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.

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).

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.

So... we bought a house

Funny story, actually.  Remember how a couple months ago I mentioned Matt and I were warming up to the idea of home ownership?  Turns out, it is pretty easy to just take the plunge.  Some friends here had been talking about it, so we had been comparing notes as we were both shopping for mortgages.  That really got the momentum started.  Then we thought, well, the easiest way to learn about the next step is to talk to an agent.  You know, learn a little more about the community, get a feel for what our price range would get us.  We just wanted to more the conversation forward. We ended up working with Mom and Dad's agent, because she was great with them and really knows the area well.  And we've known her since college.

This was the end of October.  The summer peak was well past, and there is certainly some evidence that the Seattle housing market is regaining strength.  There weren't many homes in the locations and price range we were looking at, and those that were there tended to move quickly.  We warmed up pretty quickly to the idea that we weren't going to have a lot of time to think about the choice to make an offer.  "Sleeping on it" was just not in the cards.  That's fine.  We weren't in a rush to buy a place, so if we missed a few good ideas, that's ok.  It might even give us a chance to learn about the next steps in the whole process before we really get beholden to a home.

On maybe our second weekend looking at homes, we saw a place that seemed like it could work.  I mean, we have no idea what we are doing, but this place seemed like the right size and it's near our current place, so the location didn't feel like a gamble.  Why not roll the dice and put in an offer?  It'll give us a chance to learn what that is like, right?  That would be good, right, since we are going to have to do this a whole bunch of time. There were three offers on this house, so we pretty much wouldn't have to go through with this. WRONG.  Offer accepted.  Oh.  Now we get to learn about all the other stuff you do when you are buying a house.  Like call your mortgage guy in a panic to explain you'd like to close in 6 weeks that have 12 holidays in between. And second guess why you've been living in this neighborhood in the first place. Or suddenly learn everything about home interiors when you go for an inspection.

And this is when it started getting messy (as if blithely putting an offer in on a house your first week at a new job doesn't seem dicey enough).  The inspection... wasn't that good.  It wasn't terrible mind, but the home wasn't worth what we had offered to pay for it.  And the seller didn't feel that this was something they needed to help us with- they did have other offers.  While I was battling with this uncomfortable decision (Keep the house and be up to our eyebrows in debt and home repairs?  Will we ever find anything better? Maybe this is just what buying a home is like), Matt was being strategic.  He identified a nearby home that seemed similar, but less likely to have the issues of the first home (which needs new roof, water heater and furnace).  He and the agent went to look at it, and, even though it cost more, they both felt like the price was justified because it was in better condition.  By this time, Matt knew how to look for the service record on a water heater, right?

So, with a week to make up our mind on the first home, I was convinced to go look at the new place.  It is... in the same cul-de-sac as the first one.  That felt a little weird.  And it is really huge- and I wanted a tiny house (low foot-print, utilities, maintenance etc).  But... it was really nice.  And affordable.  And had the location benefits of the first place.  (We can walk to Trader Joe's!) Sure, that seems good and all, but the first house looked nice too, when we went there.  An inspection will probably reveal $20,000 of imminant repairs.  Our agent- who I must trust implicitly- said there is only one was to know for sure.

We took a deep breath and put an offer in on the second house.

My heart aches when I think there were a couple days when we were talking out of both sides of our mouths about owing some three quarters of a MILLION DOLLARS in Totem Lake real estate.  I trusted out agent to find a way where we wouldn't end up paying anyone all that money.  The second offer was accepted. We had an inspection performed immediately.  And the results were... fine.  Really.  The house needs CO monitors.  And the fan in the bathroom is janky.  We had been told about the age of the water heater, and that was negotiated in.  There was nothing in this house was could even come close to $20,000 in repairs.  Matt rejected the negotiations on the first house at the inspection- even if we opted not to take the second house, it confirmed the hypothesis that not all houses are expensive disasters in progress.

We decided to move ahead. We are buying house #2- the bigger house, the nicer house, the house with the good roof.  Yeah, that's gonna be our house. Our closing date is currently January 24.  This is a much longer time frame, as well, which is giving us time to think about being home owners.  What are we gonna do with all those rooms?  And space?  And the hot tub.  Will we ever do anything but sit in the hot tub?

NW Adventures

When we left Nana's house on Sunday afternoon, she loaded us down with chocolate bars and homemade cupcakes.  Why? Presumably this is payment for spending the day being such good grandkids.  What did we do that was so special?  Well, we took Nana up to see Anne Cox's beautiful boat and go for a ride in the San Juan Islands.  Yeah, we take really good care of Nana.

It was a pretty perfect expedition, in fact.  We've had unseasonable clear October weather, so Matt and I feel like it's the summer that never ends.  Going to spend a few hours toodling around the San Juans is a pretty fantastic way to pass the day.  We had amazing view of Mount Baker, of the for rolling in around Anacortes and the islands themselves.  Couldn't have been a better day, really.

We paired this Sunday activity with a good Saturday as well.  Our friends wanted to hike up Mt Pilchuk, a well loved nearby peak.  The bulk of the hike is skree and epic granite, which makes for some truly stunning vistas.  The very peak is covered in a jumble granite boulders, as if the whole mountain is just a pile of oversized gravel.  There is a lookout tower strapped across some of these boulders.  On a clear day, you can probably see into Canada from there.  We managed to see mysterious views of the inside of a cloud.  This did make the hike seem quite dramatic though.  After a nice hike, we went to play 19 holes of disc golf in Lake Stevens. Have I mentioned I am terrible at disc golf?  Typically, a sport that requires eye-hand coordination, throwing and trees was not going to go well for me.  Fortunately, there were enough trees that we all had a good laugh at each other.  There is something really hysterical about watching some one hurl a frisbee at a million miles and hour into a tree 10 feet in front of them (pro tip: this is not a good technique to "win" at disc golf either).  Or maybe we were just worn out.  Anyway, we wrapped up the day by meeting Shaoshu for Taiwanese food.

