Social Distance Road Trip: A Staycation in Pasadena

After months of seeing little piles of wood pellets outside the house and trying to live in denial that we might have termites, I finally called three different exterminators to take a look. The verdict? I was right. Termites. And it was bad enough that everyone recommended tenting, to get as many as possible. So after a summer of staying at the house, even during my actual week off, we were forced to relocate for two nights. And also remove all food and beverage from the house — which was a feat.

Finally, we left the house and spent two nights at the Westin Pasadena, across the street from Pasadena City Hall — or as fans of "Parks and Recreation" know it, Pawnee City Hall. The kids loved that it was also close to California Pizza Kitchen, and Maria and  I loved how walkable the area was. (Don't forget, it was right off Colorado Blvd., part of 2019's Great Los Angeles Walk!)

The City Hall, first completed in 1927, was evacuated and reconstructed between 2004 and 2007 for a  $117 million renovation and seismic retrofit.

It's truly a beautiful building and worth exploring.

Wrote the LA Times' Cecilia Rassmussen in 2007: "It was first envisioned by civic leaders in 1922 during the City Beautiful movement as the 'Athens of the West,' rising at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, the centerpiece of the Pasadena Civic Center. The next year, voters approved a $3.5-million bond issue to build the City Hall, a library and a civic auditorium, all linked by grand boulevards. The library was first to open, in February 1927."

Added Rassmussen: "San Francisco architects John R. Bakewell Jr. and Arthur Brown Jr., who had designed San Francisco’s lavish domed City Hall a decade earlier, won Pasadena’s architectural design contest. Influenced by the style of Andrea Palladio, a 16th century Italian architect who favored Renaissance classicism, the team designed a rectangular building with a six-story circular tower."

Meanwhile, I was less thrilled to see so many people out and dining al fresco. Why cant people just take their food to go? This is pandemic escalation waiting to happen. It's odd to see some people act like it's business as usual...

... and then there are things like movie theaters (above), still touting the movies there before everything was shut down. 

Especially weird to see the Apple Store devoid of Apple products.

Many ads haven't even changed from March, leaving an early "Onward" poster up for example, almost as if the world stood still starting March 15.

The Circle of Life Comes to Our Front Door

A few months ago, I hung a decorative candle from a hook above our side door. Didn't think much of it -- it was more a way to declutter our house, by hanging it outside. But then, we noticed how birds had taken a liking to it. After that, grass and twigs started poking out from the top of it. Turns out the hanging candle was the perfect spot for one bird's nest. Yesterday, I peered inside: And witnessed three baby chicks inside. The circle of life, indeed.

And here's the hanging candle. (I could do without the bird poop that now litters our steps below, but whaddyuh gonna do.)

Spotted In Our Backyard: Conjoined Twin Limes

Found on our lime tree: The first conjoined twin limes I've ever seen. 

Another Shot at Prop. 13

The L.A. Times once again tackles the discriminatory (toward young home owners) Prop 13 --and in his latest column, discusses how Mayor Villaraigosa wants to take it on.

I'm not sure there's much Villaraigosa can do about it, but it's always worth taking another look at Prop. 13 -- particularly the commercial provision, which has allowed businesses to get away with dirt-cheap property taxes for years (while new business owners suffer).

As a relatively new, young homeowner, I of course will forever seethe about the inequities of who pays what. I know I shouldn't do this, because my blood will boil, but I sometimes check out real estate listings on Zillow of mansions that haven't changed hands in a few decades.

Above, this demonstrates how ridiculously uneven the Prop 13 rules are. This home, at 1937 Orchard Lane in La Canada-Flintridge, was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times. It's a 6,105 square feet house on a full acre property. The ask price? $3.4 million. (Zillow, to be fair, says it's worth $2.9 million).

What did the owners pay on property tax in 2010? $7,500. Because the home was assessed at $473,083. That's right. The County says this home is worth less than, say, a tiny 900 square foot shack in Echo Park. On about 2000 square feet of land. This is ridiculous. And exactly why people hold on to their homes for decades.

I don't know what the answer is, but quite simply, it's unfair to a whole generation of young homeowners.

Boomer Admits He's 'Embarrassed' That He's Paying Lower Property Taxes

Regular Franklin Avenue readers know I'm not a fan of Proposition 13, mainly because of the generational inequity. While boomer generation homeowners enjoy dirt cheap property taxes, young Gen X and Gen Y are playing three to four times (or even more) as much for the same size (or even smaller) homes.

