Jericho: Catching You Up
It's been a fun couple of weeks in the Brown home and in my little life, I have a minute to talk about it, so I thought I'd catch you up.
We have moved. A few months ago, Steph and I decided we had enough of our house. Our plan had been to live in the house for three to five years and at 3.5 years, we had accomplished our goal. When we moved in, we totally settled for our house. We had a very limited budget, and in the Seattle housing market, that meant there were very few houses and they hit the market and vanished like meteors in the night sky. We looked at one house, paid $300 for an inspection, couldn't get the seller to work with us and had to let the deal slip. A few other houses came and went, not worth spending $300 for an inspection. When we came to this house, and I'll take the blame for this, I told Steph that if we keep spending $300 for inspections, we're going to break ourselves and we're never going to buy anything. We wanted to buy a house as an investment, to not keep flushing money down the commode. The house had several major problems, but it also had major potential. We knew at the time that the house had appreciated about 13k a year over the previous four years. We rolled the dice and bought the house.
In the three years we lived there, we put in quite a bit of sweat equity. We did major clean up in the basement and garage, to the tune of 5000 pounds of garbage removed. That's not a typo. The City of Tukwila gives out a yearly dump pass to those who are serious about spring cleaning. We took advantage and rented a moving truck three years in a row. The first and second years, we moved 1600 and 1800 pounds of garbage respectively, garbage left behind by previous owners. Last year we filled a truck with shrubbery clippings from around the property that were out of control when we moved in and were nightmarish by the time we got to them, about 1600 pounds. The first year we were there, we took out a fence that some claimed was lowering property values for the whole neighborhood. There were other projects, but all of them were sweat based.
The house had a ton of infrastructure problems, not to mention tons of proof that some do-it-yourselfers should just call a pro. The house still had it's original galvanized plumbing, a big no-no these days and $5500 bucks to replace. Most of the dry wall in the house had been installed by a DIYer, you could just tell, and that's the problem. The crown molding in the living room was the source of much laughter. They obviously had never heard of a miter saw or know that a miter box can be bought for less than $10. In one spot they simply broke the molding instead of sawing it, I swear!
The bathroom was the biggest problem. For such a tiny room, it was going to be a huge upgrade project. To begin, the galvanized plumbing needed to be removed. The ceramic fixtures were outdated, but serviceable. All of the metal fixtures leaked, the shower fixture was so old and rare that we couldn't have it repaired. Seven different plumbers, including several that worked in a store specializing in hard to find fixtures, couldn't identify the manufacturer. We could have had the fixture replaced, at great cost. The dry wall in the room was just that - ordinary gypsum dry wall. Dry wall needs to remain dry, in a bathroom, one would want to use "greenboard" or concrete backer board. The exhaust fan in the room had stopped working and would have been a major project all by itself. Condensation was forming in the vent for the fan, this rained down on the room constantly and was threatening to bring down the ceiling "wet board". The electrical in the room had been retrofitted over the dry wall and only supported the light fixture - there were no outlets in the room. We figured a $5000 budget to rebuild the bathroom, and that could only happen after the $5500 galvanized upgrade. It being the only bathroom in the house presented other problems during the rebuild.
There were other minor things. The kitchen needed an update, the wiring throughout the house was questionable, the house needed a ton more outlets - we ran an extension cord up through old heating vents from the basement to provide an outlet for our TV and air conditioner in the bedroom. Windows were old and in places needed to be fully replaced. There were other things, too. I told Steph that if we had $30,000, we could have made the place worth 50% more. With $50k, I could have doubled the value on the place. Of course, we would have had to live in a hotel while the place was ripped to the ground and built anew!
Either way, we put the property on the market, priced to sell. And did it ever! Twenty two hours after it was on the market, we had two competing buyers, both offering more money than we were asking. When we talked about selling the house, Steph and I and our real estate agent knew that if we got a buyer who was handy or a young couple willing to invest in a "starter house", we'd get our price. One of our buyers was a contractor buying the house for his daughter as a wedding present, the other buyer was a professional plumber buying the house for he and his wife. Both buyers fulfilled all criteria - we knew we had sold the house! The first buyer ended up passing for personal reasons, the second buyer, the plumber, bought it. The house passed inspection and appraised high enough for the sale price.
