i was raised on classic rock.
anyway . . . hooray! i just got hired! to do my same job!!! yup, it's true. but now i'm going to work for the main contractor instead of the subcontractor. those of you that know i have been looking for a new job, the path was circuitous, both winding and eventually a circle, and i found it! it was here all along . . .
it makes more sense than you think.
really.
also i have a funny rowboating story but it works best with pictures and el esposo has all the pictures so i will have to hunt him down.
30 April 2008
08 April 2008
Plans
Lately I have been in planning frenzy mode. Not that I really have time for that. Well lesson plans, of course. I have no choice there (five classes left!). I also have a stack of papers to grade that my students are not getting back this week. In the midst of this and job stuff and what are we doing this weekend and what am I going to do with my tax return and when are we taking vacation this year and when will we finally have a weekend to go camping and when will I have time to start freelancing on the side (the side of what???) blah blah ad nauseum I am also looking at how to buy a house(!) and also if it is even a possibility.
Though sweetiepieface and I have been saving all our nickles and dimes for two whole years (give or take), we do live in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country and neither of us is a high-powered anything. So we placed the whole idea of buying a house on the backburner of our minds. Recently, though, we looked around and realized the prices they are a droppin'--not into the range my relocated middle-american family is dealing with right now (actually their prices didn't even drop as they hadn't been inflated in the first place)--but still it's significant. And if you're going to buy anything, you might as well buy at the bottom, right? So I've been perking up and looking at real estate online, and then very recently I started learning about all this stuff that had just been random terminology before: like mortgages and credit scores. I started getting into the details: mortgage insurance, fixed-rate vs. adjustable rate, real estate taxes, "points" (which is part of your insurance paid up-front to decrease your overall interest rate), credit scores, and more.
The more I learn, the less I realize we can afford. Odd blue townhouse that I thought was in our price range:
is--alas--not quite.
However, each time we revise down our estimate and I look at property in our price range I realize that we may still be able to find something that is at least a little nicer (well, bigger anyway) than the place we are currently renting, and that will serve our main purpose and build some equity. Something like--say--this:
Of course, the real telling thing will be when we actually go to look at some of these places. For example, here's a question: are the kind of people that can not afford to pay for their mortgage such that their house gets foreclosed (is that a verb?) the type to have been very vigilant about the upkeep of that same house?
I've also learned that what we need in terms of financing might not exist, since we are planning to be making significantly LESS money in a couple or three (i think some relative of mine says that) years than we are making now, when I plan to go freelance part-time/mommy part-time. So much stuff to think about and then think some more about. I'm thinking maybe if I do this one step at a time it won't seem like such an impossible adult math problem. Our next step, I think, is to check credit scores and get ourselves ready for the big loan meeting. Also, a camping trip is pretty much in order.
Are you guys bored yet? Have any great tips?
Though sweetiepieface and I have been saving all our nickles and dimes for two whole years (give or take), we do live in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country and neither of us is a high-powered anything. So we placed the whole idea of buying a house on the backburner of our minds. Recently, though, we looked around and realized the prices they are a droppin'--not into the range my relocated middle-american family is dealing with right now (actually their prices didn't even drop as they hadn't been inflated in the first place)--but still it's significant. And if you're going to buy anything, you might as well buy at the bottom, right? So I've been perking up and looking at real estate online, and then very recently I started learning about all this stuff that had just been random terminology before: like mortgages and credit scores. I started getting into the details: mortgage insurance, fixed-rate vs. adjustable rate, real estate taxes, "points" (which is part of your insurance paid up-front to decrease your overall interest rate), credit scores, and more.
The more I learn, the less I realize we can afford. Odd blue townhouse that I thought was in our price range:
is--alas--not quite.
However, each time we revise down our estimate and I look at property in our price range I realize that we may still be able to find something that is at least a little nicer (well, bigger anyway) than the place we are currently renting, and that will serve our main purpose and build some equity. Something like--say--this:
Of course, the real telling thing will be when we actually go to look at some of these places. For example, here's a question: are the kind of people that can not afford to pay for their mortgage such that their house gets foreclosed (is that a verb?) the type to have been very vigilant about the upkeep of that same house?
I've also learned that what we need in terms of financing might not exist, since we are planning to be making significantly LESS money in a couple or three (i think some relative of mine says that) years than we are making now, when I plan to go freelance part-time/mommy part-time. So much stuff to think about and then think some more about. I'm thinking maybe if I do this one step at a time it won't seem like such an impossible adult math problem. Our next step, I think, is to check credit scores and get ourselves ready for the big loan meeting. Also, a camping trip is pretty much in order.
Are you guys bored yet? Have any great tips?
01 April 2008
A blog is not a journal
You can't write about any of the most interesting experiences. I was thinking to myself how recent experiences need to be recorded somewhere. Either for posterity or just for myself so I can keep from re-making mistakes. AND so I can even remember how I did it when I happened to do something so exactly right. EVEN just to put something that happened into a larger context so it can make some actual sense instead of just fester in my brain and keep making noise noise noise and no meaning. Then I remembered the Journal concept. Journals: Turning brain noise into usable life lessons. That's my slogan for the journal lobby. Takers? You owe me a dollar. Or maybe just a citation.
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