On homeownership

We own a home now.

I'm not really sure what I expected to be different.  We've never really felt held back by renting, but there is something quite different about being in your place.  For starters- it is WAY nicer than any place we've ever rented.  And of course ownership means we can do whatever we want with it.  If it weren't for the fact that it is a lot of work, I might have repainted all the rooms just because they are mine. 

And there are some adjustments to make too.  We have hardwood floors in the kitchen (I know, right?) and it turns out, that unlike linoleum, you can scratch that. I discovered this by dragging heavy boxes on the floor. Nice.

We've gotten quite used to living in homes with... character.  And usually you just learn to cope with or work around the fact that the space heater upstairs and the microwave can't run at the same time, or you trip the beaker that has all that PLUS the alarm clocks PLUS the computers.  No big, just run back upstairs before you microwave anything.  But in our house, we don't have to work around that stuff.  It can be fixed.  The first day in the new house Matt tripped a GFCI outlet (the kind with the "Test/ Reset" buttons) running the bathroom fan.  He quickly figured out this was a problem with the outlet, and we went to the hardware store, bought a new one and replaced it.  Boom.

And the first time we ran the shower the tub filled up.  Matt ran to the hardware store (McLendon's is clearly going to be our new weekend hang out spot for a while) and picked up a drain snake.  We are fearless about fixing.  However, he had a really hard time getting the snake into the drain.  Weirdly hard.  Until he realized that the drain wasn't clogged, it was shut.  That's right, a bathtub with a drain  plug that actually works. I thought it was a myth.

Although it feels like we might never be done unpacking, Matt put up our boxes and packing materials on Craigslist tonight.  I'm looking forward to getting all that cardboard out of our living room, it will feel much more like we've accomplished something.

The move itself went fine.  Mom and Dad brought an extra truck so we could haul huge quantities of things quite quickly- we moved in about 5 hours (with one pizza break).  Mom and Dad also helped us get so on top of our packing that we went back Sunday to finish cleaning, not finishing moving like I'd expected.  And Jeffery's whole family turned up to help, and Shaoshu even went back for another truck load of garage related detritus that would have take a year to pack out in our cars.  Hooray for help!

It is exhausting, and a little stressful to have all my things in boxes (and wonder why I have so many boxes).  But we are trying to take our time settling in, get it right this time.  I don't know if we'll be in this house forever, but we will probably be here a while.  No reason to put up with our usual poor organization.

I'm a Homeowner

Quick update:  everything went through as planned.  We got keys to the house yesterday at 4. We still like the place.

Had dinner there (pizza), rented a rug cleaner, and are generally getting ready for the big event Saturday.  Wish us luck!

Progress on Buying a House

This week we finalize that little "homebuying project" I mentioned before.  It's kinda crazy.  It's kinda driving me crazy.  Everything is going fine, although I still flinch to see an email from my real estate agent or mortgage broker.  We are scheduled to sign tomorrow, with closing officially occurring Thursday. 

We are half way packed, which means I haven't lost anything too important yet, but the cat is loving the constant change in scenery.  And by "loving" I mean walking in our house has become a scene of guerrilla war-fare at ankle height.  See how fun hiding spaces are?

We've given up non-essential activities for the week, which include cooking things that don't go in the microwave, but not our professional or service obligations.  (This is not exactly a hardship, since Mom and Dad have kept our fridge stocked with leftovers and helped pack up a head of heavy things.) Moving would be no sweat at all if we didn't have to go to work everyday. Moving would seem like no big deal if I weren't working from home for a couple days this week.  As it is, it feel like a complete distraction from my real job, and a constant reminder that WHAT THE HECK I AM BUYING A HOUSE.  It's super. I hope I really love this new house, because I don't ever want to go through this again.

What does my moving schedule look like?  Trying to get lots of stuff into boxes, but not the dishes I use for my morning oatmeal and tea.  I'm trying to pack up my bedroom, but not the clothes we should wear to work (or the gym. It's a big "if" that I'll see that place anytime soon, but I'm making an effort). We are disassembling furniture and collecting boxes in the garage, while leaving the home office in tact so I can work here Tuesday and Friday.  If all goes well, the last box will be taped up Friday, all the boxes will make the 1 mile hike on Saturday and Sunday we'll open them all (some of them) back up again.  And also come back to clean our old apartment.  Super fun. We've been talking a lot about where the furniture will go in the new house, and what we will need to get settled in there, but Zero consideration has (or will) be given to things like paint colors or future projects.  We are going to take this one, highly chaotic, step at a time.  The upshot of this is that the boxes that we pack last, and most haphazardly are basically earmarked as needed to be unpacked first in the new place.  How clever is that?

We've had lots of advance notice on this, so we've managed to fit in some other fun things in the meantime.  Symphony with Mom.  Dinner with the folks in Monroe. Lunch with Nana before she leaves for California (she'll see the house for the first time when she returns in two weeks).

Pretty much the cutest thing

Earlier this week, Jess and I were showing Tyler how much daddy and mommy loved each other by kissing in front of him. You can read endlessly about how children watch mom and dad for cues about how to act around other people, and about how they will often pattern their relationships off of the relationships they see you having with your spouse. We said “mommy and daddy love each other, see?” and then made all smoochy-mouth while Jess was holding him. Even at his young age, he was properly mortified. Which is also probably fair, but hopefully the message buries itself in his subconscious somewhere.

