Haus

So getting ready for Em's birthday party, I made a grocery run by bike, something I haven't done much lately. I rarely go to the 'American grocery store' as we call it, the Sunfresh on 18th. There are several Mexican groceries in our neighborhood that have better prices on meat, we get most of our produce from the resellers at City Market, and then there's the Asian markets over their in the River Market, and if I'm loading up the smoker there's Krizman's and Bichelmeyer's.

There are few grocery needs these joints don't cover, but if you're making birthday cake by a recipe from Joy of Cooking and don't want to guess at ingredient substitutions, Sunfresh is it. Good place to get cereal too: from what I can tell Mexicans and Koreans haven't caught on to cold cereal & milk.

As I was coming back, I decided against climbing 18th against the wind with a heavily loaded bike during relatively brisk traffic. I could do it, but a block over I had the street to myself, and that's where I stumbled on this architectural gem. A neighbor came home while I was admiring it, and when I inquired how long it had been there, he said a couple of years. And then that it was some sort of eco-thing that had to do with the University of Kansas. It's true, I found this piece bemoaning the fact that they couldn't find a buyer for the place at first. They talk about asking $190,000 for it, and I gotta say they should have looked up a few comps before building it if they needed $190 grand for it.

Don't get me wrong, I really like this house. I'd want the carport long enough to cover a car in a hail storm, and I don't know how it's laid out inside, but this is the kind of house I'd buy if I could. But in this neighborhood, the only way you're going to see $190,000 is with five or six bedrooms. It's all relative, of course, my own house (a three bedroom bungalow in a nice historic neighborhood) cost less than half what they were asking. Transplant my house and yard to San Francisco, from what I hear it might fetch half a million.