DadTalk

Our Great View

Our New Year began with snow. This is the view toward Montrose Harbor.

Our Great View

I took these shots as a storm approached earlier this week. My wife came inside from a walk just before I took the pictures on our newly-painted patio.  (Turns out the note from our landlord was a bit alarmist.) Our kids thought the storm was cool.

Double Rainbow

It’s not every day you see a double rainbow this distinctive. While I’m afraid I don’t know enough photographic tricks to make these two really pop, I think you get the idea.

What you also can’t see, because I couldn’t zoom far enough out with my lens, is that we could see both ends of both rainbows. I’ve seen quite a few rainbows in my life, but nothing like these two.

Seth loved them and made up three stories about rainbows as big as Chicago, the world and space for the rest of the evening. I like to think of the dou ble rainbows as a portent of good things to come.

My Family Is Being Terrorized by HGTV

I made the mistake recently of hooking up cable TV in our bedroom. My wife and I essentially have been living free of that monstrosity for almost nine years.

After being given a second TV as a gift, I figured I would put it in our bedroom so that my wife and I could occasionally watch something relaxing at night. It seemed “reasonable.” (For some reason, the cable works in that room, but not our living room.)

Almost by magic, the remote was permanently affixed to HGTV. After all, the commercials are rarely about food or pharmaceuticals. And I suppose it’s better than FOX News.

When I mentioned this to another parent, she said, “Oh yeah, we always keep the TV on HGTV. That way, if my kids walk into the room, I don’t have to worry about them watching a Lucky Charms commercial. Or a violent cartoon. Or …” By the way, did I mention they’re house hunting?

Sadly, there is a HUGE downside to watching this network. While Lael could care less, Seth is mesmerized by the handsome men and women tearing out walls and creating an “open, airy space.” Seth, who wants to be an architect and a truck driver and an engineer and a doctor and an astronaut and a train engineer and a musician and a construction worker when he grows up, probably knows more about curb appeal than half of Chicago’s homeowners.

Great view of Lake Michigan notwithstanding, Anne’s obsession with the show might have something to do with being crammed like sardines into our 750-square-feet apartment. That and the fact that the kids have trashed everything we own simply because there is no place to hide our stuff. Oh, and I think Anne is tired of drinking wine out of mason jars instead of our wine glasses, which are still in California storage.

Because we think housing prices are not done collapsing, we figure our best plan of action is to rent a house even though I will really, really miss the great view. It might not be enough to dispose of the post-ownership blues, but at least the family would have room to breathe.

So yesterday we yet again loaded the kids into the minivan and resumed exploring the communities in Evanston, the first suburb north of Chicago. The benefits of Evanston are obvious to us. A large number of Seth’s classmates live in the diverse community. It’s not too far from work because of train access. And there’s a lot to do.

The problem has to do with the housing stock. Homes are either so big that they are rarely rented out – except by students near Northwestern University – or we’re stuck in another expensive apartment building … without the view.

But we really need more space. The kids have nowhere to play when they’re stuck indoors. Our current building lacks a pool and play area. The elevators are always having a problem. Plus, we would like to stop paying for storage in California, money we could use instead for rent.

Watching HGTV exacerbates the situation: here are all these happy Americans buying and remodeling beautiful houses. Where are they getting all this money?

HGTV is something of a false utopia, though. After all, we haven’t seen many shows – zero to be exact – talking about surviving foreclosure or folks struggling with housing payments they can’t afford.

There haven’t been any shows about how new home prices near where we USED TO LIVE have been slashed by nearly 50 percent. That’s right, new homes in Rancho Cucamonga that used to go for $1.2 million are now being offered for $695,000.

To piss us off even more, despite what is happening in Rancho, banks are stingily holding onto properties. They fear flooding the market and refuse to let prices fall naturally as they should. If you look at this chart on bank-owned properties, the first question to ask yourself: Why haven’t home prices fallen more?

And yet, HGTV’s hosts continue to chirp happily about how wonderful it is to buy a 1-½ bath, 3-bedroom house in Alexandria, Virginia, for $750,000 house. Did I mention that in one bedroom, the dad could reach both walls by holding his hands out?

