Word: condo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Under a sullen sky, Donna Blair, 54, dabbed tears and watched her $6.8 million vacation condo slip into the sea. Not that she was upset. "It's amazing," she said, a glass of champagne in her hand. "It's different from any of the other homes we own, that's for sure!" Donna and husband Jim, 56, had come from San Jose, Calif., to Landskrona, Sweden, to watch The World of ResidenSea, the world's first luxury condominium cruise ship, sail for Norway, where it would be painted and outfitted with a shipbuilder's equivalent of a Barguzin sable coat...
...clothes to and fro was a pain. And Esther began to long for more privacy. So when the couple decided to shift from separation to divorce after 19 months, Esther bought a condominium. She and Perry continue to share custody, but now the children must commute between her condo and their old home, where Perry is living until he can find a smaller place. Elisheva finds the constant shuttle a nuisance. "I have two boxes with CDs, books, makeup and clothes that I take back and forth," she complains. "I have five phone numbers--my line and a house line...
...would be cheaper if we were hooked on cocaine than on these buses," admits Ron Pallin, 53, of Eugene, Ore. Unlike a condo in Tampa, Fla., or La Jolla, Calif., say, a bus depreciates quickly, beginning with the first turn of the wheels. It loses about 15% of its value the first year on the road and an additional 10% every year following. A set of tires costs $5,000, and a wash-and-wax job runs about $360. On average a bus travels about seven miles on a gallon of diesel fuel. To paraphrase J.P. Morgan on the subject...
...owners who have paid up to $200,000 for a 75-ft.-long, 35-ft.-wide lot. (Transients can rent an unoccupied lot for $50 a night.) There is not much privacy, but that's O.K. because bus people tend to be outdoor extroverts. "The difference between us and condo people," says Pallin, "is that at 5 o'clock, condo owners go inside, and we come out for cocktails...
Barring such misadventures, Tan hopes to get some writing done on the road, but she will miss her space in the Presidio Heights condo, where she can work with the shades pulled down from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. without interruption. Except, she admits, those she inflicts on herself: "I have a terrible addiction that has destroyed a lot of my writing time. It's called eBay. I buy everything on eBay. I buy wineglasses. I don't want to worry about breaking crystal wineglasses, so I buy them off eBay for a dollar. When they break, who cares...