Later that night, after his usual late-evening grumpitude, we were putting him to bed and I asked if daddy could have a kiss. Tyler grabbed my cheeks with slightly-stinging gusto and planted me one right on the lips. We both gave him an 'aww' for that one. Then mommy asked if she could have a kiss.

Tyler grabbed us both by the back of our heads and pushed our lips together.

Runners-up for this award include:

-Saying “No thank you” when he doesn't want something.

-Throwing him up in the air (yes, we have pictures. Yes, you need to see them.)

-Splashing in puddles.

-We had some friends over today, they brought their baby. When Tyler woke up from his nap, the baby had gone down for his. When we explained how we needed to be quiet (ish) for the sleeping baby, he put his finger up to his lips and said “shh”

-N

Snow and Stew

I wish my coworkers all ate together in a lunch room regularly.  Yesterday would have been the perfect day to get the "What do you have for lunch question?"  "Oh, you know, African yam and peanut stew that my mom made for me because she loves me."  But that might have amde everyone else feel bad who DIDN'T have thier Mom pop in to do something nice for them. 

Yeah, my mom pops in now.  No big.

The folks are in town for 3 weeks.  There are rumors of furniture and so I am hoping to drop in soon.  But man, it has been a busy week.  More requests from the underwriters.  New editing contract.  Meeting with my peer mentoring (career) group.  Having a job. 

And it snowed last night.  Or coated everything in a heavy coat of sleet.  It's disgusting out, so I'm at my home office in my PJs, thank you very much.  Kinda wish I had some more African stew to eat while I am keeping cozy over here, but I'll get by.

Big Month

After a truly stellar break, that barely felt like I deserved it (take a week off after logging 7 weeks, sure, I really worked up a sweat), we are back to our normal lives again.  It was nice to be distracted from real life with a week of baby giggles and copious holiday food.  Not that my job is stressful, far from it.  But our real life is starting to feel complicated.  I told Matt the other day, I have three primary worries: 1) Moving out of our house.
2) Getting our Mortgage and closing
3) Paying my taxes (complicated this year by 3 jobs and a business license)
Any of these things is really no big deal, it's the all-at-the-same-time-ness of it that worries me a bit.  Moving isn't really a complex problem, just a big investment of time and energy.  The mortgage should go as planned, but I am told it is normal for delays of up to a week.  And a week delay would be complete chaos for us.  That feels a little like a time bomb that may or may not go off- and it seems related to complicated financial thingies I don't really understand that well.

And then there are taxes.  As a small business owner coming up on  my first taxes season, I have NO idea what I am doing except that I certainly owe someone a LOT of money.  I sat down with a tax professional a couple months ago to reassure myself I was setting aside enough money (~35%), and confirmed who I would be paying (just the Feds and the state of WA).  Now it is that time to pay them.  Washington has been sending me friendly reminders that NOW would be a great time to pay my taxes.  Ha.  Now, when all my money is supposed to be carefully observed by underwriters.  Nice.

After some deliberation, I beleive only my WA taxes are due Jan 31. Actually, that sentence makes the whole experience sound fairly composed.  After several sleepless nights, much internet research a a couple of closets cleaned on nervous energy, I've figured out how to pay my federal taxes, and realized I need to wait for ALL my W2s to come in.  But, WA keeps reminding me that I need to pay THEM by Jan 31.  Ack! 

I compiled my gross earnings (which I had started for the mortgage, so that was less horrifying than I predicted), and continued to research online.  The Department of Revenue (DOR) has an overly friendly series of videos about "How do I pay my taxes?" and "When are my taxes due?" that were both informative and infuriating.  The DOR has forms that can help you do all kinds of things, like calculate the taxes rates and even a percent.  But then they use some very cryptic categories to describe the types of businesses that get taxes at each rate.  With the help of a piece of pie, I decided my business (editing) counts a service.  Not retail, or publishing which are different tax rate.  Ok, 1.8% tax of my gross income- I owe somebody like $500. The pieces are starting to come together.

I go to file online, since the DOR has calculators they trust, and I am hoping I can use my current paypal balance to pay off the state without messing up my credit report.  I checked all the tax credits I could select, but I am not doing "High Tech" or "Utilities" work, and I don't want to get on anyone's Audit List by getting creative. I'm just providing business services and trying to be a good citizen. So, click, click, click, and taxes filed.  The confirmation pages says "no taxes are due at this time...." and I save this.

And then I think, if they aren't due now, when are they do?  And where do I send this cash? So I looked a little more closely at that confirmation page. Wait, some of those numbers are positive... and the total number is zero?  What?  It is supposed to be $500.  And then I notice "0720 Service & Other SBC" Credit negating the total I thought I owed.  Wha....?  I've got a cold sweat, now.  Did I hit something wrong?  I am just trying to do the right thing here! 

I found a description of the 0720 credit that maxes out at less money then I have saved.  I'm hyperventilating and trying to guess who I have to call to "unfile" my taxes so I don't look like a total cheater.  I can convince myself that I probably won't go to court over this error, but I might end up spending a lot on legal help over this stupid mistake.  Should I just write a check and send it in? They don't penalize you for over-paying.

After a little MORE digging, I finally found the correct form (which looks almost exactly like the other TWO incorrect forms, except the header is for "Annual Filing"), I find that this tax credit gets applied to the first ~$50,000 you make.  And uh... I'm well under that bar.  It's nice to remind oneself that these problems aren't really that huge in the scheme of things. 

Anyway, I'm feeling like a good citizen who has some seriously cluttered closets to attend to.