Mortgage Monday: The Work Never Ends!

Or Both!

 While it has always been a constant project on our list of things to do, now that we own our own home, cleaning is something that I try to put greater emphasis on. And with so much more room than we have previously had in rentals, there is a lot of cleaning to do. It is a never ending list of things that need to be scrubbed, swept, washed, or rinsed. And that is just the things on the inside of the house.

Now that we have some property (and no management company), there is a lot of yard work that has yet to be done. While I should have taken care of many of these things immediately after settlement, it was a project that was quickly put on the back burner once the temperature got colder and the snow began to fall. After all, nothing like a fresh blanket of white to hide all the leaves still covering most of the planting beds.

We have been pretty good about keeping the interior of the house in relative order (organization is still lacking) but, now that the weather has turned warmer once again, all of the things that we have been putting off in the yard have to be addressed and, at this point, we are ill prepared to tackle the task. The first step is going to be buying a tractor and a better rake or leaf blower. After that it is all about setting aside the time to get things done.

However, the more I think about many of these things, the more I find myself considering hiring a cleaning and/or yard service company to take care of all these tasks. While it would undoubtedly add an additional line item on our budget, it may be worth the money so that we can spend more time with our son. After all, our schedules are still quite a bit hectic and blocking off another brick of time would be less than ideal. Definitely something to consider.

While the extra time and effort has been inconvenient at times, it is still well worth it as we are taking care of a place that we own rather than someone else’s property. It is important to remember that there are great things about being a homeowner and they definitely outweigh, by a large margin, the inconveniences, but it is not a utopian dream. There is work that comes with home ownership and also a sense of pride in caring for your property. Sometimes, though, you just have to figure out the best way to balance everything and we are definitely still working on that aspect.

Mortgage Monday: Scanning The Market

Every once in a while I go on some of the real estate websites to see if there is anything new on the market in our area and how much people are asking for those properties. In one regard this is simply a habit that started a few years ago when we were still in the process of finding our first house. Now it is more of just trying to see what the market is doing around us now that we have found that place to call home. In some ways what I am seeing is kind of surprising but at the same time it is an expected trend that I started to see develop during those initial months of searching years ago.

When we first saw our home come on the market we knew that we had a tremendous opportunity right in front of us and we moved fast. It was meant to be as earlier in the week a deal that we had on another property fell through. Since the day we signed the last of the mountain of papers and accrued a new mountain of debt, I have watched the market slowly rise and the inventory evaporate. While much of this can be attributed to the season, it isn’t the whole story as this particular market did not react the same way in previous years.

Now there is nothing on the market and prices continue to climb even faster than I had expected based on the market evaluation just prior to settlement. Heck, in a matter of months it may get to the point where we would have been priced out of the market had we not found our home when we did. It has been a great feeling seeing the hard numbers both for the obvious financial security but also because it shows that we were right in selecting the growing community in which we now live.   

And that second half of the equation is the most important part for me as we are not in this for the financial gain… we purchased our home for the permanence and potential of never having to move again. This is now our home and our community and we were lucky to have found this property when we did because I don’t know where we would have ended up had we waited for another year. As I watch the market continue to develop and rise, I doubt that we would have been able to find the space, the land, or the price that we did when we found this house.

Mortgage Monday: House Files

When we first made an offer on the house one of the contingencies that we put in the contract was to have all the files related to the property. Given the simple fact that the people from which we were buying the property are the ones that built it (the former owner was actually the contractor for the house) and I had seen him produce the paperwork during the inspection process, I knew that the files would be thorough and we would be able to really know all the details about the land and the structure.

While inclusion of this paperwork is usually assumed during a sale I didn’t want this seemingly small item overlooked so we included it anyway. Of course, now a couple of months have passed and while I know where everything is, I am still trying to properly organize everything into my filing cabinets… because I didn’t have enough files already. This seems to be an ongoing project and even with the headway that I have made during the sporadic bouts of organizing, there is obviously still a lot of work to do and the number of items that need to be filed just keeps getting bigger.

