Ready, Set, Let the Games Begin! - Link to new PTR/TR!

[glaserjm]

Sorry to hear about the hearing, that really is too bad when people get caught up in pettiness and then use it to stymie others!

You're right though, at least you didn't dump a bunch of money in only to realize later that you couldn't stand the neighbors!

 

[eandesmom]

Even beyond the "his Majesty" problems we were going way beyond what they would have allotted. We were asking for a 50% increase and no one told us that was not allowed. We could turn the whole thing into a home, but after the people who talked tonight, we don't want to be their neighbors, Thank you.

Good night!

I am a half full kind of person and sometimes, things really do happen for a reason even when we can't see it at the time. You are better off knowing now, before investing more money, hopes and dreams in that house. That said, turn all that energy elsewhere into new dreams and don't waste it on negative things like icky renters or mean dogs. Feeding a bad cycle might make you feel better for a moment, or even justified but it does perpetuate the circle and you are both better than that. Taking the high road is always the right thing to do, as much as it might suck at the time. You do catch more flies with honey. Besides, at the end of the day, you'd have to deal with the icky renters as much, or more than the neighbors so who is really getting the worse end of it?

I would very upset with the city who at least could have told you what was, and wasn't allowed (re: the 50%) as that should seem to be public domain info and would have saved you time and planning but then again, we are taking city municipalities and sometimes it's best not to think too hard and just move on. I would file a complaint with the city so it is documented and then close the chapter and move on. Crazy that they'd even allow a hearing for something they wouldn't have approved anyway, that set you both up right there.

 

[Pinkocto]

I'm glad you won't be living next to those horrible people, and I'm sorry for the time wasted.

 

[franandaj]

I wouldn't want to stay either and I can't stand backstabbing people. It always amazes me how people seem to think they have the right to control other peoples lives, and if they protest it all should go their way. Be patient and the right place will come up for sale and then you can put your personal touches to it.

Yeah these people are a real piece of work. I've been texting with the tenant in the front unit and she says the lady next door is a real "front stabber". I said "may god grant her all she deserves, and I think he already has." To which the tenant replied that she is already a very unhappy person.

Good.

Hey Alison and Fran. Sorry that the meeting didn't go well but maybe you dodged a bullet there. Like you say you want to live in a nice house and with nice neighbours. Not these narrow minded judgemental lot. Fancy judging you two on your FIL's behaviour. Omg I imagine having to live in the legacy of our parents!

So I am sorry but mostly for the neighbours because they have missed out on a lovely couple living in their street who would have increased the house prices because the changes they made to the house would have been awesome.

You will find your chocolate box cottage as say in England ( dream home ). I you will be glad you didn't buy
that one. They will sit there and get more and more bitter. Like a beer getting warm in the sun.

That's very aweet of you to say. The thing is we already own the house. We'll just rent it back out. The folks who have been around for years know the whole saga of the house and fixing it up. Oh well, won't take much to get it ready.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Alison, I am so sorry. Still, it looks like you may have had a lucky escape. I cannot imagine living in an environment that is so toxic.

Corinna

 

[franandaj]

Alison - I'm so sorry for you and Fran. I know you'll eventually come to terms with it; but it must really really hurt right now to experience the bile that must have been there in the committee room. You and Fran have invested a bit of time and energy into those plans and I wish it all worked out for you.

Today I feel like we really dodged a bullet there. Aat this point you couldn't PAY us enough to want to live there! Over the past few weeks I've seen some nice places for sale so we'll see. Maybe when you visit this year we'll be showing you our new place!

Oh Alison! Opened my computer just to see your news. They definitely missed out on a lovely couple - that's for sure.

Do they have any idea what kind of potluck heaven they missed? Do they?

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So bloody frustrating. alsdfjkadsklfjldsfjldskfjskldfjadsklfj!!!!!!!!! That was for you and Fran.

Paula said it perfectly - bitter breeds and it's not your sh!t to carry.

You're so funny with the whole potluck thing. These people are so bitter and stodgy I doubt they have parties. Thanks for cussing for us. I'm over it, ready to make $3K on renting out the place and we'll find someplace to buy.

