The Dow closed below 7500 today. I am so not logging into my retirement accounts. But who cares about retirement accounts right now, anyway? I am just glad to be employed.
In other news, I am not busier this week, really, but for some reason I am feeling more underwater than usual. There was some unexpected extra work that cropped up on one of my projects, and I finished another project on Sunday that I've been working on for about six weeks, but other than that it's all business as usual. Why the perpetual stress-headache?
Probably the holiday on Monday (President's Day) threw me off. I did a bit of freelance work but not much, and worked at my moonlighting gig in the evening, but my spouse and my kid were home that day so it felt like a play day. Also, I took most of the day off today to spend time with my sister, which was long-scheduled and totally enjoyable. And tomorrow I'm knocking off work early to go on a weekend trip. So there has been less time in which to do the same amount of work. Oh, and I had to run around picking up medical results and getting blood tests and so on, nothing major, just putting in the extra time it takes to be a responsible cancer survivor. Having health issues can really be like having another part-time job. And I'm taking a class this semester and I'm trying to stay caught up with that. Also, this blog, which I neglect terribly, has seen some activity lately--a new advertiser, and a few other inquiries.
Okay, that's a long list. I'm allowed to feel a bit overwhelmed. I'm pretty much caught up now, though, and I am looking forward to seeing some old friends this weekend. One is a friend I've known since I was a kid. The other one I've known since 1996. So it will be nice to catch up, meet one friend's new fiancee, see the other friend's little boy.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
19 February 2009
17 February 2009
House hunt update
We are super discouraged. The first couple houses we liked turned out to have insurmountable problems. One was the right size, but the layout was really weird and couldn't be fixed easily. Also, we both hated the kitchen for different reasons. No matter, this is all part of getting clearer about what we want. I can't live without a bedroom that DOESN'T open into my son's room. My spouse can't live without an eat-in kitchen because he cooks a lot and likes to have company while he cooks.
The next house was much better. It had great flow. I loved the way it looked outside and in. It had a nice yard that backed up on some other nice well-kept yards that had gardens and toys, so we anticipated lots of neighborly playdates where the kids could just climb the fences to play in each other's sand boxes. But it is not much bigger than our current house, although it has 5 bedrooms instead of 3. Also, the basement seemed chronically musty and damp, and there were only a few tiny closets in the whole house. Conclusion: We'd have to use at least one bedroom as a large walk-in closet. We'd be shoehorned into that house from day one. That house was eliminated.
Then we found a house with a nice big yard, gorgeous Victorian woodwork everywhere. Love love love that house. The problem? It is really enormous. I have sort of gotten used to the idea of heating, maintaining, and cleaning all that space, but my partner is adamant that he doesn't want a house that big. We agreed that it would work if we could rent part of the house out. That may be feasible but we're still trying to figure out how to get around the zoning board. Major headache. Meanwhile, we have been trying to decide on this one particular house for several weeks now. Nothing else in our price range is coming on the market. Eventually someone else will buy the house from under us if we don't make a decision. In some ways it would be a relief if it sold to someone else. That's probably a sign that we shouldn't buy it, but we don't see anything else we like.
We are talking about ways to rearrange our current house to make it more livable. I am sad about that. I have been wanting to move for the entire 5 years we've been in this house and I finally finally got M to agree. Now we can't find a house.
I am trying to save money, trying to make a decision about the big house, and hoping more things come on the market soon. Meanwhile I'm starting to get worried that if the economy drops even further, even our very secure jobs will become less secure. And if we did buy a house with a rental unit, what if rents dropped significantly? What if we get a tenant and that tenant loses his/her job? There are many things to be anxious about.
Luckily, work is going well, and we are still employed. We still have an affordable place to live for as long as it takes for us to find something else. We have agreed we're not going to put this house on the market until we're under contract somewhere else, and in the meantime we are slowly getting this house ready to sell.
I'll let you know when we have some movement on the house situation.
The next house was much better. It had great flow. I loved the way it looked outside and in. It had a nice yard that backed up on some other nice well-kept yards that had gardens and toys, so we anticipated lots of neighborly playdates where the kids could just climb the fences to play in each other's sand boxes. But it is not much bigger than our current house, although it has 5 bedrooms instead of 3. Also, the basement seemed chronically musty and damp, and there were only a few tiny closets in the whole house. Conclusion: We'd have to use at least one bedroom as a large walk-in closet. We'd be shoehorned into that house from day one. That house was eliminated.
Then we found a house with a nice big yard, gorgeous Victorian woodwork everywhere. Love love love that house. The problem? It is really enormous. I have sort of gotten used to the idea of heating, maintaining, and cleaning all that space, but my partner is adamant that he doesn't want a house that big. We agreed that it would work if we could rent part of the house out. That may be feasible but we're still trying to figure out how to get around the zoning board. Major headache. Meanwhile, we have been trying to decide on this one particular house for several weeks now. Nothing else in our price range is coming on the market. Eventually someone else will buy the house from under us if we don't make a decision. In some ways it would be a relief if it sold to someone else. That's probably a sign that we shouldn't buy it, but we don't see anything else we like.
We are talking about ways to rearrange our current house to make it more livable. I am sad about that. I have been wanting to move for the entire 5 years we've been in this house and I finally finally got M to agree. Now we can't find a house.
I am trying to save money, trying to make a decision about the big house, and hoping more things come on the market soon. Meanwhile I'm starting to get worried that if the economy drops even further, even our very secure jobs will become less secure. And if we did buy a house with a rental unit, what if rents dropped significantly? What if we get a tenant and that tenant loses his/her job? There are many things to be anxious about.
Luckily, work is going well, and we are still employed. We still have an affordable place to live for as long as it takes for us to find something else. We have agreed we're not going to put this house on the market until we're under contract somewhere else, and in the meantime we are slowly getting this house ready to sell.
I'll let you know when we have some movement on the house situation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Explore Northeast and Mid Atlantic Personal Finance Bloggers
