March 5, 2008
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Hmm…I could have swore that I’ve updated since that last post….Perhaps it was only in my mind…
Anyways, I hope you all are doing well. Things have been quite hectic around here as usual. We are currently looking for a new home…either to rent, or hopefully to buy…although prospects for buying are looking pretty grim. The houses that we can afford in this city are smaller than the one that we are currently renting, and that is already too small for us. UK houses are just so damn expensive. £100,000 will buy you a tiny 2 bedroom terraced house with a tiny kitchen and a small living room and a dinky bathroom that doesn’t even have a bathtub. and you can forget about closets..they just don’t have them here. If I took that same cash and converted it to the $, you’d have nearly $200,000 to spend and for that, you could get a massive 4 bedroom home with a huge kitchen, lounge, dining room, and a couple of bathrooms…..at the least….and probably a garage and a basement. We’ve been house hunting for about 3 months now and just haven’t found anything at all. It doesn’t help that we need to stay pretty close to the school district that my daughter is in so that she doesn’t have to change schools. So it looks like we might just have to carry on renting, but I’m just rather tired of renting by now….and if we have to move (which since our landlord intends on selling our house, we most likely will have to) then I’d rather just buy and have a place that we can do whatever we want to it…Other than that, I’ve been rather busy at work…and busy at home. I’ve been taking a fair bit of photos lately..many of which you can see at my flickr site. although I’ve not had a lot of time to do much other artwork. I finished my social science course and now I think i’m going to join the open college of the arts and work towards a photography degree. An art degree will give me a better prospect for getting into a masters program for Art therapy. And as much as I enjoy academia, I really hate writing essays and papers….I’d much rather be doing art.
Anyways, that’s it from me for now!
“Learning to dream”
©Tracy Adams 2008
Prints Available
Comments (11)
here in the U.S. some landlords who end up selling to long time renters will reduce the cost of the house based on how much you’ve already paid into it, or a good percentage of that amount. you should see if he would work with you on the price so you can at least be paying into something you own, and then you can sell it later on or add on to it (i assume there would be room to do that, but i dont know) either way, good to see you posting again!
Haha, excellent excellent pic.
@faeriegirl -
Hi Faeriegirl
thanks! yes, I am hoping that he will work with us on the matter…..he hasn’t actually talked to us about it officially yet..he just said that he’s planning on selling but we would have first refusal…and since we’ve lived there for 8 years and he’s not put a penny into the house since we’ve been there, i am really hoping that he will take that into consideration…..but it’s hard to say….he’s very tight with his money and i don’t want to push the matter until he brings it up, otherwise he may decide to put it on the market right away and that wouldn’t give us enough time to find something else in the event that his price is too high…so if we do find something that is liveable, then we’ll bring it up and say we’ve found somewhere else…that might be more of an incentive for him to lower his price a bit…especially since the neighbor’s house was on the market for over a year before it sold! sadly, there’s not room to expand the house, because it’s a terraced house and it’s got a raised back garden so the only way to expand would be in the front, and i don’t think that the council will approve of a frontward expansion…..but at least we’re used to living in those cramped conditions….what i just can’t do is move to somewhere smaller! lol
@kissthewitch -
this artwork is very freeky…but i like it ALOT. there is something very engrossing about it…not sure why. you must be really, really, REALLY good at photoshop. care to teach me?
are you selling any of your work? doing an exhibit perhaps? you’re so talented.
we’d like to buy here to…but…well…it’s FREAKIN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA! good gawd, we’ll definitely have to buy in another area.
I totally get you on the renting versus buying front. And on a side note… for $200K, at least around here, you MIGHT be able to get such a large house with so many cool things, but you’d be in the middle of nowhere in the land of those with ass-backwards attitudes about the world. To be anywhere worth being, anything with as many people and as much culture as where you are already… you’re looking in the $800K to $1+ million range. Whee.
Where I’m at? I’d be LUCKY if I could get a very small STUDIO apartment for $500K. Yeah. I’m gonna keep renting for a while. haha
And spooky poultry-legged fish. hehe You do so love the fish. And the hats. It’s good to see you creating artwork and posting it again – even if you are too busy to get much going. I love seeing it when you do post it! One of these days when I’m not all broke from living where I live, I’m going to buy a whole collection of your art and hang it on the walls. I greatly enjoy your style and can’t wait to see more!
Good luck with the housing searches!!
Sorcia
@sorcia -
hey Sorcia!!! yes, you are right….i’m sure it is VERY expensive out there….and where you live in America makes a huge difference….but of course, I’m from ohio….so you can get a lot of house for not much money there! you just can’t get any jobs! here there are differences in house prices depending on where you live, but no matter where you live, it’s guaranteed to be small and expensive….if you want anything that has 4 walls of it’s own (a detached house) you are looking into the equivalent of $500,000 just for a small one….england is such a cramped space that houses and land are at a rediculous premium and most houses are terraced (think block or row houses all attached) so you really only own 2 walls..although now city living has become popular and so there are a lot of converted stores/warehouses which have been made into apartments……and they’re even more expensive than houses! and then there is London…hahaha…it’s probably like living in san francisco…..so far out of any normal human’s price range!! property is so expensive in London that people who work in London actually have to get a London bonus in their salaries to make up for the increase in cost of living…..
@Southland -
Molly, I hear ya there….I don’t know how anyone can afford to live in California….
And thanks about the pictures! if there’s anything you want to know in photoshop, i’d be happy to tell you how i do it if i can! I sell a few pieces now and again….but not a great deal of it….although I’m hoping that this piece gets into ballistic publishing’s “Exposé 6″ book….it’s a book of digital art…it’s been shortlisted…so at least it has a chance! I haven’t ever exhibited anything….but i would love to one day….
Good luck for the house hunting , Tracy . I know the prices are hyper – high in UK .
I like your legged fishes . You have a style that we find in each of your art works . This is a surrealist style .
Love
Michel
thank you very much, my dear friend!! ((hug))
@fauquet -
thank you very much, my dear friend ((hug))
Yes Tracy , This is funny . we commented each other in the sme time !!! Great minds meet each other !!
Love
Michel