other, but they're not as nice as the city system. And the park district- it woul suck having to drive to the farmer's markets instead of walking, even when it is hot as hell out.

(I should clarify, though, that grocery bill figure above includes household cleaning and personal care items, because we get them all at the same stores, so perhaps the food bill is around $200 ish per week...)

Your hood sounds pretty appealing, PC. Let me know when your old place is free!

I know- I'm hoping like crazy we can find someplace in this neighborhood. We saw a condo we liked a lot, it was HUGE, but already had an offer when they showed it. WTF? They're expecting more foreclosures within a month or two, and I'm keeping an eye on estate sales as well as our realtor's updates. I love this area!

But... I really like that house, even if I hate the area. My concern is that a big part of that attraction, or this doubt, is purely emotional, because of my fond memories of spending so much of my childhood in that house...

A black Zimbabwean friend was once looking for a house in a village outside Cambridge. He hatched a plot. He'd knock at a few doors and say 'Hello. I'm thinking about buying a house around here. Can anyone tell me what it's like?' Then everyone would go 'Shit! There's a black guy moving in!' and the prices would tumble.'

Nah - doesn't sound like it's the neighbourhood for you. Unless you're really planning to settle down and spend all your time gardening, these things are important. I speak from experience.

I am marvelling at your grocery budget. For me, 20€ is a big shop And takeout *saving* money is just bizarre.

Mal:
20€ is a big shop? . Well - I guess there's only one of you. And you doubtless have the physique of a racing snake.

USAnian take out costs do seem to be perplexing - but then their restaurant meals also tend to cost peanuts compared to ours. (ditto mainland European compared to British. Even in Sweden they seem to compare favorably - allowing me to eat in fancy places with the excuse that everyone knows things are expensive in Scandiwegia).

On the other hand - over here, low-quality, over-expensive carry outs (Scottish for takeaways) are also associated with poverty. The popular wisdom, reinforced by St Jamie of Oliver, is that 'these people don't know how to cook properly'. That's partly true - but a bigger problem is that poverty is *tiring* - all that having to walk long distances betwen schools, medical centres, social work offices - plus you don't get decent shops near poor housing areas so people are faced with the problem of having to transport groceries for miles. Far easier to feed the kids a bag of chips and a can of Irn Bru.

Germany is one of the cheapest countries for food. Not eating meat and buying nearly everything (except fruit & veg) at Aldi helps, too.

So no racing snake here, alas.

And we tend to have at least small supermarkets in all the residential areas, yes...

Small shops are much more expensive than larger ones, because the larger ones buy in bulk, but I do pop into smaller shops from time to time.

I've no idea what the conversion rate is from euros to US dollars and I won't try right now.

But yes, two bags of groceries- which most weeks include three or four kinds of fresh veggies, some onions, a half dozen apples, some dry beans, a couple cans of tomatoes, K's bottled fizzy water, a few bottles of cranberry juice, flour and vital wheat gluten, coconut based coffee creamer, condiments when needed (soy sauce, ketchup, mustard, vinegar or oil), a couple cans of olives, and whatever house cleaning stuff or personal care stuff runs around $200 most weeks. Closer to $300 if we need any cereal, pasta, ready-baked bread, if K wants any cheese, or coffee. Hell, coffee's $12 or so a pound.

We've noticed that shopping in the US is very expensive with regards to groceries. We prefer to cook about half our meals and eat the other half out when we're there - but then different rules apply when you're on holiday, don't they?

The weirdest one was when I really fancied some oranges in Florida...they turned out to be from S-Africa...

I'm guessing they were out of season locally or something, but we didn't buy them.

Also, it's very true here that poorer people tend to eat more low-quality take-out, eat lots of low-quality prepared foods, etc, not just because of cost, but proximity.

I forgot to add that when we need laundry soap that adds a LOT to the grocery bill. So it's more accurate to say it fluctuates between $150 a week and $300 a week depending on what's needed.

A decent take-out meal for two usually runs us between $25 and $40, including tip, tax and delivery charge. Making a pizza at home costs $30 (add around $8 if I use "cheese")- ordering one costs $18 with tip and delivery (and since we order ours without cheese, our local spot gives us an extra ingredient <yum&gt. Add to that the convenience of not having to cook that night (and sometimes, it *is* convenient, even if I like cooking- sometimes people get busy!), and there's no reason why not to. Sometimes.

Yes, I try to buy local and seasonal produce myself. Which oddly enough isn't always less expensive, if the stuff coming from far off is coming in a huge shipment and the locally grown stuff isn't.

Roughly a Euro to a $, isn't it?

Another good thing about Germany is that they still have (guessing at plural) Wochenmarkten - weekly neighbourhood produce markets.

Capitalism has well and truly taken over in the UK, with Tesco taking 1 in every eight pounds spent.

Yeah, we don't really get produce markets here except during summer and autumn when the farmer's markets are going.

It looks like 20 euros is about $28. Pretty close.

It's very likely that if grocery shopping is higher here and takeout less, and it's the other way around in Yoorup, it probably more or less evens out in terms of how much we all pay for food. I don't eat a lot- and while I don't necessarily always go for the highest priced stuff , neither do I necessarily always go for what's cheapest, either. We all make what compromises we feel we can live with. I'd rather spend more money on high-quality grub and less on doctor's bills down the road than some people I know, especially people at work who seem to live on frozen dinners (with such crazy misnomers as "Healthy Choice"). It's not that we *never* eat anything that's ready-made (or at least sort of ready-made), but that I don't like to eat all kinds of sodium and preservatives.