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Baby Baby Baby

October 25th, 2013 at 02:51 pm

I'm having a C-Section in 3 days. I'm not into "saving money" right now like I was a week ago. I'm more into "please don't make me get off this couch" mode. So I have not been checking in with you guys.

Though one thing that is interesting is my sudden about change regarding baby consumerism.

Up until a week ago I was the pregnant lady who was content to let her baby bang pots and pans together and play with boxes. My baby didn't need all the stuff Target tried to sell me.

Then suddenly I panicked. I heard one to many stories about a baby screaming for 40 hours straight from colic. About a baby screaming for hours because they wouldnt take the pacifier given to them. Refusing to breast feed (or getting sick from breast milk) and taking formula only. Specific brand of formula making baby sick and more screaming.

I DO NOT WANT A SCREAMING BABY. I will buy whatever it takes to avoid 40 hours of straight screaming.

So suddenly it occured to me that I better have all these items on hand "just in case" I needed them. Its easier to buy them now than it is when the baby is screaming.

So I own 11 different pacifiers (because baby might only like a certain brand, so you better have it on hand.) I have 5 bottles even though I plan to breast feed and 2 different brands of formula. I have 17 cloth diapers...but in case that doesn't work out I also have 200 disposable diapers. I have a changing pad in the nursery and another downstairs. I have a crib in the nursery and a pack n play downstairs. I bought a CD player to play soothing baby white noise, but also picked up some classical music CDs for her as well. And then I also have all other baby essentials...I think.

I think I have spent about $1000 on this baby so far and she is not even born. (I bought all her clothes used.)

I am SHOPPED OUT. I feel like Consumerism at its strongest. I hope I never need to go to a baby store again. And if I hear husband say "we need to buy..." I will collapse.

ok, so this might be my last post for a while. I'll be back...maybe when the baby is a few weeks old.

Any baby advice, feel free to post it! As a first time mom I'm kind of lost.

Holy *!$!* Health Insurance Increases!** Updated

October 23rd, 2013 at 12:16 am

So everyone is always horrified hearing about my $250 deductible $1532/month COBRA payment that I pay for my spouse and I.

I received a package today outlining price increases effective Jan 1, 2014.

I'll be upgrading to a family plan (because we will have a baby by then), and the monthly rate will be $2,999.00/month with a $750 deductible.

That is $36,000 a year! plus my co-pays and deductible. No dental.

That is more money than I even earned at my old employer in a year.

Why is the rate doubling?! Husband says its Obamacare but has no explanation for how he is impacting this.

I am just totally frustrated and sad.

I know I'll be looking for a job with benefits prior to Jan 1, and I hope to sign up for Obamacare (but have not figured out where the website is), but this being a last resort is really no resort at all.

Do babies REALLY need healthcare? If they are born healthy? I imagine vaccines are cheaper to pay for than this monthly rate and husband and I can go without for a few months until I get a job with benefits.

** update** OK- I just called another company. A compare different company rates person. She said that there is a healthcare company called Assurance that has rates effective Jan 1 ranging $700-$1000 /month. The best package for $1000/month has dental, $0 deductible, covers name brand prescriptions. She said she is calling me in December to get me signed up for Jan 1. If I sign up prior then I have to go through underwriting and husband with all his preexisting conditions might be difficult to push through. But come Jan 1 it will get approved automatically.

I told husband to contact his Doctors to see if they take that health insurance. I'll check to see if the pediatrician takes it. I feel much relieved.

8 days to go on the pregnancy front

October 20th, 2013 at 09:47 am

Well the baby is coming in 8 days and its interesting how husband and I are reacting to the stress.

From my perspective:

I am in spending lockdown and scouring the internet obsessively checking my retirement accounts/bank accounts/projected SS benefits (thank you CCFree for putting that on my radar)/potential healthcare options for Obamacare (where is the official sign up website? I cant find it). I am reading blogs, forums, and stories about everything money related from bankruptcy to extreme high net worth.

It's like I am so avoiding the arrival of baby- reading about babies makes me feel physically ill. It is too real at this point.

I'm also in cleaning/ decluttering mode. Which is hard to do with all these contractors in our house every day (more on that later). I am trying to have the house sparkling all day so I can relax my mind and not run through a mental checklist constantly of what needs to be done. I feel like we have accumulated so much for the baby- I want to get rid of stuff. I mean jeeze- we have way to many chairs in this house now! And the dining room now houses a pack n play, stroller, and baby swing. It's very visually cluttered over here.

Husbands erratic behavior:

Husband is burying himself in projects. He has chosen THIS WEEK to get A/C installed in our attic to start to "finish out the attic".

We have had contractors traipsing through the house for the last 3 days. They are back to finish up tomorrow. I am regretting giving him cart blanch on that project because at the time of planning I was too distracted with, oh I don't know, the BABY COMING IN 2 WEEKS!

I told him to do whatever- this project wasn't a priority to me. Well, I swear he told me the A/C guys would have a few wires trailing down the side of our house to attach the new exterior unit to the unit in the attic.

The reality is TWO WHITE METAL GUTTER PIPES housing all the wires. It is so MANLY.

So typical to take a plain, unnoticeable BLUE side of the house and visually clutter it up with your electrical wires and WHITE pipes running from the 3rd story down to the ground to make sure EVERYONE can see that there is technology and gadgetry going on. Every time I think about it I get irritated. But its done. And husband and workmen are happy with the result.

I try to repeat to myself that a finished attic increases our property value more than the new curb appeal decreases it.

Then on Monday we have a handyman coming to cut open some drywall to expand the attic space, he'll install a firewall to protect us from our attached neighbors, and add plywood decking to the expanded area.

Because a partially finished attic is exactly what we need right now.

Husband is also scrolling the internet looking for rental properties. I KNOW WE CANT AFFORD ANY RIGHT NOW which is why I just don't worry about that. Given that there is 0 chance of a purchase, I just humor him. His choice to waste his time looking for something that doesn't exist.

He also looks at adoption websites for a dog. A DOG! We lost Copi about 2 months ago- so we have the room for another. But Please. No. We still have a 2 year old dog that is too strong on the leash for me to walk safely in my pregnant state. Why don't you focus on better leash training our existing dog Mr. TashaC?

hmmmpff...so that's whats going on in my household.

And in defense of the husband, he is pretty sweet to me on a daily basis making me meals and fetching things I need when I am too tired/comfortable to get off the couch.

I did throw two pieces of bread at his head a few nights ago and he took the beating like a champ.


This & That with the Property Rental

October 18th, 2013 at 11:41 am

Hello Everyone,
I had a good day yesterday. I got just about nothing accomplished but it was a peaceful day.

Husband and I went to the rental property to measure out the damaged fireplace hearth tiles and start the hunt to replace them. We found some on our first try at an antique re-sale store in town. They didn't have many, but we only needed 6. They had 5 1/2. (Score!) And because they were leftovers they were really cheap, $4/ per tile. Now we need to figure out how to cut them to size and set them. That is husbands problem though.

I snapped a few pics while I was inside of the re-glazed sink. The fumes are still way too strong for me to stay in the apt longer than a few mins.

Sink Before with the peeling glaze and hair dye stains:



Sink $139 later:



The re-finished fixtures makes the bathrooms in general look dingier- I am looking forward to the fumes getting out so I can get some more cleaning in!

Rental Property Goodies

October 16th, 2013 at 10:59 pm

Went over to the vacant apartment today. We hired a professional to re-glaze all the cast iron bathroom sinks and tubs because they were horribly stained or damaged from the previous tenant. The man came out and did all 3 fixtures in one day for $710.00. He is giving us a 3 year warranty. He did an AMAZING job. I wish I had before/after photos but the fumes were to strong for my pregnant self to stay in there longer than a few seconds. So no pictures.

