29 March 2007 - 6:14 pm

Well, in my continuing search for the perfect house to purchase, I have stumbled upon a new area of town to look.

Maps and realtors are no help as to what the neighborhood is called, but it is right where the 10 and the 110 freeways intersect, I guess a little south and west of Downtown LA. It's very near USC, and mixed industrial and residential. I like it!

The house I originally went to go see sits next to a mortuary, and across from an elementary school. I could see the 110 freeway from the sidewalk, a mere block and a bit away, and its wooshing sound of cars was pleasant whitenoise, far enough away to be mistaken as surf.

I liked the house, but it sits exactly on its plot, with only room for two trees at the edges, and a driveway, not even a garage. The lot obviously used to extend to the street on the other side, the multiplex building painted the exact same loud colors. If only the lot hadn't been subdivided, if only there were some actually dirt to dig in. It had maybe a three by four foot plot to the left of the front door steps. That was it for potential garden. There was plenty of on-street parking, so potentially the driveway could be ripped out, and garden planted there. It was listed alternately as 5 bedroom, 1 bath, or 5 bedroom 1 1/2 bath, or even, 5 bedroom, 2 bath. I would think that very important to establish.

Since it sits right next to the parking lot of the mortuary, perhaps it would be possible to get it zoned as a business. A coffee house. A Portland style brewpub, just a house converted and license to serve alcohol, while sitting in the living and dining room areas on comfy chairs. Or a bed and breakfast. Out of town relative has died? Come stay at a B&B conveniently close to where the services will be held. Though that extra bathroom would be especially important for any business endeavor.

I noticed the street I had come down had a regular stream of buses flowing, and so a business would even be convenient and close for those without cars. I could see some of the buildings in downtown from where I stood. That close.

And then I drove around, and found an even more spectacular house for sale.

Since the realtor of the first house hasn't bothered to return my phone calls, and the second one did, I even went and saw the place.

It has been divided into four units, three upstairs, and the main floor untouched but with two bathrooms for some reason. Only one actual bedroom that I could find on the main floor, though lots of rooms. There were two living rooms, each with a fireplace, a dining room with built in cupboards, and a cheaply updated kitchen. There were two parallel hallways down the middle of the house, both upstairs and down, and external staircases on the outside of the house, the front one enclosed by a porch, and obviously not original because it blocked a magnificent matching window to the other side of the house. So I started thinking the two hallways, one may actually have been the staircase, since it seemed a bit oddly wide. And the second bathroom in the downstairs, cheaply updated also, may have been a pantry once, or something. Of the five bathrooms, three seemed to have been updated in the 1940s or 50s, the same tile work and contrasting colors as my own apartment in West Los Angeles, while two more seem to have been updated on the cheap in the 1980s or so, with large, brownish tiles making up the bath and floor. Presumably all the bathrooms and kitchens work, as hideous and not in keeping with the original house, but it seemed a promising house also, with a small front fenced yard, and a back yard paved to get to an ancient garage that looked like it could only house one car, and then had an additional room attached to it. I would be interested in ripping out all the concrete of the back, rebuild the garage to have two car spots, and then a studio up top. It would give a lot more of the ground back up, and an office to retire. I find what little working at home I have done, I get very easily distracted by my house, and would still need a place to go.

This house is gorgeous and massive, and already being subdivided into four units seems like an ideal way to start. There is income to begin with, generated by tenants, as I begin re-working and designing the place as I really would like it. Potentially, making it an impressive single family residence again, with perhaps a paying tenant in the back, above the garage.

Also in my hunting, I discovered this wonderful website operated by the zoning people of the city. I was able to find the age of the houses, and come closer to what the neighborhood is called. South Los Angeles, seems to be its designation. And it's in an Historic Preservation Overlay Zone.

The realtor at the second house, the one with living rooms galore, told me the house was presently in escrow, but was about to fall out. If I wanted to make a solid offer, he was sure the owner would consider it.

The only thing the Assessor's office and the Zoning website didn't tell me, was who the owners were or how much an older owner had paid. I just couldn't tell if the prices being asked for were reasonable in this falling market or not. I know I would pay these prices, because I want to see these houses preserved, but I can't buy the entire city's stock of stately mansions. But with a house already subdivided into four units, I may be able to convince some others to buy it with me, and make it an investment for all of us.

Ah, it is Spring, and I have the bug to move again, after years of staying put.