the Janzens, from urban to suburban: February 2006

Sunday, February 26, 2006

180 Degree Day

I started cleaning the house at 8 Am this morning. Jodi joined in about 9, and by noon this place was cleaner than it's been in months. Joe called us at noon and said he had some news for us. As it turns out the people who offer blew us out of the water on 439 Wisnom backed out today. 2nd chance. It also turns out that the people that had the number 2 offer were unavailable today(chance). Joe got the call and got back to us asap. After we spoke Joe called the other realtor and they got down to business. In so many words Joe told her that his clients (us) were sick of the roller coaster and needed to know what magic price would be. It turns out this price was something that Jodi and I were comfortable with in the beginning. Email, sign, scan, email back, and Joe was off to Burlingame to meet the sellers. Joe wanted to sit down face to face and get things signed to mitigate any last minute offers that possibly could have come in (genius!). As of 5:30 we got the news....the house was ours.

To top things off, Joe got a mean case of food poisoning on Friday and has been half dead all weekend. Can you say Trooper?

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Nada, Nothing, Zilch

The danger of falling in love with a home before it's yours is the let down when you don't get it. Long story short, we didn't get the home. The good news is that the person who bought it blew us out of the water. If you lose you might as well lose big (sometimes it feels good to be a big loser). Jodi and I were pretty sad, pissed, mad, upset about the whole thing. But we came home, put on some Jack Johnson, and cracked a bottle of wine. After about 30 minutes we were back in check and ready to go out. Raven had his birthday celebration last night at the House of Prime Rib on Van Ness. Pretty good food and value if you ask me. At some point they gave me what looked like a bread cigar. This was perfect ammo to throw at Raven later in the night. After inhaling some nice rare prime rib and watching Hiromi feed her toy Frenchman American cuisine we headed for the Royal Oak on Polk St. Jodi, Raven, Steve and I threw back a few and then headed to our house. I think we partied till 2:30 am watching Jack Johnson in concert, Dave Chapelle, and listening to Orthodox Jewish raggae while watching the Olympics (yes this sounds strange).

This morning Jodi headed up to Petaluma to finalize the wedding album, and I took a bike ride to the Bridge and throughout the Presidio. The weather was perfect and I found a new trail which was really narrow and cool. It was so cool in fact I did a few laps on it. In a few hours we are headed to Santa Cruz with Mike and Kari to go to Dave Forbus's birthday party.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

A Little Gem

Jodi, Joe and I went and saw this little gem yesterday. It's about 6 blocks from downtown Burlingame and 6 Blocks from downtown San Mateo. That also means that it's about 7 blocks to Cal Train...a big bonus for me commuting into the city. It was built in 1912 and has the same charm as our flat in SF. Raised ceilings, hardwood, craftsman style beams, compartimentalized rooms, and a "Jack and Jill" bathroom as Jodi says. It's listed as 1060 sqft, but there is a sun room/office to the right of the front door that cannot be included in that because it was not permitted. Another bonus is that it is a 2 bed, 1.5 bath. Granted the 2 bath is a john in a broom closet, but Jodi is just happy the guys will have a place to "do their business." The garage underneath extends the length of the house. You could definitely put two cars in there. Jodi and I even met the owners before touring the home. They are moving 1 block away and both grew up in the bay area. They are most likely around 2-4 years older than us. Really cool people.

Needless to say Jodi and I are really excited about this one. We are trying to not get our hopes up too much. If it happens it was meant to be, if this thing goes for 800K then it wasn't meant to be. We are going to swing by again today just to show some face time.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Awesome Weekend

The weather here in the bay area has been just incredible all week. This weekend has been no exception. Friday night Jodi and I were down in Los Gatos meeting with a loan broker. We got a lot of good information and feel really confident about our position to buy a home. We has dinner at Willow Street Pizza and headed home. When we stepped out of the restaurant I noticed the smell in the air. That cold coastal mountain smell reminds me of SV. Saturday morning I headed down to Mike's house in Redwood city. I helped him put in his new snow mobile engine. That guy is amazing, always tinkering with something, and some how he knows how it all works and goes back together. After playing mechanic we headed down to SV to pick up Phil. Phil had his 54 Mustang out in the back and was tinkering with something....Surprise! We took Mike's company Impala down to SC. I'm going to laugh when he has to put new tires on that thing in 4 months.

We drove to Soquel and then a couple of miles up Soquel rd (aka old SJ highway). We pull up and in typical SC party fashion here are the hot rods in the front - beer and BBQ in the back. The sun was out and it was frikin gorgeous out. Jonny's new house is really cool. It's in a little valley at the end of a cul-de-sac. It gets great sun and sits on about a 1/2 acre. Troy is living with Jonny and they have some big plans. Plans that include drilling wells and jacking houses up to put in a studio. It sounds costly and challenging. I'll stick to my day job of hunting and pecking keys on my keyboard.

Sunday we went up to Colliwood. Jodi and I helped Vic clean up some tree's that had either fallen this winter, or at the hands of his chain saw on Saturday.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Joe + Club = Good Week

The last 4 days have been really good for Jodi and I. We met with our new relator Joe and we could not be more happy. We were blown away by his knowledge and his service. You have no idea how much of a relief this is for Jodi and I. Also this week I got my invitation for Peak Perfomers Club. "Club" in a sales organization typically refers to the top group of performers. This means that Jodi and I are going to have 4 days, all expenses paid days in Hawaii. We are staying at the Mauna Lani Bay hotel which I understand is amazing. Besides that we are pressing hard to find a house. We'll see what the next few weeks bring.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

House Hunting with Joe

The guy on the right wearing an oversized life vest as a diaper is going to help Jodi and I find a home. His name is Joe Moses and he is a long time friend from Cal Poly. He grew up is Los Gatos and is probably one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Here is a link to his business website where he's looking a bit more dressed up: http://www.mosesteam.com/ We're about to meet him in Belmont to start our hunt.

Of notable mention in this picture from left to right:

Raven: Raven, Jodi and I went out to this old school Italian restaurant in North Beach last night called Restaurante Franchino. Two huge thumbs up. Big pasta plates, old school southern Italian owners, great people watching too.

Dan Davis: Two Weeks ago I went out boozing with Dan Davis, Troy, Jon B, Joe, Colin. I think I'm still recovering from that one.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

End of FY

2 days ago we wrapped up our Fiscal Year. Up till this point the last few months have been busy. Things worked out pretty well for me. I ended up being number 1 for the quarter and no. 2 for the year overall. I guess the crazy days and long hours paid off. I'm not here patting myself on the back too much but it's rewarding in two ways. 1) Confirmation that I am right for this role, 2) I can focus on career development and start honing my skills. Let's face it, I work with some pretty amazing SE's. In the Jedi ranks these guys are Yoda. The next step for me is to get the wisdom.

Other than being busy at work I'm looking forward to a weekend to play catch up. It looks like Jodi will be working on Saturday so I have a day to play....what will I do? Taxes, organize my music, clean the house, laundry? Ohhhhh the options are so plentiful and exciting.