I did go around and collect up the tenants mail that they did not forward. That reminded me of all the misc. goodies that come free when tenants move out.From this particular property vacancy I have scored:

3 window curtain treatments
3 boxes of trash bags
2 unopened packs of AA batteries
A hand held vacuum
A cheapo vacuum
Generic brand bottle of Tylenol
2 magazines
A 20% off Bed Bath & Beyond coupon
Some half used bottles of window/tile/misc cleaners

And more free stuff that we cant really use:

Several plastic Tupperware tubs (un-needed- so they will go outside in a "free" pile)
A small flat screen TV (husband thinks this is an awesome score- but really- we don't need another TV. So its going in the attic.)
Several small plastic trash cans-again, un-needed, so it will be left for the next tenants.

In the past we have gotten new ceiling fans or light fixtures. Those are pretty awesome. But window treatments are very appreciated as well.

Furniture Auction Yesterday

October 14th, 2013 at 09:16 am

Yesterday was the furniture auction for the items I let go of to clear some space in the attic and make some extra cash.

The auction house is in my town, and over the last few years I have bought several items from them. As a buyer, the prices are on par with Craigslist, but then you have to pay a 10% buying fee and tax. As a seller, you net a little less than Craigslist because you pay a 35% selling fee. The advantage is that around 600 items are sold at each auction. So you are bound to find several items you like as opposed to driving from home to home to look at Craigslist items. A lot of antique dealers frequent it to fill their shops.

I had 9 items go up on the auction block, all 9 sold for a total of $660.00. One antique Victorian couch sold for $120, down to a white wicker bedside tray sold for $10.

The house takes a 35% cut, so I will get a check for about $430.

There are 2 items that did not make it into this auction, maybe they will get in the next one in 2 weeks.

I thought it would be an exciting day, but it was sad. I maybe should not have gone. These are items I inherited and carted from state to state as I moved because I thought of them as sentimental or high quality. But ultimately they have been in attic storage since I got them because I do not have a use or room for them. I does not look like we will be moving anytime soon, so they were slated to stay in the attic indefinitely.

But seeing poker faced strangers bidding on the items and seeing them sell for not a lot of money made me sad. I do not know where they are going, and do not have the satisfaction of knowing that they are going somewhere to be used, admired and appreciated. I am sure they are...it is just that I am used to Craigslist where you meet the buyer and you can explain the history of the item.

Anyways, the attic is emptier now. I STILL have stuff up there that I can not part with even though I can not find a place for it in the house. Husband is just thrilled that about 50% of the attic is clear.

My check will be sent to me within 2 weeks. I'm not sure where I want to put the money. We will have a baby at that time, so it will probably pay for a hospital bill.

Baby Shower

October 13th, 2013 at 01:33 pm

Well last night we had the baby shower at my house. My two friends hosted it and it was just our core group of girls, plus some of my old work friends. 10 people total.

I am so completely overwhelmed by their generosity and support. Almost everyone who was invited came, and made an effort to make sure it was great.

I had a friend HAND MAKE Pad Thai (which I did not know could be cooked in a regular kitchen). Another friend made egg rolls and spring rolls. They also made Edumame, cupcakes got me a cake. They knew I love Thai food and chocolate, so they surprised me with the complete spread. Everything was vegetarian too- which was so nice. I did not request that because it can really inconvenience guests getting a limited food offering. But these girls did not think twice about accommodating my lifestyle.

And they came up with games. A friend bought a bunch of white baby onsies and fabric markers for everyone to decorate a onsie for the baby. So thoughtful.

A friend brought her professional work camera over to get pictures of everything and everyone.

Another friend brought over non alcoholic champagne, and non alcoholic beer. for me. They brought Red and White wine for everyone else.

And then they ALL also brought gifts! I feel like the baby is now OVERPREPARED. I have multiples of a lot.I know I will use it up, I am just not used to needing a STOCKADE of stuff. 10 pacifiers, 3 teething toys, 3 things of diaper wipes, 2 boppy pillows... It was great because they got me stuff I did not know I needed. So I was able to ask questions and understand better how to use a lot of the stuff.

This baby and I received so much love and sincerity last night I do not know how to repay them. I really hope this baby turns into a loving and generous person like the "aunties" who are welcoming her into the world.

Even my husband supported me by helping me clean for 2 days, spent the evening at a vacant rental property with the dogs hanging window treatments to stay out of the party.



I do not know how I can tell these people how much they made me feel appreciated and loved in just a thank you card.

Changes to my Tickers!

October 12th, 2013 at 12:17 am

Hey notice anything different about my sidebar??

The credit card debt is gone! No ticker because it's been paid in full!

Husband's settlement money eliminated it...and now we need to save for the next rental property.

In other sort of related news...our guy in CA who owes us money requested that I set up a Bank of America account so he can just deposit payments into my account. I set up a Money Market Account with them today. I guess it was casual Friday because a man in jeans approached me to set up my account. IT FREAKED ME OUT! I was internally trying to determine if he was a random man posing as a bank employee to get my identity or private account information. The bank was busy and I was worried none of the "real employees" would notice a random guy taking over an office for a few minutes while he "set up an account for me" but really just got my info so he could clear out my account.

Reluctantly I agreed to deal with him, and felt more comfortable as he was able to confidently explain different account options with me.

As I was leaving the bank I noticed other employees coming out of their offices in jeans too. That's when I figured out "casual Friday" theme.

I tell you I was ALL FOR Casual Fridays when I was in the workforce...but it's unnerving to see it as a customer! I don't know that I'll participate in the future if my next employer offers it.

That's it. I hope you guys had a good day too!

Settlement Money Arrived!

October 10th, 2013 at 09:01 am

Crazy how I put complaints or wishes on this website and then they happen for me! Like, immediately!

Yesterday morning I was complaining about our settlement check for Workman's Comp was taking forever to arrive with no distribution date in sight. After my complaint I emailed the lawyer requesting an update and she said that she will deposit the money in our bank account that day!I just logged in and it's there!

About a week ago I put it out there in my blog that I was tired of chasing down the guy who owes me money and how he is so unreliable. That day I talked to him and he said he would get me a payment over the upcoming weekend. And he did!

This website has magical money qualities!

I wonder how the California disaster would have gone (or not gone) if I had been a regular blogger of this website at the time.

Anyways, for the settlement money that has arrived. I am writing big ginormous checks today to pay off our credit cards!

We also have our roofer coming in today to replace our roof for $10,500. He's taking the 14- 17 yr old shingles off and replacing it with metal. He said our roof is so flat that shingles were a terrible idea for it. Water is pooling up there and shortening the shingle lifespan. New shingles were $2500 cheaper than metal, but we opted for metal because it is expected to get a full lifetime out of the metal, rather than a shorter lifetime of shingles.

While we were in CA the roof leaked and rotted a lot of wood and spread black mold in the nursery ceiling. We had two different people checking on our place semi regularly (someone was out here 1-2x a month) and no one noticed it. And we asked them to check when it rained because the roof was old! But they were checking the attic only for water damage, not the bedroom ceilings below the attic.

We were told when we bought the place over 3 yrs ago that the roof needed to be replaced "any day", and we often DISCUSSED saving up for it. But there always seemed to be a project that was a more short term priority. The timing of the roof actually going hit us pretty bad as we were coming off a huge financial investment with a lot of incoming transitional bills. It was a good reminder moment for me to SAVE UP FOR BIG EXPENSES!