 

[franandaj]

Hey I was wondering if we could meet up with you guys? I see you are in MK on 30th September. Day before my birthday! Would we be able to perhaps do a quick meet and say hello? Sadly I'm not able to commit to much time as my health is bad and I get very tired but I cherish the time I do get with lovely people andI just know we are gonna love you and all on these thread. I would love to meet you. Let me know if this is possible. Maybe sometime in the afternoon. I can't generally eat with folks too many dietary requirements but I can do coffee's/teas / sodas etc. or just a meet and greet! if I could intrude on your valuable time that would be an honour. Paula and Jo xx

I was hoping we could meet up. Maybe in the Carrolwood Pacific room at VWL. As it gets closer we can exchange information.

I'm sorry that you have to be put in that position. Hopefully things will work out somehow.

We'll just buy someplace, the rent on a property on 1st street will cover at least half the mrtgage payment.

 

[franandaj]

Alison, I am so very sorry that the meeting went poorly and that you basically got ambushed. I can't imagine what the neighbors were thinking.

I know you and Fran will be able to build the home you want in a far more accepting and wonderful neighborhood. It's THEIR loss, not yours! They have no idea on what fantastic people they're missing out on.

Aside from actual house plan being too much to add on, what an unfair situation!

If I had to carry the sins of my folks, I'd be living on an island somewhere.

They were thinking selfishly and wanting to punish Fran for everything they could never get her father back with.

At this point, we won't have the money to build if we buy so we need to find a place big enough. There is one place on the market now that could possibly work, we just have to see if they have reduced the price.

UGH that is horrible horrible . They will get theirs...

As I posted in a reply earlier, evidently the lady who lead the charge is evidently quite unhappy with her own life.

So sorry. Hopefully this turns out to be a blessing in disguise and you can get a house in a great, accepting neighborhood. You all are much too nice to deal with the narrow-minded, vindictive neighbors.

Jill in CO

EX-ACTLY! We just need to find something large enough with a desperate owner willing to cut their price to an deal that Fran can't refuse!

 

[franandaj]

Alison and Fran I am so angry for you I could scream You know I have recently experienced the way people can treat us so unfairly Its despicable

All I can do is tell you let it out anyway you can, go drive to a beach or something and just scream or pound your fist in the sand or take a gallon of paint and throw it on a tarp or go get some cheap dishes and smash them all into a garbage can

I certainly can relate to the thinking you want to retaliate by putting less than stellar tenants in there That's the emotions, well founded, talking and that would only come back and bite you You have worked too hard to have it get thrown away

I know the stages of emotions you are going to go through with this, its cyclic like the stages of grief Just when you think the anger has subsided it will return It will take time

In the meanwhile come to grips that it happened If they hold this much hostility from the past with Fran's father that is where it has to be left ..in the past

These are small minded people that are going through life with small mindedness and prejudices When you find your forever home you will look back and see the blessing that this was that you did not have to live on 1st street I know that sounds easier said than done

Anger can, and will, eventually make you physically ill I have done that to myself more times than I would like to admit Some weeks I have to remind myself of that on a daily basis

Look at each other, feel the love You have each other and you are blessed with a life full of opportunities and experiences Take pity on the ones that have hurt you They have no power over the life you have..don't give it to them by being upset and miserable Then they win

It will all work out Remember the best revenge is success !

I'm over it. But what will help more will be to start really looking at some houses that we could buy. Unfortunately we can't do that for at least a week, and then we will probably be working on getting the place ready to rent. For now, I just hope that we get to take our weekend jaunt.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

The Carolwood room at VWL would be great. Yes as it approaches we will keep in touch. P x


Sorry again about you and Fran having to deal with the wrath of the last generation. Forgive I could not figure out from thread. Is Fran's father still with us or has he passed?

 

[franandaj]

Alison, I am so sorry to see this. I have no idea what to say, except you are better off not being around them and dealing with them and their hatred. I am glad you found out before you moved in there, how they felt.

Hugs my friend.

Yeah, that's what we're thinking now. Who knows what they would do to our cats? We have a few that are indoor outdoor cats and they mean the world to us, I wouldn't want vindictive people like this anywhere near our babies!

Sorry to hear about the hearing, that really is too bad when people get caught up in pettiness and then use it to stymie others!

