Holy gleeble. Was it a meth lab? Is the housing market that bad in Rochester?

That's about $60/sq ft. In my neighborhood, apartments can sell for over $1200/sq ft, i.e. twenty times the price.

I'm on Tumblr, but at this point I think the whole world knows I'm on Tumblr.

And in re: you, Jilli, one of my oldest friends also follows you, and I don't think she knows that I know you. Which is a little weird. The Internet, man.

Clearly you have not been watching enough HGTV. Don't you know knob and tube wiring is a SCOURGE that cannot be known until you open walls and have to change your whole plan??

And it will cost over half the budget! There goes the new kitchen!

But I do want this house: It is only $46,000.

Good heavens. That's lovely. It will probably need some updating, but for that price? That's a steal.

At some point, when my mother dies, I think I am going to have to deal with her stuff, my grandmas stuff, my grandpas stuff and my stuff from high school and college.

I feel ya. That's exactly what my sister and I had to do when my mom died. She'd been living most of her life in her parents' house, the house where she (and we) grew up. It was stuffed full of her stuff, her mom and dad's stuff, our old stuff, her late husband's stuff, her uncle's stuff ("he never married, you know..."), and stuff from people who'd lived there in the Depression and just left stuff there when they moved on. (There were enough people living in our house in the Depression that one bedroom became the "women's bedroom" and one the "men's bedroom".) We got rid of tons of it and my sister's huge attic is still full. Anyone want a trunk full of clothes from the 1920s?

That isn't even in a bad neighborhood. Housing in Rochester (the city) is variable depending on the neighborhood, but I rarely see anything where I want to live over $150,000.

The house next door is for sale, too, and it has more updates (new kitchen, better paint, etc) and it is about $80,000.

Our salaries are lower, though, too. I just got a raise to $37,000 and I have worked here 14 years and had 3 promotions. I always get "exceeds expectations" on my reviews and I always get a comparatively good raise to other people.

Anyone want a trunk full of clothes from the 1920s?

Um... maybe? They are probably valuable to a museum, though.

Um... maybe? They are probably valuable to a museum, though.

I doubt it, honestly. They're just clothes. Museums surely have more and better specimens. If you want them, I'll send them to you, pending my sister's approval of course. I'd be glad to find something useful to do with them.

They are probably valuable to a museum, though.

The hardest thing is to look at items someone love and/or enjoyed and try to look at it from a stranger's point of view. We've had a bunch of 78 rpm records in the house that I've wanted to get rid of, but Hubby didn't want to part with. I did some research, and there were so many million 78s produced that unless you've got a rarity, no one wants them. It would be like having a random Elton John cd kicking around in 80 years and seeing if anyone wanted it.

I'm on Tumblr, but I have remarkable consistency of identity on the Internets.

Me, too.

After reading Tom's link, I think I may be renting forever.

Even if we weren't living in SF, I'm pretty firmly committed to renting my abode for the rest of my life. (Which isn't to say I might not end up owning property.)

Don't you know knob and tube wiring is a SCOURGE that cannot be known until you open walls and have to change your whole plan?? Generally because some sketchy contractor or former homeowner did a half-assed update job?

A house down the street from us had wiring that was half knob and tube. The new owner routinely badmouthed the previous owners.

Renting would make more sense for me financially, but I so hated living somewhere that belonged to someone else I really don't want to again. Also hated sharing walls with my neighbors. I may end up living in a tent at some point to meet both my financial and emotional requirements.