So I curse HGTV every time Anne watches it. Then I sit down and watch it too.

Have a Safe Memorial Day

Despite inclement weather, bikers cruise down Lake Shore Drive Sunday morning for the Bank of America Bike the Drive. The disappearance of road noise was a pleasant bonus.

Our Very Own Sky Garden

Although I’ve been lusting to start a balcony garden all winter, I’ve had to wait for it to warm up. Our trip out of town further delayed the project.

So I read with great jealousy about Philip’s gorgeous sky garden (Part I and Part II), which he already has off the ground.

But this weekend, Seth and Lael helped me plant our seeds (despite ongoing pain). I am amazed how excited the kids were about the whole thing. Even though Seth didn’t like getting his hands dirty – sigh, I’m raising neurotic city kids – he loved moving the soil around with a shovel, watering the pots and adding the seeds.

I chose seeds over seedlings for two reasons:

1. I want my kids to see how plants grow from start to finish.
2. Because we’re facing the lake and on the 15th floor, we get a lot of strong wind. Mix bouts of cold, harsh weather, and hardening seedlings would seem likely to fail.

Our little garden is pretty much an experiment in several other ways: We over-seeded the planters, mixing complementary big and small plants in one container. And we are growing things that simply may not like being in pots.

Here’s what we’re trying:

• Ornamental sunflowers
• Mescaline salad greens
• Carrots
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Basil
• Purple beans
• Zinnias
• Peppers – we harvested the seeds from real peppers at Seth’s request a few months ago
• Dill
• Spinach

Sadly, we have a lot of leftover seeds because we have so little space and so few planters.

Even if we don’t get substantial food, it’ll be worth it to see what happens. At least we’re so high up that we don’t have to worry much about too many bugs – other than spiders. I think.

And while our garden is smaller and our conditions more harsh than Philip’s, at least I can say that at 15 stories high, we have the official “sky garden.”

To Buy or Rent: Which Is the Better Investment?

While my wife and I love our apartment and the great view, we are seriously considering moving when our lease is up this fall. Why?

Space and money. With only three rooms in our apartment and no indoor play areas, keeping two toddlers busy and happy made for a stir-crazy, patience-testing winter.

Our expenses are higher than they should be, too. That’s because we have stuff in California storage, which costs $250 a month (there’s a car in there), and our parking space costs another $225 a month.

While we haven’t seriously considered buying yet, we are looking into the idea of renting a house. So we got off our duffs and drove around several north Chicago suburbs. While a lot of houses are for sale, the overall prices have not really come down enough for our budget. Afterward, my wife, Anne, suggested that we find a house we can stay in for at least two years.

If we had any doubts over the weekend, this New York Times calculator proves the point. In the first screen grab, I plugged in our rent + parking space into the calculator compared with the lowest-priced homes I could find. (I derived the 1.79 percent property tax rate from this state-by-state chart.)

If you assume modest home price and rental appreciation rates, we would have to live in the house for 21 years before we came out ahead. So in this scenario, renting is better.

Though I cannot afford $700,000 for a home, it’s a more realistic price in Chicago’s current market. I upped the rent slightly to match style of living. In this scenario, renting will be the better deal for all 30 years of the mortgage. If I stuck with our current rent, the chart becomes more extreme.

Let’s assume that overall home appreciation is a modest 10 percent, then buying would be the better deal within a year.

But my prediction is that housing will go DOWN for the next one to six years. You can guess what the graph will look like.

Neither of the last two charts provide a real look at what will happen. That’s because home values will likely dip first, then rise. So the key seems to be is skipping that last chart altogether and until the growth one kicks in.

My findings match those of David Leonhardt, who writes Economix for the New York Times. “It’s now clear that people who chose renting over buying in the last two years made the right move,” he writes. “In much of the country, including large parts of the Northeast, California, Florida and the Southwest, recent home buyers have faced higher monthly costs than renters and have lost money on their investment in the meantime.

“It’s almost as if they have thrown money away, an insult once reserved for renters.” Plus, money not used in a down payment can be invested.

