Jam, knots, braids, HOAs

Yesterday I made a small pot of blueberry jam 

Enough for me for now

And today paneer with chive blossoms, a softer version this time, very good with fruit.

Containers of whey for upcoming carrot and pumpkin soup 

This is really good, so much more flavor than the kind you buy.

I'm returning to my patterned bands as I learn some finishing techniques. Here's one with whipped ends right,replacing the temp knots left, 

and one with braided ends, the latest band off the loom.

There's more to do after the weaving's off the loom. I think next will be the heddle I made with special slots for the pattern threads.

Following on our condo chats and how some people vow never to live in one, a few thoughts.  

I've been a renter, an owner of a freestanding house and owner of an HOA townhouse and an HOA condo apartment. My credentials!

I'm also a single older woman with neither financial nor physical strength to run a free standing house. Contractors are not easy to deal with when there's no man in the picture.  The unnecessary struggle is very real, and exhausting. Also expensive.

That leaves the other choices. Renting puts you at the mercy of a landlord in a state where there are only vague guidelines on rent raises and what's reasonable.  To rent a house exactly like the one I live in is currently $3k a month. Plus utilities. That's more than my income.

One bedroom apartments are currently $1800 monthly plus utilities. Rents have doubled in the last five years 

Then if you want to buy a townhome like mine, they're currently about $550k for two bed two and a half bath, 1200 sq ft footprint.

Condos like my rental are up to $200k.

I bought when prices were lower, the condo, mine only, not joint, I bought at rock bottom because the market was poor at that time. We bought the townhouse from the builder at a desperate price because they wanted to complete the sales and leave the governance.

For a single older woman the trade offs of living with an HOA are: there's a massive inbuilt insurance of the whole development, trash is picked up, snow cleared, including paths and walkways, landscaping is done, mowing, dead trees removed, exterior maintenance and repair is HOA work. 

I'm responsible for the inside of the townhouse. Likewise the condo apartment I rent out.  I couldn't afford the maintenance and repair on a freestanding house,  all of which I'd have to contract out.

So that's why I live where I do, and it's a beautiful place. If you have the strength or partner or finances to live elsewhere, you're very fortunate. It's good to remember you're speaking from an advantaged position.  

But when you don't have those privileges, you make other choices.  I'm happy with mine despite the drawbacks I've been complaining about lately!

Happy day everyone, play the hand you're dealt! It's all good sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula 

 

The HOA antidote, and Misfits

This morning the township building department got back to me, very promptly. They're good guys, had a meeting as soon as they received my plea for help, I mean email. They assured me that I was not in error, no permit needed for capping the dryer vent, and, this is the good bit, they'll tell our HOA manager so.  They've got her number! 

So, Boud and Building Department 1, HOA 0. 

This is a good thing for other reasons, too, because now that she knows, if the situation arises in other units, she won't panic. She is very much under legal pressure, from state and township, to keep hundreds of units in compliance, loads of issues, loads of owners,  and I wouldn't want her job. 

So we live to fight another day!

Today's the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, a huge day in the Catholic calendar, especially in France, where even nonbelievers mark it as a holiday. 

I was living in Brittany one August, attended Mass on the fifteenth, and at the Elevation of the Host, a sacred and usually dead silent moment, I jumped a foot when there was a burst of music from Breton bagpipes! 

Led by a cute ginger I had a crush on, but that's another story. I eventually married another ginger, Scottish Handsome Partner, so Breton Jean-Yves was a kind of test run, it turned out.

Misfits day, and I have plans.

Avocado oil, ready to make mayo, for a shrimp salad among other things. Tomatoes for sandwiches and that baked dish with eggs and cheese. Apples for midmorning snack. Parsley just because.

It's a small haul because the glackity woman ordering forgot bread and eggs. Already in for next week.

Meanwhile, lunch, sardines, tomatoes, miso tofu, parsley, black pepper, kosher salt, as good as it gets.

Happy day, everyone, I hope you triumph over whatever bureaucracy you're dealing with, and there's always something.

Lotus for POTUS! 

 

Plants and pieces

 Today I ditched the morning glory which never budded, just foliage, and replaced it with a begonia which had been dead, tossed under a tree, and came back to life.

Those dead looking twigs were all there was when I tossed it. Now look.

Fungi starting in the pots 

And this corner keeps giving 

Here's today's bouquet, various faithful species.

