23 years ago, I was 36, living with Danny in a spacious two-bedroom on the third floor of a well-maintained elevator building in Studio City overlooking the Los Angeles River and paying $950 a month.
I worked in documentary television and hopped from $1200 a week jobs easily and without fear of unemployment.
I had some savings and we began to look for houses to buy, with a budget in the range of $150,000-$225,000.
We found a 900 square foot ranch house on La Maida near Tujunga and Riverside in Valley Village. It was very small and outrageously overpriced at $299,000. We liked the location but decided against it.
Then we saw a fixer upper on Atoll Avenue, near Oxnard and Fulton, just north of Valley College. They were asking $164,000, but the house had no kitchen. None whatsoever. Our realtor, Marty Azoulay, said he talked to the owners and they would throw in a stove and refrigerator if we agreed to the deal.
We nearly went for the Atoll Avenue house, but after several nerve-racking days we backed out.
We sometimes shopped at 99 Ranch Market on Sepulveda, and one day we found 6436 Blucher Avenue, the last street before the 405 freeway, on a block between Victory and Haynes.
It was 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and 1,846 square feet. We toured the property and took photos. There were steel windows and window air-conditioners, old carpeting, old bathrooms with corroded porcelain, steel awnings that overlooked a front yard with a decapitated tree and the consistent noise of the freeway, only a few hundred feet away.
“Caltrans is building a sound wall. Should be completed by 2002,” Marty assured us.
Next door, a new bachelor owner had just bought the exact same type of house and he had fixed it up nicely, with freshly painted light blue and light green walls.
But 6436 was in very poor condition. Everything would need upgrading or replacing: bathrooms, kitchen, roof, electrical and plumbing.
We spoke to our realtor and told him to offer $15,000 less than asking.
He contacted the seller and he came back with her answer.
The house would sell “as is” and she would not budge.
She stood firm at $180,000.
So, we walked away, and ended up buying another house a few blocks away for $194,000.
Here in Van Nuys 
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