2018 Feb 25 | expensive house hunting



Another traffic jam on 46.



It's in the same spot as before. And as before, Google recommends the same side road to get around it to save 30 minutes.



Here's the exit.



A few other people took the side road, but not most.



About to meet back up with the highway.



There's the line of cars to the left.



And back on.



Still filling in near Yosemite for a bit more. And it's still cold up there.



Neat clouds.



Sun setting under the clouds.



Pray for rain.



Looks like they got it.



Rainbow afterwards.



Google Maps says this route saves 4 minutes, but it's on dark, tiny roads instead of highways and is actually much slower.



These outlet timers are super discounted.



Ogii is under the covers on her phone.



Yummy breakfast from Ogii.



Long line at Little Caesar's.



Checking out more expensive houses on Sunday. This one was in Ford Ord for around $800,000.



Nice and open.



Same with the kitchen.



I like the sparkly countertop with blue pieces.



Nice gazebo and pool in the back, although a pool is a lot of work.



Love the double sinks.



You can see into the neighbor's yard; it looks about the same.



Another nice bathroom.



The next house is a little more expensive, almost $1 million, but is really close to Ogii's work. All of the cars out front are Mercedes.



There are two studio apartments in addition to the main house.



A parking area. You can also drive along the grass for more parking farther along.



Lots of really nice decks.



Stone steps.



Ogii at the bottom of the steps.



Nice wood flooring.



Not sure what's up with all of these empty TV boxes. Did they buy them in bulk to resell them? Are they the real estate agent's to put around the house? Kinda weird.



Nice sunroom.



A wine cellar.



Hot tub.



Great upper and lower decks.



A sauna.



The main bedroom has a beatiful view.



Tub with a view.



The closet is in the back of the bedroom and has its own view.



The main bedroom's private deck.



Hope the ground behind is stable.



The next house is in Salinas.



Nice deck area.



Big bathroom.



Double sinks.



Although Ogii doesn't like the master bedroom's window into the street.



Pretty front door on another house nearby.



Beautiful open floorplan.



Open kitchen.



Lots of big trees in the back yard.



More to this side.



OK bathroom.



Bedroom with sliding doors.



A little area that would be good for animals.



Nice bathroom.



Smaller shower.



Ogii likes the big walk-in closet.



The next house is another million-dollar one on top of a hill, although even on the way up we decided we wouldn't like having to go up and down the very-windy road every day.



Very narrow and winding.



Don't drive off.



That's scary.



Tree trying to push its way through the edge of the hill.



The neighbors have some amazing houses.



Lots of parking, although it'd be hard to get in and out if you have lots of people over.



BMWs at this one instead of Mercedes.



Very nice view.



The living room is amazing.



Big deck.



More nice houses nearby.



Looking back towards the house.



Double sinks.



Great view from this bedroom.



A little wear on the floor.



The kitchen opens onto another deck.



Even bigger deck.



Nice bathroom on the other side.



Pretty tub view.



Another set of double sinks.



Windy road coming back down.



This is one of the biggest houses in the area.



There is also a county auction of houses that are defaulted on their property taxes, so we decided to go check some of those out, too.



This one is way out into the country.



Cows on the way.



And horses.



A bit tight for big vehicles but not too bad.



I think this is the house; not too great of condition.



Same with this one in town.



We checked out a few more but they were also in pretty bad shape.



I had jury duty, but it got cancelled. Which worked out, because...



... we wanted to get a bit more info on some of the properties.



.So I used the day off to go to the courthouse in Salinas...



... to the county assessor's office.



The older records are on film; the newer ones are on computer.



Although even the computer ones are scans, so you can't search inside the documents.



Although you can search by property owner. It's a rather slow process.



This was another house on the unpaid taxes list, although it was very expensive compared to the others; $150,000 whereas most of the others are $10,000-$50,000.



It looks amazing; I wonder why they stopped paying taxes?



Oh, that's so sad; it was completely destroyed in one of the wildfires.



So I guess you're just paying for the land now, but you'll have to clean up the remains of the house.



Do girls really enjoy doing laundry? Seems like a dumb gift to me.



That doesn't look like electronics.



One small section.



Sun setting under the clouds.



It's been below freezing at night.



Intuit owns Mint, too? They already own Quickbooks and Quicken. That's like all of the major budgeting software.



We didn't have a lazy Sunday; we were super busy.



Some of the real estate photos are a tad overdone in HDR.



Trying to download by Quickbooks data. It only works in Internet Explorer? Why? That's so dumb.



At the Toyoda dealership in Salinas getting an oil change. They have super fast internet.



So I was able to upload my Lighroom catalog, which always times out at home.