Photos: April 2005 Archives

April eighth was a happy day.  I bought the house.  She's a big sucker, much more than I imagined.  The argument is still open on the square footage as the realtor's brief contradicts with the other various descriptions - each of which states a different number.  But, she's mine.  And while I didn't have time to savor a poolside, tropical cocktail as I was moving and closing on two business deals, there was no need for a bazooka.  I'm happy.

Having been here for 3 days + a week, I must reflect on the advice of a dear friend who once told me to never buy the "big house" as its a pain to clean and maintain.  He's right.  For argument's sake, lets call my place X thousand square feet.  Well I'll be damned if it isn't $2 a sq/ft just to maintain.  That's outrageous.  The pool heater alone sucks 80 gallons of propane every ten days, for goodness sake.  And that's just one aspect of the back yard.  We haven't even entered the house yet!  But, I'm happy.  And she's mine.

I really got the wake up call when the decorator spoke in simple figures like, "... replacing the chandelier shouldn't cost more than five (5) ... or ... the fixtures and lighting can be done for two (2) ..."  This means thousands, not hundreds.  She didn't even mention the hundreds.  She only spoke in twos, fives and eights.  Ugh!  But, I'm happy.  And the house is mine.

I reflect further on what another friend of mine said, "That's what you get for buying a gazillion dollar house on the water."  And maybe he's right.  But as I write this, I'm looking across the South Grand Canal - the tributary to the Intercostal waterway - to houses that could swallow me whole and I wonder how they managed the sticker shock.  Poor, rich bastards.  But, I'm happy.  And she's mine.

The cats like it, so it must be cool.