Happy Birthday, Dad!
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Category Archives: Chris’ Camera
Yard Sale
A few years ago, when Harry was selling his house, I was both amazed at his frenetic effort and also filled with trepidation at the prospect that one day I would have to do the same thing for my dad’s house. I took to referring to him as “Crazy Harry, everything must go”, as if he was appearing in some late-night TV ad. This year, that day has come. I have written all summer about the trials and tribulations of trying to sell my father’s house, as yet unsuccessfully. Now, I have turned my sights to moving out its contents. Working with Chris, I have place five items up for sale on a website called Aptdeco. Until today, all that I have generated were a few hits, with fewer likes. I do much better on this blog, but I have been running this site for years and I do not plan on being in the furniture business for that long.
I have listed five items so far and there is still way more furniture than that to sell, but for now those other items are being used to dress the house. Besides, I thought that I would start small, with the furniture that did not make it for dressing the house and now languish in the garage. The one exception to this rule, is the one item that has actually sold. Today, the John Dickinson Small African Side Table was purchased. This small, two-foot tall, three-legged table is made of concrete, making it ideal indoor-outdoor furniture. It also weighs about 80 lbs. It retails for about $6-8K. The markdown though is crushing. Suggested pricing is 75% off of retail and then Aptdeco takes another 30% cut, but like Crazy Harry years ago, I find myself in a position where everything must go.
Aptdeco
The Monterey house is still not selling. Our price cut seems to have been a bust. Another house down the street listed and in now under contract, since our price change. We are still using most of the furniture to dress the house, as can be seen here, but there are a few items that are now just gathering dust in the garage that now can be sold. To this end, I have taken up Dan’s friend and former neighbor Melodi’s idea and begun using Aptdeco (a play on art deco). I picked one to sell:
In the 1960s, Warren Platner saw an opportunity. “I felt there was room for the kind of decorative, gentle, graceful kind of design that appeared in period style like Louis XV, but it could have a more rational base instead of being applied decoration,” he said. Starting at the floor, Platner created a chair that comes up and envelopes and supports the sitter—resulting in a form that complements the person sitting in it, and to its environment.
Hopefully, this chair will sell. Chris took the photos. I accepted the Aptdeco price suggestion, which is a whopping 75% discount. Add on to that the Aptdeco 30% commission, it almost makes me wonder why bother selling it at all, except we have nowhere else to put it. When this chair sells, there are a few more items languishing in the garage to sell. Then it is on to the 100 closets!
Dad in Younger Days
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Fire Country
Yesterday, we had our first wildfire of the season. Called the Grade fire, because it was located along the Laureles Grade, the road that connects Carmel Valley to Monterey. This fire burned right up to the road. It began during rush-hour for maximum impact, but was quite small, only ten acres. It occurred only three miles away, but I was not too worried, because there were millions of dollars of other people’s homes between us and the fire. One of these people is a realtor that we are speaking with and she was trapped at the time on Laureles. She said that she had a dozen Cal-Fire vehicles stopped on the road ahead of her and another dozen behind her. It is heartening to see a turnout like that. I am glad that their enthusiasm level is so high.
We are planning on selling the house, but I did not plan on having a fire sale. This year’s LA fire weighs heavily on everyone’s mind out here. It is important to have insurance, which we do and have already paid for next year. Chris works daily beating back the chaparral that surrounds us. Chaparral is native vegetation that grows to about four feet in height, is impenetrably dense and in a matter of weeks will be tinder dry. Making it all worse it is heavily laced with poison oak. Chris has looked into hiring a guy with a tractor sized mower, but I think that goats are the way to go. We saw a herd at nearby Fort Ord National Monument. Supposedly, such a herd can devour an acre-and-a-half of chaparral per day. Plus, they ought to be able handle the house’s 40° hillside incline just fine.
Realtor Reality
Chris shot this photo of the living room that has been subaltern into the service of selling the house. Today, we met with a third realtor team. They seem to come in teams these days. This team was the Davids. Two guys named David, to balance the two women whom we had previously met with. Now that we have three realtors to choose from instead of two this problem has become harder.
This endangered native of the coastal dunes of Monterey and Mendocino counties grows only in California. Their sunny winter blooms make them easy to spot. Along the beach, wire cages protect them from being eaten by wildlife, allowing plants to mature and produce seeds for another season.