After three years of settling, the house is sold at a tidy profit. We got our money Tuesday before Thanksgiving, just a few days after we moved into the apartment. That's right, apartment. Why did we move back into an apartment after struggling so hard and so long? Well, that's just it, it was a struggle, and there are other reasons.
The primary reason is freedom. Apartment living is easy. If something breaks, you call the main office and they fix it. After three years of the broke-ass house, that feels pretty good. The apartment we moved into is about 40 years newer than the house we just moved out of - that has some advantages. The bathrooms don't feel like coffins - there are two bathrooms as compared to the one at the house. For a pair of busy professional adults - that's a big upgrade. There are electrical outlets EVERYWHERE!
Moving into an apartment meant we didn't have to wait until the sale on the house was finalized, we just moved right in as soon as we had one. There was a whole lot of work there. Steph and I looked at a few complexes this summer when we started talking about this move, and the one that caught both of our eyes was the one we wanted most - Chandler's Bay in Kent, WA. When we got serious about the move, Chandler's was full up. Steph went questing for other apartments, she showed me the best ones she found. However, all of them came up short when compared to the one we couldn't have. When the first buyer pulled out, we were devastated. But, I told Steph, the silver lining is that maybe we would get an apartment at Chandler's Bay, maybe someone would move. Steph kept calling them as we looked elsewhere. Finally, someone just picked up and moved without warning the complex. Steph and I left work early to sign paperwork - we got the apartment we wanted! The location is great, too. Kent is growing up fast. We live right next to the new Kent Station mall, we are minutes from the Seattle Sounder commuter train. So, even though we are farther from Seattle, by train, our commute will actually be shorter! It's almost as if it were meant to be.
The best thing about this sale is that we get to fix a bunch of our previous financial mistakes. Steph and I have both had bad histories with our money. We have both been holding onto debt we accrued as 20-somethings. For example, my first Mac was bought on credit, a $7000 computer. You read that correctly, about a year after I bought that monster, PC prices dropped significantly. For what I paid for a 128 MB memory upgrade, $700, you can now buy a full desktop machine. We also bought our next two computers on credit. Plane tickets, moving trucks, the Christmas gifts, etc., etc., etc. all went on credit. Payments began to stack up and it was nearly a full time job keeping track of all our bills. Then, a whole lot of it went to collections. We were hit with Universal Default - a not fun state of affairs I'm hoping to save all of you from - educate yourselves.
This past February, we did something we hadn't done yet. We sat down and talked about our issues. That was a big step for us. Steph had been carrying the burden for bill administration and she needed relief. I was shocked at how far gone we were, but now I know that Universal Default had done far more damage to us than anything we did. We organized our bills, put them in a spread sheet and got to work tackling them. They fell right and left and things were finally back within our control. Steph resumed control and sings the praises of our smarts for building that spread sheet. I wish we had done it sooner, but sometimes you have to hit bottom.
With the profits from our sale, we can cure everything in collections and most of our major debt. The remaining profit, which will be significant, will be placed in a series of CDs and held until we buy our next place. We have already taken action - this past weekend saw several major bills vanish and this week will be the death of nearly everything else. Our spread sheet is nearly solid yellow - which indicates "Paid In Full". In the end, we will have our monthly expenses, our car, our student loans and not much else. In six months to a year, we will acquire a thoroughly researched credit card and begin to rebuild our credit score slowly and carefully. Most likely in two years, we'll move into a condo or townhouse - possibly buy a duplex or triplex - our credit rating will determine most of that. We've fixed our credit in less than a year.
It seems like when we come up with a plan and stick to it, we benefit. The house was a plan we stuck to with a nice pay off. The bills got fixed because we stuck to a plan. Now, our next plan is to invest in 401ks and future property to increase our savings and personal wealth. I think we can pull it off, maybe even retire early?
