Holiday
We made it through the holiday reasonably well.
Friday night we went out to dinner with my Mom, my older sister and my younger sister and her family. Not a bad evening actually but my younger sister just grates on my nerves. She’s so opinionated and
unaccepting of other points of view at times. What really
irked me was that when the check came for dinner, my Mom took out her credit card to pay but nobody else but me gave her money towards the bill. And I paid more than my share.
After dinner my Mom wanted us to come back to her house for cake. My wife and I
couldn't as we had to get the house ready for some prospective buyers that were coming by the next day.
Early Saturday morning, the wife had an appointment for a cat scan to help diagnose some of the health issues she’s experiencing. After that, we went out for our usual Saturday morning breakfast (although a bit later than normal).
Next on our to-do list was grocery shopping – another thing we almost always do on Saturday morning. Something to note here: has anyone else noticed how expensive groceries have gotten recently? I remember being able to get out of the store for less than $100 for a weeks worth of groceries most of the time no less than a year or so ago. Now, I’m lucky if I keep it under $120. This past Saturday, what with buying stuff for a barbecue, my bill was about $160! That is a very good example of how cost of living has inflated across the board.
After we got back from the shopping, it was time to clean the house (another usual Saturday function). We had to do an especially good job since we had prospective buyers coming to look at the house later that day and this week. I think we had 3 large garbage bags of junk we threw out at the end of that process.
The people came to look at the house and were gone by 3:45PM. We chilled out for awhile and then I went out to barbecue a chuck steak for dinner. I used a special seasoning blend I have and a basting at the end with Jack Daniels Steak Sauce. I also grilled some home made garlic bread. All in all, dinner was heavenly.
On Sunday, we slept in a bit late but I went out to get rolls and donuts for breakfast. In my town, that’s a traditional Sunday breakfast thing – we call it “rolls and buns”. Growing up, we almost always had rolls and buns for breakfast on Sunday morning after church.
In the afternoon, we went to Mom’s for a casual barbecue. I was the chef for the day. I grilled some
pre-packaged baby back ribs (Tony
Siragusa’s brand) for an appetizer (they were not bad really – my home made ribs take 4-6 hours to make but are way better). Next was some
Johnsonville bratwurst, hot dogs and hamburgers. As sides, we had coleslaw, potato salad and noodle salad. A pretty good meal if I say so myself. Later, we had some watermelon and toasted some marshmallows. A very enjoyable day.
Monday was busy for a holiday. My son left early with my wife’s Mom to go to NYC to tour the naval ships in for Fleet Week. That left us home alone to get some things done.
We started with running out to do some minor shopping. The wife needed some shorts and I needed sneakers. On the way back, we stopped for some White Castle hamburgers – YUM!
When we got back, we cleaned out our spare room off of the kitchen. Man, we had a mess in there! Six big bags of garbage! And that was only ¾’s of the room since we left the food pantry shelves for later.
After that, the boy came home but went back out with his grandmother to a barbecue. We stayed home to relax.
We put on a movie and chilled out in our gloriously A/C cooled living room. One thing led to another and we were fucking in the bedroom in less than an hour.
Later, I grilled some chicken that I had marinated earlier with a fajita based marinade. It came out great and we had salad and baked potatoes with it.
It’s Thursday now and we had another couple in to look at the house this past Tuesday. They made an offer yesterday that is above our lowest price we’d take but not quite what we expect to get. We instructed the realtor to counter with a price $34k more than what they offered. We’ll see what they come back with but I think I’ll take it if they offer half of that $34k more.
Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Labels: barbecue, food, holiday, house, mom, son, wife
Today's News
The big news for me now is that we have decided to sell our house. We just can’t afford to keep it anymore. Taxes, water, oil, upkeep are just more than our income can handle and still live reasonably comfortable anymore.
We’
ve been living there for 10 years. My aunt (Dad’s sister) owned the house for many years. As she got older and Alzheimer’s began to take its toll, Dad asked us to move in to the second floor apartment to help take care of her. She passed away in December of 1999, 11 days before my Dad succumbed to cancer. He was her sole heir so my Mom inherited the house in Dad’s stead. We bought the house from Mom in the summer of 2000. Taxes were about $1,000 a year less than they are now. Oil and water were both about half of what we now pay.
Over that time, I’
ve been out of work 3 different times and it’s been a struggle to keep up with paying the bills and still live comfortably. We are actually about 6 months behind on the mortgage payments, oil bill and water bill. Selling the house is our best option to get out of this hole.
Thank God that our mortgage is through a very friendly local bank and they are working with us to allow us to sell. That way, at least we’ll get something out of the investment we made. If we sell for market rates (anywhere between $250k and $325k) we’ll make out pretty well even after paying off the mortgage and the bills. My best guess is that we’ll have somewhere between $45k and $90k left (even after putting some money away for the boy’s schooling). I want to invest about $10k to $20k of what’s left for future consideration and keep the rest for liquidity.
I told my Mom that we had to sell and she was cool with it. She told my brother and he called to tell us that he wants us to move in with him. He and my Mom had bought a very nice 2 family house last year that is two blocks from where we live now. It has an attic space that can fairly easily be converted to a loft apartment with the addition of some heat, a bathroom and a kitchenette. So he decided to offer us his apartment, he’ll move up to the attic space and we’ll have the 7 room second floor.
I’m very grateful to my brother as his offer solved a ton of problems for us: We won’t have to look for an apartment (with our credit issues that could be very tough). We won’t have to move out of town to find something we could afford. We won’t have to switch my son to another school since we’ll still be in the same district. I know my brother will be reasonable on the rent. We’ll be there to keep an eye on Mom (she’s 75 and not that mobile).
A few immediate concerns are that first, we have to keep paying the bank something towards the mortgage (not that hard and we are doing that now). Second, we have to pay the oil bill so that we at least get an oil delivery to get us through the summer (we use oil to heat hot water). Third, we missed one home insurance payment and the company canceled our policy so we have to get a new one. These are the most pressing issues and the one I am most concerned about is the insurance.
Other than that, life is not too bad. I think the temp job I’m currently holding may turn into a permanent gig. I like it there. My boss is cool, the office is great and the commute is pretty easy. The job is almost a no
brainer, too.
The boy’s hockey has settled down for now. We had no option but to have him tryout in other programs since the program he played in for the last two years is collapsing. He made a B team at the program we wanted most but it’s is a fair distance for us to go. He’ll do well there but it’s gonna cost us about $700 more a year in tuition. The new program is better managed, larger and dare I say a better class of people involved as well. The best part is that we are going back to Lake Placid again next season! We had so much fun there this past year and we are excited to go back. I definitely have a number of things I want us to do there this year and number one on the list is the bobsled ride!
My health has settled down. My blood pressure is good and I have had no chest pains at all. Besides having to remember to take 4 different pills at different times each day my recovery has been good. I have been going to my exercise program almost religiously but I have had trouble staying on my diet. That’s the hardest part but I am resolving here and now to get better at that.
My relationship with the wife is a bit odd lately… She’s been bothered by some of her own health problems and it’s caused her to be testy and short with both the boy and me. We’
ve argued a few times and they’
ve been serious enough that I stopped talking to her twice. She gets so worked up sometimes and then she just lashes out at us for little things. What I really don’t like is that she curses and calls us names. I never, ever do that to her or the boy and I really don’t want her to do that to us. She makes me angry when she does that and when she acts like the martyr in a situation or an argument.
Labels: bills, boy, brother, dad, debt, heart, hockey, house, mom, money, move, recovery, sale
