Well, since it's not going to happen, now I can talk more about it. This weekend me and about 14 of my friends took off to Sacramento to take a look at a fabulous house in Sacramento.

With 13 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, a palatial first floor with living room, dining room, parlor, library, den, commercial kitchen, and a sprung floor ballroom in the basement, this manor, built in 1913, is truly amazing. At $850,000 it's enough to make even people happy with their lives perk up their ears and take a stab at finding a way to make it work.

Well, long story short, we took a look and were really impressed. Sighs were released around every turn, wistful as you can imagine. Sadly, the scenarios under which we could actually make it happen and make it profitable, or at least self-sufficient, were just out of reach. Making it into a B&B would cost too much in startup costs. Many 'quaint' rooms would have to be worked on to make them 'beautiful.' Also some reowrking of the walls would have to be done to make single rooms out of what are currently 'suites of apartments'. The ballroom, which we all wanted to be beautiful, had been converted into a carpeted rec area, though the floor was still there under the carpet and fabulous. Also, while okay for many rooms, a 7.5" ceiling is decidedly claustrophobic for grand ballroom dancing.

Still the experience was a great one, and we're all so glad we went, despite schlepping through pouring rain to and from Sacramento. It was interesting to explore new ideas and possibilities, if not for now, perhaps for another time. At the very least, we had a nice field trip and got to see one of the most amazing structures in Sacramento.