We've been looking for about 6 months. It's been a funny journey, we must have gone inside about 25-30 houses.

We started out in South Buffalo looking at single family homes. I grew up in South Buffalo, so I know the neighborhood is safe, the houses have character, and the people are friendly. I also know the housing prices are reasonable. But when we started looking we realized the prices were higher than I expected. We were looking for a good deal but nothing really got us excited.

Then we had this investment property brainstorm, we wanted to get a double in the Elmwood area, make money off rent, and get something more expensive. So we started looking at doubles around the West Side, and discovered the meaning of "structural problems" and "property taxes". We started going further and further west to try and find something under $100,000 that wasn't falling down. No luck, but we did bump into a friend of mine who had gotten a decent West Side house at the Buffalo tax auction for about $30,000. Sounded like a good plan, but we had to wait a month and a half before the auction. We liked some of the addresses on the auction list, but we couldn't get inside the houses without without breaking the law. One house on Cottage I went to inspect, took about 40 pictures, and the next week it was off the list, I guess the owner paid his taxes.

We slowly got tired of the auction idea, and the high prices on the West Side, so we started looking in South Buffalo again, with a more open mind this time. At first we were looking near Caz Park which is a great neighborhood, but houses up there are around $65 - $75,000, we wanted to see if we could get anything cheaper, and possibly avoid the mortgage thing entirely. We looked at all the houses between $30-$40,000, some were ok, but all of them needed updating. We aren't afraid to get our hands dirty, but we didn't want something that needed updates before we could move in. Then we looked at houses between $40-$55,000....... That's when we found it.

It's in South Buffalo Near Tifft and South Park, All Natural Woodwork that has never been painted, 4 bedroom, full attic and basement, Nice Yard 36' x 140' lot, driveway, garage, 2 fireplaces, 1.5 bathrooms, leaded glass, pocket doors that slide easily, front porch, good Roof, efficient Furnace, and Water heater, dry basement, well insulated. This place is a steal, we got it for $46,000.

We like the location a lot too, The house is on Altruria St. which is a very well kept street, all single family homes, mostly owner occupied, lots of gardens and pride of ownership. Plus you're in the center of everything, the Botanical Gardens, the Beach, Tifft Nature Preserve, Caz Park, the Buffalo River, all of it is within a 20min walk. We like canoeing, and parks, that's what we spend our summers doing, so this will be great for us, though we will miss the restaurants around Elmwood. But we think it's a good trade off.






Living Room & Fireplace


Upstairs Bedroom, Fireplace #2



Dining Room, with a Window Seat! I love that stuff.


Good sized kitchen, the style is a little funky, but we can fix that over time.


Upstairs, I really like how it's not a hallway, it's a square space with doors all around you leading to 4 bedrooms the bathroom and the attic. I like the cabinet thing too.


Big open attic, the floor is insulated too, keeps the place pretty warm.


The Front Porch, this is currently enclosed but the original stuff is all there and it won't be hard to pop out the windows next summer.


Driveway, fenced in yard, the exterior needs some paint, but it has the original wood shingles and stuff which I like.


Yard and Garage, Partly shaded yard, but we can still grow a lot of veggies, the garage needs a little help but no big problems.


From the back, you can see there is a little landing off of an upstairs bedroom, not much now, but we can make it interesting. There are also those funky bilko doors that lead straight to the basement. Good for storing the canoe.

Joe the Plumber jumped into the limelight because he provided a great talking point for the Republicans. "Obama wants to Share the Wealth". Which means, when you think of Obama, think of lazy people getting a free ride, Welfare, Communism, and big government.

Here's the problem. Conservatives love to share the wealth, they'll take as big of a share as they can get from us taxpayers. They want us to buy their bad debt, they want no bid contracts, they want subsidies for their oil companies.

We can share our wealth with the rich. But when it's time to build the economy from the bottom up, that's "punishing success" The middle class can go ahead and bail them out repeatedly, but don't expect anything in return.

Conservatives may tell you that Big Government, and big spending is the ultimate evil. But that doesn't stop them from advocating handouts for the rich. Watch them line up for a handout, while they call us socialist for wanting some healthcare.

McCain was vague on specifics last night. He insisted that he alone could fix our problems but he didn't tell us how. He tried to seem like he understood the trials of average Americans, but he seemed out of touch. He doesn't realize that when you have 7 houses and 14 cars you need to prove that you can identify the bottom 95% of America and the problems we face every day.

McCain has an empathy deficit when it comes to the middle class. Democrats give examples of the human cost, Factory workers losing their jobs, people who've gotten screwed by health insurance companies. When Democrats talk about people they've met, you can sense the empathy in their voice, you can feel that they care about the problems our families face. McCain talks about the worries we deal with around the kitchen table and it sounds like "all that stuff, of course we have to address it" But he doesn't give us specific plans that inspire confidence.

Obama was clear, specific, and direct. It was easy to follow his logic. He gave us details. He made it clear that his priority is the Middle Class. When average people do well, the entire country does well. We need to invest in Infrastructure and green technology to create jobs. We need to lower the cost of healthcare, gasoline, energy, and home heating to help people save money. We need to make education more affordable, and we need to make sure our retirement is safe. In order to attain these goals we will need to make sacrifices, we'll have to work together, and take responsibility for the health of our country.

McCain basically has no platform. The current economic problems have turned the usual Republican dogma into crap. We've tried their way, fixing the economy with tax cuts and deregulation, and we ended up in a depression. The "trickle down" economic world view has no credibility. We need a government that makes it easier for the middle class to pay their bills, we need specific plans, targeted at average Americans.

Americans are worried, and they have no confidence in the free market to save them. People saw the government spend a trillion dollars on Wall Street, now average people want to know when they are going to catch a break, when is the government going to invest more in its people, what is the plan, is it going to work? It's time for a new New Deal, that focuses on the majority of Americans, not just the rich elite.

Watching the VP debate, I thought Palin was hanging on for dear life. And Biden was excellent. Biden was clear and direct, I think he got through to people. I hope he gets some more media attention after this.

Sarah Palin... She didn't fall down, pass out, or puke, good for her. But her responses were absolutely awful!! After about an hour I couldn't stand her anymore. Message to Sarah, if you can't answer the question please stop talking!!!!! The longest rambling responses came when she avoided questions. I could not resist smothering my head with a pillow and leaving the room during her 3 minute nonsensical answers. Finally we couldn't help muting her 3-4 times. I was screaming at Gwen Eiffel to make her stop. We liked Sarah more with the sound off.

Biden on the other hand got about 10 hell-yea's from us. Creating jobs by investing in Infrastructure and greener technologies that we can export! Healthcare at the top of the list. Sincere diplomacy to restore our standing in the world, and achieve peace. 3 weeks in Iraq = the entire Afghanistan budget so far. Epic failures of letting the market "run wild" Restoring the Middle Class!

Biden gets an A+ he could even teach Obama some things about being more direct and unequivocal in his responses. Palin gets a D-, what American was comforted by her responses?