The Palm Springs Condo

Back in November, my husband and I purchased a condo in Palm Springs, CA.  It was an exciting time of realizing a big dream for us and we worked really hard to make it our own.

The place was overall pretty awesome and the complex itself was the big draw for us to purchase this particular property.

After all, who could resist this?!

Now the inside of the condo.... well, that was a whole 'nother story.  It was overall in really good shape.  But part of the reason for the great condition of the place was that it was hardly ever used over the past 27 years.  So we called it our 80's time capsule.  And it was indeed a doozy...

First, there was the VERY pink carpet, which the pictures just do not do justice to- yes, I said PINK, the heavy drapes, the lovely pink and blue furniture, the over use of ugly fake plants and the overall 'brass and glass' feel to the place...

Then, of course, who could forget the floral bedspreads and raspberry pink towels to match- all folded like fans and everything?!

It was truly a sight to behold!   And a mess to be dealt with immediately!

First things first, we completely emptied out the place and had the carpets dyed brown.  Yes, you can do that!  And with carpet that had hardly any wear and tear, it was the perfect choice.

Next we moved on to finding all different living/ dining area furniture.  This consisted of finding some used, some IKEA and some stuff at the local furniture dealers.  Remember that we were working with this being Thanksgiving week and had only two weeks to get what we could get done before we wanted to be able to use the place and have friends be able to use it for the season!  It was a crazy time!  The local thrift stores were amazed at how many times we showed up to donate and we did manage to sell some stuff on Craigslist as well.  I also installed new kitchen flooring as I just could not live with the pinkish stuff that was there. 

We did keep the bedroom furniture as we ran out of cash to do anything about that and with new linens and such it was not so bad after all.  I also figured out that even though the place was hardly ever used, it sure would have been nice if the people had bothered to clean it up once in a while.  Let's just say that all the hard water build up, dust and crud gave me 2 weeks worth of full body workouts that would rival any gym.

Now our place is still a work in progress, but it is so much nicer!

Today, it looks like this:

And right now some friends of ours are there using our Palm Springs condo.  We are thrilled to be able to share it with them.  The email they sent was so full of their obvious enjoyment and it made us so happy and proud and I have to admit- just a wee bit jealous!  Sometime we will join them there when we can all go together at the same time and maybe try to learn to golf!  We just can't wait until we go back to Palm Springs at the end of March!

Clarification

As my previous post indicated, I have been mulling some things over.

Image by pinkblue at freedigitalphotos.net

 

I agree with most of you, that there is not a whole lot that I can personally do to change anyone's mind about politics and where this country is headed.  I can inform should I choose to do so.  I can answer questions if they are asked in a real way- not the good old 'let's back the stupid idiot who actually thinks I care about their viewpoints into a corner and rip them to shreds' way that I have found only liberals have mastered.

I should probably not get into it too deeply with those (that I am mostly surrounded by) on the left because it will only serve to hurt my sensibilities and I will not have accomplished much of anything.  Sad, but true...

I had pretty much decided with the New Year that I would try hard to right things in my life that I would like to change and let go of some more of the things that I cannot change no matter how hard I try-  including stopping my bad habit of sitting back and taking it way too often when I am abused by leftist people who feel completely justified in their lack of understanding of anyone who doesn't think exactly as they do.  Not to mention their disgusted reactions when you bother to inform them that you are one of 'those people' who might actually have another opinion.

It is true that until the crap hits the fan and their pocket books, I am only hurting myself by trying to save anyone from anything.  Hmmm... sounds a lot like what I did with my sister for years.  Not productive at any rate.  It's time to stop beating my head against the wall and all that....

So, in the interest of being honest I want to clarify something that has not come across clearly.  I think this happened because I have let the current political climate get to me and am afraid of making anyone feel bad or not like me because I have become one of those 'evil rich people'.  While I am neither evil or rich (yet- we will certainly be proud of what we have accomplished when the day comes that we can actually cop to being rich, as we believe that those who work hard enough to become rich are fulfilling the American dream and will use the money and influence they have to help others fulfill that dream as well.) I think that in today's USA the two- being evil &/or rich, seem to be interchangeable and that is just so damn sad.  My husband saw a bumper sticker proclaiming:  We are the 99% and he asked me if he should get one that reads:  I am not an NBA basketball star.  He feels as if we celebrate mediocrity today as if it is some badge of honor.  Unfortunately, I think he's right on.

Anyway.... without further ado, I shall explain. 

I Do NOT live in California.  My husband and I recently purchased a condo in Palm Springs, CA so that we can escape on a more regular basis from the nasty weather that basically defines the Pacific Northwest.  We will be lucky to be able to use our Palm Springs place for 8 weeks out of the year.  We also saw the unique opportunity that is today's lousy housing market as hopefully a one time chance for us to get into the Palm Springs market at the entry level. 

We do see California as the messed up place that it is.  My husband actually coined the phrase San Fran Sewer to describe how he feels about San Francisco and what it has become because of liberal policies.  HOWEVER, I must tell you that as for Palm Springs it serves as a little oasis in the desert when it comes to California politics.  It is truly a 50/50 split much more so than the western part of the northwest where we are actually residents.  I know that may seem shocking.  We have also noticed that our bills from the PS condo contain many less frivolous taxes and lower rates for utilities than here at home! 

Until you have lived in the Seattle area you cannot understand the level of militant liberalism that permeates this place.  (I actually had an interesting conversation at a party the other night about how much many of us agreed that Seattle will eventually ban cars and how we all had experienced having a pedestrian bang on some part of our car because they didn't like how we were in their way!)  Yes, California does deserve the bad reputation they have, but honestly in Palm Springs it is such a unique cross of retirees and young trendy people.  It is hard to describe and feels pretty magical.  Hence, our decision to actually purchase a second home there.  That and the 350 days a year of sun- it really does this woman who is allergic to trees and mold/mildew a whole lot of good!

And until I can get to Texas, Palm Springs is the best and closest thing I can do for sun and sanity!  That and keeping up with my conservative groups (-our closest one had to join with the next county as it went under due to lack of interest; we're lucky to see a group of 50 who will admit publicly to being non-liberal around here!) and continuing to help with local political campaigns- all part of my plan to ward off the crazy!

Thanks for all the interest in my questions and thanks for all the suggestions.  I so appreciate it.  While I am worried about the future, I know I can never give up.