Okay, so use of “epic” is a little dramatic. Dan makes a Top Ten list every year and I thought I’d try it.
1. Bought a home
Home ownership is something I’ve wanted for over 10 years. Then we moved to San Francisco. A lot of friends told me it couldn’t happen here, but we stayed in our tiny studio and started saving and looking at every possible lending and homeownership program. I read every blog by anyone who might have helpful information, and trekked to dozens of open houses in unfamiliar neighborhoods.Working it all out was a minor miracle, but if we can do it then other people can too. Housing affordability across the US is at a record high but San Francisco is #1 (above NYC) least affordable rental and ownership market. I personally feel this is one of the most urgent problems facing our city.
2. Celebrated 1st Wedding Anniversary
Most of 2010 involved planning our wedding. 2011 was the first full year we were married. Love is good. CONTINUE READING ]
Finding A Dog
Muttville (senior dog rescue)
Rocket Dog Rescue
SPCA
Wonder Dog Rescue (mainly small dogs)
Care & Feeding
George (very fancy gear for dogs & cats)
Noe Valley Pet (gear. also hosts adoption hours for Muttville)
Petco
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Introducing ... Riggins!
It started with Rupert. Then came Loretta, followed by Momo and General Peaches. Getting a dog was the furthest thing from my mind as recently as six months ago; Dan and I have a wonderful cat named Stella. But it is a testament to the insidious persuasive nature of social networking that after Fibonnaci-rate growth of photos shared by our friends who appeared to live, work,and have a social life with their dogs, I caught puppy fever. Once we moved to Outer Sunset where there was a beach and a park and no landlord it was just a matter of time. In San Francisco, dogs outnumber kids by about 13,000. CONTINUE READING ]
My most recent blog posts have been about homebuying and affordability. It’s a topic I find deeply interesting, but it also provides a change of pace from the in-depth—and often intense—conversations about art and activism happening daily over at SOMArts. Writing requires time for reflection, and this fall instead of reflecting on and writing about art I chose to spend my post-work hours running, learning guitar and seeing art in other spaces. No regrets!
This week, however, I am back to writing about art as part of the inaugural Animating Democracy Blog Salon of Americans for the Arts. It’s an impressive cohort and I am learning a lot. A particular favorite is Every Museum Needs A Community Organizer by Damon Rich, an artist who transformed several galleries of the Queens Museum of Art into a place to explore how our society pays for housing, how the system has broken down, and the arguments over fixing it.
Last week I had lunch with a friend who asked me “what type of publicity do you hope for at SOMArts?” CONTINUE READING ]
About a month ago I promised to write a blog post about making homebuying decisions with a partner.
Several rough drafts later, I am admitting defeat. Dan and I get along ridiculously well and our decision-making process was pretty basic. We were thorough—we made a checklist of things we really wanted, and things that were deal-breakers. There were only 10-20 homes in San Francisco each month that were in our price range and could be financed with our FHA loan, and somewhat matched our checklist. Then we would go visit an open house and discover that “fixer-upper” meant it had no walls … or an unpermited in-law unit, or cracks in the foundation. So that narrowed it down to about three viable homes for sale each month, and most of those were sold above list price.
As this recent New York Times article points out, decision-making is stressful, period. We can only make a certain number of decisions each day with out getting fatigued. Certain kinds of decisions, such as trade-offs and compromises, are more taxing than others. Making decisions—even the “easy” ones—saps your energy and willpower.
We looked at flips. We explored unfamiliar neighborhoods. The hardest part for me was making the decisions without as much information as I would have liked. This happens more than you might imagine in the homebuying process.
Almost a year ago, the New York Times ran a photo essay, “In San Francisco, A Bleak Neighborhood is Revived.” Dan forwarded it to me because the neighborhood—Outer Sunset—reminded him of New London, Connecticut. He was suggesting we visit Trouble Coffee, or maybe get dinner at Outerlands… we hadn’t even started our home search yet. But I was in love with the beach and the fog and even the odd quiet outside-ness of the neighborhood. When a house came along in our price range we were with the crowd lined up outside the first day it was open for viewing. Unfortunately, it needed too much work. We saw it three times and named it “Bleak House” because we couldn’t take on the repairs it would have needed. CONTINUE READING ]