I guess the sheer number of files that I have is all about wanting to have as much information available to me as possible. There are a number of things that most people would consider trash or would simply digitize and destroy the physical copy. However, more often than not, I have utilized the amassed hoard of information that I have on hand to find different items or figure out dates on short notice. Additionally, I have gone through enough computers and digital storage devices to know that just because something is digitized doesn’t mean that it can’t be lost or destroyed. For me, having both available is the best option.

And that presents another issue. Well, in reality, it is simply a project that has to be completed. All of the files that we now have about the property need to be scanned and sorted for easy reference. We obviously have the physical papers on hand but, as stated above and what will be written about again in the near future, it is prudent to have both the physical and digital copies stored and easily retrievable. More so than some of the other documents I have crammed into my drawers, we really can’t afford to lose these. After all, it is not just a house as it was when we made an offer, this is our home.

TMI Tuesday: New School

This seems about right... just give him time.

On the day of our settlement last month we also scheduled a few other appointments because it was going to be one of the few days when both my wife and I were free to take care of things. This is why, before we headed over to the house for the walk through, we had an appointment about five minutes down the road to take a tour of a new daycare. We had a number of issues with the Kindercare where we sent our son and it was time for a change.

Walking through the school it was a completely different experience than what we had been putting up with over the last few months. Even the friendliness with which we were greeted was a welcomed change. By the time our tour was over and having reviewed the curriculum and talking with the teachers, we knew this was a change that was going to have to happen as soon as possible. With little time left in the morning we wrote a check (for substantially less than what we were paying) and took the application with us.

Yesterday, my wife dropped our son off at his new school. By the time I got home from the office I could tell that things had improved tremendously over the previous place. Gone are the days of only sleeping 20 minutes, not being told what was going on during the day, and being challenged with every request that we made. We could tell that he was happier and, having slept for about an hour in both the morning and afternoon, well rested. They gave him his space to fall asleep and they listened to the couple of requests that we had when we started. A completely different experience for us all.

This morning further demonstrated the vast improvement in where our son was spending his day as we looked forward to finishing breakfast, getting in the car, and going to school. Well, at least after he pooped he was looking forward to it. And my wife and I were looking forward to seeing him again at the end of the day knowing that a meltdown wasn’t lingering just below the surface. However, one thing did stay the same between the last daycare and this one… he has quickly become the most popular child in the building will all the teachers knowing his name and constantly feeding his baby ego by telling him how adorable he is. Actually, I have to correct all those people, he isn’t adorable, he’s frickin’ adorable!

Moving Quotes And Changing Plans

For the past week I have been busy not only prepping for settlement day (which has been pretty smooth thanks to those at the bank and our realtor) but also preparing for moving day which has been a little move involved. Having received quotes from about a half dozen companies in the area, it is amazing to see the difference in how the prices are calculated. While not as expensive as I had originally expected, it is still not a cheap proposition especially when you ask them how much it would cost to have the company pack up your belongings as well.

The range of prices that I received was rather staggering starting at the low end at $700 all the way up to a ten times multiple of that initial figure. Surprisingly the economic company that we used for our last transition, Two Men and a Truck, was the most expensive (by a wide margin) because of the fact that we are moving just outside of their ‘service area’. In the end, we didn’t go with the least expensive but rather the company that seemed the most inclusive, had the appointment available for tomorrow, and was reasonably priced (still on the much lower end of the range).

However, nothing ever goes as smoothly as it should and that was definitely proven about a week and a half ago when I got a call in the early evening which changed our plans. Who called? The realtor representing our current landlord… he wanted to start showing the townhouse in a couple of days. Keep in mind that we gave notice with our September rent check so he could have coordinated this whole process months ago.

