The Resort Years - 2

A CONDOMINEUM RESORT

The RESORT includes nine other owners from various locales in Northern California.  Initially, I was treated by some as their lackey, their lowly employee.  I bristled at being compared to the managers at their “other” investment properties, harangued when “wear and tear” happened to their already 40 year old cabins.  Then, amazingly, I realized that they were my “vendors”, just like my former relationship with Johnny the Budweiser salesman, they provided the means for BOTH of us to make a few cents profit without any stale beer smell!

The subject of “making money” was thrown up at me by the daughter of one owner – as she said, “We haven’t made money on the cabin since we bought it!”  Her parents always gave me the impression that he and his wife would rather NOT have people using their property. When I was in Real Estate a few years ago he asked me to keep my eyes open for a cabin on the River where they would NOT have to rent it out!  They do take pride in it, but slap restrictions on its use – no pets (but the grandson brings HIS dog!), no groups, be sure that you check for burns in the carpet every time the cabin is used!  Oh, we won’t be supplying firewood any longer for the fireplace – the guests can buy it at the store.  Obviously, I have been getting mixed messages?

One of my Bible Study friends needed work, but she too gave mixed messages – yes, she was here to serve the customers but she NEVER made a mistake.  It was a mirror for me as I often get / got very defensive when called on a mistake I had made.  I finally had to let her and her husband go when their constant snipping and snapping at each other was making even the guests uncomfortable.  I realize now that it was the husband’s beginning dementia, as a “short fuse” is one of the first symptoms – and he did get a LOT worse.  They did an excellent job of cleaning…I hated to create a broken relationship between us, but I guess that I did it gently enough as we continued to be friends, even for several years after they sold their home and moved to Arizona.  “To err is human, to forgive divine”

Our owners are as varied as the general population!  We have a doctor, a veterinarian, a couple of general contractors, a couple of CPA types, several teachers and a school clerk, a painting contractor, retired cop, my husband the computer guru and former excavator / builder, a trucker/ almond rancher and his wife who kept the doctors at a hospital up to code on their certificates and continuing education!  Of course, these were their occupations twenty years ago when we started this “relationship!”  Like us, they are - by and large - retired now!!  Being grandparents, they travel a lot.  How many folks have children far and wide?  The latest in our condominium “family” is # 5s family in FRANCE for a 2 to 3 year assignment!  We have a lot to be thankful for having two of our three adult children nearby, as well as four of the seven grandkids!  So we are able to attend sports events, birthday parties, and programs at school.

The annual Homeowner’s Association Meeting is like a family reunion after all this time.  Only three of the Units at the Resort have sold in the twenty-six years, and only after we succeeded in getting the zoning changed to low density residential.  This allowed conventional financing and voila, the two owners who “needed/wanted” to divest themselves of their rental cabins were able to do so.  Commercial financing requires half down and has a much higher interest rate than residential.  Allowing others to use your property is not for everyone.  Personally, I would sooner let people use my cabin short term than have a rental property that was rented long term!  Myself being the exception, most long-term rentals end up being a LOT of WORK when vacated.  The horror stories that I heard as a REALTOR would curl your hair.

Tom and I lived in four rentals during our marriage:  The apartment in South Pasadena until we purchased our first little house.  The managers of the apartment lived right next door and we had neighbors above as well, but we were the end unit in one of the two story U shaped complexes so popular in the 50s and 60s.  The managers allowed Tom to keep his radial-arm saw table in the laundry room as long as he took the “head” inside when he wasn’t using it, and cleaned up his mess after he used the saw!   Tom worked the night shift for IBM and I worked the day shift for Bank of America.  One of those years I decided to take some classes at Pasadena City College while he was there taking classes.  That is where I took my first organ class.

Taking an organ class, we decided to try a 30-day rental on a Hammond organ to see if we wanted to BUY IT!  While I was at work one day Tom decided “play with” the organ – the 32-foot pipe caused the nick-nacks on the shelf in the apartment above us to “walk right off their respective shelves!”  The apartment manager told the little old lady that he played organ as well, and this wasn’t his problem.  We did send the organ back after the 30 days though, no sense in making enemies of the lady up stairs!

We were the “young folks” in this complex of 50, 60, 70 year olds.  I carved a Jack-o-lantern for the front step, put up Christmas decorations, delivered cookies or pumpkin bread whenever I made any with my free evenings while Tom was working.  I also wrote LONG letters to both sets of parents, cementing a shaky relationship or two caused by our eloping as 17 and 18 year olds while still in High School.   “They said that it wouldn’t last!”   SHOWED THEM!   The “them” were not our parents as they had great faith in our commitment to each other and said LOTS of prayers.  One of them I am sure was that we would have time to grow up BEFORE any children came along!

So I faithfully took my birth control pills with my orange juice in the AM and went off to work.  UNLESS we were out of OJ!  Then I would have to run home on my lunch break to “remember” the forgotten pill!  I learned then that I am not a great “pill taker” and fortunately, all I take to this day is a vitamin or three!  If I remember!

We are also not great “savers” so had no down-payment for the house we wanted to buy before children came along!  So after just one year at PCC, I went back to Bank of America taking out a three-year personal loan to facilitate the purchase of the little two-bedroom house in South Pasadena.  The last payment was paid just before our son Tom was born in 1966 – five years after our marriage!  The First Mortgage payments were $79 per month payable to Pomona First Federal Savings and Loan, and that included the annual property taxes and fire insurance!!

This little bungalow had “knob and tube” wiring and the first thing that Tom did when we got possession was to cut the wiring coming from the fuse box and install a long extension cord!  He definitely did not want our first house to burn down from faulty wiring!  At breakfast time the extension cord powered the refrigerator, toaster and coffee maker, just before bedtime I warmed up the bed with the electric blanket then the refrigerator was plugged back in, sometimes it even powered the TV set and the lamps in the living room in the evening.   This was the routine for a couple of years.  Oh yes, the only heat in the house was the fireplace, so a propane wall heater was installed in the wall between the living and dining rooms.  Fortunately, the kitchen range was propane as well!

My first act as a homeowner and gardener was to “cut back” the three bushes on two sides of the living room.  What a twisted and overgrown mess they were.  My neighbor across the street insisted that I had KILLED THEM by cutting them back so much.  The following Spring the blossoms were the size of dinner plates.  I wish I could remember the name of the silly bushes.  They sure were pretty and much different than any we grew in Mom’s yard in Colorado!!  (Hybiscus are actually related to Rose of Sharon, and Rose of Sharon DO GROW in Colorado!)