Dark Night

Transitioning to real life

We hit the housing market hard. I'd gulped during my own house-hunting experience; a small condo in a nice building had cost $750 000, which had scared the pants off me, but that was in a really desirable neighborhood. Still made me a little light-headed. That was nothing compared to house-hunting with a former NFL star who still had a lot of name recognition in the city. He'd had to change realtors before we got going together because he wasn't interested in the huge mansions that the realtor kept showing him. Apparently nothing that he'd been shown came in at under ten million and it was all vast and ostentatious, he'd said. His new realtor was still showing him pricey properties, but that was the market, and the houses were smaller. He wanted a couple of guest rooms for family and friends to visit, good for entertaining clients, and a home office. Beyond that, anything was negotiable. On our fourth day of hunting, the realtor showed us the perfect place on our third stop. It was in a gated community, which we weren't wild about, but it wasn't a deal breaker, but the first selling point was its location, on Redondo Beach. The house was a vaguely Mediterranean style, on an acre of land, nicely xeriscaped, with a pool. That was pretty much inescapable in a huge amount of houses, and Will murmured that we could always fill it in. It was ridiculous to have, with the beach right there down the cliff. There was a great entertaining area outside, with a big fire pit, a designated dining area with an outdoor kitchen, and a couple of multi-level places to hang out and chat. There was a fountain and a covered terrace, stairs down to the beach, and great views. In addition to the guest rooms in the house, there was a surprisingly spacious little guest house out across the back yard, with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, utility room, and a nice living room with a lot of windows.

There was stone tile in the entry, but wood everywhere else except in the bathrooms. High ceilings, not a ton of architectural detail in the ceilings, crown molding, that sort of thing, just enough to be interesting without being ornate. It was definitely a home for entertaining; the first couple of public rooms at the front of the house were vast, more hotel-like than homelike, but  once you trotted through those, there was a cozier room that we could use for hanging out together, a small theater where we could watch TV, a frankly sublime master suite that was bigger than my whole current apartment, what with the bathroom and closet-- the windows in the bathroom looked out over trees and sky, very peaceful (it had a steam shower big enough for two), a fitness room that was shown with a TV opposite its mirrored wall and rubberized coating on the floor in case weights were dropped, and a small octagonal wine cellar. Neither of us were that into wine, but Will would be entertaining a fair amount due to the nature of his job.  There were four bedrooms, a big, top-notch kitchen, central vacuum, and a three car garage. There were solar panels as well. It was still on the big side and impersonal, but that part could change. It was a good fit for his job, not too ostentatious, and we could both envision living there, so Will wrote up an offer. It had been on the market for a few months, and the bid was low, but not insultingly so. The next day, he got the news that his offer had been accepted.

Right after that, I reported to work, and started the upward slope of the learning curve there. It was utterly engrossing and it was great to be with other scientists, finally working full-time on my interests. I'd been there a month when Will closed on his house and we moved in. We went furniture shopping and selected a nice king-sized bed with a headboard padded in velvet, the rest of the bedroom furniture, and a couple of recliners to go in the cozy room with my sofa. We decided to use one of the guest rooms as a joint office; it was big enough for two desks, a lot of space for an uncluttered feel, and we turned the walk-in closet into office storage, set up as our technology hub as well, with the printer and router and all.  We decided to take our time furnishing the rest of the place. Our old bedroom furniture went into the guest rooms, and we celebrated Labor Day with a party for our friends. I liked it; there was good surfing nearby.