blog.cleverswine.net Kevin Noone

Peanut Butter Cookies

What's good after a long day of intense yard work? Peanut butter cookies. I made them from scratch, with very little help from the wife. My only mistake was spraying cookie dough all over the walls with a poorly aimed electric beater. Oops. Now we're going to watch some recorded episodes of Boston Legal and chow down.

Room to Expand

Click image for better detail

This is a satellite view of the Portland metro area. In the lower right of the map, you can see all of the less populated space. According to rumors, that space will be the next piece of Portland to fall to shopping malls and crowded suburbs. We're considering a house where the red dot is (next to Powell Butte).

Portland Maps

Since we're searching for a house to buy, I've also been researching various neighborhoods around Portland. I've lived here long enough to be pretty familiar with all of Portland metro, but sometimes hard numbers add a little something. PortlandMaps.com has a decent tool for showing an overview, and details, of crime in Portland. The darker the red, the more crime there was in the past 12 months. I have to say, I've lived in some of the dark red areas (inner SE) and always felt safe. Still, it's a nice overview.

Finding a House

We've started looking seriously at houses to buy. We even have a real estate agent (Leslie, a family of a friend). It's supposed to be a buyer's market, but I'll tell you, houses in Portland are still outrageously priced. I believe I read that the average price here is more than $300k. However, I get the idea that sellers are more than willing to come down quite a bit in price. After looking at just a couple of houses, they were practically begging us to buy the place.

As for location, there's a dilemma. Without assigning blame, I'll just say that we require a large yard, a large house, a modern house, a safe neighborhood, and a close-in location. Those things put together, especially the location, are hard to come by. The closer you get to Portland, the smaller the yard and the older the house. Mind you, we both love old houses, but times have changed and most old houses don't accommodate our modern luxuries. At this point, we've found some places in the far East - around the Mt. Scott area.

Houses

It's been a house-like weekend. We started the weekend by continuing our search for a house to buy. We have a couple on the radar, but nothing perfect yet. Today, we inadvertently started rearranging furniture in our house. We've made the living room look much larger and nicer. It was a bit exhausting and we had to cancel our plans to see the new Coen brothers movie. We may see the movie tomorrow afternoon. That's all I've got.

I Like…

I like big houses in fancy neighborhoods.

Big Buys

I've got a couple of expensive items in my mental shopping cart.

My car is 8+ years old now, so I'm thinking it's time for a new one. Since Bren has an SUV, I'm thinking small. Mini, in fact. Among the list of potential cars, the MINI Cooper S is currently at the top of the list. Also on the list is the Toyota Prius, Audi TT, and BMW 135i. The Audi and BMW are probably out because I can't stand the thought of spending that much on an automobile.

The other thing is a new, larger TV. This one seems like a good deal. I've got to do a bit more research, but I think this is quite a good price for a 52" LCD television.