Archive for the 'Californication' Category

In which we sign yet another lease!

Published
by
Tryphoon
on February 13, 2008
in Californication
. 0 Comments

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In this never ending housing drama, we never know when things are going to move in our favor. Some days, things go totally wrong, others, things seem to look brighter. Last night was one of these slightly brighter day when our friend and super realtor Barbara paid us a little visit and gave us our new fully executed lease!

This simply means that we can now leave our nightmare called “home” and start (again) afresh, hoping that this time, things will last a bit longer!

Sarah is so used to it now that half of our kitchen is already packed, the moving truck has been rented and I need to take care of various businesses such as DirecTV, cable, telephone and utilities.

Now, all is not solved yet and we still stand between the rock and the hard place. OCWEN, the “official” new owner (please note the quotes) still wants us out by March 1st and has sent a letter to our attorney to this effect. The major issue is that they still want to issue a judgement, despite our agreement and us playing fair with them, which judgement would be attached to our credit report, preventing us of renting or buying any property for the next 7 years… Not only are they trying to screw us on this side, but they also refused to cover us in the case of the “previous” owner (Trust Holding Co.) suing us but want us to cover them if he/she does… Laughable!

So our lawyer is still working and his cost has now reached our full annual budget for travels, trips and birthdays! But at least, we might avoid getting sued!

What a wonderful world we live in!

 

In which we are celebrating one year in the USA!

Published
by
Tryphoon
on February 6, 2008
in Californication
. 0 Comments

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It has now been a year since we left London on a gloomy morning, all emotional, leaving our close friends and familly behind, not really knowing what was going to happen with us.

At this exact time, last year, we were arriving at the temporary house we only saw so far in pictures on Google Maps, fighting jet lag and trying to find our marks.

Our first day in the country wasn’t without glitches and we faced stupidity when trying to get our rental car as well as our own brain-dead state when we tried to fill our first shopping cart at Ralph’s that same night.

This first year has been filled with emotions (good and bad), adventures and discovery! Let’s admit it: It has been a roller-coaster! But there was one aspect of the US that I didn’t think I would face that rapidly: The legal system!

So as you know (per our previous post), we are currently in an awkward situation on the housing front and it turned evident that we would need some form of help to get out of this mess the best we can!

So what a better way to celebrate our first anniversary than to go and meet with an attorney!

We didn’t blow a candle or open champagne but it now feels like we are part of this country! We have an SUV, we live in a large house (for the time being), Sarah goes to the gym a lot and has “play dates” with her local friends, I enjoyed the last quarter of the Superbowl on Sunday AND WE CAN NOW TELL NASTY PEOPLE THAT THEY SHOULD SPEAK TO OUR ATTORNEY!!!

You have to love it or hate it!

Once again, Happy Anniversary!

In which we are moving AGAIN!

Published
by
Tryphoon
on February 5, 2008
in Californication
. 0 Comments

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So for those of you who are not located on this side of the pond and have left the family diary with pictures of our Christmas tree and Thia expecting Santa’s visit, things have changed a bit…

We have to move out of our house or face the law!

Why?

Well, we have been good tenants, signed a one year lease with an agent (left a huge deposit), paid our rent on time, taken care of the house as it was ours but the bargain seems to not have been respected on both sides…

The people we are currently renting our Toluca Lake house from have been renting us a house whose owner went into foreclosure without letting us know that this was the case. We all know that foreclosure is the new Black in California but didn’t think we would be impacted by this new fashion!

We found out in October that things might not have been as we hoped for when a first realtor knocked at the door and explained to us that our house was to be auctioned later that month. Shock, horror and immediate phone call to our managing agent! After having discussed the matter with them, we were told that everything was fine and that they were in negotiation with the bank to pay the debts and buy it from them.We believed them!

It turned out to not be totally true and according to official registers and a visit from another realtor, we have found out that the property had been sold on auction around Xmas time. Our current agent claims that they are suing the bank, are trying to reverse the sale and have even provided us today with a copy of the case, a nice rebate on the rent and assuance that everything is fine. Sadly for us, in the meantime we have been (not so) kindly asked to vacate the property within 30 days by the new owner and their agent who cannot sell the place as long as we live in it and hence is losing money by the day in a declining market.

We have tried to turn for legal help (useless) and have the help of a realtor friend of ours but this doesn’t change much the fact that if we stay where we are, we would face an eviction for unlawful occupation, despite having a signed lease (amended yesterday actually) and that we are still paying our rent (we fools!). Such eviction would result in a pretty bad record and hell for the next 7 years!

