Big-Ticket Doll House

Despite having the discussion about whether or not we could actually afford to buy a just-until-the-right-land-comes-up-home, we still went to see this home.  For one thing, we'd already told Melissa we wanted to see it.  For another, who knows?

218 A Avenue is in National City.  I can never quite figure out if these designations are townships of themselves of neighborhoods of San Diego, but suffice it to say, it's a lot closer to San Diego than we are now.

We've been warmed off about living in National City before.  But honestly, when we saw this home advertised we did some research and it doesn't look particularly different from where we lived in Albuquerque for 8 years.  It's funny how certain crimes get a place a reputation that's bad, and other crimes get a place an upstanding reputation.  I'm thinking here of the difference between crack and cocaine, or Baltimore vs Wall St.  And yeah, bias about race has a lot to do with it, and class has everything to do with it, though I can't say for sure about that for National City.

Anyway, we were to meet Melissa there at 1300.  Stepping out of the car, I immediately reached for my phone.  It's not just that I wanted to record things for you all, it's that I really wasn't sure if someone had gone to the trouble of putting poop in a ziplock baggie, but it is one of those things that is probably best to know about a neighborhood before you move there.

Found on the verge right before I stepped on it

The home is a dusty white (from the dust, not the actual color) with medium blue trim and an out-of-season wreath big enough to see from space.

Put it in a big plastic bag and you could swim in it

Turns out this is now a rental and the tenants were home.  That's always awkward.  I'm not sure how to feel for folks having their home sold out from under them.  Like, yeah, they don't own it so they always know it is a possibility, but... they live there.  As I said, awkward.

We knew from the pictures that in general this house was nicely kept up inside.  And we weren't disappointed.  It has light grey laminate flooring with medium gray walls and white trim.  Altogether, it sounds like a dour home, but actually it feels modern and comforting.  Like a sophisticated grey cat.  You know, the cats they call blue for some odd reason.

Not so sophisticated

One thing that certainly drew me to check this place out was the unusual fireplace situation.

It surely makes this already small space even more inconvenient for things like furniture and living, which is undoubtedly why this family had to cover it up with a couch, but it is adorable.  It's also non-functional atm.  It would be really interesting to see if there is a chimney under there and if it's actually non-functional or if the person renting out the home just decided not to deal with renters accidentally burning the whole place down.

I must say, I do love the more southwest style ceilings, with a curve where it meets the walls.  It's like you live in a Tupperware and the ceiling is the lid.

The kitchen was surprisingly useable seeming and again, modern looking.  It's all surely been upgraded somewhat recently by someone with reasonable taste.

The counter up top bends around to the counter at the bottom here with a breakfast bar, creating a very odd space behind the bar with not enough room for a table, but also too much room to just be for people entering and exiting bar stools.  Awkward...

That was one side of the house.  The other side had the two bedrooms and bathroom, which were, like the rest of the home: tiny.

This is one of the bedrooms that had cute geometric shapes painted on the wall.  The other bedroom had one pink wall amidst the grey.

We went around front to look at the yard to the side, which turned out to be a yard that narrowly wrapped around the house like a square beer can in a koozy.  The main side yard had a gate that Chris had to reach over the top to unlock as both Melissa and I were too short.  The cement from the driveway continued on past the gate to create a car sized dias in the yard.  Unique way to handle parking with no garage... 

I didn't take a picture of the main yard because it had tons of kids toys and garbage in it.  I assured the mom that I wouldn't take pics of her stuff (as much as I could) and really, you don't need to see garbage.  There was fake turf put on part of it and old pieces of oft trodden carpet through which patches of dirt poked through.  But it was big enough to do a bit of something with, including the ever important kicking a ball for the dog.

I did take a picture of the smaller yard on the other side of the home. 

That in front there is a nice bit of fencing.  All the rest was chainlink or chainlink with tarps hung on it.

In fact, it turns out that over the tarps, is a pretty industrial neighbor prompting Melissa to look up the zoning and this home is technically zoned commercial.  So much the better were we to move my new business here...

Melissa again assured us that she wasn't concerned about the termite report and that it could get easily taken care of by the current owners in a sales contract.  We queried about the cracked foundation but ... we didn't see it.

All in all, I loved this little house.  I think Chris really liked it too.  However, it is effing teensy.  It's something like 637 square feet.  I once looked at an apartment for just myself in Burlington VT that was 500 square feet and adorable and proclaimed it too small!  And so, I asked Melissa if it was appropriate for me to ask her "Is this home really worth $460K?"  I realize it's near San Diego, the beach (such as it is in National City, which I gather is very industrialized coastline), and in California, but... really?  I can barely see it going for $200K in most other states.  And here?  If we could talk them down to $400K, I feel that would be a miracle, but I don't know that it's really worth that amount.

Melissa gave me a very politic answer and said she'd do some research because she is ah-mazing.  Seriously, it's such a relief to have someone doing some of this work for us instead of feeling like you're all out there on your own.