The Little Blue House

I really think that some of you (all 30 of you) think I must run away from home for months when I don’t update this blog. Well, this time it actually happened.

I found out in August that the VA would help me buy a home, despite the fact that I had to do a short sale on a condo I bought with VA money back in 1991. I thought I had lost it forever. Turns out, 30 years is just enough time for the VA to forgive me.

So I went house hunting and after a few misses–including a tiny house a block away from the ex which I am convinced was haunted–we came across this pretty little blue house in Barstow for $230,000. That’s right. For what I would spend on a closet in Los Angeles, I was able to buy a 3 bedroom house in Barstow.

Mind you, it’s not huge–about 1100 square feet inside, with a large backyard of sand and a sizeable front yard of rocks.

After some shenanigans with the escrow, we closed in November and I started to move in. It’s taken me all this time to move from the house on Anderson–also in Barstow and much bigger–to this little place. The Little Blue House has the attraction that I am buying, not renting, as I was before.

Oh, there have been problems. The outlets for the washer-dryer weren’t working and it turns out that the plumbers dropped a pipe on the wire that connected it to the power. That cost me $500.

Then the bathroom was hinky. My toilet seemed to be circulating hot water. A plumber came out and told me that the plumbing resembled a Rube Goldberg contraption. He got the shower working with hot water but to get the rest of the plumbing fixed will cost $2000. I am waiting on that.

Oh, did I mention that I have retired from the daily grind? I still have my bar card (I am going through MCLE at the last minute right now to keep it, which consists of watching very boring videos on the law to make up 25 hours in legal eductation. Ugh). I intend to do some small cases each month to keep a little extra money (over the SSI and Orange County Retirement, as well as the $200 per month VA Disability). But if all fails, I still have enough–barely–to pay the bills.

So I have taken the last month off. I’ve napped a lot. Watched a lot of TV. And kept moving from the old house to the new all through November. Then in December, I began moving out of the Loma Linda apartment I kept to keep from driving 2 hours to and from work each day. I am almost finished with that–plan to take the last few things over here from LL this week.

I had intended to be out of LL at the end of December, but things happened. So I ended up paying another month of rent. Turns out, that was fortunate, as my son and his family were evacuated from Glendale due to the fires. They ended up staying at my LL apartment. God, my friends, works in mysterious ways.

But now I am free of the daily grind. Let’s hope I get moved in completely by Valentine’s day and that I get to this blog much more than I have in the past.

Promises, promises…