Friday 11 January 2008

House hunting

I'm off up to Napa valley this morning to do some house hunting.The whole process of looking for a house here is very different from home..mainly in that estate agents here work much more on a one to one basis....unlike the faceless service at home.In the end though its all pretty much the same...give us your money! I,m planning to start after breakfast (gillwoods diner) in St.Helena and work down the valley for awhile.The idea is to find a "fixer upper"...or what ever it is called over here....a rip out by any name anyway. Everything over in Ca is so different from U.K. that I,ve taken a couple of years looking at how every aspect of building works here that I can..its been an education...from houses I usually work on that are 200 years old to houses that seem made of nothing more substantial than balsa wood...they seem to work though! I learnt from the great house my family in Utah have just finished that American building practise is much better than the slipshod methods usually employed in U.K....not by me and my diddymen I must add! The Valley is such a mix of architectural styles that as of yet I,ve no idea what I,m looking for, which is unusual because in U.K. I have very fixed ideas....the freedom of choice is rather liberating and I,m hoping to be working on a new project here by the end of this year.....we will see!

1 comment:

NotClauswitz said...

Good luck, you're at an advantage in thisn market I think! My brainless sister decided to buy a mildew-dump up in Boulder Creek - and then the torrential rains came! She's got no idea about living with a septic system or even relying on a well for water - but she's trying to sell her 1-br condo in Santa Clara which is a worse dump...so good luck all around!