Taiwanese food has become the new concession to my new eating habits, since Szechuan cuisine is right out.  As far as the eating goes, I'm back on most food groups, but still avoiding citrus, spicy and alcohol, since these all appear to be solvents for the lining of my stomach.  Ouch.  Back to taiwanese food, it turned out to be auspicious since the Moon Festival was starting over the weekend.  We got to have some fresh moon cakes for dessert in addition to the already delicious foods.

In other news, we are starting to think more seriously about the possibility of someday preparing to shop for a house, you know, as a preliminary exercise to owning one.  There still seem too many other unknowns up in the air to make any actual decisions (will we be able to afford much of a house? where might this house be? Are there things we need a house to do in the future?  This last one is a thinly veiled way of saying "three car garage?" which leads to a lot of other talking that isn't much about a house, but a lot about a budget).  This is fine with me.  It seems like a big decision that a person should not make while being as remarkably ignorant as I am about all things on the spectrum of mortgages and property taxes to home ownership and maintenance.  Lots of learning to do.  As I told Mom, we'll probably be financially ready to buy a house before we are emotionally ready, and both are in the future yet.

Mom and Dad visit!

Like a good retired person, Mom had gotten right to the business of visiting her family.  Mom and Dad came down this weekend for a "retirement kickoff/house hunting vacation."  I'll let them comment more on the second part of the trip (spoiler alert: they haven't bought a house yet), but we had a nice time having them around.  They had Nana with them almost every minute, so it was great to see her even more (we were hardly around in July, so I was missing her!). 

We ate out a lot- which was as much an indulgence as in deference to my new "diet" prescribed to deal with major tummy pain.  Basically, I can only eat sweets and salty food (not fatty, spicy or tart food)(or coffee or chocolate or Italian food or mojitos, so I am basically losing my mind), and given Mom's limitations on salt, it was a LOT easier to just let someone else handle the cooking.  Or I guess we could have all eaten bananas and rock candy all weekend.  Anyway, this served as a nice excuse to see cousin Lisa at her restaurant.  (See what happens when you live in WA? you just run into family, all the time!)  And I never had to do dishes.  Come back and visit anytime, Mom and Dad!

AND Matt and I celebrated our wedding anniversary (6 years!) on Sunday by going to play frisbee golf in the beautifully hot weather and wading in some river.  I was thinking that thanks to a Juneau wedding, we ALWAYS have better weather on our anniversary than we did for our wedding day.  It was nice to have some time together just playing in the woods, since we've been oppositely busy a lot lately.  Once those ironpants house shoppers were done with their marathon visitations, we all got to enjoy a sunset dinner on the bay. Even though I am supposed to be very strict with this stupid diet, Matt heroically ordered a cheesecake that I shared a forbidden (few) bites to remember our wedding day. How romantic!

And then I'm back to work.  I supposed if I had planned my time better, I would have been contracting while the parent were house hunting (over the weekend), and not working when they were free to dink around.  After this last trip, I'm having a hard time keeping my focus up, and the prospect of alternate scheduling seemed like a bad idea all around.  This is the weird thing I've found about contracting.  Sure, I can work anytime or anywhere I feel like, but I mostly want to work about 8 hours straight from my own office during the middle of the week.  Yes, I could take an afternoon off and finish my work after dinner- but who wants to be working before going to bed?  And isn't it a joy to string two (mostly) non-work days together?  For all that flexibility, the main way I take advantage is by working the first half the day in my PJs and showering at lunch time. 

Intermission: Update

Right,

So I'm about to get down to the business of blogging about the honeymoon, much like I did for the Japan trip, but I wanted to do a quick update about us before diving back into the past again.

We've been home and married for about two weeks, and we've flipped over from being contract-to-hire employees to actual employees. Our salary...did something, I can't quite remember which direction it went, but our benefits for being properly employed are spectacular. Bonuses and 401k stuff and everything. They even pay for our health club membership. How nice!

Nagano continues to grow. He was a BIG kitten when we came back from Costa Rica, and he continues to grow in tiny little steps. Being older has calmed him down, too. I'd post pictures, but it's a big process to get stuff on here and then posted, so I'll do that later.

Tigger had a rough day yesterday. We took him into the vet a few months ago and the recommended bringing him in for a teeth cleaning. It's a pretty serious thing where they put him under and get at his teeth. In Tigger's case, they actually pulled 6 of his teeth because they were too rotten. We were worried for him, but he seems to be doing just fine. We have some antibiotics and mouth-morphine to give him for a few weeks and days, respectively, and he ate hard food right when he came back, so that's good. He seems to be in pretty high spirits, but that might just be the drugs talking. He was very affectionate, as soon as we picked him up from the vet, we had to reach in and clean out his carrier some, and he was nuzzling Jessie all over when she put her hand in. The vets say that pets seem to really like having bad teeth out, because it hurts less. It certainly seems to have put Tigger in a good mood.

Also, we're going house hunting! We went to a couple of 'open houses of opportunity' last week, and weren't terribly impressed with what we saw. We've seen some better houses, though, and talked with our real estate guy who will be showing us eight of them tomorrow. So that'll be fun. We'll bring the camera, any experienced house-shoppers want to warn us of what to look for?

Video games! Tis the season where all the big stuff comes out in preparation for the holiday shopping season. I'm currently playing Little Big Planet, ahead of schedule, he he, and Rock Band 2 with Jessie. We make a pretty great band together. It's called 'Doomsday Not Included'. We took that one from the 'random band name generator' in the game, which is awesome.

Right, let's talk Costa Rica...

-N