Saturday, January 21, 2006

Life in Seattle

Ok, it's the new year. Well, actually it's January 20th so we're starting off a bit late. Let me get you up to date.

Ed and I moved to Seattle sometime in early November. Ed got a position as a research scientist at the University of Washington and Andre left his old employer for an opportunity with another medical connectivity provider.


We'd been looking at houses for some time over the internet and had been shocked by the prices and the absence of good real estate agents. (We still haven't found a good one, even though ours eventually turned out to be adequate for the task at hand.)

We originally set a price threshold at 350K for a house, but once we arrived, I discovered I didn't want to live in any of the places we'd found. Ed would have moved into any number of them because he demands so little, but I tend to have higher expectations of my domicile.

So we drove around looking at damned expensive places and didn't like any of them. Then Ed stumbled across this house........




We looked at it and thought it was interesting. Certainly we could see the potential in the place (or at least I could). We made an offer, they countered, and we finally came to an agreement.

Roughly 4 times the price of our house in Texas!!

Now, let me say that the two guys who lived in the house before us had been there for 17 years. They were a gay couple involved in what I believe to be a triangular relationship. Cool, whatever floats your boat... but these guys never got the decorator gene. The place was/is hideous.

Green sparkly paint on the common area main wall. Green peas and cream vomit colored exterior. Green steel roof. DARK green plush carpet in the common area (covering the 1958 oak floors). Brown sculptured pile carpet in the bedrooms. Pink flowers on the wallpaper in the kitchen. Burgundy formica in the kitchen contrasts strongly with the off-white floor, off-white cabinets, and green carpet/green walls of the adjoining areas. Yeah, they had burgundy leather furniture in "greenland".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Andre and Ed. So glad you found a place in Seattle. From the pictures on your blog, it looks to me like you are going to make it your home. Just wish you had been able to settle in my area of Washington

Anonymous said...

Hi Andre!! Gary Stoops pointed us towards your little slice of Internet heaven here, any death threats should be made in his direction. Your house is adorable!! Ok, well it didn't start that way, but you and Ed have put a LOT of work into it to make it look amazing!

Hugs,
Cass