And husband has our A/C guy coming out today to discuss adding A/C to our attic. We are slowly turning it into a Mancave/Playroom. It's huge, with a walk up staircase, and it WAS finished when we bought the place. But very old/dirty so we tore out the carpeting and damaged a lot of sheet rock with our remodel (we had to lift exterior walls and that caused cracks in sheet rock throughout) and thus used the room for storage. For years we have talked about what we wanted to do with the room.

This month we cleared out most of the attic and have decided to do a bare bones upgrade. We asked our handyman to update the electrical and plumbing up there and we were pleasantly surprised all was working. I remember when we were remodeling that our permit inspector refused to pass our inspections because of that attic, not understanding it was going to be turned into storage space. But I thought our contractor finally got the inspector to "let it go". I guess the inspector got our contractor to upgrade all the systems!

The floor is plywood and it will stay that way for now. Husband wants to add an A/C vent and then put his TV, seating, video games up there for now. When the baby is crawling we will add carpet, new sheet rock, paint and redo the bathroom up there. Then she can have a play space and keep her toys up there.

That's it for spending the money. We'll have enough left over as a down payment on a future rental property purchase. My goal is to SAVE THE MONEY and chase down our California money to add to the account. Maybe by Christmas we will have collected all of CA money and will have enough for a down payment and repairs on a rental. And husband can have a project to work on. Or maybe the baby will be enough of a project. We'll see.

This is my home decor blog now

October 9th, 2013 at 11:51 pm

ok, nothing financial related. But husband brought in the new rug and...

TA DA!



I'm working on the nursery now. So that means nursery pics coming tomorrow.

Stay Tuned!

October Net Worth Increase

October 9th, 2013 at 11:59 am

Well I gotta love Passive Income.

Our Active Income from the rental properties is down because we now have a vacant rental. Our credit card balance is up because currently we are spending more than we earn, but our retirement account has increased by over $22k. So altogether our Net Worth has increased by $19k from September to October.

The Credit Card balance is bugging me.

When we first moved back home we had enough going on to put that on the back burner. But now that we are settled in, it is the last remaining dark cloud left over from the California move. I want it gone so I don't have the reminder of our bad CA move.

We have someone who owes us money that we are Constantly. Chasing. Down. He was supposed to mail us a payment yesterday, but since we have not heard from him, I plan to call him today and that means we'll get the next payment in about 2 weeks after 2 or 3 additional phone calls/text messages. His payment could almost knock the CC down by a third.

To my husband I brought up the subject of how I thought this guys payments would have eliminated our credit card balance by now and every month that we receive a partial payment we are being charged so much interest that our original payment plan with the guy is now costing us money. Husband responded with "I know, we must have paid like, $600 in interest charges by now." I then told him "we have paid $1400 in interest charges on just your card alone this year." (Thank you gut wrenching credit card statement that clearly outlines your interest paid for the year.) Husband actually gasped and then started angerly rambling about how our ex business partner screwed us. To make him (us) feel better I piped in about how ex business partner will never succeed and we are so much better off without him. It did make us temporarily feel better.

We are also waiting on a BIG check from husbands former employer who owes him a Workman's Comp settlement. We settled almost 3 months ago, and the bureaucracy to get the money is taking FOREVER. I def thought we would have the money by now. I'm not being impatient, husband filed for Workman's Comp over 2 YEARS ago. But as of 2 weeks ago the check was at our lawyers getting cleared and then they would send us a check for our cut. When that comes- it will eliminate the CC debt altogether. We plan to use a little of the remaining money to get the roof fixed and save the rest for a down payment on a future rental property purchase.

But the CC minimum payments are coming due in 9 days- so there wont be enough time to get any money owed to pay these suckers off before the next payment due. I need to plan to spend another month juggling money to get a minimum payment in.

So I'm kind of rambling here. Just organizing my thoughts. Trying to stop myself from staring at these credit card bills and freaking out over the balances.

I feel better now. I hope you have a better day too.

10 million pictures of various CHAIRS

October 8th, 2013 at 08:57 pm

Ok so this entry is entirely about chair shopping. If you have never had a particular interest in chairs, then feel free to skip this one.

Now for those of you who DO have an interest in chairs, I declare VICTORY from today's shopping!

I started by going to all the shops that I DIDN'T go to yesterday. I'm not sure if rumors were spread around town that there is a pregnant woman determined to buy several different types of chairs, but in these stores I hit up today, they all had what I needed!

The most important was the living room chair. Now called "the Occasional Chair". It couldn't be heavy because it was going to be moved in and out of storage except for when I needed it "occasionally". It also had to be cushioned so it is comfortable. And it needs to be sturdy for people of all sizes to use. Below are some contenders:

This was my least favorite option. But it would work in a pinch:



This was the most expensive option ($280 with tax!). But it fit all criteria so it was my "I'll get it if I cant find anything else." I was worried about the fabric being WHITE. So it was not completely perfect.



Then I saw this antique french chair. I was strangely drawn to it. Over and over again I would look at the price tag hoping it did not say $300 (It always did). I kept shaking it trying to convince myself it was more sturdy than it was. I kept staring at the bright busy pattern that I normally would NEVER like, and tried to figure out why it was not bugging me. In the end, I walked away because I couldn't justify $300 for a an un-sturdy chair that would accommodate petite people only. That would make it the "Rare Occasion chair", and I'd still be hunting for an "Occasional Chair" to use for everyone else.



In the end, it was tied between this chair (below) and the chair I actually bought. I preferred this chair because it better matched our living room colors, and the dark fabric would hide dirt. But when I sent husband pictures, he said he preferred the other chair even though it was more expensive (by $15). I decided to throw husband a bone because he always complains he has no say in decorating our house. So his whining has won him an Occasional Chair pick.



So this chair is still available if any of you want it.


So here is the winner sitting in my living room ($125)!



Next I focused on my kitchen chair replacement set. In the interest of saving money- I thought I would get 2 matching kitchen chairs and mix them in with my 2 original weakling chairs and have an eclectic look. Walking through the stores I found good contenders that came solo. So I called husband and he agreed that if I place a sturdy chair in the most accessible spot of the kitchen, then our guest will gravitate towards it and bypass the weakling chairs. So instead of buying a 4 chair set, I now only needed 1 kitchen chair.

These would work as a pair. But they totally don't work with the burnt orange Chinese rug I wanted to buy for the kitchen. So I couldn't pull the trigger.



For $48 this chair was SO TEMPTING. I could cover the yellow seat with one of my burnt orange seat cushions and it would be a good match with my other chairs. I stared, walked by, sat in this chair a dozen times.



In the end, I found a plainer chair for $34. Here it is mixed in with the other chairs! Pretty good fit.



So I have a living room chair, and a kitchen chair that can also be used in the guest room for our work-from-home guest.

That leaves the last chair. The chair to go into the already crowded nursery. The chair that husband told me yesterday HAD to be a rocking chair. The chair he has now started calling The Nursing Chair. He thinks this new title will suddenly elevate it to the top of my priority list. Silly husband. My reluctance to add a chair in the babies room will not change because he is now referring to it as The Nursing Chair.

So I have not found The Nursing Chair. I have not even tried. Accommodating husbands request is less of a priority than accommodating our incoming guests requests, I guess. Wow, that's a sad way to look at it. I better get husband a The Nursing Chair soon so he doesn't realize he's at the bottom of my priority list.

And to satisfy MY request (because my needs are at the top of my priority list) I BOUGHT THE RUG! But it's still in the truck, husband said he will unload it tomorrow (so maybe my requests are at the bottom of his priority list as well? LOL).