It's personal: I know I'm paying more property tax on my tiny house than older folks who own mansions in Hancock Park.

At least one boomer is embarrassed. Glendale resident Gerry Rankin wrote this op-ed in today's Glendale News-Press:

My wife and I are living in the house we bought in 1966, 45 years ago. Maybe I’m supposed to feel smug, but I’m actually embarrassed when I think of the property taxes my neighbors on either side must pay. Both are young families with children whom the parents will be putting through college soon. One family bought five years ago; the other, five months ago. Their property tax bills are probably three or four times higher than mine. Is that fair?

One of the most frequently heard complaints from my age-bracket friends involves children or grandchildren moving back into my friends’ homes because they no longer have good enough jobs to pay for their own housing. Are we serious about wanting our children and grandchildren to enjoy a better, not poorer, lifestyle than we’ve experienced?

Perhaps opponents of Prop. 13 need to adopt the rhetoric of organizations like the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association -- and start referring to Prop. 13 as an unfair tax on young adults. Rankin suggests making an even playing field and lowering the property tax rate -- but making sure everyone pays the same amount. For the majority of young adults who bought their house after 2002, this would represent a big tax break. And aren't the Howard Jarvis folks all about tax breaks?

Why Won't L.A. Media Use L.A. Stats When Reporting on Housing Woes?

You may remember my rant from yesterday in which I expressed frustration that an L.A. Times story on the debate over ending mortgage interest tax deductions didn't focus on the unique plight of Angeleno homeowners. Even though it was an L.A. Times story.

Today, the paper reports on rising interest rates, and at least uses a Southern California couple this time as its anecdotal example. That's a start.

But then this part gets me:

A separate survey by Informa Research Services indicates the 30-year average rate last week topped 5% for the first time in six months. Economists at the Mortgage Bankers Assn. project that it will rise to 5.1% by the end of 2011 and 5.7% in 2012.

That means higher monthly payments, making it harder to qualify for a loan. If you borrow $200,000 over 30 years, a 1-percentage-point increase to 5.5% from 4.5% would boost the amount you pay each month by $122 to $1,136.

That's an interesting stat -- but who in Los Angeles is borrowing just $200,000 to buy a home? How about using $500,000 as a bench mark? For starters, the amount added to monthly mortgage payments would be even heftier -- making for a much better example.

The Mortgage Deduction Debate, and How Angelenos May Get Screwed

This story is what sometimes drives me nuts about the Los Angeles Times. At the end of the day, the paper needs to be local first. Yet this piece, on the possibility that mortgage tax deductions may be erased, barely touches the unique circumstances faced by L.A. homeowners.

For starters, the story -- written by L.A. Times reporter Don Lee from Washington -- begins with an anecdote about Maryland homeowners:

Fifteen years ago, Carol Nietmann and her husband bought a spacious house in Maryland near Chesapeake Bay. And thanks to the time-honored tax deduction for mortgage interest, she said, their new place was a little bigger and a little nicer than they would otherwise have thought they could afford.

Much the same has been true for millions of Americans up and down the income scale. Perhaps the most sacred of all the sacred cows in the tax code, the home mortgage deduction has long been seen as crucial to a major element of the American dream — owning your own home.

It has also been a boon to home builders, construction workers, the financial services industry and local governments that benefited from fatter real estate tax revenue.

But nearly a century after coming into existence, the mortgage deduction may face a day of reckoning. Although out of the spotlight while the lame-duck Congress thrashes to an end, the mortgage deduction issue is likely to resurface next year when the new Congress — including a lot more deficit-hawk Republicans — takes over.

So here's my problem: Out here in L.A., at least since the home price escalation in 2003, homeowners have paid a little more than they can afford... in order to squeeze into a tiny home they could have easily handled in another part of the country. It's the price of living in a city like L.A., San Francisco or New York. And it's those mortgage tax deductions that allow us to pay for these homes, period.

Lee finally touches on the plight of Angelenos -- you know, the people reading his story -- but much further down, and only briefly:

On the other hand, younger homeowners in wealthier areas are likely to feel the biggest pinch. Take Hyun K. Chung of Orange County.

The 37-year-old occupational therapist has a mortgage of about $500,000 on her house, which she bought at the peak of the market in 2006. Her loan carried an interest rate of 6.4% last year, putting her interest payments at about $32,000.

