JinJer 48: California Love

[Pretzel]

Talk about entitlement if marble threshold is how the value of a home is being measured (both material and emotional value).

For heaven's sake, AtlanticTug, are you aware that this is probably the silliest level of BEC in this entire thread? Most people live just fine without marble thresholds and with cheap-looking baseboards. They're glad when they can pay the electric bill,  feed their children, and when their "basic appliances" are working properly while they work their asses off to at least afford a functional roof over their heads. Marble threshold is not on most people's minds. 

The Vuolos have/had a beautiful house in Laredo. It feels warm, inviting, clean, and quiet. I'd move in right away, sans framing and marble.

Edited May 8, 2019 by Pretzel

[tabitha2]

Reminds me a little of the post on On Old FJ ago where some lady was genuinely blasting Anna for not laying out Silver China and a nice table cloth for her toddler children’s breakfast every morning And no homemade pancakes even! I mean she did it, why was Anna so slatternly??  

[nvmbr02]

I generally prefer the same flooring throughout, completely seamless. Tile is what I generally prefer, especially the tiles that look like hardwood. We have tile in our current house and it is about the only thing I like about it. We had engineered hardwood in our previous house and I thought I would hate the fake wood, but I actually liked the stuff we had. It had enough texture that little dings and scratches didn't show but still easy to clean. 

[bal maiden]

1 hour ago, nvmbr02 said:

I generally prefer the same flooring throughout, completely seamless. Tile is what I generally prefer, especially the tiles that look like hardwood. We have tile in our current house and it is about the only thing I like about it. We had engineered hardwood in our previous house and I thought I would hate the fake wood, but I actually liked the stuff we had. It had enough texture that little dings and scratches didn't show but still easy to clean. 

Engineered hardwood isn’t fake wood, it’s real wood, just bonded to base layers to stop it from warping. (At least in the UK it is, anyway) 

Edited May 8, 2019 by bal maiden

[nvmbr02]

4 minutes ago, bal maiden said:

Engineered hardwood isn’t fake wood, it’s real wood, just bonded to base layers to stop it from warping. 

I realize the wood itself isn't fake, but it feels fake (at least the stuff we had). It just feels very plasticky. Which was part of why it worked out so well with toddlers and 2 messy dogs and snowy Minnesota winters. Overall, I liked the floors, they were very practical.

[theotherelise]

It's just such a weird thing to say that their home would be garbage where you're from. Okay? And? A home in Laredo, Texas with marble and highest-end appliances is a home with negative return on investment. [ETA: especially a 1400 sqft slab home!] 

It might also stand to reason that places like the Bay Area and fancy Connecticut or Manhattan or whatever are problematic in one way because they drive this consumerist, capitalist wet-dream wherein there is always something better and newer and absolutely necessary in order for your home (or your self) to have value. It's not a good thing in this world for people to tear down perfectly nice homes just so they can build fancier homes with marble thresholds simply because that is what we've decided is the sign of making it in a certain zip code. Meanwhile people in the bay area are sleeping in their cars and still commuting an hour to go to a job in a tech company where they work to provide more opportunities for everyone to feel sh*tty about themselves for what tech they don't have or what they see someone else has on social media.

On another note, I really dislike this trend of words on walls and wood signs with words on walls everywhere. I think it's the rebel in me, but they're always telling me what I'm supposed to do in a room and it drives me crazy. But the home looks nice, the aesthetic is popular, and they did an amazing job cleaning it up for pictures. 

Edited May 8, 2019 by theotherelise

[bal maiden]

1 hour ago, theotherelise said:

 

On another note, I really dislike this trend of words on walls and wood signs with words on walls everywhere. I think it's the rebel in me, but they're always telling me what I'm supposed to do in a room and it drives me crazy. But the home looks nice, the aesthetic is popular, and they did an amazing job cleaning it up for pictures. 

YAAAAAASSSSSSS these give me The Rage too! R E L A X?? I was fucking relaxing, until inanimate objects told me to! B A T H? Well, yes, I fucking know what a bathtub is for! F A M I L Y?? Generally only on the walls of white middle class straight cis people who are smug about the entitled, cherubic looking little shitbags that they call children. 