Here is a sneek peak of it still in the store:



I'm not in love with the pattern, I know the chairs/table will cover that. And the rug looks better in real life than this picture. It will look better in my kitchen than this picture. I bought it for the color and got $50 off the price! I paid $240.







I'm having a baby in 3 weeks- I need to buy CHAIRS!

October 8th, 2013 at 12:54 am

ok, taking a break from the vacant rental (which is still getting spruced up daily and has had no calls).

Today I search high and low for some new furniture. Sure we live in a beautifully furnished house. But we are having a baby and have received furniture requests from family that will be visiting. (this is totally normal I'm sure -sarcasm)

One family member needs a chair in the living room. Couches are uncomfortable for her to get up and off from. So she needs somewhere to sit in a room full of couches.

She has also requested a chair in the nursery so she can comfortably sit and hold the baby. The nursery already has a twin bed in it which is what I planned to use. But once again, a bed is too difficult to get on and off from. So we have to get a chair.

The nursery is full. bursting at the seems with a twin bed, crib, 2 dressers and 2 bookcases. The chair will sit in the middle of the room for everyone to navigate around. Husband has recently said it has always been a dream of his for a ROCKING CHAIR to be in the nursery, so he can watch me sit in it with our baby. I fought him about the rocker because they take up even more space than a kitchen chair- but then he was really adamant about it. So what the hell- he's putting in his request for a chair too.

Another family member has requested a chair for our guest room. They will be staying a week and plan to use the desk in the guest room to work from home. Our guest room has a giant wood desk, but no chair. There is not really room for a chair and I use the desk for storage. So the request has come in for an office chair to be added to that room.

And also our kitchen chairs....I have 4 pressed back, painted and stenciled antiquey white chairs for our kitchen table. I love them. They have butterflies painted on them! They are a little rickety. We have some guests coming in town who are a little heavy for these beautiful but not strong chairs. Rather than risking one of my kitchen chairs getting broken and ruining my most loved kitchen set ever- I am opting to get a set of replacement chairs to put around the table for when our guests are in town. So I guess that is MY chair request.

All these chairs will be stored in the attic and brought out only when the specific guest comes in that needs their specific chair. We don't really have room for all these chairs and I am not planning to permanently clutter up my home because of these requests.

So another aspect I need to consider when looking at chairs is their weight. They need to be lightweight enough that I can lug them in and out of the attic.
Sadly, the older wing back armchairs I'm liking are very heavy.

So this seems insane. I know. It took me weeks to take these request seriously. But time is ticking to baby and the reality is that we have family coming into town for days on end and they need to be comfortable. And they will probably be coming in more frequently because they want to visit the baby.

So my day was spent chair hunting. I went everywhere. At an antique store I found a faded burnt orange Chinese rug that I love for our kitchen. But I resisted it and kept looking for chairs.

I found a contender for the living room on Craigslist for $10. I'm going to look at it tomorrow. I found a backup at Homegoods for $280 if I cant find anything else.

I found a distressed white rocking chair on Craigslist for $45. Waiting for the seller to reply to me if it is still available.

I have found several contenders for the guest room so I put that to the bottom of the priority list.

I have NOT found a set of 4 kitchen chairs. Husband thinks I'm being ridiculous buying an extra set of kitchen chairs and wont entertain my whining about it. But he has also told me I need to just accept they are going to get broken because I bought old chairs that wont support heavy people. So he ADMITS these chairs are in danger, but thinks its a waste of money to prevent the damage. I'm not listening to him, I found these chairs years ago on Craigslist and I call them the SCORE of my lifetime. (Ironically the reason the couple was selling these chairs was because they no longer felt the chairs were safe for heavy use and replaced the set with generic, stronger chairs.)

So yeah. I'm having a baby and my shopping for baby is spending my days hunting for multiple chairs to put in the house. Though it is acting as a great distraction from my anxiety over labor.

My kitchen chairs. Don't you think a burnt orange Chinese rug would look FABULOUS under that table? I cant stop thinking about it.


Rental Progress

October 4th, 2013 at 08:24 pm

Not much to report. Husband and I painted one of the rental bedrooms today. Tomorrow we'll paint the other room. And then we'll hang window treatments. It's been nice spacing out the projects over several days. Before we would cram it into a weekend because I had to work during the week, but not this time!

Our handyman was a no show to take the claw foot tub away for refinishing. No surprise there, he has good intentions and then gets busy. We'll call him tomorrow to remind him.

Bedroom before it was painted:


We choose the new color to be Behr 'Navajo White'. The purple-grey color was left from the old owner, he painted the whole place in that color. It looks good as a fresh coat- but ages badly. We've decided to transition the place to the Navajo White with a few pale blue rooms too. So every time we re-rent the place we'll paint a new room until it's all been redone.

Bedroom after today's painting:


Rental Apartment Still Getting Work

October 3rd, 2013 at 09:30 pm

Husband & I spent ANOTHER 2 hrs at the vacant rental property today. After a $350 Home Depot run to get supplies, We mudded walls and sanded. I deep cleaned the bathrooms and again went over the rooms I deep cleaned yesterday. Tomorrow we will paint two bedrooms and hang the window treatments. That should complete everything.

Except for all the stuff husband wants to replace.

Refinishing a cast iron claw foot tub is harder than I thought. The handyman coming over tomorrow is coming to remove it and send it out for re-finishing. Altogether it will be $300 to pick up and refinish the tub. They cant just fix it while it is in the apartment.

Which means that the other cast iron tub would need to be removed and put back if that was to get fixed. And it is attached to the wall, so I don't see it moving as easily as a claw foot tub. The ugly plastic insert is winning.

And the cast iron sink would need to be removed and put back as well. I might be able to talk husband into saving that. It would depend on removing it and how the plumbing looks regarding reattachment.

My question is regarding refunding the deposit of $1200. Some of the $350 we purchased today is not going to be taken out of the deposit. I wont charge them for paint, new security light (It's LED and husband HAD to get it) or light bulbs, or paint brushes. I WILL charge them for the mudd, plastic gloves, cleaning detergents, new toilet lid...

I dont charge for our time spent working/cleaning the apartment. I cant because I'm not a professional. I could charge them if I hired a cleaning service. But I've done that in the past and I'm never even halfway happy with the outcome. So even though I have to clean for free- the finished product looks so much better. Cleaning crews are only if I cant do it myself.

I will not charge them to refinish the claw foot tub. It's getting work from normal wear and tear. It just wont come clean anymore.

But what about the sink? It is stained purple and blue from the girls hair dye. We are replacing the sink (or refinishing it if I have my way) BECAUSE of the hair dye. I think that is a fair charge towards the deposit. The hair dye is also in the cast iron tub (not a lot), on the bathroom door (not a lot), and in the shower head (A LOT). All the dye is permanent, not even straight bleach got it out of anything. So I wont charge her to replace all those items, though we will be replacing the tub (if husband has his way). But that is more due to the general grossness of it not coming clean due to age, than purple stains in the corner.

No more calls to see the apartment yet. The pictures look great and I'm listing it several times a day. So if there is a group of 3-5 people out there looking for an apartment, they will be calling me.



Husbands mudd job:



Antonio Banderas Almost Rented an Apartment From Me

October 2nd, 2013 at 07:39 pm

Husband & I spent 2 hrs at the now vacant rental cleaning. It wasn't nearly as bad as it was since the tenants spent 2 days cleaning before we came in. But we still have a few more hours of work to do.

Touching every surface with Lysol and a rag helps identify problems not seen on a walk through. Clear tacks in the wall, dartboard damage in the walls, clear packing tape on the molding, staples in the molding were things we uncovered as we hit every room.

