I am often pretty impressed with those video real estate promotional pieces designed to make the potential buyer salivate for that 2 bedroom, 2 bath, condo with a big terrace and a good view. The building that is right near mine was used in a few movies, including LA Story, with Steve Martin. It got historical landmark status because it was the work of a fifties architect Edward Fickett. From the outside it has a bit of a Frank Lloyd Wright Vibe with angular roofing, and a bright orange color. I have been inside one of the larger apartments, probably somewhere in the 1300 square feet area, and I found myself wishing I had a place with the bedrooms upstairs, and more particularly, high equally angular ceilings.
Here is a picture of the inside of a different building. Look at that pool! It glistens. The water invites splashing and floating! Has a resort-y feeling apropos to sunny California. It too is a fifties built edifice, though it wasn't built by anyone famous and doesn't have high ceilings in any of its apartments and it will probably never see historical landmark status probably having been built by some guy name Bruno. But they did one of those cool videos for apartments here, you can still see one or two on the net, and wow, they make it look like heaven on earth.
It's the condo building my dad bought into in 2002. Funny. I wasn't crazy about it when he found this place, literally over a weekend. He was getting regular increases at his rental and he decided suddenly that it made more sense to build an equity, for himself, for me. He wanted me to see the place, as I would be part owner while he lived, and full owner when he passed on, but he also told me, "Don't rock the boat!" We are similar in that way. For years we'll take no chances, stay put so much so that it would look like it would take a cannon to blow us out of our routines, and then kapoof! we do something big, really fast. Like buying a condo. And nothing can talk us out of it. The neighborhood was, and is, great for the urban dweller. There is a garage if you drive. But there are a million things around you, if you don't. But I was never a fan of these 50s style building, that to me looked like "No-tell motels". And though the apartment had a terrace, a long one and decently wide, there is only a small view, and from the extreme right corner. Most of the apartment, which the terrace spans, faces a wall, and the bathroom window of a neighbor. I was pleased, for dad, with the cheeriness of the space, lots of sun, a cross breeze, and the bedroom facing a spreading, leafy tree in a yard of the building next door that obscures the window so that it's like being in a tree house. Small, but, in the best sense of the word, I guess it really was kind of cozy.
When Dad died, I initially tried to sell it, just as the real estate market took a dive. I put in wood floors, and then kept it empty, not a stick of furniture, for two years. Then a friend rented for about two years. Then I decided to do some renovation of the bathroom and kitchen as the market got better and I thought I might sell. Then I decided to move in.
I am still not crazy about the architecture, but the building has grown on me, and the wall has made it so I don't feel that I am living in an apartment building. Right now, my little fountain is gurgling and a chime is gently singing on a warm-ish sunny late spring day, and I feel a quiet peace as I complete this entry so I can get my laundry.
Just before I started the entry, I was sitting in that first chair on the left. That very one. And you know what? The pool really looks like that! And I happen to live in a very sought after space for those who like urban living; you can't imagine what the place above the pool sold for just last month.
I wouldn't mind living here. Oh, wait. I do.
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