Are We Moving to California?

Do we like the Bay Area? I think we do, or could at least learn to love it.

Have we harbored a dream, an awesome dream, of creating The Compound? A home for Gheorghies and those who love us? We have, friends. 

Can we scrape together $4m for a place that's already built and optimized for multi-family living? Shit, there are banks we could rob if nothing else.

With all of those questions answered in the affirmative, I think it's time to make a move.

I give you Radish.

20 adults and eight kids currently live in seven units across four buildings in the 14,000 square-foot compound in Oakland. The collective are selling the property after eight years and moving to new digs that better fit their growing families. Phil Levin and his wife Kristen Berman started Radish in 2018, and brought in their friends over time.

Though initially curious about how this sort of communal living would work, Levin says, “It turns out that our friends were not weird,” Levin said. “This is sort of the universal desire, and it wasn't being expressed because it wasn’t on the menu for people.”

Our friends might be weird, to be honest. But the desire is definitely there. Deadline for offers on the property is July 10. Anyone know a lawyer?

Compound Update

It is received wisdom in these parts that we will all one day live in the same house/compound and make merry. We continue to be on the lookout for the appropriate venue (and the necessary funds). Details.

We've got a new contender this morning, and it's both spacious and imbued with a great deal of Gheorghe.

You may recall that I tucked a small story about visiting the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, CA in a Gheorghasbord post in October 2017. It remains one of my favorite museums. Sparky was a righteous fella.

And now, if we can come up with $3.25m, we can own the house he and his first wife Joyce Halverson built and lived in from 1960 to 1972. 2162 Coffee Lane in Sebastopol, CA sits on 9.15 acres in the country, midway between Santa Rosa and the Pacific Coast. The 6,805 square-foot house has six bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms, in addition to a guest house. It's got a pool and a pond. Pond would be good for us. It's a peach of a mid-century modern. 

Lemme know if y'all want to make an appointment to visit. I'm pretty busy next week, but I'll make time.

GheorgheStarter

If you've paid close attention here over the past ten years or so, or if you've ever listened to me and Whitney yammer on over a few drinks, you're aware that one of our mutual life goals is to stumble upon a stupid amount of money and buy a compound for our homies and their loved ones. We'd while away our time in pursuit of pointless yet life-affirming joys.

Gheorghe: The Compound

At various times, we've decided we'd locate the compound on Cape Cod, or in Williamsburg, or on the Outer Banks. We're not generally picky, though it does seem that we've got a bit of an East Coast bias.

We were wrong, as it turns out. Our search is over. For the location of the compound, anyway. The money part is still a bit elusive. And that's where you come in.

On May 12, Cal Ripken's Reisterstown, MD estate goes up for auction, to be sold to the highest bidder. The kicker, in the sense that it matters to us, is that there's no reserve. Says so in big bold letters on the auction house's website.

The 25-acre property features a 21,900 square foot home with six bedrooms, 10 full baths, and five half-baths, a media room, an eight-car garage, and a pool with poolhouse. Way more importantly to this audience, it also features Cal's legendary 7,000 square foot gym, with a full basketball court, batting cages, enough fitness equipment to keep us all in fine fettle, and a 300-gallon steel tub from Baltimore's old Memorial Stadium for post-workout soaks. There's also a regulation baseball field, hydroponic heating (don't know what that is), and scenic pond.



Cal originally listed the place for $12.5 million, then dropped it to $9.7m before pulling it off the market. My sources tell me the winning bid will come in somewhere around $6 million large.

I submit to you that such a figure is in our wheelhouse, my friends, especially if we can figure out how to generate some income from the compound. Start hammering out the business plan. I'll make an appointment with the broker, but we're gonna need to figure out which of us looks the most like he/she might be worth enough money to seem legit when we go on the property tour.

And start pulling together your loose change. Our dream has never been closer to reality.