Chung doesn't remember how much her mortgage deductions saved her in taxes, but based on rough estimates, it was probably about $6,600, said James Nunns of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

The deficit commission's plan would slice that to about $3,800, though Nunns said the difference could be significantly offset by lower tax rates and other changes under the commission's proposal. The possible tax changes are still too imprecise to calculate exactly how they would affect people.

So in other words, no one knows how much most of us young Southern California homeowners are about to get screwed. THAT is something you oughta play up.

It's not enough, by the way, that my generation was screwed over by Prop 13 (you know, the California law that means I pay triple the taxes on my little shack than many folks do on their Hancock Park mansions) -- now our mortgage deduction lifeline is threatened as well.

Glendale's New Turf War

In an effort to save water, Montrose resident David Wood spent thousands of dollars to install artificial turf on his front lawn.

The city of Glendale, however, forbids artificial turf. Yet it also has instituted new, strict lawn watering rules. The Glendale News-Press reports:

Wood’s self-described “Catch-22” situation began with an effort to conserve water in light of Crescenta Valley Water District conservation measures and to keep maintenance low by installing artificial turf in front of the house he built on Piedmont Avenue.

But in recent weeks he learned that in order to receive final approval from a Glendale Design Review Board and adhere to required landscaping plan, he would have to replace the artificial turf with live grass, which would have required daily watering to take root. And if the grass died because of the water restrictions, he could be cited by code enforcement for dead landscaping in a frontyard setback.

Wood’s situation is an example of potential conflicts between existing city codes caused by recent mandatory water conservation rules that were approved by the City Council this week.

Glendale residents can now only water their yards on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Meanwhile, after all the attention Wood has received over his dilemma, the City Council has agreed to revisit its artificial turf ban -- and city officials have agreed not to enforce the ordinance until the matter is resolved.

SPEAKING of the Glendale News-Press, the newspaper is currently asking its readers whether its name should be downsized to just the "News-Press." The excuse: Now that the paper has expanded its coverage of the Crescenta Valley, "Glendale" may be too limiting in the masthead.

The problem: The Glendale News-Press had already altered its name to just "News-Press" at the end of the 1990s and early part of the 2000s, before restoring "Glendale" to its title a few years ago, in order to better promote its civic identity. To switch it again seems awfully wishy-washy -- and would diminish its primary mission as Glendale's daily newspaper.

L.A.'s Super Weeds

There's something creepy about weeds that get so tall and thick that they start to look like trees. Witness this massive, possible 15-foot collection of weeds -- can they even still be called that at this height?-- in our next door neighbor's yard. They've grown so tall that they're hitting power lines and casting a shadow over our backyard.

I never noticed these massive weeds until a few years ago, when we first bought our home. Virtually overnight, these things sprouted all over our backyard. And before you knew it, they grew like, well, weeds.

These days, I see these weeds all over the city - particularly on the sides of freeways, where they grow unchecked around legitimate plants.

But what I've never bothered to ask is, what are these things? And what happens when they're allowed to turn into mini-trees?

The Heat is On... At Our House

We came home Saturday evening to find our home baking at a sizzling 92 degrees. Seriously, eight degrees more and I'm not sure what our thermostat would have done, since it only has two spaces. Hot times!

Gnat Invasion

Not even sure if they're gnats, but whatever they are, they've taken over our house. Have any of you noticed what seems to be an increased number of those pesky, tiny, flying insects outdoors? Several of them have made it in our house, and they're tough buggers. These fast little guys seem to always know my next move, and will quickly dart away as I aim to smack them with paper or my hands.

We've even tried a few homemade remedies, but to mixed results. (Maria put out a jar of sweet vinegar and stuck a paper funnel in there. The gnats flew in... but eventually made their way back out.

Any of you experiencing a major gnat invasion?

Architectural Identity Crisis

My apologies if this is your house... but what a bizarre addition. A Tudor-style, castle-like second floor has been slapped on the back of this Spanish-style house. Spotted in Atwater Village.

The Plight of the Bubble Homeowner

Every time Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum brings up her experience as an L.A. homeowner, I feel oddly comforted: It reminds me that I'm not the only Gen X'er who was finally ready to buy a home in the mid-2000s -- and wound up doing so, despite the crazy bubble prices.

Like Daum, I'm constantly surprised at how much I spent on such a small house. It somehow made sense four years ago, when things were so frenzied that it wasn't uncommon to be outbid by 40 people on a house. Just managing to secure a winning bid felt like an accomplishment -- and was a sign that you better jump on that house, or you may never become a homeowner.