[VelociRapture]

Their house looks nice enough. It’s not exactly my style, but they have done updates and it looks clean and cared for. I do like the back patio area a lot. That’s a fantastic feature to have given how hot it must get in their area. Given the square footage and number of bedrooms the price is pretty low for my area (central Connecticut.) I’ve seen plenty of houses on the market here that seem relatively similar, but are closer to the $300,000 range. Go closer to NYC and that range skyrockets because it’s such an in-demand area to live in. We bought our 1200 square foot two bed, one and a half bath townhouse almost six years ago for just under what they’re asking for their house. I don’t know what the Laredo market is like, but it’s probably priced well enough if they already have a sale pending. 

41 minutes ago, bal maiden said:

YAAAAAASSSSSSS these give me The Rage too! R E L A X?? I was fucking relaxing, until inanimate objects told me to! B A T H? Well, yes, I fucking know what a bathtub is for! F A M I L Y?? Generally only on the walls of white middle class straight cis people who are smug about the entitled, cherubic looking little shitbags that they call children. 

We actually bought two signs kind of like this recently. The colors fit with what we have already, the messages are generic, and we’re hoping it’ll help us stage our house the tiniest bit so people want to buy it. We’ll likely bring them with us when we move because they’re cute, but I can see how they’d likely annoy some people.

(That and I didn’t really want to fill the nail hole for one of them when I took a painting down for storage and this fit perfectly. Lol!)

ETA: My only mild critique of their listing is that they have some personal photos visible in some photos. That’s 100% just my weird thing though and it likely didn’t hurt them if they have a buyer already. For us, we’re making sure no personal photos, artwork, or anything with our names is visible once we list our place for sale though. We don’t want photos of our daughter bouncing around the Internet and it helps people envision living in the home more easily without other people’s faces staring at them. JinJer may not have had anywhere to store that stuff though, so that might be why they didn’t take it down. 

Edited May 8, 2019 by VelociRapture

[HereticHick]

1 hour ago, bal maiden said:

YAAAAAASSSSSSS these give me The Rage too! R E L A X?? I was fucking relaxing, until inanimate objects told me to! B A T H? Well, yes, I fucking know what a bathtub is for! F A M I L Y?? 

Lord yes. I do not want my art telling me what to do. And even if I kinda want to stay at the Bontrager's Dutch Country Inn in Kalona, Iowa out of sheer curiousity, the bible verses painted everywhere would make me ragey:

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/dutch-country-inn-kalona?select=lYVPC-va_huJpFATaNQAyw

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/dutch-country-inn-kalona?select=V8TIpyWZgNQNJPkPUKT5iQ

 

[medimus]

I love looking at houses for sale online. Seeing how other people live can be quite amusing. Looking at the house prices in and around Dublin makes me want to sob though, so I try not to. (especially compared to other places I might have lived).

About old houses: where I currently live was built mid 18th century, but has obviously been done up in the mean time ?

[nickelodeon]

I’m still losing my marble thresholds over the way that JinJer (a pastor to a congregation of 6 people and a homemaker) bought and renovated this home last Thursday and are already getting rid of it. How do they afford this stuff?

39 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

ETA: My only mild critique of their listing is that they have some personal photos visible in some photos. That’s 100% just my weird thing though and it likely didn’t hurt them if they have a buyer already.

Are you implying that the Vuolos have ever, even for a second, not wanted people to look at them?

[VelociRapture]

3 minutes ago, nickelodeon said:

I’m still losing my marble thresholds over the way that JinJer (a pastor to a congregation of 6 people and a homemaker) bought and renovated this home last Thursday and are already getting rid of it. How do they afford this stuff?

Are you implying that the Vuolos have ever, even for a second, not wanted people to look at them?

Lol! No. We’re almost ready to list our place though, so that was one of the first things that jumped out at me as I was scrolling through their listing. 

