The Monthly Nut

I'm no longer a home improvement store virgin. That's right, this morning I took my first trip to Home Depot. Okay, so buying another hose and lawn sprinkler isn't exactly the same as coming away with 50 gallons of latex paint and drywall, but I'm a nice Jewish kid from Long Island. I need to move slowly with this stuff.

I have cute spigots. What about you?

Nanotechnology. Miracle medicines. Hybrid engines. Yet changing one's mailing address is still a manual, distributed process. At least I can now do most of it online.

Upon taking possession of the house we noticed that the grass was looking a bit tired. Figure that once the ink was dry, the former owners decided to scrap that whole "watering and gardening" thing they had been doing for the past six years. Grrrr.

No worries though, the gardener starts coming today (thanks Caroline), thus saving me from needing to learn about lawn mowers.

One week rent-back is up, house is in our possession. What better way to celebrate than a meal. CB grabbed our picnic backpack and some yummies from Whole Foods. It was waaaay trippy walking around this house and knowing it's ours.

Now that we've bought our intended family homestead, Caroline reminded me of an idea I proposed to her several months ago, earlier in our search. She had been in Dallas for the weekend which left me attending open houses on my own.

Adrift without the ballast of Caroline, I became increasingly frustrated at the notion of trying to locate an affordable three bedroom. It occurred to me that we were looking to upgrade from a 2br mostly because of the hypothetical "two children" that we would spawn one day in the future.

Sunday evening I picked Caroline up at SFO and proceeded to drive back to our flat, buzzing with a great suggestion. I carefully explained the notion that we were making a big financial commitment, and that I did *love* the idea of family, but wouldn't it be ironic if we bought a big house and then couldn't have kids. That's when I raised the concept of fertility testing as a prerequisite to home purchase.

She didn't talk to me for the rest of the ride.

Unusually shy in this picture, our realtor Jim Prevo was the third wheel in our efforts (third wheel in the sense that a tricycle needs three wheels to go, not the whole 'extra wheel' connotation).

I was convinced that the only way a realtor could help us was if he had a time machine to travel back to an age when housing in SF was affordable. But Jim was a good resource and if you're looking for a place in SF, we recommend him.

"Where is Westwood Park?" is the most common question. Yes, this District 4 hideaway is unknown to District 5 snobs friends. But Westwood Park has a storied history and here are some of the highlights:

• Founded 1917 as middle-class housing
• 600 arts and crafts homes
• neighborhood was designed to be easily spotted by aircraft (look for the two ovals)

The neighborhood is dominated mostly by families and older couples who have been there for a long time. Our intent is to one day, um, perhaps have a family, and then be old. We also figured that, although we didn't get a bargain, maybe property values will hold or even rise further as Westwood Park is 'discovered.'

Caroline with a freshly inked thumb from signing our closing docs