Monday, February 22, 2010

Into the Complex




Many of you already follow our periodic updates on Facebook with regard to the multi-dwelling property. We've been trying to figure out what to call it. Calling it a "Compound" has a Branch Davidian feeling. Calling it a "lot" implies just land. It isn't big enough for a campus. So, for now I guess it's a complex. Not the kind of complex that you go to see a psychologist for, but, in fact one of the buildings will be Barbara's Psychology Office (which will have a second office for a complimentary practitioner) - so I suppose "The Complex" has it's own double meaning right there.

There is also the "complex" side of making it all work - taking the buildings from what they are, and converting them into what we see as their role in this thing.

For those that don't know, the address is 3928 - 3932 Georgia St, San Diego. Supposedly the link is -


http://maps.google.com/maps?q=32.749046,-117.145224&num=1&t=h&sll=32.801113,-117.116639&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&ie=UTF8&hl=en&ei=m-0RS8bIKaeGiAOTqry5Aw&ll=32.749086,-117.14533&spn=0.000732,0.001031&z=20&layer=c&cbll=32.749076,-117.144998&panoid=IXfVWSU16No-bJ8SRfWL0Q&cbp=12,271.32,,1,2

We don't know much about the history. The house was built somewhere around 1908-1912ish. Somewhere along the way, a three car garage was built in the back, with a one bedroom appt on top of it. The house it self had additions attached here and there - a solarium in front, a laundry room in the back. A chunk of the house was annexed and another room was added to make a separate one bedroom unit.

So, we're taking the one bedroom unit which is attached to the house, pulling out the kitchen, and the tub in the bathroom, to make two offices in the building. This will be Barbara's space for her ever growing business.

The house we're going to do a remodel of the bathroom, at least add a microwave to the kitchen, and replace some plaster walls, paint and spiff up. Two bedrooms there - one for Delilah, and one for us, a "music and art room", living room, breakfast nook, and solarium.

The apartment mostly gets a cleanup to the kitchen (new tile and more power), and some painting. The garages will join the 21st century with roll up garage doors and electric openers...

Each of the dwellings had tenants that had to move out. All of them managed to get out within 30 days, even though two of them technically had sixty - so it is now vacant of people at least, though you would think that one of the tenants was actually a heard of pot bellied pigs for as much a mess as he left the place!

All the dwellings will need tenting for termites (which started today), foundation work, roof work, painting inside and out. Barbara has taken orchestration on as yet another part time job and we've been getting quotes and trying to line up the cast of characters to make it happen in a reasonable amount of time, and for a reasonable cost...

The lot is pretty big for urban San Diego, and we plan on parking our little RV on it and setting it up so that we could use it as a guest house or even host an exchange student or ?? in it. In the long term, we hope to buy a Yurt for community gatherings/meals and classes, put in a Jacuzzi, maybe even build a small chicken coop for a couple of Urban Chickens, some container gardening, probably even a little play house for Delilah...


We are looking to rent out the one apartment in back, and have had a handful of people say they might be interested - but we're still accepting applications since no one has committed yet! It's a non-smoking, no dog (though cats are ok) place, and we hope to spin some sort of a deal with regard to exchanging some kid-sitting in exchange for a reduced rent...

Thanks all for the well wishes along the way, the support, the hand holding, prayers, energetic anchoring, referrals for contractors, etc.

Hopefully, if all goes as planned, we'll be able to move in there in about a month. Once we've actually moved in and settled, we'll plan a house-warming/"Christmas Eve-Eve x 268 Party" or something party as appropriate. We look forward to seeing you then, if not before!

Life at Campland on the Bay


Ok, so I've been more than a bit remiss about posting for the last couple of months.
One would think that living at Campland On The Bay would be like living the life of vacation - a semi-permanent staycation, and constant party. But the reality of our "regular" life overlays "unsatisfactorily" upon the experience.

In case you hadn't noticed, or are reading at some time in the future, it's winter. Yeah, I know, winter in San Diego is hardly something to complain about. But, in the RV, we have no patio. When it rains, the rain pools two inches deep all around the entrance to the RV, so we have to sloug through it. When it rains, if thee is any real wind, we have to roll the awning up so it doesn't tear - so our only protection from the rain is also removed. When it rains, the rain beats on the roof - which at times is enchanting, and other times (like when you're trying to sleep, for instance) is less so... On the plus side, we had long ago converted the RV to electric operation for both the water heater and an old fashioned "electric oil radiant heater" that does a good job keeping things reasonably warm at night.

Another aspect is that we are trying to have an otherwise normal life. We started out with our one car, and the theory was that Barbara was going to play bus driver, get up at 7 with Delilah and I, we were all supposed to wrestle over the shower, the space, get dressed, eat, and get on the road - Delilah to school before 8:30, me to work soon after, Barbara does her thing - then back around, she picks up me, then D then back home around 6, oh - dinner time, then time to wrestle Delilah into bed, 8:30, maybe time for a round of skip bo, a little reading for B, an attempt at some WoW for me...

Part of the supposed allure of Campland is that it has "free WiFi". You get what you pay for. Did I mention that it's raining a lot this year? What, you say, does that have to do with WiFi? Everything. WiFi operates in a radio band that was declared a "free for all" frequency band by the FCC years ago. You see, Microwave ovens heat food by making the water molecules in the food jigger around at their characteristic frequency of about 2.4GHz. Microwave ovens are very high power - more powerful than many back woods radio stations - so if you were transmitting on purpose at that frequency, and someone turns on a microwave oven, they'd suddenly be tuned in to your microwave instead - and be listening to "Popcorn's greatest hits"... So, the FCC said "as long as you guys can put up with the noise, you can have it" and a whole lot of modern devices hopped on the spectrum. Which is fine, unless you are trying to use it in the rain. Or with a microwave. Or other people using similar stuff. Long story short - WiFi here is almost good enough to update your blog once a month or so... Almost...

On the plus side, there are lots of activities. If we had time to do them, I'm sure they'd be fun. One of the regular activities that we've learned to do is the "laundromat". Hum. Now I remember why we buy clothes washers...

Seriously though, the cafe here is nice - they have a BBQ and do a fine job at all sorts of carnivorous fodder. Then there's "The Company Store" - which has all the amenities, at twice the regular price, but dang it's convenient. They do have a nice playground that we get to at least weekly, and a great pool that we've braved perhaps a half dozen times. And as the name suggests, it's on the bay - a hundred yards that way is the bay, with ducks and seagulls, sand and, well, the bay - wet and cold. Just like they said. Did I mention it's winter??? :)