Husband has called a handyman to come out on Friday to price out resealing the claw foot tub. It just wont come clean anymore. We have used a home depot kit before and it just peels off after a few weeks. I hope this guy is the real deal.

Husband said he wants to replace the other porcelain tub in the apartment with a PLASTIC INSERT Stand up shower. I am horrified. Husband saw my look and explained the insert will just fit against the wall over the white subway tile that is still in great condition. That does nothing to help my opinion. I am hoping the re-sealer guy can also reseal this porcelain tub and I can argue away a plastic insert.

Picking & choosing battles. The porcelain sink jutting out of the wall has been stained with BLUE & PURPLE hair dye and wont come clean. Thank you college kids. Husband wants to get rid of it. I suppose it will be replaced with a modern vanity or pedestal sink. I am hoping that allowing the sink to be replaced I can save the tub from plastic insert hell.

Husband received a call asking about the property today. I listened to him advise the caller to look at vacation rentals. After he hung up he said it was a film crew looking for a month to month lease while they shot a movie.

SpongeBob Square Pants the sequel will be filming here in my town in the next few months. ANTONIO BANDERAS is starring in the movie. I know Antonio wont stay in my college rental unit, but people he works with everyday like camera men and stylists and set designers might have stayed in my college rental! And that is close enough to stardom to perk up my interest! If husband hadn't sent them away to a vacation rental, maybe I would have been invited to the movie premier! Maybe I could have gotten behind the scenes tours! Maybe I could get into the movie as an extra cast member! Maybe Antonio would be hanging out there! I could have become Facebook friends with his wife Melanie Griffin! (I loved her movies in the 80's.) And husband just casually sent them elsewhere. My life might have been forever changed, and husband sent them away. Expletives insert here.

Or maybe it was students from the local Arts college looking to shoot a movie. Much less exciting.

Or maybe it was related to the Film Festival that is starting here soon. I think it starts...in 2 weeks maybe? I know a lot of up and coming actors and crews come into town to give speeches and appearances. Last year some cast members from "The Walking Dead" were in town and a friend of mine got to do some kissing with one of the main characters. That would have been cool to have some of them staying at my unit.

So for husband to turn away a "film crew" of unknown background makes me irritated. And him talking of Plastic tub inserts and trashing porcelain fixtures makes me mad too.

Hopefully it rents soon- before he has time to ruin all the original fixtures with his cheap replacements.

And another picture of the apartment that Antonio Banderas almost lived in:



Getting Apartment Ready to be Rented

October 1st, 2013 at 04:23 pm

Well it's the 1st of the month, that means tenants have moved out of our largest and most profitable rental unit.

Husband & I met one of the students and her mom yesterday. Her mom drove down from Maryland to Georgia to help her daughter move out. We mentioned some areas that we were concerned about, large furniture pieces still inside, STICKERS on the walls, mirrors and windows, and cracked fireplace tiles.

They must have worked from dawn to dusk yesterday. We walked in today and it was worlds better. There are still furniture pieces in there, but nothing large. The stickers are GONE, with not a lot of damage to the paint. The cracked tiles are...broken. The tenant tried to argue they were there on move in, but I have a picture of the fireplace showing they were not. Husband thinks he MIGHT be able to seal them in, 0therwise I'll be buying antique hand made glass tiles at about $40 each tile (yup I priced it out when we were undergoing a renovation on our own home).

The tenants are back in there today finishing up. I'm not going to shoo them away from further cleanup!

But I have the place listed on Craigslist already, it is show-able right now.

Husband wants to paint a few ceilings and I am up to paint a bedroom to just spruce up the place.

We have decorative curtain rods and curtains that we brought over from California. So we'll install those and that will be a big asset. We have noticed that tenants complain when there are no window treatments/ and they also remark on window treatments when they view a property.

So, below is a picture of my antique fireplace BEFORE something was dropped on it causing a large chunk of missing/cracked tiles:


I am HOPING for 1 months vacancy. But with the holidays around the corner...I cant think about dealing with an empty unit through the holidays.


Bank said my check bounced, but then they cleared it

September 29th, 2013 at 01:12 pm

Ok I'm not entirely sure whats going on with my checking account so I used a big portion of my 8k to straighten it out.

I paid my COBRA in September, and yesterday I received a notice in the mail from my bank saying it bounced. I wasn't too surprised as we have been operating so lean that a few dollars off would mean a bounced check.

I checked my online account and the check had not been cashed, no overdraft fees were applied yet.

I called COBRA and they said they had not been notified by the bank yet, as far as their system was concerned it was ok right now.

So I told her the check was going to bounce, and asked if I could send another check right away to not interrupt my healthcare. She said to send it in and I would get a separate bill asking for returned check fees.

When the $8k arrived yesterday, I decided to pay 2 months of COBRA just to ensure no lapse in coverage while I had a baby. And I wanted to redeem myself to the COBRA accounting staff to show I was really sorry and please do not lapse my coverage. Off in the mail the check went. Off in the bank the money went.

When I got home I checked my online account again to ensure the money had been deposited.

My COBRA check was now listed on my account and it had cleared!?

Which was confusing, why did the bank alert me it was unpaid?

Anyways, the good news is that I have my COBRA covered for the next 3 months (Oct/Nov/Dec) and that is $1530/month I don't need to worry about.

The less good news is that now my account is $1530 less than I thought because a payment I thought would bounce has cleared. So I need to re-arrange my October bill paying priorities. Short term pain because come November I wont have our largest expense of COBRA to worry about!

Money has arrived!

September 28th, 2013 at 05:34 pm

My payment from CA came in today! $8K came in, its already deposited in the bank, and I already have $8k of payments waiting for the mailman to pick up.

In other news- it seems that the tenant is not going to move into our soon to be vacant property. She met up with husband yesterday and its drama.

She does not have 5 people moving in, she has 2 people (herself and one other). And the other roommate can only pay 1/4th of the rent because his sole job is selling timeshares. Tenant cant cover the remaining 3/4th of the rent by herself, she was expecting to also pay 1/4 as she had previously been paying. She or WE (her expectations) would find people to fill up the remaining 2 rooms. She was expecting to rent a room from us basically.

We have always rented out the entire apartment to a group and allowed them to give us separate checks that will cover their portion of the rent. I guess this girl thought she had been renting a room the whole time she had previously lived there.

So husband told her to find a way to pay the entire $1800/month by the 1st or we would find new tenants.

I am ok with losing this potential tenant and losing out on 1 month of rent because of it. This girl seems like drama with her sudden decision to move out of our place, causing all the other tenants to be displaced, so they all have to give notice and find other accommodations. Then she moved into another place and weeks later decides she wants to return to my place. Without a plan to get enough roommates to cover the rent. And she wants a 9 month lease because she is graduating from school in May.

So it looks like we will be finding new tenants. I'm up for the challenge!

It is better to owe than to be owed

September 27th, 2013 at 02:11 pm

"It is always better to owe someone than to be owed." This was the newest mantra that my ex-business partner spouted off one day when he showed up to do some work.

He was never good with money. But he is smart and likes to learn/emulate from people he admires.

The night before he had been hanging out with an acquaintance whom he really admired. The acquaintance had a big successful business and my ex partner thought he had nailed down a good business formula. (Which ended up being one of the problems with our business, the formula was not right for us and what we could handle, when it was modeled after the acquaintance's business).

Anyways, that particular morning, ex partner came in to make himself some food and said "It is better to owe than to be owed." I immediately looked at husband with a "Do not buy this crap" look and waited for the elaboration.

"Because when you owe people, you have all the money. Your plan might go bust and you cant pay it back as promised, but you have the power because you have the money. If you are owed, then you have no money and you are at the mercy of people with money". That was his logic.

