Moved again.

Just an update: we've moved to another leased home in Cool.

The housing situation being what it is, we're settling in for the long haul, and have opted to make ourselves comfortable in the interim. Our last rental house is now in foreclosure.

Our new place is a large family home on a couple of acres. A bit more rent, but the upgrade in our surroundings has lifted our moods considerably, and we have a better sense of what our future permanent home will be like.

Hot Bambis.

Enduring a mini heat wave - frankly, we had expected this sooner, but June was relatively mild. Went to a 4th of July party at a neighbor's property in "Cherry Acres," a part of Cool outside the Auburn Lake Trails development, where 2-5 acres are typical, and almost everyone is keeping horses. Met a suprising number of residents who had arrived within the last year.
It's birthing season here the foothills and there baby animals everywhere: wild turkeys, grouse, rabbits, and deer. Our house has a shaded front lawn, and most days a deer will take a lay-down next to our front porch for an hour or so. The other day there was a doe with 2 fawns.

House Hunting.

Okay, we've pulled back a bit on the house search. Sellers here are coming to an acceptance of the new market conditions: asking prices are slowly coming down, but not by enough to draw out the buyers. There were only about 4 closed sales in Cool in April, median about 340K; but there are 71 houses on the market, and half of those are priced over 560K. I'm not sure anything over 520K has sold all year so far.
The upshot is that we're starting to prepare ourselves for the possibility of leasing a house into 2008. This is a disappointment, of course, but it is starting to look like a smart way to bank a lot of savings in a relatively short amount of time.
We're "okay" with our present rental, but we see now that we could do a lot better for the same rent. Also, we are getting signs that our landlord may not be financially stable, and we don't want to be put out at a time not of our choosing.

Spring is still springing here in Cool, but some of the more exposed pastures are acquiring shades of brown. We are trying to appreciate the green hues, while they last. We've been having vehicle maintenance done at the garage in Georgetown, where we are always amazed at the we-aim-to-please and git-er-done attitudes. The main shop has heavy wooden floors (very cool), and the mechanics always seem willing to take a break for a friendly chat.

Settled.

Time has passed quickly, as we sudden realized that we have been here 7 months. We recently returned from a visit down south to Pasadena, on the occasion of the opening of a show at my gallery there (www.tirageart.com); we had a nearly perfect visit, seeing a deal deal of friends and family while parked at a perfectly nice Marriot.
As much as we enjoyed seeing people, Pasadena had surely not changed for the better: the retail/condo building boom continues unabated, traffic is worse than ever, and there's been a serious up-tick in gang-related murders. Good shopping though.
I had been anxious of late, juggling ad work while trying to turn out a respectful production of oil paintings for the show. Now that the opening is past, I'm looking forward to taking on painting with a calmer deliberation, perhaps with a new range of subject matter. Spring here has been quite beautiful - still very green here, distinct from California south of Stockton, which turned yellow-brown some time ago- and I'm casting about for painting subjects which might have some authenticity with being overly picturesque or nostalgic (still a lot of barns and tractors here!). I think I see a way.
Our hopes to buy a house of our own within the next few months wax and wane as we (I) track the real estate listings and obsess over the "housing bubble" blogs. As much as the talk is of the boom having ended, asking prices have come down only a little from the peak. It must be painful to be a seller now. We are so glad to have that behind us.

Adjusting.

We are enjoying our new life in country, but our peace and quiet has come at a high price: we very much miss our old friends.

Folks up here are remarkably friendly to us, even though are new arrivals. We're leasing a house right now. It's a small community of about 2,500 (spread out over a large area) and there aren't that many properties for sell at any given time (and it's winter} so we're not expecting to do serious house-shopping until the spring. The good news for us (as buyers) is that there is glut of housing in all the local counties, and this is expected to drive down prices significantly in the coming months (actually, it's already happening - we've seen listings that have already dropped their asking prices by 100,000 or more). Our Michigan Avenue money puts us in a good position here, and it looks like we'll end up with 2-5 acres of property, maybe more. We're pretty happy about that.

There are a few bungalows and Victorian houses (older farmhouses) here and there, but predominately the houses here are Plain-Jane ranch houses built in the 1970's or later. We are re-adjusting our outlook to regard houses as comfortable shelter rather than artifacts of history! We'll be able to maintain our next house with parts off-the-shelf at Home Depot, and we probably won't even need to locate a new source for stain-grade Douglas fir. It's kind of liberating.

We live about 7 miles from "The Intersection", the town center of Cool, which is controlled by a single flashing red light. There is a line of vaguely Western-style storefronts : a Deli, a Pizza/Mexican food place (not very good) a Chinese restaurant (very good), a saloon, a feed store, some realtor offices. A full-sized supermarket just opened as we moved here: most people are pleased not to have to drive 30 min to the "city" (Auburn) any longer, but some old-timers see it as a manifestation of the Apocalypse.

Last week we attended a spaghetti dinner and auction that was held at the community stables. It had been organized for the benefit of a local horse trainer whose leg had been badly broken while working with a young colt. We went to show support and to meet some of the locals, and had expected maybe a couple dozen would show up. instead, it was more like 300, their trucks and SUVs spilling out into the field around the barn. Everyone paid 20 bucks for scoop of spaghetti on a paper plate and then proceeded to over-pay for several dozens of donated auction items: saddles, boots, drawings of horses. bottles of wine. Nothing went unsold. The recipient of this generosity, a slender man sporting a cowboy hat and a hugh leg cast, gave short speech thanking his friends and read a poem he had written about friendship.

First Photos.