Prices are likely to fall more, Leonhardt predicts. “Most striking, perhaps, is the fact that prices may not yet have fallen far enough for buying to look better than renting today, except for people who plan to stay in a home for many years.” Translation: If you already own your home or are buying with the intent of staying more than 10 years, you will do fine over the long term.

But since we don’t own right now, and home prices are way to high, it looks like we’ll be renters for at least a couple more years.

Additional: Faith in Home Values Persist: Most Americans don't expect housing prices to fall soon, but a majority of those surveyed see a recession within a year – Los Angeles Times

Spring Magically Appears

A foggy Sunday morning in Chicago gave way to the most glorious day of the year so far. And after recovering from a stomach bug, I joined the family at the park. Pictures coming soon, time permitting.

Building Our Dream House

On my Blackberry I keep a growing file called “Perfect House,” where I plan our utopian home life. (Too bad it’s so expensive.) Some of the ideas stem from mistakes I’ve noticed in homes we’ve visited over the years as well as the one we lived in Upland, Calif.

Some ideas take environmentalism into account; some are mundane; some are ingenious and some may not be possible. A couple of examples:

• Waterproof kitchen counters – nothing with grout.
• A shallow, wide refrigerator to prevent food items disappearing into the back and rotting.
• The home should be power self-sufficient via geothermal, wind power, ethanol-based generator and/or solar.
• Natural lighting throughout the house with careful consideration of how the sun moves through the sky each day and year.
• Floor drains in any room that has running water to prevent accidental damage.
• Depending on circumstances, an outdoor shower.

I also worry a lot about construction materials. I prefer those that need little care but are natural. I do not want my dream home leaching unwanted chemicals into our bodies.

For example, I strongly dislike treated woods that off-gas into the house. I might favor steel framing or an environmentally-friendly wood preservative. I also prefer kitchen countertops to be made of food-safe material (no sealants.) Obviously, I would need to research these ideas more deeply.

Notice I do not focus so much on luxury. While I enjoy high living, my main focus is practical livability. What do I mean by that?

Have you ever experienced a house that is a rat’s maze? Each room is an island where the occupant of one might not be aware of the other.

Homes like that are relationship killers. The more segmented the house, the more likely everyone will become alienated from each other. I especially dislike the idea of my kids being on opposite sides of the house away from mom and dad.

Conversely, convention center-sized open areas make even the largest ego feel like a mouse in a field being circled by hawks. Homes like that are designed to humiliate visitors and the occupants alike.

A house should have a strong central gathering point that generally includes kitchen and outdoor access. I also like homes where the indoors flow seamlessly outdoors.

All those thoughts were going through my head when I asked Seth if he wanted to help build our dream house. Both of us were groggy after waking up from naps, but he became animated the moment we pulled out the Legos.

As you can tell, we went with a Mediterranean-style design that I’m particularly enamored with. Seth seized on the general concepts with gusto, offering many suggestions, including the roof design and window placements.

Seth particularly liked the courtyard, which he intuitively understood would be a lot of fun. And he loved the idea of the windows letting sunlight into the two wings. Of course, based on what I said above, the wings would be for guests or offices, not for the kids.

Because of a limitation on the number of Legos we had to work with, we decided against color-coordinating the whole thing, which we built in less than 90 minutes.

When we were all done, Seth said our Lego home was way cooler than our Upland house; Maybe they would tear down the ugly homes there and build some more like our design, Seth wondered aloud.

I wouldn’t count on it any time soon, but he clearly has one trait in common with dad: We want our homes as well as our locations to contain strong elements of beauty. Growing up with views of mountains in his early years and now Lake Michigan will probably contribute to this sensibility all his life.

Snow on Lake Michigan

While our trip to The Dells went great, we were worried that a snow storm might make the drive impossible. Fortunately, the roads were cleaned up before our drive.

I didn’t get a chance to post this photo, though, of the lake finally freezing long enough for snow to cover the ice. The lake has since returned to a liquid state.

While it’s the photo I’ve waited for all winter long, it’s still not quite the white-out I had sought.