Having not packed much of anything at that point I quickly rejected his proposal pushing the earliest possible day to this past Sunday also adding the reminder that we have a 9 month old and he will have to be flexible in scheduling appointments. What realtor in their right mind calls a tenant and asks to begin showing the apartment in a couple of days?

So, since then I have been packing the house deep into the night and making friends with the sales people at Staples, Home Depot, and Lowes. With an evening to go there are only a few more boxes left that need to be packed, the bathrooms and kitchen have been cleaned, and we are, for the most part, ready to move on down the road in the morning. One more night with the preamble coming to an end and the real story beginning tomorrow.

TMI Tuesday: Baby Gets A Bigger Room

The long day began with our usual morning routine which quickly changed once we got in our cars and met up at our son’s daycare. Today we both wanted to be there when we dropped him off as things were going to be quite different when we picked him up. It was a great feeling telling him “You have fun at school, mommy and daddy are going to go get you a bigger room!” From that daycare we drove to another… we haven’t been very happy with where our son has been spending his days.

Our appointment began as the last of the children were dripped off by their parents and as soon as we had a moment to sit a look around, we knew that this was a completely different place than where our son was currently spending his time. By the end of the tour there wasn’t a question in our mind as to whether we wanted to change his daycare it was all a matter of when would he be able to start. While we were going to make the switch anyway the fact that it was a $100 per week cheaper made that decision a lot easier.

From there we drove up the road a few miles where we met with a brother from the lodge and his wife. It was a relatively quick meeting as we were all running quite a bit behind schedule and before we knew it we were up against the clock to get to our next appointment. We arrived slightly passed the time we had hoped to arrive but things seemed to work out as our room wasn’t quite ready. This gave us an opportunity to talk with all those who greeted us at the front door. At this point part of me was eager to get things moving while another part as nervous about the changes which were about to occur.

The delays seemed longer in the moment than they do in hindsight. I guess it was all the excitement and anticipation of the day. Looking back it seems like mere moments between the first handshakes to the final signature to the disbursement of checks. While all the leg work and preparations may have been time consuming, it was all worth the effort when we were handed the keys to our new home and our son’s bigger bedroom. Now we can finally call ourselves homeowners and now we have a place where we can see ourselves raising our family for many years to come. It is a great new feeling to have especially when you go to pick up your son and tell him that we found a place where he will grow up.

From Home To House

Today I couldn’t help but think about my grandmom’s old house in Ocean City, New Jersey. I remember visiting her multiple times every summer and, on occasion, staying in the extra bedroom. When time came to sell the house, I remember not wanting to even drive by there anymore. It wasn’t the same without her there. It was nothing more than a simple structure. The memories are what made a special place.

While today was a completely different situation altogether, I couldn’t keep that memory from coming to the surface. I also couldn’t help but think about the many times my wife and I would drive up the hill to her mother’s house and begin walking down the path waiting for the dogs to start barking. It is interesting the memories that are the most vivid. Of course there are others but some memories need to be kept inside for a while before sharing them as stories.  

This was just my thought process. Throughout my work day I kept thinking about my wife and all that she has had to deal with over these last several months. I can’t imagine what was going through my wife’s mind today. It is one of those times when saying “I know how it feels” or “I know what you are going through” would be wildly inappropriate. I have no idea what this has been like and I have no inkling of what memories have been brought to the surface today.

The only think that I know is that a place that was once part of our normal weekly routine has become a memory. What made that place special lives on in our minds but, for me, the place itself is now just a house. Maybe this seems cold to some but it is how I deal with it. It is a process that works for me regardless of how imperfect it may be. It is also one that I can’t expect will work for others. This is why I will not drive by the house just for the heck of it.

With that said, I look at that house in my mind and wish that our son was able to experience the same happiness that once filled the vast space within those walls. However, those memories will certainly live on in the stories that we will be telling our son throughout his life. But, for now, those memories will remain in my mind as we continue through this whole process. Besides, I’m not the right person to be telling him those stories anyway.