I wasn't in the mood to really refute him or think it was going to be a turning point of information so I halfheartedly talked about how I would rather live debt free so I don't have people breathing down my back. I mused that it was the creditors that were always wealthy while the debtors were seen as broke and vulnerable. I think husband and ex partner continued to talk money theory and then moved onto video games. I moved on to do the laundry.

Anyways, that motto stuck in my head and gnawed at me for a while. Probably because ex partner started LIVING it. Our 50/50 expenses split became wildly unbalanced as he was crying broke and expecting us to carry the load. We kept expecting him to catch up and he never did.

One day I realized why that motto was stupid. Because a debt owed can be collected at any time. Whether you are ready for it or not.

I remembered a snippet of history where the Donner Party (the pioneers trying to cross the Rocky mountains to get to California but got stuck in the mountains over winter and most starved, froze and ate each other.) would sell supplies to one another on their journey. The wealthier families would sell off cows and supplies to others in the caravan because they had more supplies to begin with. They sold on credit, with the buyers promising to pay back in California.

Well when everyone was trapped in the mountains and dying, the wealthy family came to collect from the poorer family. Stating they wanted their cow back. "but the cow is gone. We don't have it anymore." So the wealthy family said "then we are taking stuff that is the equivalent of that cow's worth." Even though they knew they were signing a death warrant to the other family, the wealthy guys took blankets, food and clothing to pay themselves back for the cow that had been sold. They came to collect on their debt and the debtors were not prepared to pay it back.

I relayed that story to husband and told him that's what was wrong with the "It is better to owe than to be owed" line of thinking.

Well weeks later when we had the falling out with ex partner it was because we felt we were carrying way too much of the expenses and ex partner shouldn't be entitled to half the profit. We knew ex partner NEEDED half the profit because he had borrowed to actually put into the business. So he owed us and them and husband was determined that we were getting paid back first. The argument escalated to threats, and changing of locks, and partnership/friendship ending.

I was crying and asked husband afterward why he did that. He said "I am collecting on the debt he owes us, you yourself said we can collect at any time."

I appreciate that husband did a real life Donner Party re-enactment (that he really respected and listened to me), his timing wasn't great, because running the business by ourselves was way too much work and we quickly realized we couldn't do this on our own. So we sold everything as soon as we could to halt the misery and money hemorrhaging. We didn't get our money lent into the business on ex partners behalf back, we worked out a payment plan with the new owner to recoup it. So basically we lent it to someone else hoping they were more responsible to pay us back.

Since that all went down, that motto has still stayed with me. Perhaps because we have a person out there that owes us money. We have not really been able to collect on it, he is definitely the one with all the money. Mostly because we are now across the country and husbands original tactic of changing locks and keeping inventory are not applicable. Instead we are going with the mr. nice guy approach and also appealing to empathy to get our money.

Although our ex partner apparently worked out a side deal where he would get paid in full right away (rather than a payment plan we agreed to), and he has been paid in full the amount he invested into the business. But he is still in Cali so maybe its a proximity thing.

Anyways- Do YOU think its better to owe than be owed? What is your take on this perspective?

OMG! Good luck to me!

September 26th, 2013 at 05:46 pm

Husband just received a call from one of the tenants in my soon to be vacant rental property.

She wants to renew her lease for another year!

She had moved out in September and into a place on the other side of town. When I saw her a week ago about collecting her rent for the last month of her existing lease with us, she said she had been sick for the last few weeks so that's why she had been unresponsive to our calls/texts/emails.

When she called husband today she said she had found mold in the new place, there was construction going on in the apartment next door- the new place is a nightmare for her.

So she and her 4 new room mates want to move back into our place starting Oct 1st!

So the apartment will have NO VACANCY! We are running at 100% full on all the rentals!

I just sent her a new copy of the lease to sign.

YIPPEEE!

AND! My California guy that owes me money called today requesting my address so he could get the money out to me! That's a good sign! I love Georgia. Smile Everything works out for me here. Smile

Monthly Numbers Revisited. Because of YOU!

September 25th, 2013 at 10:35 pm

ok you guys were so horrified by my last post that: A) it made me feel pretty stressed. B) I kept re-running the numbers and had a stern talk with husband.

First, in my defense, being short $1700/month for a few months until I start working is not bad to me because in CA we were short about $6000 a month. This is a breath of fresh air!

So I have been reworking the numbers all day. I tried to get some cash in hand and also reduce our monthly debts.

I called my CA homeowners Insurance Company to see where our refund was because we canceled early. They sent the check to the CA address, but once it gets re-routed it will be $700 to me.

I had an Auction House come by today to pick up extra furniture/antiques to put in their next auction. I wasn't thrilled seeing my mom's antiques load into a truck, but they have been in an attic ever since I got them- so I think I have determined I'll never use them. I will get a check a few weeks after they sell, and that will be for about $500-600 after the house takes their cut.

I still have a Full sized bed sitting in my dining room leftover from CA. When it sells on Craigslist that will be $150. Just hoping it sells.

I have $230 pending in Paypal from recent ebay sales. When it becomes available I can withdraw the money.

I have already purchased everything for the baby. But I have the receipts so I can return anything that I receive duplicates at the baby shower being held in 3 weeks. I have also identified 2 items I can just do without and return anyway. So that will get me back about $100 plus any duplicates from the shower.

I called my CA person who owes me money. He promised to send me $8k this weekend. I'm cautious though because by this time he has already not sent me 2 promised payments totaling $18k. But fingers crossed just the same.

So those actions will put cash in hand. Next I worked to reduce our monthly expenses.

I called our insurance company and cut back on policies. That takes off almost $300/month in expenses. I'll add them back after I start working.

I made husband PROMISE to only buy groceries & gasoline until we get this turned around. If we both stick to that promise we'll save about $800/month.

That brings our monthly shortfall from $1700/month to $600/month.

I emailed a potential tenant for our pending vacant rental unit. She was interested last month while it was still being occupied.I told her it will be move in ready for Oct 2. If she has not found housing yet then I'll clean for 24 hrs straight to get it ready for her! Unfortunately, I am sure she has found housing by now.

I also looked online at my old employer's career site. There are 3 jobs I'm qualified for. I'm NOT going to apply right now though because of a baby coming in 5 weeks. I think it would tarnish my reputation with them to come around trying to land a job and expecting weeks off shortly after starting. I appreciate your responses that you think 6-8 weeks will be timely for me to start working again.

I appreciate that you reminded me to shop around for Health Insurance. I am holding off counting on Obamacare because it seems equally likely to be delayed as to be enacted at this point. I am also not comfortable changing my insurance so close to giving birth. I am leery of undisclosed maternity clauses, or my hospital being out of network or something where the lack of coverage costs me money in the end.

Oh and Laura- I will be breast feeding and I have 17 cloth diapers! I'm doing those for non-financial reasons, but glad that my frugal friends think it's a good idea!

So that's what I did all day. I did good, right?

New Budget- the Numbers are NOT Working

September 25th, 2013 at 04:18 pm

OK, so I have spent this morning mulling over our monthly budget, trying to tweak numbers.

Its not awful, but its negative for a little while.

Before California, after paying my 401k & Health Insurance, I was taking home $1875/ month from my job. We were also living off $2000/month rental income. So our living expenses were $3875/month.

However- our NEW living expenses budget will be $5405/month because we have an added $1530 COBRA bill now.

Currently husband & I are without jobs. When the rentals are all full-they bring in $3700/month after insurance/mortgage.

