I showed my newly wed second wife several parcels of land for building a house. The only time she became emotional was a lot with a small running creek, "Oh, if we had a pond with some duckies." Some 50 years ago, I paid $2K for the 2 1/2 acre land that is worth now almost $1/2M. For $60 I divided it into four 0.62 acre parcels, doing all the paperwork by myself. Nowadays this would cost $60K because only professionals are permitted of doing this work, and prices have gone up. In those days, I could still divide the land into 1/2 acre plots while nowadays the minimum size has been increased to one acre. We are grandfathered in, even when I had a lot-line adjustment recently.
We had a contractor building the house according to our ideas, mostly measured according to our apartment. At that time, the house costs $55K that is worth now well over $1/2M. We only made a mistake by designing the kitchen to be too small.
I liked a Mexican rancho style house with a large inner courtyard surrounded by the rooms. Due to cost limitations, I had to narrow this idea down to a 9x10 feet open atrium. For outer wall insulation, we paid extra for urea formaldehyde and double pane windows. I also doubled the insulation in the attic. I took a welding class and made wrought iron window screens for security in our isolated location.
On my own, I built four carports and sheds that doubled the size of the house. We also did much landscaping work that included planting over 200 trees and a flower/vegetable garden for my wife. Our children grew up in this house and want to inherit it, even though we bought them their own houses.
And yes, I built a pond with the water from the creek and obtained a half dozen Mallards to make my wife happy.
As a college employee, I had five month of vacation a year that enabled me of doing all that work. It also made it possible to take my younger wife and children on long vacation trips to Europe, and elsewhere in the world.
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Left: Can anyone identify this bird on our roof?
Right: I don't use longer this 1992 Ford Ranger that needs a repair. I will inquire at the DMV whether I can donate it to a homeless person on our street without re-registering the P/U and having a smog check done for the title transfer. The homeless person could use the car then as a shelter. I have known Jeff for some time; he is a very decent guy who just needs some help.
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Left: I am still driving and keeping this 1986 Ford F-150 with the move-on camper, that has a pop-up roof, in case a disaster damages our house. We could use it as an emergency shelter. When our children were still kids, we explored with it not only the US but also Canada and Mexico.
Right: After some 45 years, this water PVC pipe just developed a minor leak. Very odd. Since I had laid all pipes myself, I also knew how to fix it.
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Because of bird flu, millions of chickens have been culled and egg prices soar. But my wife's chickens give us all the eggs we need, so we don't have to buy any. BTW, my wife with an M.A. degree and over 30 years experience as a primary school teacher in California earns over $100K, and so does my younger daughter as an R.N. at a hospital's cardiology department. My older daughter is an English teacher in China and lives near Hong Kong in a three bedroom apartment on the 22nd floor of a high-rise on her own and can afford flying home 2 or 3 times a year. I am proud of my successful and loving wife and children with all of whom I am in daily contact.
. My license is also due, but this time I can’t renew on line; our licenses are good for eight years so they probably want a new foto. I went to the DL center this morning and the line was out the door, so I left. I need to get there earlier than 11:30.
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