Yes, it is my first house, and my rent went up in April to an outrageous amount. So... we qualify for FHA, which I think is really good. It was great seeing the other houses in other parts of the country in my price range - I liked them all - even the one that Pam didn't! It just had horrible decor, but that could be fixed. I can't believe anyone lives with vertical blinds inside their house!! Susie, Kevin and I also watched the House Hunters where the couple bought a house in Venice. That house today would be twice what they paid for it, and Kevin and I couldn't believe that they didn't want to live in Venice, but then we prefer Venice to Santa Monica. Right now we live on Abbot Kinney, and so it's a very walkable neighborhood, but there's also a lot of traffic. In Westchester, the neighborhood is extremely quiet, and we could ride our bikes comfortably in the residential neighborhood. I'm a bit tired of the beach bike paths because I have too many accidents on them - there are always too many pedestrian tourists getting in my way walking on paths that are clearly marked "BIKES ONLY"! There was another bid on the house, and today both of us got counters from the sellers asking us to name our best offer, and so we will be making that offer tomorrow. Whoever bids higher will win, and we should know by Friday. We had already bid about as much as we could at the beginning, and so we asked our sister if she could help us. She said she could lend us up to $25,000, but I don't think we will need more than $15,000 for what we plan to offer. We're going to drop the $15,000 back for closing costs. We'll get $8,000 back on a tax credit, and that can go a long way to paying our sister back. I think she really wants us to get this house, and if we do, we will have a nice guest room for her and her husband when they come to visit! I've searched the rest of Westchester, and I can't find anything comparable for anywhere near the price, and so I'm not completely surprised that the price is going up. If we do get it, I expect it to increase in value quite a bit in the next couple of years. Thanks for all your positive thoughts! I really do think we have a good chance, and I checked my transits, and they are excellent!! I told the real estate agent about this, and she told me that her sister is an astrologer, and both of them follow this as well. I only hope that my transits are stronger than the transits of the other buyer. P.S. I'm extremely nervous now and am on pins and needles! I was almost sick at my stomach at work trying to figure things out, but I've relaxed a lot more now that I'm home. We have to meet with the agent first thing in the morning to sign more papers, but her office is between here and where I work, and so it's not out of the way for me, although it is for Kevin. Lee, I'm sorry to say that we will be postponing our trip to Denver if we get this house, and I was so looking forward to seeing you, but we will definitely book another trip there in the near future. Our cousin there is going to have heart surgery (not as drastic as yours, I think) in the next couple of weeks, and so it might be best to wait to visit her as well. Lars

>> But the point I was making is whether you should be buying it with foodstamps. I may be out of line, but if you're buying on someone else's dime, you should make that dime stretch as far as you can.Why do you automatically assume that food stamp recipients are buying food on someone else's dime? You don't know why they are receiving FS and you don't know for how long. For all you know, the FTR could be employed but still eligible for FS. They could be members of the the Armed Forces Services. Heck, they could have just been laid off from a long term job/employer. They could be seniors/or not on Social Security.. or SC Disability. All of those examples paid taxes, too. So, where do you get the idea that you should feel ripped off, somehow? And maybe it's none of those things. I don't think it is your business what they buy to eat. I find this attitude to be stingy, mean spirited and very very judgmental. Do you have kids? I don't, and yet, my taxes go towards lots of GS only kids use. >> I would think you could buy a lot more chicken than lobster for the same amount of money. Lobster might be healthy, but it ain't cheap! Even here in Boston! ;)They probably could, that's true. But it's still their choice, not yours. And FWIW, lobster can be had cheaply in the summer time here. Last summer we were able to buy chix at 2.99 per pound. Once or twice we managed to get it at 1.99 pound. And our local north shore restaurants had triples for 15 bucks as a special run twice a week. That's 5 bucks per lobster...not expensive at all. I don't know if you've lived here all of your life. I have. I do think that you have most likely never had to suffer the humiliation of food stamps. Or endured the looks and stares of disapproval, as strangers feel entitled to survey the contents of your grocery cart. Often they will even have the gall to make comments, quite frequently those comments are said in front of small children. Lastly, you would be amazed to see the most vocal anti welfare folks in this neighborhood rant and rave how "those" people get everything for nothing. All the while these folks who have very good paying municipal jobs (with fine benefits) that they got solely based on some sort of connection.. and that connection doesn't just give them one good job. Nope, I know families who have firefighters, cops, EMT'S and crossing guards... not to mention uncles or aunts working at city hall and have been told that any one of their kids that have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, they need only place a call letting the PTB know that they are now in need of a job. And despite of this.. these favored and connected families not only justify but brag about their kids getting free lunch.. and LOUDLY scream about "those welfare cheats" at the same time.As far as I can see, there are many more cheats with city jobs. Theft is theft... stealing is stealing. Those with connections just get a pass. It's legalized theft and it is so ingrained that the connected have a total disconnect..they don't see what they do as thievery. Hey, this wasn't anywhere near as bad as a post I saw on another forum that basically said, birthday cake and even cupcakes for little kids BD'S paid for with FS put her over the edge... turned her into a republican from a life long democrat. Really, if a cupcake for a little kid put her into such a tizzy.. well, I say she was just livin' in the closet of denial. Me? I say you all spend way too much time feeling entitled to scrutinize "CERTAIN TYPE" folks grocery carts. Admit it... you know you do. I find all of this sad, very sad. Silly ~~~although, nothing silly about any of this

I just found your blog while doing my initial research on pool builder (found it in your Yelp review). I loved reading about your experience and seeing the pics along the way! Thank you so much for the wonderful insight. I have to say that your pool installation has made me so excited to pull the trigger on our own, and now when I need a break at work, I go to your blog -- my new "Happy Place".

The very best way is to hire a tractor (and driver) with a box blade. If it is a traditional SoCal yard, it will take about 30 minutes. Or you can DIY with some effort. Probably the hardest part is to figure out whether you need to remove soil that's already there. I'm going out on a limb here, because I see a lot more (LOT MORE) yards needing to remove soil, but I'm going to suggest you should remove soil. If the soil is higher than the surrounding hardscape, it should be removed down to, more or less, level with a slight crown in the middle for drainage. Once that is done you can deal with high and low spots. Assuming the grass is gone, then look for low spots to fill with sand. Smooth that off with a long 2x4 board with some weight on it. Or you can drag a piece of wire fencing around. I made a chain link drag with rope, wood, bag of sand (for weight), and fencing. It worked great for a small area. So with the drag you drag that around until it looks perfect. Then spray it all down with a mist of water to encourage the sand to settle without washing it away. Let that dry and fill the new low spots with more sand. Drag, water, and evaluate again. After about 3 cycles of that you should have a relatively perfect surface. Don't walk on that until the grass is down. Sand works better than topsoil for this because topsoil always has little clods in it. Even a 1/4-inch clod will make you scream as it creates a furrow in the sand. You can make it putting-green smooth, which is a great goal. After the sod is down, then use a roller to press the bottom of the sod down onto the surface of the soil/sand. Roots will not grow through the air to reach the ground. Of if it is a small area, you can achieve the same result by walking on every square inch of sod to press it down. Your weight is perfect for this. You might want the sand to be moist/firm when you do this. Dry sand might push around and defeat the purpose of leveling.