Bloomin' Humans...

Hello family,

First of all thank you Mom and Greg for keeping this blog alive while I was abducted by aliens piloting a ship that looks like a vacant rental property at the Neusteter's building downtown.

Julie and I have been quite busy this winter cooped up in our home offices, avoiding the cold... Since last winter was so mild, this year has served as the true acclimation that we never really had when we moved back from San Jose the fall before last. Despite some really dry throats, bloody noses, a torn Rhomboid muscle and a vacant rental property, we are finally beginning to bloom into full humans again.... at roughly the same time our tulips are blooming the oregano and lemon balm in our garden is coming back to life!

Now back to the aforementioned abduction. Our tenant moved out of our loft downtown during the winter giving us a first hand look at a natural phenomenon the newspapers and NPR call a "recessed economy". Below is a before and after picture of what this meant to a layman, a landlord or in my case, a person who is both...

During 2006, 2007, 2008: Our renters moved out.... We listed the loft on craigslist to find new renters. Our craigslist ad was answered immediately as if the "submit ad" button on the craigslist page were hot-wired to our telephone... We'd do several showings all scheduled in 1 day and the first potential renter would accept a signed lease... The other potentials were turned away; angry they had lost the opportunity at living in a downtown loft... Also - we raised the rent every time and used the difference to sip fine wine in Napa Valley.

Winter 2010: Somebody call Macgyver! The hot-wire between craigslist "Submit Ad" button and our telephone has been severed! We resorted to finding renters by dressing up in gigantic bicuspid outfits and doing tricks on the 16th street mall. Julie excelled at this! When people would approach to give us tips, we'd persuade them to walk inside and look at our rental property. When desperate measures called, this eventually culminated in the use of canvas bags over people's heads and some extra muscle to force an awkward situation in the elevator.

Picky picky....where before out tenants were single, young males for which cooking meant walking across the street to Chipotle, in 2010 they are middle aged couples who have highly acclaimed credentials in the area of scrutinizing the awesomeness of rental property kitchens. Being the calculators that we are, Julie and I ran some numbers and some scenarios and decided it was time to remodel the loft's kitchen... I have a bachelors in mathematics so I can help break down what this looked like:

Should I remodel the kitchen = 9+3/2

In algebraic terms (For those who have pushed aunt Sally from their memories for good), this basically boils down to the following figures:

Should I remodel the kitchen = 10.5

I think you can all understand the predicament this caused for us. We were to remodel our kitchen....

There are many gory details that range from an uninsured cabinet installer with a DUI, to a rusty bathtub in a second floor bathroom that resides above a Rite Aid...... roughly above the section where Oreo cookies are sold.

Basically this project was a lot of work... I still don't remember all of the details but the hypnotic therapy I have been receiving has brought back enough of the repressed alien abduction memory that I know spring is good because our new tenant seems really nice and drives a very nice BMW... Seems like a great person to live in our place, using our new kitchen.

Also wanted to thank Greg for coming by in the final week to help me get my stuck arm out of the bath-tub drain... As we were literally caulking the new bath-tub as our new tenant came to get the keys on Saturday morning, would not have made it without your help. Thank you!

With that said..... Lets rock this blog!! Lots of stuff to share..... so stay tuned....