[bal maiden]

On 5/8/2019 at 6:34 PM, HereticHick said:

Lord yes. I do not want my art telling me what to do. And even if I kinda want to stay at the Bontrager's Dutch Country Inn in Kalona, Iowa out of sheer curiousity, the bible verses painted everywhere would make me ragey:

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/dutch-country-inn-kalona?select=lYVPC-va_huJpFATaNQAyw

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/dutch-country-inn-kalona?select=V8TIpyWZgNQNJPkPUKT5iQ

 

Spoiler

 

Edited May 9, 2019 by laPapessaGiovanna
Put animated gif under spoiler

[HerNameIsBuffy]

1 hour ago, bal maiden said:

Generally only on the walls of white middle class straight cis people who are smug about the entitled, cherubic looking little shitbags that they call children. 

Wow / that’s an excessively nasty reaction to some decor you don’t care for.

 

[bal maiden]

3 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Wow / that’s an excessively nasty reaction to some decor you don’t care for.

 

It's a comedic device called hyperbole ? Maybe it doesn't translate well into text, or across the Atlantic ?‍♀️

 

FWIW, I am a middle class cishet female with cherub little shitbags  

[SassyPants]

3 hours ago, theotherelise said:

It's just such a weird thing to say that their home would be garbage where you're from. Okay? And? A home in Laredo, Texas with marble and highest-end appliances is a home with negative return on investment. [ETA: especially a 1400 sqft slab home!] 

It might also stand to reason that places like the Bay Area and fancy Connecticut or Manhattan or whatever are problematic in one way because they drive this consumerist, capitalist wet-dream wherein there is always something better and newer and absolutely necessary in order for your home (or your self) to have value. It's not a good thing in this world for people to tear down perfectly nice homes just so they can build fancier homes with marble thresholds simply because that is what we've decided is the sign of making it in a certain zip code. Meanwhile people in the bay area are sleeping in their cars and still commuting an hour to go to a job in a tech company where they work to provide more opportunities for everyone to feel sh*tty about themselves for what tech they don't have or what they see someone else has on social media.

On another note, I really dislike this trend of words on walls and wood signs with words on walls everywhere. I think it's the rebel in me, but they're always telling me what I'm supposed to do in a room and it drives me crazy. But the home looks nice, the aesthetic is popular, and they did an amazing job cleaning it up for pictures. 

I’m not sure if I have shared this story here or not, but here goes. I live in a coastal vacation area south of Silicon Valley. Think $$$$$ land and many 2nd, 3rd...homes for the rich. My home is 35 years old, very nice inside, minimal lot and about 4 blocks from the ocean. It’s pricey home only due to location. Anywhere else and it’s no great shakes.  Recently an old home on a really nice Ocean view, corner , lot  about 3 blocks from me was knocked down, and a nice enough spec home was built in its place. This lot is impressive because it wraps around the corner so the back of the house has both a northern view of Monterey Bay towards Santa Cruz and a southern view of Monterey. The home was listed for 6 million and sold for 4.5 million. A few weeks later as I was out walking my dog I noticed that portions of the house had been knocked down and were covered with tarps. Thinking there had been a fire, I enquired with the construction crew, and they told me that the new owners were adding their own panache to the house. JC, who knocks down portions of a brand new 5 million $ home?  I was literally physically ill. As my friend said, that’s some F U money right there.

[Cat Damon]

@SassyPants My grandparents bought a lake house forty years ago or so, and it's a really cute little cottage- over a century old, no A/C, dishwasher, or microwave. It's my favorite place in the entire world. The last twenty years or so, this lake has become a kind of destination for upper/ upper middle class families in the Midwest to have a second home and they're mostly doing the same thing- the house next to ours sold in 2010 for almost $900k and they promptly tore it down and built a huge house that had to cost well over a million dollars. They're there... three weeks a year and a handful of weekends? It's truly mind-boggling.

[Sops2]

Lissy's bows all in a row!