In her latest column, Daum compares that frenzy to quick-fad fashions that eventually fade. That Member's Only jacket that once looked so cool, now seems a little ridiculous:

Many of us who bought property did so with the nagging shame known to customers who pay full price because they're too impatient to wait for a sale. Meanwhile, the smug renters have been living it up in far-nicer homes than they could ever afford to buy.

The subtext of all this is "The Tortoise and the Hare." As we were taught in kindergarten but perhaps forgot by first grade, the race is won patiently and cautiously, not by jumping on a bandwagon. When the real estate market reaches its nadir (how will we know? Maybe when HGTV trades shelter porn for actual porn) the renters -- especially those with money in the bank from well-timed home sales -- will waltz back in and snatch up formerly overvalued homes for rock-bottom prices, thereby joining the ranks of those who bought in the market crash of the early 1990s. The rest of us will remain tragically zipped inside Member's Only jackets that we can't take off without losing a ton of money...

While I'd be lying if I didn't admit that my house often seems like a roller-coaster car making a long, steep plunge into oblivion (the fact that it's approximately the size of a roller-coaster car may have something to do with that), I'm getting a little tired of people insinuating that I was stupid to buy it. No, it's probably not going to double in value in the next decade, and yes, I could probably afford an extra bathroom if I were a renter. But like everyone who bought at the "wrong" time, I had my reasons. Some were better than others, but they had less to do with building my investment portfolio than with building my life.

True there: Of course, had I been thinking about my investment portfolio, I would have bought a house in the late 1990s and made a killing. Instead, I waited until I felt sufficiently "adult": Married, with a kid on the way. But by the time I felt "adult" enough to buy a home, it was 2004, and the bargains were long gone. And at the time, it looked like they'd never return. Of course, even in 2008, I know plenty of people still waiting for the return of those bargains. And waiting.

Equal Time: Why The Rain Rocks

I've been bitching about the rain -- no, still haven't flipped the fuse back on for the lights in our bedroom -- because of the house. But I wasn't always a homeowner, and back pre-insane investment, I loved the weather.

And there are times I still do. Above, that was the view from our Glendale home this morning. There's snow in those Verdugo San Gabriel Mountains! Over the weekend, we also noticed some green starting to return to the charred Griffith Park topography.

The rain also has a way of clearing out the sky (on the flip side, it also shuttles all the trash that has collected in the L.A. river out to Long Beach -- sorry, Long Beach!) What do you like about the rain?

Here Comes The Rain Again

(Flickr pic by Seadigs.)

Turns out the worst wasn't over when I wrote this post after all. We were drenched all night Saturday, and after a bit of a break for most of Sunday, it's been coming down hard tonight.

Apparently this is the third, and last, of the three storms. None were of the Biblical variety, as promised by Mega Doppler 7000 HD Plus. But they were still pretty heavy nonetheless.

The good news: Thanks to the magic of WD-40 and an old credit card, I was able to pry Blogger Toddler's closet open. (We've now instructed him not to close the door, at least for now.)

But there's a new issue at Franklin Avenue HQ: For some reason, the fuse for the lighting in our master bedroom and living room shut off. It's pretty much just a nuisance; we can still use lamps plugged into the wall. So I've decided that because (a) it's raining, and (b) I'm not in the mood to be electrocuted, flipping the fuse back on can wait until tomorrow.

It's finally gonna start drying out on Monday, the L.A. Times writes:

"There may be a few peeks of sunshine," said National Weather Service specialist Bonnie Bartling.

The rainfall totals in downtown Los Angeles reached 5.31 inches this morning for the season (which began July 1), ahead of the normal of 4.23 inches and well above the 1.31 inch total recorded at this time last year, Bartling said.

Rainfall in a series of storms that began Friday was just less than 1 inch in downtown Los Angeles, 2.3 inches in Burbank, with about half an inch overnight, and 5.33 inches on Mt. Wilson.

Hope you all survived!

Drying Out From L.A.'s Monsoons

I told you yesterday how I dread the rain and the toll it takes on our house. Sure enough, the foundation moved enough today that I currently can't open Blogger Toddler's closet door. (Hopefully, once things dry out, we'll be able to get back in.) Another bedroom door won't completely shut. And a stream of rain managed to get into the garage (above).

Thankfully, the worst appears to be over... and it ultimately didn't cause much damage in L.A. From this morning's L.A. Times:

About 1 to 3 inches of rain fell in most areas of Los Angeles County, with as much as 6 to 7 inches of rain in the mountains and foothills. In Orange County, canyon areas received as much as 3 inches of rain.