So, we are on the road again! Sarah is visiting house after house and we are trying to negotiate an as amicable as possible way out of this mess (but one thing is sure, we wont go down without a fight!)

Stay tuned and wait for the next (now usual) post about the “new” house!

In which I drive 500 miles (and we enjoy a nice break out of LA)

Published
by
Tryphoon
on December 31, 2007
in Californication
. 0 Comments

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In this holiday season, nothing much goes on at the office so I decided to take the week off between Xmas and New Year and finally take the family out of the Thirty Miles Zone also known as Los Angeles…

After gathering intel from various coworkers and friends, we did set our mind up to a trip to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo (SLO). So Wednesday evening, we decided to book a hotel, look at the map and set up stops and places to visit…

At first Sarah wasn’t that sure of my driving and kept offering to swap with me, until finally asking if she could drive from Santa Barbara to SLO, but I had to make it clear that practice makes things better and I was allowed to get back behind the wheel after a pretty poor meal on the beach in Santa Barbara, only punctuated by an attack of a group os seagulls…

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After another couple of hours of driving, we finally made it to SLO and our hotel. Thanks to Expedia, everything was fine, room was booked OK and Thia had a large grown up bed just for her…

Day 2 of the break was the touristic day and resulted in the visit of Pismo Beach and its surfers (Thia met a Pelican) and the Hearst Castle, which against all odds, was extremely nice.

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You might wonder why the suspicion? Well, what could go wrong when an American multi-zillionaire decides to buy castles, churches, missions, roman vilas and God knows what in Europe and Asia and works on a architectural mash-up on the top of a hill, on a 770 hectares piece of land, while running close to 30 businesses? Well, everything! But not this time… (See pics)

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Our last day was mainly spent on the road, giving however a second chance to Santa Barbara, having blamed the guide and stopped at the harbor there. And this time, we really got why this is called the “Riviera of the US”… It just felt like Nice/Cannes and it has been decided that we will have to go back there at some point…

So all in all, cool little break, great sceneries and definitely  a new will to explore more of what this country has to offer!

As usual, more pictures in the pics section…

In which we’re getting ready to celebrate our first Xmas in the US

Published
by
Tryphoon
on December 24, 2007
in Californication
. 0 Comments

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So it is that time of the year again and despite several differences with Europe (the major one being the weather), we are currently getting ready to celebrate Christmas…

Before the girls came back from London, I realized that most of the houses in our community were decorated both inside and outside. Trees were lit, reindeers made of light seemed to visit gardens as soon as the night was there and there was definitively a festive feeling floating in the air.

So last weekend, we took on to decorate the house and bought our Xmas tree… And what a tree! Our house, being slightly larger than our former apartment in London, we had to reflect the changes in the size of the beast. Actually to a point that for the first time ever, I had to climb on a chair, stand as high as I could to hang the star at the top of the tree!

Tradition was respected and Xmas music was played while we were all busy decorating the tree, mulled wine was being prepared , fireplace was lit and Thia was trying to help as much as she could. As usual, we found a place to display all the Xmas cards that we received and we even have lights on the den…

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Icing on the cake: That night, we were invited to our first street party where all neighbors were invited and all brought a little something to share. We actually went full British and brought English mulled wine (spiced wine) and English minced pies. Evening was fun. Kids were running around (Thia had a blast playing with the “old” kids from the street).

And today is Xmas Eve… We are getting ready for the big night and have managed to keep Thia’s to a rational level, Sarah has been shopping like mad for both the French style evening dinner and the English style lunch tomorrow, our guest room is filled with wrapped presents and Santa’s brandy will is waiting on the table, with brandy and minced pies for him and peanuts for the reindeers, even if Thia tried hard to have a taste of them…

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So to all of you, from us on this side on the world, we wish you a merry Christmas!

PS: On the Thia side, I must admit as well that I played a bad trick to her last night, when she was refusing to go to bed, screaming and kicking… “Santa” “suddenly” decided to call me on my cell phone and tell me that he was almost ready to leave the North Pole and thought he should not stop by our house as our baby girl wasn’t going to bed on her own… Well, 30 seconds later, we were kindly asked to switch the light off and leave her bedroom!

PPS: It is now 7PM and Xmas is upon us.  Adding to the warm feeling of the neighborhood, our next door neighbors paid us a quick visit to offer us a little box of cookies and wish us a merry Xmas…

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