Crossing Over the Fabulous Five

April 8, 2006 marked a milestone moment for Robert and me -- our fifth year wedding anniversary. We celebrated the way any typical, semi-young married couple would: househunting in the industrial blight of downtown LA. It felt so "underground" at the time: Whitney, my boss, had gotten us on an exclusive Friends and Family pre-sale list for the Biscuit Company Lofts, a chic renovation of the 1920s Nabisco Biscuit factory, where the nation's supply of Fig Newtons were once made. We had waited two months for the big sale event, and got the call two days prior that tours would finally begin on the 8th. On our anniversary, we thought. Was this coincidence or was it destiny? Robert and I got engaged atop the Great Wall on April 8. We married three years later on April 8. Were we now going to buy our first home on April 8? Would this mean we'd give birth to our future child on April 8? Ok, we started to get a little ahead of ourselves...

Robert and I had separately dreamed about one day owning an urban loft. It was the only reason why I liked watching the movie "Ghost" (if you remember the first 10 minutes of the movie, then you know what I mean). Now, 16 years later, it seemed like it was actually happening.

It was an exciting day. We were greeted by balmy, sunny weather, crisp white clouds in an unusually blue sky. Lines of people waited outside for the office to open. These were gorgeous people, the type of people you used to see in the "I Like the Sprite in You" commercials with the perfectly sculpted mini-dreads, brooding artist eyes and sculpted jawlines. These were our people, the "yes we do yoga but don't make a big deal out of it" crowd: polite, friendly, slightly funky dress but not too funky, with seemingly blue-state values and adorable dogs. We sat in a waiting area together drueling over glossy floorplans and renderings. Styling caterers decked in black blouses and slacks passed trays of mushroom artichoke quiches, and the best homemade meatballs you ever tasted. There was wine, spirits and Perrier. We met a bubbly couple named David and Eric, downtown artists who were like us, were eyeing the least expensive, double height units on the third floor. We laughed and talked as if we'd grown up together, and I got excited when we placed reservations on units just down the hall from one another. Everyone we met was uncommonly nice and interesting. Soon Robert and I took out the checkbook and signed our reservation form and commited ourselves to being a part of revitalizing the downtown LA that has never been but now could be.

We visited Rob's friends Nick and Yi-Hsiu at the Toy Factory lofts and again, got adrenalin shocks at the excitement of having more cool neighbors. But still, it was a 630 square foot, high-end box of air. Air that costs (gulp) $650/sf. Were we insane? Did we buy ourselves some magic beans? Or did we just have beans? The rest of the day was spent celebrating and stressing, we were manic. Exhilarated and exhausted.

So while we waited the obligatory three weeks for financing to begin, we simultaneously checked out all our other options. We looked at duplexes with Janice as a potential investor, and Robert found two more sets of backup friends to buy and live with us. In the end decided to postpone the househunt until I graduate so that we'll have more money and options. I'm relieved, because all the five million scenarios we were experimenting with took up more time than I'd like.

The hard hat tour of our unit last weekend sealed the fate of our loft. The ceilings were too short to really get that second floor the way we'd want it. The HOA fees were so sky-high they make the current gas prices look cheap. But for posterity we took photos of our first home that never was. Maybe next April 8 will bring us better luck.