So if we use up all rental income every month we are short $1705 a month. We can curb a few hundred a month maybe from our lifestyle- I'm not really sure because we have our first baby coming in 5 weeks. So we might be trading lifestyle expenses for baby expenses.

And obviously we cannot use 100% of the rental income every month to live off- nothing would be saved for repairs or savings.

So we need additional income.

Husband has a court date in mid December to qualify for disability. He has been applying for 2 years now- and this is the final step (we have been told). He feels confident he will get it but nothing is 100% sure.

If he gets it- our income will boost by $1200/month.

In December we will once again be property manager for the rental property we gave to FIL (still gets me mad to think about) and that will bring in $180/month.

I am working on a side business that will conservatively bring in about $500/month after expenses. However- it will require about $2k in immediate start up costs and take about 5 months to produce product. So that wont be anything for a while.

After ALL of those come to fruition- we will have a surplus of $175 a month for savings.

Oh jeez. I have to get a job. ASAP.

I'm wondering when a realistic time is to start a job after having a baby? Is 2 months realistic? Husband will be home to care for the baby.

I know my old employer will try to find something for me when I am ready to return. It's a matter of something being open. Often there are entry level jobs open...that's the same job I took when I started with them. But I guess that's what I will take to stop the hemorrhaging of money. A job will REDUCE our monthly bill by the cost of COBRA too- it will take OFF $1532 a month.

A job will solve everything. OMG! A job will instantly give us $1700 a month in savings BEFORE my salary. I was burned out when I resigned, but for that kind off financial relief I would return tomorrow if I wasn't pregnant.

I was really hoping we could live off the rental income until I found a job that I wanted. But putting it down on paper tells me "no".

So it appears that for the next 3 months we will live off 100% of the rental income, and still be racking up about $1700/month on credit cards until January when hopefully disability kicks in.

At that time we will be living off credit cards about $500/month.

January is when I will start looking for a job, hopefully I'll be employed by March or April.

The only caveat is that our biggest income producing property will be vacant in October. The tenants are moving out. It will take us about 3 days to clean it and then we can start showing it. Hopefully it will rent for November 1. So we are short $1800/month for the month of October. However- I have been in the unit recently- the tenants have DESTROYED one of the ANTIQUE, Floor to ceiling Wood mantles original to the house. I was stunned, hysterical and furious when I saw that and if it cannot be repaired (which I don't think it can- we are keeping the full $1800 deposit.) That mantle is for another post though.

ok! Fun times ahead! Cant wait! I am going to go have a pity party now.

Credit Scores and Criminal History-Lessons Learned

September 24th, 2013 at 10:46 am

I had a wake up call in California, regarding credit and personal history following you to impact decisions and options years later.

I was under the general impression that once you get 1 or 2 credit cards, a house, a car and don't work in a field that checks your credit, then you were done needing to maintain your credit. You had everything that credit could get you. Maintaining a good credit score was mostly just a habit or point of pride after so many years of building it. I have maintained my credit as a point of pride. I didn't think I would need it again.

Ummm...not true. I saw the consequences of poor credit even for people that seemed like they shouldn't really need to worry about it. These people had other strong factors like income and recent success that would be taken into consideration.

When I was looking to escape California, my ex business partner said he really wanted to buy me out. But he couldn't due to his poor credit. He owned a home, paid cash for his cars, paid his bills...but although he REALLY wanted to buy me out he had no options. I thought "where there is a will there is a way". After all, he got to own his home by having his fiance buy it in her name using her credit. I thought "There are always alternatives".

Not always.

No bank would help him.
No hard money lender would help him.
I would not help him (and I really wanted out!)

So ex-business partner found a new business partner. New partner had a business already, he had established income. New partner was enthusiastic and really wanted to make this work.

New partner approached my owner/financing lender to try and assume my debt. He offered 20% down and was willing to go up to 10% interest rate. But unknown to me, new partner also had poor credit. My owner/financier called me and said "no way- this guys credit is awful and he has a criminal background. I am looking at a huge default and headache by taking him on." (seems the criminal background was from DUI's on the guys record.)

The new partner tried to get a hard money lender. nope. Couldn't get one. Doors were closing faster than we could think of options to pursue.

I called a realtor contact because at that point it seemed I needed to put the building on the market. The realtor said he had already been contacted by my ex business partner looking for lending help. But there were no options for someone with poor credit.

The realtor said to me "TashaC, I could get YOU a loan easily. You have great credit and rental property income. But without good credit, these guys will never finds anyone to lend them money. I know a hard money lender who lends out about four million a year, but I wont even approach him about someone with bad credit, and a criminal record? No way."

That conversation was a bit of a turning point for me. Here I had people who had established themselves, cars, houses, families, jobs and they couldn't get what they wanted due to poor credit histories. And with my ex business partner- I know it was from old mistakes years ago that he just never bothered to clean up, and never tried to establish new credit. He just stopped using credit and started paying cash. His credit score wasn't from recent credit mistakes.

It was interesting because I always figured you tried a new less appealing avenue until you decided the sacrifice was too great, or you got what you wanted. You cant get a loan with an ideal rate due to credit? You took a higher interest rate. Or you put more money down. You cant get a bank loan at all, you go with owner financing. You cant get that? You go with a hard money lender. But it seems that there is a bottom where you just cant get anything at all, and for both these guys, credit was a deciding factor.

And now- about Criminal Histories: I know a lot of people with criminal histories. Nothing chronic, just a mishap resulting in a few days in jail or court dates. Ranging from DUI's to drug dealing. It was always something that occurred in their early twenties and they have since moved on from it.

I always figured society gives you a "freebie" regarding a criminal conviction. These people I know all have families, they own cars, houses, have jobs. Consequences of their past don't seem to follow them. I thought a criminal conviction on your record resulted in someone saying "hmmm...I see that you were convicted of a minor crime back in 2002, but no other crimes since...seems that was a one time thing and not a character trait. Okay, you are approved (for whatever you are trying to do/attain)."

That seems to not be the case. Criminal backgrounds do follow you and prevent you from opportunities. The lender I discussed options with regarding the new partner, and the realtor both reacted as though a criminal background was a slammed door. There was no more discussion, no taking anything into consideration.

I'm glad I learned this because I always thought I had a "freebie" out there waiting for me. A slap on the wrist to use up with no real consequences. I figured I would use it one day. I'm glad I know now before I found out the hard way.

So those are my important lessons learned. Credit is always important, and jail time follows you forever.

And as for the property I was trying to unload? New business partner got cash from family and bought the place for what I owed. We have worked out an agreement that he will make payments to me regarding the down payment I paid. Somehow I became the bank. Where there is a will there is a way. We'll see how that works out.

Craigslisting all this new furniture

September 23rd, 2013 at 02:14 pm

So we moved to California. We planned to live there about 2 years. We actually lived there for 5 months. We decided to leave our current stuff in our GA home, and buy furniture in CA.

We bought a Tempurpedic bed. We bought a huge TV (which was lost by the moving company). We bought a new couch, and a new recliner. The rest of the house was furnished with thrift store/antique store finds.

When it came time to move back to GA, The only thing we really wanted was the Tempurpedic bed, recliner and TV. Since we needed a moving company for those 3 items, we added in a lot of other stuff and figured we'll sort it out in GA.

The moving company delivered the stuff late last week.


Some stuff was picked up on our curb by passerby as free stuff.

After 2 days of craigslist with no success, I got impatient and called a local auction house. They came out and said my stuff has no real value because it is all modern and reproductions. Some stuff might sell for $100 each. Ouch considering I paid 2 - 4x that amount just a few months before. And then the auction house said their fee is 35%! So for $700 worth of stuff, I'll recoup a fraction.