You're right though, at least you didn't dump a bunch of money in only to realize later that you couldn't stand the neighbors!

Yeah, I can't say enough how awful these people are. I hope that we can keep decent tenants with such crackpot neighbors. I would just really like to find some nice musician types who have day jobs in a high paying career, but love to jam at night!

I am a half full kind of person and sometimes, things really do happen for a reason even when we can't see it at the time. You are better off knowing now, before investing more money, hopes and dreams in that house. That said, turn all that energy elsewhere into new dreams and don't waste it on negative things like icky renters or mean dogs. Feeding a bad cycle might make you feel better for a moment, or even justified but it does perpetuate the circle and you are both better than that. Taking the high road is always the right thing to do, as much as it might suck at the time. You do catch more flies with honey. Besides, at the end of the day, you'd have to deal with the icky renters as much, or more than the neighbors so who is really getting the worse end of it?

I would very upset with the city who at least could have told you what was, and wasn't allowed (re: the 50%) as that should seem to be public domain info and would have saved you time and planning but then again, we are taking city municipalities and sometimes it's best not to think too hard and just move on. I would file a complaint with the city so it is documented and then close the chapter and move on. Crazy that they'd even allow a hearing for something they wouldn't have approved anyway, that set you both up right there.

I think it's also a snafu at the city level, Fran thinks it's the architect who should have known better. Anyways, she's thrown him under the bus. I'm not talking about getting bad tenants in there. We want them to make money (3x the monthly rent in monthly salary) and not be destructive, but we aren't going to have them sign what we call the "Cinderella Clause" in our rental papers. This is the one where I tell tenants that if Cinderella lived in our building she would turn into a pumpkin at 10:00 instead of midnight. We will just happen to leave that one out when we rent this place. And we will happen to remove any "be courteous of your neighbors" clauses in the paperwork.

There are plenty of good folks with money that might get a little loud and rambunctious and we just hope that we find them to move in to that unit! Plus the fact that we will never again view it as our future home will allow us to let go on a lot of things. I just checked the website of a place that we have been watching and they reduced the price sort of significantly, well 9.3%. It's still sort of out of our price range, but closer.

I'm glad you won't be living next to those horrible people, and I'm sorry for the time wasted.

Yeah, well I'm most sorry for the rent wasted that we could have been collecting on that place. A seriously substantial amount of money! However, it will be on the market soon. Whatever soon means.

Alison, I am so sorry. Still, it looks like you may have had a lucky escape. I cannot imagine living in an environment that is so toxic.

Corinna

Yes exactly, there would have been no love there. We are now setting our sights elsewhere. Hopefully that will work out.

 

[franandaj]

.



OK, pity party over! Back to the PTR such that it is!​

​

​

Congrats on re ting out the last apartment! I am still lucky enough to be reading my way through this thread as I only just joined ( people pay good money on amazon for kindle books that aren't as good as this thread! ) but I am blown away by the before and after pics. Go girls! You inspire me! It looks amazing.

You are too funny! I'm not sure it's that exciting, but OK. It certainly feels good to have that building rented out, but we're back into the "getting a place ready to rent again" mode.

The before and afters are fantastic!! Great job on the refurbs and congrats on renting out the last apartment.

Gale (our contractor) does a wonderful job. I'm glad to have that head ache over. Now we get to put 1st street back up. Oh well, it will bring in a ton of money!

The place looks fantastic - you guys did a great job!

I actually didn't mind some things before... but I am easy like that. The pink bathrooms looks alot like how my blue bathroom in my house was before they redid it. Only the sink and walls were blue too!

The before pics weren't awful, but we want to charge top dollar for the apartments and no one was going to pay good money to rent a place that didn't look like a million bucks.

Omg love this thread. Alison what happened re renting your apartment to the lady that had some credit issues that had a bad ex hubby and you wanted to give a chance? Did you get Fran to buy in to your idea? I didn't see conclusion sorry if you did post and I missed it. Hanging in suspense here!

That was the people who I rented to on Sunday. I had to download instructions on how to really read every intricacy of the credit report. I was reading it correctly. She had some big red flags, but everything for the past 12-18 months was perfect, so she had told me the truth that she had in fact gotten things back together. They should be working on moving in soon. They live across the street in a smaller unit so they still had to give notice there before they moved into our place.

