Today we officially took possession of our new rental house in Hermosa Beach.
A little over a month ago I received a call from Alberto of Jenkins Property Management. They are the company that we rented our house on 5th Street from and Alberto was our rep. He told me that the owner of our house was sending over a real estate agent to check out the house, but he didn’t know anything more than that. Well, Becki and I had, a couple of weeks prior, contacted the owner through our real estate agent with an offer to buy the house. The owner had refused at that time, but maybe he had changed his mind? We were kind of excited. Maybe we would be able to buy the little fixer-upper beach shack.
When the agent showed up, I was in the backroom. I immediately heard Becki yell, “He bought the house! He’s going to tear it down!” Well, that didn’t turn out how we had hoped. The little beach bungalow where we had lived for the past four years was going to fall victim to the trend of urban strip-mining that is changing (ruining) the older, funkier neighborhoods around southern California.
Knowing we were going to be moving soon, we began the search for another place to live. It wasn’t looking good though. Having a dog and wanting a yard for her puts us in a bad position around here. Most homes don’t have yards! The newly built monsters are corner to corner abominations. There are plenty of duplexes and condos, but no yards in those.
Walking to Ocean Diner for breakfast one morning, I noticed a house on 8th that had the ubiquitous red key sign that signifies another rental through Westside Rentals. It looked like the house was still being worked on and the door was open. We walked over and met Karen, the owner of the house, actually a duplex. She was working on putting the finishing touches on the property and had just listed it with Westside. She showed us around and we talked for 30 minutes or so. By the time we left I was convinced that we would be her new tenants, renting both units. Becki was convinced by the time we finished breakfast.
That was it. That random and that easy.
Our three block move is now underway and we soon will be leaving 5th Street to become 8th Street locals.
The first photo is of my lovely wife Becki being a rebel and flaunting her defiance of the sign warning people to “Keep Off”. I love those bad girls! The second is just another cliché sunset shot. Ho hum.
I took these photos with my Kodak Medalist, loaded with Fuji Provia 100.
