Part 6: Phew, It Sure Is Hot Here...

With the lack of choices close to home and our target areas and being out bid or shot down so resolutely when we did find property, we were, at the very least, a bit irked. So, with a bit of hesitation we decided to check out some places in the Santa Clarita area which consists of Valencia, Santa Clarita, Saugus, Canyon Country and Newhall and is around 35 miles north of LA.

For those readers not from the LA area I guess the best way to describe Santa Clarita comes from my friend Ben; "White Flight". The area has a few real neighborhoods, but in general it's a cookie cutter, carved out and preplanned group of houses with no real town to speak of. But, from what we could gather from the real estate sites, the houses were a touch cheaper and a bit larger than what we could find in the LA / Glendale / Burbank area...hell, even the Sylmar area.

So, as was our M. O., we selected a few sample houses in different areas of the Santa Clarita area and mapped out a trip. This time, however, we did it a bit differently we actually sent the list to Gayle, our agent who had David meet us and actually show us some of the houses and on that Saturday morning, a beautiful sunny and 80 degree day, we filled a travel cup with Sangria, we hopped in the car and headed north up the 5.

Forty five minutes later we arrived in Newhall at our first stop, David was just pulling in as we parked, so we got out of the car. DAMN! It was at least 95 degrees and it was only ten freakin' fifteen in the morning! Well anyway, the first house wasn't too bad, a cute two bed, two bath with hardwood floors and two stories, but the current renter / tenant was a smoker and the place stunk like an ashtray soaked in warm beer. The price was good, though, but there was no yard to speak of...Next.

And off we headed, north to Canyon Country to a nice, old tree neighborhood between Sierra Highway and the 14 freeway. Very cute neighborhood. Lots of tall trees covering the whole area in shade and neatly manicured lawns in front of every house. The shade really did make a five or ten degree difference. We turned onto Fairgate avenue, a dead end, excellent. The house was surrounded by some really nice places, a good sign that the area was pretty nice, and though the garage had been coverted there was a big, gated driveway with plenty of room and a nice stucco wall surrounding the property, giving it a spanish / mexican feel. One step inside the gate and our illusions crumbled. The driveway was quite cracked and the little bit of grass left on the "lawn" was brittle and brown. A peek in a window revealed a lovely matted shag carpet that may or may not have been pink at sometime in the past, but was now several shades of dirt.

After finally locating the lockbox, David opened the front door and we were greeted with a musty gust of odor with a slight hint of amonia or cat urine. Always lovely when it's a thousand degrees out and you've just killed a cup of Sangria. The rest of the house quite stunningly complimented the formerly pink carpet, actually as it was so bad that I actually declared that disasterous carpet the best thing in the house. And off we went, nay, ran. I didn't think our Honda Element could actually squeal its tires.

The rest of the day was a bit of a bust. We looked at a condo that was small, dark and dank with a lovely view of the highway. Pass. And finally a place on Urbandale Avenue in Canyon Country, that photographed well, as shown by the websites, but had a kitchen with a black ceilings and cabinets trimmed in primary red with ceramic fruit stuck to the backsplash and walls. The house did have two bathrooms, but not a single toilet. David commented that the holes in the floor reminded him of his recent trip to China. This place was a nightmare by anyone's standards. We graciously thanked David and didn't even need to tell him we'd be passing on that day's options.

Back down the highway to Glendale and home. Along the way we discussed the Santa Clarita option and thought, hmm, just maybe there's some hope. But what about the heat? Was it really that bad? Would it be bearable if we had a pool? What about the lack of a town center? Did it really matter? Did we really want to live where every restaurant or store was part of a national chain?

We ran into some stop and go traffic where the 5 freeway met the 14. Would the morning commute be worse? Maybe if we looped around and took the 210....yeah, that's how'd we do it. We finally made it to the 134 and got off at Brand Blvd in Glendale. Driving past Porto's bakery, our favorite Sunday morning destination, I rolled down the window and it struck me, the smell of the bakery, the much cooler temperature, an actual downtown all added up to one thing, living in Santa Clarita would suck. I opened my mouth to tell my revelation to Renata, but before I uttered a word she basically said just what I was thinking.

Well, so much for that and back to the drawing board.

Next up: "Why didn't we figure this out earlier?"