Happy Halloween and the Holmes Comet

We live in the burbs. However, as the real estate broker said last night when she came over "your house seems like it's in the country". Yes I know. You can't see our little house from the road. And yes, we didn't get any trick or treaters.

You read correctly. We just put our house on the market. It's an almost dream location. Our beach house is an almost dream location. I once wrote a play "Three blocks from Bloomies". It's about getting close to your dream, but never actually finding it. I found my dream house and my location dream house has now changed from the beach to the country. The reality is that an "on the beach" house scares me. This country house sort of scares me. But the smallish house architecture and the property is my dream.

Paulo hasn't seen it. He said he's fine with moving but we have to sell this house first. You see the house we are in is Paulo's dream location.

A few days ago we saw the Holmes Comet through the telescope. That's his new hobby. My dream house is on the top of a mountain. We will be that much closer to the stars.

Good Neighbors Bad Neighbors

Yesterday I went and introduced myself to the neighbors we share a driveway with.
LOVE HER. Last month our mailboxes were knocked down. She wondered who fixed hers. (We did)
Unfortunately there's another set of neighbors who have loud barking dogs who bark from the time they arrive until they leave. (This is their vacation home.)
We should our house to a real estate broker who will come back with a price she thinks she can sell it for. If the price is right, we will give it a few weeks and make an offer on the mountain house. If this doesn't work out, we'll do something with this house. Either way it will be fine.

Rockland Taxes

I'm trying to figure out the political structure in our new land. We live in Rockland County. However, I'm not sure what Rockland County does for us. Most of the stuff comes from Clarkstown, our town. So on Friday, I called the tax assessor, Cathy Conklin who was very patient with me as she explained the process. Her office follows state rules to assess properties. These assessments where done in 1985. Your assessment is always the same and as the taxes go up it is a relative value to the assessment number.

So I'm compiling a spreadsheet with addresses, assessment numbers and tax rates. I'm then getting a percentage by dividing the taxes by the assessment number. Behold - the percentages so far after doing 20 addresses range between 7.3% and 14.4%. I hate to bother Cathy again. But something is wrong.

I have to check with her to find out if the data I'm using from is correct.

Saw a New House

I check the real estate section each week. I found a house I must have. I don't really want to live in it. But it's like a painting you want on your wall. I just want to own it.

Paulo has to see it. He likes the satellite images of the property. We are not going to be too anxious. I'm figuring noboby will want this property. It's too unfriendly.

Life In Burbland

I started "To The Burbs" last year while we were buying our new house. It's time to make the formal change of saying we are burblandites. (yes, bland was intended) If you want to catch up on what happened before, feel free to go back to http://totheburbs.blogspot.com/

It's been 6 months since we moved here. We are now suburb people with zero intention of going back to the city. Life is so much easier here in the suburbs. You just go and do. No planning. No waiting. Just Be.