real estate

I keep having neighbours in the surrounding buildings stop by when I am out in the garden asking me if I own my apartment and expressing the wish that I’ll keep renting for a long time because I’m making the garden so pretty (compared to how it looked before) and keeping it tidy and they enjoy watching the veggies and flowers coming along. I always say, well just renting but I wish I owned it! And that I do.

So, while waiting for the kitty litter delivery I got on and searched about to see what is available to buy and if anything available might remotely be in my price range. I did this last year and the answer was a very clear ‘no way in hell.’ Dude, more than a dozen popped up for under $150,000! Some of them are even quite large (like 70 and 80 sqm –764-860 square feet). They are all in places like Netanya, Haifa and Ashkelon but, hey, I could live in those cities, especially Netanya as that is not too far away and the commute to work would take just about the same amount of time as now.

The thing about owning your own place is that a) the rent never goes up, b) your landlord can’t kick you out, and c) most importantly, you can fix it the way you want. If I owned this apartment, for instance, I’d have kitty-proof grating put across the big floor to ceiling windows across the whole front of the apartment. That would allow me to open those windows and be a hell of a lot cooler in the summer and also give the kitties something interesting to look out at and feel like they are ‘outside’ while still safely being inside. I’d change the doors so that I could have a room minus any cats. I’d put glass in all the windows that don’t have any so I wouldn’t freeze in the winter. I’d build in, as a diy, awesome permanent cat climbing structures to give the cats places to play, perch, hide and be out of my hair. I already know exactly what I’d build for them. I’d be able to hang my pictures.