Of course, there are also plans that fall through. For example, Steph did a ton of work finding an apartment, getting movers and most of the packing. I did a bang up job of getting sick. I took a big nap on Sunday the 12th. I'm not much of a napper, so this meant something - at the time we both figured I was just being lazy, and maybe I was. Steph was disappointed in me for not doing more packing, but I figured we had time. The following Monday, the weather here went goofy, both Steph and I began to suffer from various forms of sinus distress. Being a whiny patient, I was even more useless than usual because my head hurt. Both of us suffered all week. Thursday night, I got over all body aches, then chills, then hot flashes, then more chills, etc., all that night. I took the day off on Friday. Friday night would have been prime packing time, but I was still quite out of it. Saturday, I took some DayQuil, put on my big boy pants and ... well, I managed to stay out of the way. I got some packing done and managed to help friends who came over. For the most part, I was a walking waste of space. Sunday was cleaning day and I did a little better. By Wednesday, I felt better, except my left foot was giving me trouble. I spent the majority of the Thanksgiving break off my feet. When I did get up, I'm gimping around like a three limbed llama. I'm better today, but not by much. Why does Steph put up with me?
Then there's the NaNoWriMo. I never crossed the 10k word mark. With being sick and the move, well, I just didn't get the writing done. Have no fear, "What the Trash Droid Saw" will see a finish. For once, I actually had a start, middle and end for a story. I want to finish it, if nothing else, I want to see how it ends! At 8k words, it's the most words I've ever put to one project. I think I might ship the third or fourth draft around to a few mags to serialize. We'll see. In short, 50k words in 30 days is a tough order, but I'm glad I at least took my shot - we'll do it again next year for sure!
The last few days of this month might be interesting here at IWDC. We are at about 920 MB of throughput for the month. We only get one gig, 1000 MB per month. When we hit 1000 MB, they will shut off the site until December 1st. Max and I have been putting up large amounts of text this month, this entry is no exception. And, we have been updating more frequently. We did have Blogger set to show 30 days of entries. I have set it for 10 days. With our frequent, large posts of late, I don't want to lose the site come mid-December. So, sorry for the fewer posts on the front page, but you will get more new stuff from us.
That should about catch you up to me. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and if I don't see you, happy end of the month!
We have moved. A few months ago, Steph and I decided we had enough of our house. Our plan had been to live in the house for three to five years and at 3.5 years, we had accomplished our goal. When we moved in, we totally settled for our house. We had a very limited budget, and in the Seattle housing market, that meant there were very few houses and they hit the market and vanished like meteors in the night sky. We looked at one house, paid $300 for an inspection, couldn't get the seller to work with us and had to let the deal slip. A few other houses came and went, not worth spending $300 for an inspection. When we came to this house, and I'll take the blame for this, I told Steph that if we keep spending $300 for inspections, we're going to break ourselves and we're never going to buy anything. We wanted to buy a house as an investment, to not keep flushing money down the commode. The house had several major problems, but it also had major potential. We knew at the time that the house had appreciated about 13k a year over the previous four years. We rolled the dice and bought the house.
In the three years we lived there, we put in quite a bit of sweat equity. We did major clean up in the basement and garage, to the tune of 5000 pounds of garbage removed. That's not a typo. The City of Tukwila gives out a yearly dump pass to those who are serious about spring cleaning. We took advantage and rented a moving truck three years in a row. The first and second years, we moved 1600 and 1800 pounds of garbage respectively, garbage left behind by previous owners. Last year we filled a truck with shrubbery clippings from around the property that were out of control when we moved in and were nightmarish by the time we got to them, about 1600 pounds. The first year we were there, we took out a fence that some claimed was lowering property values for the whole neighborhood. There were other projects, but all of them were sweat based.
The house had a ton of infrastructure problems, not to mention tons of proof that some do-it-yourselfers should just call a pro. The house still had it's original galvanized plumbing, a big no-no these days and $5500 bucks to replace. Most of the dry wall in the house had been installed by a DIYer, you could just tell, and that's the problem. The crown molding in the living room was the source of much laughter. They obviously had never heard of a miter saw or know that a miter box can be bought for less than $10. In one spot they simply broke the molding instead of sawing it, I swear!