Oh yeah, I need to take their check to the bank!

and congratulations on renting it ! The pre-redo living room carpet is exactly what I have been living with since 2008 with dogs I LIVE with a vacuum in hand the AFTER floor is exactly what I want You did a beautiful job !

Yeah, well you notice I didn't post any pics of MY place!

Alison those upgrades look fabulous!

Thank you. Now if we can only get and maintain a place like that for ourselves!

I just fear that the list would be rather long. Graham is much easier to cater for when it comes to food. I am getting more adventurous though. The next time we come to Disneyland, I will move heaven and earth to get us a reservation for the chef counter at Napa Rose. He read about this somewhere and was intrigued. Having seen how much he enjoyed Club 33, I really want to do this for him.

The apartment looks stunning. You did a great job with this.

Corinna

They are rather patient and you could make it easy by saying, "no seafood", etc. Try it at Napa Rose and see how it works out, Chef Hunnel is as easy to work with as Chef Sutton.

I'm rather pleased with this particular unit.

Firstly, good luck today!

Congratulations on the rental!

The remodel looks beautiful.

You're having me think about V & As. I didn't know they would tailor the meal to your tastes.

Oh yeah, and they do a full vegetarian menu as well. I really think you and your Mom should treat yourselves to a trip there in December. I mean you are STAYING at the hotel. It would make for a wonderful Christmas treat. Hurry! Call them and book it now! Time is running out!

The renovations look amazing! Good luck at the hearing tonight.

Jill in CO

Well at least the renovations went good!

Good luck tonight Alison.


The renovations look UNREAL! We had a bathroom similar to the pink one in our first home which was also built in the late 40's. Ours was like a baby poop green with a big cast iron tub. You hired well and the rehab looks so great, no wonder everything rented so quickly. I love pics so thank you posting them. I like to see what we're all talking about.

You should have seen the tub after they took it out. Sawed clean in half, I was amazed! 1st street looks equally as good, and you know the location, it will rent in no time too.

Subbing

I love the timber floors in the apartment. Were they under the carpet the whole time or are they newly laid?

Cute, I love the Aussie nuances, timber floors, I love it! We call them hardwood floors in the states, and yes they were under the carpet the whole time. We could never have afforded to lay new floors, the cost would have been astronomical, but to refinish them was about the same price as laying new carpet. That is a five unit building and four of the five units have had the hardwood floors restored. The one that didn't got new carpeting in 2010 because a pipe burst and the bathroom had to be rebuilt. We wanted to restore the hardwood at that time, but insurance would only cover "returning it to the status quo", so we got new carpet. It was still in good shape when we remodeled that unit, so we couldn't see paying to rip out perfectly good carpeting. There is an elderly couple in there now and they plan on staying until they die.

Hardwood floors are all the rage over here. Cleaner for asthma and other conditions, stuff doesn't get caught in the carpet. I kind of like it since our carpets are filthy, what with how many cats....

WOW! The differences are huge! The tile looks so nice in the bathroom and the kitchen and the laminate (wood?) floor in the bedrooms/living room look so comfy. Great job!

Thanks, and not laminate, that's actual hardwood as I was replying to Marlea. This building was built in the 50s and I guess it was common back then. It's the real stuff. I'm hoping that our house has hardwood....if we buy the one I'm looking at it will....

Okey, dokey, folkies! I'm gonna be heading out in a few hours. We have a West Coast meeting of the Great Autos of Yesteryear Car Club in San Luis Obispo this weekend. Everything starts tomorrow, but Fran and I are getting a jump on things by going up tonight. We always run late so we don't want to miss anything by arriving too late tomorrow night.

This was our planned method of transportation.



However, after we got it out of the garage a couple weeks ago to drive it around town, Fran noticed that it was stalling at stop lights when the AC was running. Then when we picked it up from the stereo installer (new speakers), the passenger side window wouldn't roll down (power windows). It turns out there was a problem with the Carburetor that was able to be fixed, however, the electrical switches had gone bad, and it takes a week to get new parts in. I'm not riding in a car in California in July that the window can't roll down. So we're taking the SUV instead.