And at the Tuesday Knitting Group one member was wondering where to buy some silk fabric to reline an old embroidered spectacle case her mother made. 

I suggested instead of shopping, I'd bring in some scraps next week, in case there's anything she can use.

There's silk, linen, cotton and who knows what, so maybe something will work for her.

Meanwhile the other HOA, not the door one, the other one where I was doing the water heater, thanked me for the permits etc and came at me with a list of new other forms and proofs, a couple of which I sent in this year already, and one which is impossible to do. This is not the Board, it's the mgt office. 

I replied, sending a copy of the email where they'd acknowledged receiving some of the stuff,  explained the other. So we'll see.  

After I wrote this there followed a comedy sequence where they said well we never received, oh wait, we'll blame the assistant, meanwhile send them all again,oh wait nevermind we found them, and so on. 

At this point I think it's a draw,  but I'm consulting the township on one point. They've gone to bat for me before on unreasonable HOA requests. We'll see.

Happy day, everyone, especially people dealing with HOAs. I deal with two of them, poor me.

I wonder if he had an HOA..

HOAs, ups and downs

It occurred to me after reading Ellen's comment, which I really appreciated, that since all you ever hear from me about the HOA is whining, that I perhaps should right the balance a bit. 

The idea is that everything inside the property including inside the back gate to the patio, is personally owned. As long as I don't affect the whole building structure, I can do what I want.

Here's my back way, gate open to welcome you, part of the deck missing because of the fence work. It's going to be put back when they finish

Left is Aditha's corn, growing how huge, right is the fence between my house and Gary's. The front on the left, is the section I cleaned up yesterday, right of the gate some of what's still to do. Same inside the fence. They need one foot clear on both sides of the fence to install the new one.

Patios have all kinds of things, sofa swing things, dog runs, gardens, trees, toolsheds, whatever pleases the owners and doesn't go against townships zoning. You can't erect a tiny house for living in. Anywhere in town, in fact.  That sort of thing.

As long as I don't remove a load bearing wall indoors, I can renovate, overhaul, anything I can afford. Same as in a single family home.

Which brings us to cost. A townhouse, with joint responsibility for exterior maintenance, roofs, snow removal, grass cutting, garbage, parking lot upkeep, fence replacement, etc,is the only way I can live alone independently.  

An old single woman on a very modest income could never afford even a small single family place and hire all the help she'd need for exterior upkeep. Let alone replacing the roof and siding.

We had a total renovation a few years ago, completely rebuilt roofs, wood siding replaced. My own cost was only a few thousand dollars over the normal monthly dues.  

So now the wood fences, largely rotted and chewed by squirrels, have had their day. So they're all being replaced in one giant operation.

Here are some views of the fences, some with a lot of foliage to deal with

As you see, a lovely place to look out on in all weathers. A bit hot right now.

An upside of this situation, probably unknown to my neighbors, is that this is the only way you can have a fence on your property line. Aside from this situation, fences in town must be four feet inside the property line. I know this from many years of owning a property on an acre and wanting a fence. Noooo. 

This bylaw, passed many years ago, had the effect the township governance wanted, of banning fences without saying so. Because nobody would willingly part with that much territory by fencing within it. It's assumed that fences delineate property lines and you'd be functionally donating  big slices of land to your surrounding neighbors. Anyway back from this enthralling tangent.

Alone, I could never afford snow removal, garbage pickup, grass cutting, pruning, exterior painting, all that.  That's beyond luxury. 

So I get to live in a nice community of good neighbors at a price I can afford. At about one third the cost of renting. Admittedly every development is not friendly, but that's true of any neighborhood. This one, because of the handy third floor finished room with a skylight has attracted a lot of artists, and self employed people, generally kindred spirits. More expensive developments, not so much.

Nowadays there are more children, largely Indian parents attracted by housing they can afford, while helping family in India, in the best school district in the state. 

About 65% of our exorbitant real estate taxes, we're number one in the US on this tax level, yay us!  go to the school district. I remind myself of that when the township direct debits most of what's in the bank, as it will next week, quarter's up. But that's a town wide complaint, the taxes. And I don't mind financing education.

Anyway, there are upsides as well as downsides, and badmouthing the board is a neighborhood pleasure!  I do make a point also of letting them know when I'm happy with something they've done. It's a refreshing change for them.

I'll get on to more interesting themes after this. You'll be glad to know, after politely patting a yawn over this post..