The bathroom was the biggest problem. For such a tiny room, it was going to be a huge upgrade project. To begin, the galvanized plumbing needed to be removed. The ceramic fixtures were outdated, but serviceable. All of the metal fixtures leaked, the shower fixture was so old and rare that we couldn't have it repaired. Seven different plumbers, including several that worked in a store specializing in hard to find fixtures, couldn't identify the manufacturer. We could have had the fixture replaced, at great cost. The dry wall in the room was just that - ordinary gypsum dry wall. Dry wall needs to remain dry, in a bathroom, one would want to use "greenboard" or concrete backer board. The exhaust fan in the room had stopped working and would have been a major project all by itself. Condensation was forming in the vent for the fan, this rained down on the room constantly and was threatening to bring down the ceiling "wet board". The electrical in the room had been retrofitted over the dry wall and only supported the light fixture - there were no outlets in the room. We figured a $5000 budget to rebuild the bathroom, and that could only happen after the $5500 galvanized upgrade. It being the only bathroom in the house presented other problems during the rebuild.
There were other minor things. The kitchen needed an update, the wiring throughout the house was questionable, the house needed a ton more outlets - we ran an extension cord up through old heating vents from the basement to provide an outlet for our TV and air conditioner in the bedroom. Windows were old and in places needed to be fully replaced. There were other things, too. I told Steph that if we had $30,000, we could have made the place worth 50% more. With $50k, I could have doubled the value on the place. Of course, we would have had to live in a hotel while the place was ripped to the ground and built anew!
Either way, we put the property on the market, priced to sell. And did it ever! Twenty two hours after it was on the market, we had two competing buyers, both offering more money than we were asking. When we talked about selling the house, Steph and I and our real estate agent knew that if we got a buyer who was handy or a young couple willing to invest in a "starter house", we'd get our price. One of our buyers was a contractor buying the house for his daughter as a wedding present, the other buyer was a professional plumber buying the house for he and his wife. Both buyers fulfilled all criteria - we knew we had sold the house! The first buyer ended up passing for personal reasons, the second buyer, the plumber, bought it. The house passed inspection and appraised high enough for the sale price.
After three years of settling, the house is sold at a tidy profit. We got our money Tuesday before Thanksgiving, just a few days after we moved into the apartment. That's right, apartment. Why did we move back into an apartment after struggling so hard and so long? Well, that's just it, it was a struggle, and there are other reasons.
The primary reason is freedom. Apartment living is easy. If something breaks, you call the main office and they fix it. After three years of the broke-ass house, that feels pretty good. The apartment we moved into is about 40 years newer than the house we just moved out of - that has some advantages. The bathrooms don't feel like coffins - there are two bathrooms as compared to the one at the house. For a pair of busy professional adults - that's a big upgrade. There are electrical outlets EVERYWHERE!
Moving into an apartment meant we didn't have to wait until the sale on the house was finalized, we just moved right in as soon as we had one. There was a whole lot of work there. Steph and I looked at a few complexes this summer when we started talking about this move, and the one that caught both of our eyes was the one we wanted most - Chandler's Bay in Kent, WA. When we got serious about the move, Chandler's was full up. Steph went questing for other apartments, she showed me the best ones she found. However, all of them came up short when compared to the one we couldn't have. When the first buyer pulled out, we were devastated. But, I told Steph, the silver lining is that maybe we would get an apartment at Chandler's Bay, maybe someone would move. Steph kept calling them as we looked elsewhere. Finally, someone just picked up and moved without warning the complex. Steph and I left work early to sign paperwork - we got the apartment we wanted! The location is great, too. Kent is growing up fast. We live right next to the new Kent Station mall, we are minutes from the Seattle Sounder commuter train. So, even though we are farther from Seattle, by train, our commute will actually be shorter! It's almost as if it were meant to be.
The best thing about this sale is that we get to fix a bunch of our previous financial mistakes. Steph and I have both had bad histories with our money. We have both been holding onto debt we accrued as 20-somethings. For example, my first Mac was bought on credit, a $7000 computer. You read that correctly, about a year after I bought that monster, PC prices dropped significantly. For what I paid for a 128 MB memory upgrade, $700, you can now buy a full desktop machine. We also bought our next two computers on credit. Plane tickets, moving trucks, the Christmas gifts, etc., etc., etc. all went on credit. Payments began to stack up and it was nearly a full time job keeping track of all our bills. Then, a whole lot of it went to collections. We were hit with Universal Default - a not fun state of affairs I'm hoping to save all of you from - educate yourselves.