I may do a mini TR on some of the highlights of the trip, but it's sad that we aren't taking our vehicle of choice and get to show her off. Anyways, I'll be back when I can! I'm looking forward to five mornings of a hot cooked breakfast made by someone else!

 

[dolphingirl47]

I hope that you will have a wonderful weekend.

Corinna

 

[rentayenta]

Have fun Alison. Safe travels!

 

[franandaj]

I hope that you will have a wonderful weekend.

Corinna

Thank you!

Have fun Alison. Safe travels!

It's 5:30 and we are just leaving Long Beach. I love arriving at midnight!

 

[Luvchefmic]

GORGEOUS car !!!! yeah for pity party over ...those are horrible kinds of parties ...hosted and have been a guest at my own too many times in the past year...no good Have a Wonderful Time !

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Thanks for update on your new tenants glad they checked out! All that legal paper work must be a headache you must really have to read every detail so carefully! No gotchas! Well done

Woohoo a road trip have fun. Shame about not being able to take your cool car of choice. What make model in that car? I am not familiar with American models only that I love and admire them. I love that one and would love to know what it is! A Cadillac maybe?

Have fun! Yum cooked breakfast! The whole nine yards. I am still in love with the food porn of the dogs from Pinks.... Omg come to Mamma!

 

[franandaj]

GORGEOUS car !!!! yeah for pity party over ...those are horrible kinds of parties ...hosted and have been a guest at my own too many times in the past year...no good Have a Wonderful Time !

Thanks! Yeah our mechanic put a lot of work into that car and then he up and died of lung cancer. I love that car, so sad that the parts take a week. I guess next time.

IM not a big pity partyperson. I bought into it that night, but by the time I went to bed I realized that as nice as that place was going to be, the vibe woukd have been too awful to live with. The bavk up place that I found last month reduced their price 9.3% since we looked at it. We need to take another look and see if we can fit a movie room, library, as well as storage for our clothing, instruments, other personal stuff and then can we still have an elevator and will there still be room for our artwork and figures? So much to think about!

Thanks for update on your new tenants glad they checked out! All that legal paper work must be a headache you must really have to read every detail so carefully! No gotchas! Well done

Woohoo a road trip have fun. Shame about not being able to take your cool car of choice. What make model in that car? I am not familiar with American models only that I love and admire them. I love that one and would love to know what it is! A Cadillac maybe?

Have fun! Yum cooked breakfast! The whole nine yards. I am still in love with the food porn of the dogs from Pinks.... Omg come to Mamma!

Yeah, I really had to study up for that one. Although I did learn that I had been reading them right all along.

That is our 1970 Cougar XR7, obviously it's a convertible. Fran is rather partial to Cougars as we habe a few of them in the different body styles as they varied year to year. This one is my favorite and it has had the most work done to it. Pity the window acted up just before we left. I am definitely looking forward to the breakfast and we get free drinks in the afternoon.

Yeah Pinks was quite an experience! We had been talking about going there for years and finally just did it! Those dogs were awesome!

BTW we finally got here at 11:30PM. I unloaded the car and all our bags are in the room. I hing up our formal clothes and got what things we need tonight to go to bed, but the rest of the lot will wait until morning. I'm going to take a bath and go to bed. We have to be down to breakfast by 9:30, sooner if we want cooked to order stuff. Then I may just go back to bed. Or not. Our hotel is in the middle of a parking lot with all kinds of fun stores and a grocery store where I can get anything we forgot!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Thanks for the info on car. I googled that model and loving it! How amazing. Hopefully when you get her back on the road she can enjoy your next road trip.

Your hotel choice sounds very well selected. I love those places where it's in the middle of stores you can buy things you need. When we did our driving tour of California we stayed in hotels like that. It was just ideal! One of our bucket list items is to hire an RV and see more of Cali we love it. We fell for Carmel by Sea. One of our favourite memories of all the things we did was a free tour of the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. Such fun! I love Jelly beans

Lovely State you live in. So diverse from Lake Tahoe which was divine to San Fran which was amazing. Oh I want to go back now! Enjoy the car show!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Enjoy the 5 cooked breakfasts. We'll be here....waiting for you to return.....with those wonderful pictures of CARS!!!

Your own personal Cars Land.