Forecasters said the first wave of the storm would bring scattered showers through this evening, when the next wave is expected to hit the region. The heaviest rains, however, were expected to the southeast in San Diego County.

Actually, there haven't been any showers today, at least here in East-of-the-L.A.-River-ville.

Taxing Times

It's that time of year... a friendly letter from Los Angeles County Treasurer and Tax Collector Mark Saladino that it's time for the first installment of your property tax bill.

For those of us who bought our house in the past few years, that's a pretty hefty bill. It doesn't help things that thanks to the infamous Prop. 13, I pay more tax on my tiny house than I know plenty of people pay on beautiful, large homes three times the size of mine in more ritzy neighborhoods. Bastards.

That's why I'm starting to wonder whether it's time yet to evoke the "decline in value" statute in the assessment process:

"If you have evidence that the market value of your property on January 1, 2007 is less than the assessed value shown on this tax bill, you may request a review for the 2007-2008 fiscal year. The filing period is January 1 through December 31, 2007."

Well, because it falls on Jan. 1, probably not. The housing market didn't really collapse until this summer. And besides, with so few homes selling right now, I'm not even sure how an appraiser would go about determining house value.

Now, next year, the county should probably brace for a whole lotta "decline in value" submissions. Because if the market continues to decline, I'm sure as hell not going to continue to reward the county just because I had the unfortunate luck of finally having enough money to buy a house in 2004.

Skunk Funk

Last month, we sympathized with blogging.la's Mack Reed over his unexpected house guest: A dead skunk.

A month later, we could relate to Mack's plight even more. For more than a week, I came home to a house that smelled worse and worse, like a skunk had decided to make our crawl space his final resting place.

Not only would the smell not go away, but it got progressively worse. I began to think of Mack and his dead skunk -- and how under no circumstance did I want to clean it up myself.

At first, the smell was tolerable -- you'd be smacked in the face by it upon entering our house, but your nose would adjust. But by the end of the week, the stench was so bad it was contstant.

That's what finally got me desperate enough two Fridays ago to call someone. I googled around, and found a decent review for Canterbury Termite and Pest Control in Burbank.

I called up, and the guy quoted me $350 to clear out the dead skunk, plus extra to trap any still-living ones. When they came, however, the put down a trap and asked for $450. Not cheap -- but we were so desperate to get this thing away from us, we still said yes. But they didn't bother to look under the house, even though I was convinced it was a dead one causing our woes.

Within the next day, a skunk was caught, and removed. (A living thing was making our entire house unliveable!) A second trap was put down, but that sat empty until Friday, when a raccoon decided to check out the digs.

Now, with the smell finally starting to disappear from the house, I'm hoping our problem is solved. And thank goodness: Canterbury is still trying to find ways to charge me more. Had there been a dead skunk under the house, we would have been out a total of $800 -- plus more to seal the crawl space hole the animals were entering.

Instead, I simply secured the crawl space with a grate and a brick -- it's now tight enough that a skunk won't be able to crawl under the house anymore.

Given the lack of communication over exactly how much they're charging and what comes with the service, I'm not sure I'd recommend Canterbury again. But of course, we were so desperate at the moment and wanted the skunk gone so fast that we didn't shop around. If you have a problem like ours, I'd suggest you do your homework before committing to anyone.

Who Says Los Angeles Homes Are Overpriced?

A recent episode of TLC's "Flip That House" featured a home that sold for just $189,000! OK, granted, the home was 375 square feet... with no bedroom... and it was located in South Los Angeles.



Oh, and the house was scary. Real scary: Look at the bathroom above. The flipper completely gutted the place, redoing everything and adding two bedrooms (500 square feet, for a total of 875 square feet). He spent $90,000 on the flip, and put the house back on the market for around $385,000.

Makes our tiny Glendale house look a little more roomy. By the way, we were quite impressed by the speed with which the 500 square feet was added: By the end of two weeks, it was pretty much done! So why did it take nearly six months for our 400 square foot addition?

The Skunks of L.A.

Pic above by Mack Reed, who recounts his harrowing tale in Blogging.la of a neighborhood skunk... that gets caught in his chimney.

The skunk dies... and it gets worse from there. Read on, and sympathize.

Thankfully we haven't had to deal with something that smelly... although I still wonder if that day is coming. I've spied our neighborhood skunk in our backyard enough times that I turn on the light and scan the backyard before going outside at night.

I think I asked this a few years ago, but it's worth discussing again: Any advice on scaring our backyard skunk into moving addresses?