This past February, we did something we hadn't done yet. We sat down and talked about our issues. That was a big step for us. Steph had been carrying the burden for bill administration and she needed relief. I was shocked at how far gone we were, but now I know that Universal Default had done far more damage to us than anything we did. We organized our bills, put them in a spread sheet and got to work tackling them. They fell right and left and things were finally back within our control. Steph resumed control and sings the praises of our smarts for building that spread sheet. I wish we had done it sooner, but sometimes you have to hit bottom.
With the profits from our sale, we can cure everything in collections and most of our major debt. The remaining profit, which will be significant, will be placed in a series of CDs and held until we buy our next place. We have already taken action - this past weekend saw several major bills vanish and this week will be the death of nearly everything else. Our spread sheet is nearly solid yellow - which indicates "Paid In Full". In the end, we will have our monthly expenses, our car, our student loans and not much else. In six months to a year, we will acquire a thoroughly researched credit card and begin to rebuild our credit score slowly and carefully. Most likely in two years, we'll move into a condo or townhouse - possibly buy a duplex or triplex - our credit rating will determine most of that. We've fixed our credit in less than a year.
It seems like when we come up with a plan and stick to it, we benefit. The house was a plan we stuck to with a nice pay off. The bills got fixed because we stuck to a plan. Now, our next plan is to invest in 401ks and future property to increase our savings and personal wealth. I think we can pull it off, maybe even retire early?
Of course, there are also plans that fall through. For example, Steph did a ton of work finding an apartment, getting movers and most of the packing. I did a bang up job of getting sick. I took a big nap on Sunday the 12th. I'm not much of a napper, so this meant something - at the time we both figured I was just being lazy, and maybe I was. Steph was disappointed in me for not doing more packing, but I figured we had time. The following Monday, the weather here went goofy, both Steph and I began to suffer from various forms of sinus distress. Being a whiny patient, I was even more useless than usual because my head hurt. Both of us suffered all week. Thursday night, I got over all body aches, then chills, then hot flashes, then more chills, etc., all that night. I took the day off on Friday. Friday night would have been prime packing time, but I was still quite out of it. Saturday, I took some DayQuil, put on my big boy pants and ... well, I managed to stay out of the way. I got some packing done and managed to help friends who came over. For the most part, I was a walking waste of space. Sunday was cleaning day and I did a little better. By Wednesday, I felt better, except my left foot was giving me trouble. I spent the majority of the Thanksgiving break off my feet. When I did get up, I'm gimping around like a three limbed llama. I'm better today, but not by much. Why does Steph put up with me?
Then there's the NaNoWriMo. I never crossed the 10k word mark. With being sick and the move, well, I just didn't get the writing done. Have no fear, "What the Trash Droid Saw" will see a finish. For once, I actually had a start, middle and end for a story. I want to finish it, if nothing else, I want to see how it ends! At 8k words, it's the most words I've ever put to one project. I think I might ship the third or fourth draft around to a few mags to serialize. We'll see. In short, 50k words in 30 days is a tough order, but I'm glad I at least took my shot - we'll do it again next year for sure!
The last few days of this month might be interesting here at IWDC. We are at about 920 MB of throughput for the month. We only get one gig, 1000 MB per month. When we hit 1000 MB, they will shut off the site until December 1st. Max and I have been putting up large amounts of text this month, this entry is no exception. And, we have been updating more frequently. We did have Blogger set to show 30 days of entries. I have set it for 10 days. With our frequent, large posts of late, I don't want to lose the site come mid-December. So, sorry for the fewer posts on the front page, but you will get more new stuff from us.
That should about catch you up to me. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and if I don't see you, happy end of the month!
posted by Jericho Brown at 11/27/2006 05:12:00 PM
2 Comments:
What a saga! Congratulations on the move.
Get ready! This Spring, for the first time on IWDC:
Jericho - The Mini-Series
~ The Saga Continues! ~
Check your local listings!
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