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Just now, Cat Damon said:

@SassyPants My grandparents bought a lake house forty years ago or so, and it's a really cute little cottage- over a century old, no A/C, dishwasher, or microwave. It's my favorite place in the entire world. The last twenty years or so, this lake has become a kind of destination for upper/ upper middle class families in the Midwest to have a second home and they're mostly doing the same thing- the house next to ours sold in 2010 for almost $900k and they promptly tore it down and built a huge house that had to cost well over a million dollars. They're there... three weeks a year and a handful of weekends? It's truly mind-boggling.

I worked for someone once who was complaining about the remodel on his vacation home’s second kitchen was taking too long.

it was some huge place in the Ramsay’s neighborhood in Boulder.   They were there several weeks out of the year.   Then was seriously angry that we had to pay OT for min wage people if they went over 40 becusse “they work slow to bleed me dry.”

fuck him and all his kitchens.

[SassyPants]

In my area the closer you get to seeing the water, the fewer the number of primary residents. Even on my own street, primary occupancy is like 60%. On the streets that face the Ocean, I’d it’s 30%. Big, beautiful homes with no one in them.

[Thorns]

18 hours ago, livinginthelight said:

Looking at all those mugs in the dining area right by the table....All I can think about is how easy they would be to bump into. Broken mugs, anyone?

And dust. 

[nst]

1 hour ago, SassyPants said:

I’m not sure if I have shared this story here or not, but here goes. I live in a coastal vacation area south of Silicon Valley. Think $$$$$ land and many 2nd, 3rd...homes for the rich. My home is 35 years old, very nice inside, minimal lot and about 4 blocks from the ocean. It’s pricey home only due to location. Anywhere else and it’s no great shakes.  Recently an old home on a really nice Ocean view, corner , lot  about 3 blocks from me was knocked down, and a nice enough spec home was built in its place. This lot is impressive because it wraps around the corner so the back of the house has both a northern view of Monterey Bay towards Santa Cruz and a southern view of Monterey. The home was listed for 6 million and sold for 4.5 million. A few weeks later as I was out walking my dog I noticed that portions of the house had been knocked down and were covered with tarps. Thinking there had been a fire, I enquired with the construction crew, and they told me that the new owners were adding their own panache to the house. JC, who knocks down portions of a brand new 5 million $ home?  I was literally physically ill. As my friend said, that’s some F U money right there.

FU money is very common here.  They don't think twice about knocking down a 6 million dollar home and starting from scratch 

it's sick yes - but people with obscene amounts always want more. 

[nst]

On 5/7/2019 at 3:59 AM, QuiverFullofBooks said:

Is it staged, or is their decor really that boring? That’s a fuckton of mugs in the dining room. It’s interesting that Jeremy seems to be trying to sell without a realtor. I wonder what the story of the taxidermy bobcat is. No sign of Rufus.

I think it's both staged and boring as Jeremy needs to have a certain look. He can't have anything fun or remotely out of place. 

 

On 5/7/2019 at 9:03 AM, HerNameIsBuffy said:

As some here know I’m currently house hunting with a looming deadline and if I add marble thresholds on my must have list that would soooo up my degree of difficulty!

you mean your marble threshold limit is set. What about walls or an actual house would be good ?

On 5/7/2019 at 9:46 AM, JesSky03 said:

Well damn, I didn't even know people used marble for thresholds. But what do I know. I'm perfectly happy with our laminate flooring and counter tops in our super affordable 3bed 2bath "mobile" home sans thresholds 

these same people who use marble for thresholds put marble in their bathroom walls. 

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

4 minutes ago, nst said:

I think it's both staged and boring as Jeremy needs to have a certain look. He can't have anything fun or remotely out of place. 

 

you mean your marble threshold limit is set. What about walls or an actual house would be good ?

I am pro wall.  And pro roof.  Also pro indoor plumbing and flooring.  Crazy like that.

[nst]

4 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I am pro wall.  And pro roof.  Also pro indoor plumbing and flooring.  Crazy like that.

my mom loves to tell me stories about when she was a young girl (she is 75) she would go in the family outhouse in Switzerland in their cabin in Zermat.  They lived in Bern. 

so outhouses are a no go?

Edited May 8, 2019 by nst