I kept on with the Craigslisting. Finally, yesterday I got a bite. A young couple came to look at my couch, which they bought. And they bought my entertainment center! So that's $250 I collected for $550 worth of items. Better than the auction house.

Then tonight I have a girl coming to look at a table! I have it listed for $150- exactly what I paid for it. I'll go down to $100 on it. If that sells its a pretty great money recoup. Better than the auction house.

Anything else that does not sell on craigslist is being picked up Wed to go to the Auction House.

I'm going through my attic today to see if there are more items to add to the Auction House pick up. If nothing else the auction house will be a cool experience.








Dog Entry

September 23rd, 2013 at 01:24 pm

ok, so at some point I will go into more detail sharing all that I learned from our failed business venture. But right now I want to look forward and think about our next few steps. This post might be all over the place as I sort things out in my head.

First: our animal situation. It is always important to introduce new family members! We still have Tylene (Thai), a rottweiler we rescued from a shelter in NY (that took a lot of dedicated people to get her to GA for us and a lot of trust on our part that she was sane and a good fit for the family). But she is great! We have had her about 4 yrs. She did have a toe removed last year for cancer. We were told it will come back in a few years on another toe. And so forth. So we hope to have a few more years with her.

We lost Casey Jones a yr and half ago when she slipped her collar/leash on a busy road and was hit by a car. I was walking her and it was really devastating. She felt no pain.

We just lost Copi 3 weeks ago. She was a senior and ultimately had cancer in her heart, liver and lungs. She was acting normal one day, and the next she was showing all kinds of weird symptoms. We put her down when it was determined she was in a lot of pain and a natural death would be very ugly for her. That was hard and I still cry over her being gone. We had her for 11 years.

We added Bocephus (Bo) to our clan about a year ago when we lost Casey Jones. He came from a small pit bull rescue that was local. He is hyper but trying to have manners. He is not friendly with strange dogs unless introduced formally to them (he will not tolerate a dog running up to him to sniff), so that is a challenge we are always working on.

So we are short a dog right now. We normally have 3. We went to the Humane Society a few days ago but I just want another Copi and didn't see any with the potential for that. Our local shelter is a low kill and told me that the 1 dog I was sort of into would probably be adopted within a week. She had just arrived the day before. I decided with the baby coming to just hold off on a third dog and not deal with all the hyperness and training that goes into a new dog. I am pretty sure a new dog will "appear" in our lives in the next few months anyways. It seems like thats what happens a lot.


Tylene and Bo sitting on our front porch

After a long hiatus...I'm back. Humbled.

September 22nd, 2013 at 03:45 pm

Hello Everyone,
I am humbly returning after 4-5 years away from this website. I was never in better control or in a better frame of mind than when I was regularly blogging here.

For the veterans of this site, this is Gamecock returning. New identity, fresh start. I am sorry I disapeared unexpectedly so long ago- I got caught up in large decisions and big purchases. I don't think I wanted to go through the daily "is this the right thing to do?" that a blog will produce during time intensive renovations and large purchases. Especially since I was uncertain to begin with.

To catch everyone up- buying a 1900 rowhouse, gutting it and building it from the studs up was a GOOD DECISION. This house is AMAZING and has appreciated instantly. This house has given us a good amount of equity.

After this project was completed, we made another GOOD decision to buy a rental duplex. It was a foreclosure in pretty good shape and has brought in a substantial amount of income every month.

After that duplex, we made another GOOD decision to buy a single family house (SFH) as a rental. It has turned out to be a GOLDMINE.

You see why I thought I didnt need this website or blog?

After that, I snowballed a few BAD decisions to get me where I am today.

A week or so after buying the GOLDMINE SFH, my FIL asked if he could have the property so he could get into the rental business. He said he would pay me exactly what I put into it (it was undergoing $45k/2 months time in renovations to finish it out). I said okay and thought I would reinvest the money in another. Well, FIL paid me in small and large chunks at various times over the last year and it was difficult to track and difficult to save. He still owes me about 1/3rd of the money- but the 2/3rd he gave me has been spent. Not re-invested, but SPENT. poof. gone. I finally told him this summer to pay me the remaining amount IN FULL when he has it. What did he do- put small chunks in a bank account with my name in it so I can access it. I think at this rate he will have paid in full in another 12 months.

After that terrible decision, I allowed husband to talk me into taking a large chunk from his payments and invest in a business across the country with our good friends. To give me credit, it took him a YEAR to talk me into this. But sigh. I took most of our liquid cash and put a down payment on a business in California. Our friend was going to be the brains, we were going to be the money. Everyone was going to make TONS of money.

Except our friend was less brains than we expected. Costly mistakes ensued that slowed down profit timelines by WEEKS and exploded the budget.

Except the initial budget was totally inadequate. The realistic budget was 4 times as much as we expected, and we spent EVERYTHING to keep afloat, and racked up $50k in credit card debt to get us through to the first payday.

Except that we were so SURE we were going to make TONS of money that we bought new furniture for our place in California and splurged on high end items, putting them on store charge cards. Then we had to pay thousands of dollars to bring those items back to our fully furnished home in GA and craigslist stuff for a fraction of what we paid.

Except that I trusted husband to run the business and I checked out from the beginning. I had no interest in the industry and I was promised that I didn't have to work and I took advantage of that promise. So I just wrote checks and trusted everything was okay.And I was promised a horse. I never got my horse and I'm bitter that I was manipulated by the promise of a horse.

Except that we got in a GIGANTIC fight with our business partner/friend and promptly everything fell apart. We no longer speak to our good friends that we moved across the country with which to partner up.

Except that I HATED California. I found nothing to like and I was unhappy/homesick/bored every single day. And I was pregnant too. And there are WOLF SPIDERS in CA. They are the size of an actual baby wolf and like to crawl up my drain pipes and hang out in sinks and bathtubs. The internet tells me they are non venomous so I learned to see them and ask them to not be there the next time I entered the room. Usually they would stick around just to add stress to my day. I'm not going to discuss the rattlesnake population that caused husband to buy rattlesnake protectant boots that he never used because we never saw a rattlesnake. But we saw some small wildfires and heard about decimating wildfires nearby. California is NO JOKE.

Except that we sold our interest in the business to someone for exactly the price that we had borrowed and took a verbal promise from this investor that we would get paid the rest of our investment to break even in certain sums over the next 10 months. We have received 1 payment so far 4 weeks later than agreed on and for less than half the amount agreed. Our former business partner negotiated to get himself paid back IN FULL PLUS $16k out of the deal.He negotiated this on the side unbeknown to us and we found out when our first payment was delayed because the guy paid the ex partner so much already.

But as of 3 weeks ago we are back in Georgia and back in our HOME! There is value in quality of life, and my life has dramatically brightened since coming home.

So that is where I stand today. $30k in credit card debt. $5k in the bank. A roof that leaked while we were gone causing $10k in damage. A baby coming in 5 weeks. And a husband that LOVED California and is convinced that if we just move to a different area, we can run the business successfully and make TONS of money. He muses about this on a semi-regular basis and if he really pursues it I might divorce him. True- infuriating-story.

Neither of us are working right now. This is the first time we will be DEPENDENT on the rental income rather than using it as a supplement. So this will be interesting.

But you know what? In California we spent 5 months FLOATING bills. We were making partial payments on everything from electricity to credit cards just to get through until payday. Guess what? In Georgia we can pay our bills IN FULL. It feels SO GOOD to not avoid the mailbox, to not feel dread as I open the bills. It feels SO GOOD to mail off payments in full now.

ok, so that's my story. Looking forward to coming back to this blog and returning to the GOOD decisions that this website instilled in me and taught.


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