So my apartment has a great view!
Apparently my insurance company doesn't like the view as much because they won't cover us! Thank goodness this is temporary! Something about flooding or some ridiculous thing like that... Which brings me to the nice little tidbit we heard right before we got here. So glad we got the warning! LA has the most expensive insurance in the US. Fabulous!
There are a few differences that I have noticed.
Mosquitoes have the power of invisibility. I am covered in mosquito bites but haven't seen any...hmmm. I miss the bird sized mosquitoes you can see coming!
Milk is hella expensive! It's about double what we pay in the midwest! Damn those happy cows being in WI.
Fruit is a little bit cheaper, but not by much.
People are nice. The checker forgot to put my WI cheese in my bag at the grocery store. He came running out to give it to me!
They don't have our floss here :( we have to switch brands. They do however have already brewed coffee in the refrigerated section in a special bottle that can measure out a shot of coffee i can only assume would be for iced coffee but i guess you can also heat it up. why wouldn't you just brew your own? weird!
Why fix the roads?
The weather doesn't necessarily come from the west it comes from the south east or at least it has this last week.
We are in the process of looking at houses. This is not a fun experience. I used to watch the shows about people trying to buy houses and think the people were being over dramatic...now I completely understand.
Amid the chaos I have been reluctantly practicing my finger waves and roller sets. yuck!
Hopefully soon I will have another update!
a couple of tips for house hunting (only from what I've learned after living in our house for 6 years):
ReplyDelete*you can NEVER have too much kitchen cabinets
*you can NEVER have too big of a closet
*you will always need/wish you had a basement or equivalent storage space
*fireplaces look great, but really - are you going to use it (we've only used ours once since we've been here)
*smaller items make the house look bigger (a smaller kitchen table will make the kitchen area bigger, etc.)
*make sure you have a good home inspector - ours missed a few things that should have been caught
*test appliances! We just looked and saw "oh, there's a stove/oven and a washer/dryer" but we didn't truly look at them...when we moved in we saw the oven door didn't close all the way and the stove top only had one heat setting...on - it was the same w/the washer/dryer - they only had a couple settings and barely worked.
*look closely at the flooring - if there is something wrong with it (dents in wood, stains in carpet, padding worn, etc.) you might be able to get a flooring allowance (they'll give you money off the sale price so you can replace the flooring with something you're happier with - you don't have too, but it's a good way to try to lower the price)
Hope these help...
extremely helpful! thank you! i can't believe the stove top has one setting! the part that stinks is that there are no basements here. i was pretty sure of that and then i called to get a quote on insurance and the lady asked if it was on a slab i asked you mean does it have a basement or not? she laughed at me and ask you're not from 'round here are ya?" it means, is your house on the ground or is it on "stilts" or raised?
ReplyDeleteYes, the appliance thing sucked - but we bought a new oven/stove and then his aunt and uncle had a washer and dryer set we were able to use/have until they died.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the basement thing goes - I guess that makes sense - in an area where flood insurance is so high, they wouldn't have basements...but, I would then look for a crawl space in your attic or more room in your garage...make it work for you - I'm just saying...I know you guys want to stay a while, so I'm thinking of things that would make me happier in our house...