Good as any, Better than most

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Bit Loss

With the move, this site’s status will be up in the air for a little while, until I decide on a hosting solution.  Right now, it’s packed away on a virtual server at work.  I’ve yet to even look for a place to put it later, but my successor here will let it be until I get it moved.

Official move details:
Loading truck Tuesday the 30th at 8am
Unloading truck Friday morning

We’ll be driving inbetween those days, since our lease doesn’t start until that Friday.  We may be making one last trip to the hometown to say fare thee well.

Until next time…

Monday, January 15, 2007

Off the road again

And we’re home.

Winter weather delayed our flight back to O’Hare a few hours, so we didn’t arrive there until 10:40pm.  The last bus leaves O’Hare at 11pm.  This made for a mad rush from the C terminal to the bus terminal, but we made it with 30 seconds to spare (almost enough time to actually sit down).  We got back in this morning at around 2am to the wonderful winter storm.

On the upside, we put our deposit down on a duplex.  That is, our deposit will be down when they get the mail (which won’t be tomorrow, no mail today).  It’s smallish, compared to a house, but I think all of our belongings will fit.  We saw some nice places, but I think this one will fit our budget the best.

Two weeks left here, and I don’t feel like doing a single bit of work.  They haven’t made any in-roads on finding my replacement, or finding a replacement for my co-worker so he can be promoted.  I feel bad for him on that aspect, but I’ve come to realize that’s the way things work here.  There probably won’t be someone to fill my position until after I’m gone.

As for moving, this cold snap has somewhat alleviated my fear of our freezer being filled with thawing meat on the trip, in the back of the moving truck.  If it stays this cold for the next couple weeks, there will be no problem with it at all.  I think we should come up with a good method of moving it, regardless of the weather though.  It’s a huge weight, that I’m not really willing to have to pay for.

That’s the theme for this whole thing… “A huge weight, that I’m not really willing to pay for.”

Thursday, January 11, 2007

On the road again

We leave for Albany tonight.  We’re driving out, then flying back on Sunday.

I have basically Saturday to find a place to live.  I have a few good prospects and a couple bad ones.  Hopefully one of them will be perfect, and I won’t mind spending a year paying rent again.

Rent.

Bleh.  I built so I wouldn’t have to give my money to some landlord with nothing to show for it.  I’m not really keen on going back to that way of life again.  3 years of living in my house, being able to make any changes that I want is going to be rough to overcome, but I guess it’s for the greater good.

Anyone want to buy a house today?

Saturday, January 06, 2007

That’s not a bus, its an SUV!

I’ve spent the day putting up drywall in the garage.  I am once again sure that the money we spent paying someone to do it when we built the house is 150% worth it.

It’s messy, heavy and precision work.  My shaky hands, arms and legs don’t like that combination.  At least we’ve got it all up.  A little bit of gap fixing with drywall compound and it’ll look great.  The last of our visible insulation is covered!

I’m currently having a dilemma about the actual move.  We’ve gotten a couple quotes from movers that hover right around the $3000-3500 range.  My younger brother has a desire to own his own transit company.  He wants to rent a trailer for a weekend, buy a $600 22’ cube truck box, mount the box, and move me.  With me providing all of the cash, and paying him for his time, to the tune of $3000 total.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d really like to help my brother out.  But, I don’t want this kind of decision right now.  He’s asking me to front him money, so he can get the trailer setup and ready to haul, and then moving me in 4 days, only I have to provide all the labor.  I’m about ready to give him the $600, tell him “OK, there’s my part of your hauling company, good luck, call me when you need a cosigner”, and just hire the professional movers.  Would that make me a bad brother?

Anyway, enough about moving.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

This is not a resolution

I didn’t resolve to post more this year.

I just find myself with something to say, for 3 days in a row.

The more I do to prepare for the move, the less I want to move.  This is part of the reason I haven’t actively looked for a new job.  I’m quite simply too comfortable living where I do, working where I do, and acting how I am.

Mortgages, movers and documentation, that was my day.  I’ve never moved as a home owner, so I have no idea what the best way to go about it is.  I know that I want to find a house and move into it.  Of course, that means I’ll be paying a double mortgage between when I find a new place, and when my place sells.  Conventional wisdom tells me to find an apartment in the new area, and try to get a short lease term.  This of course means never really unpacking, and having to move again in a (hopefully short) future time.

My next youngest brother is expressing interest in being my mover.  Meaning I’d pay him to haul my stuff.  Of course, because he’s my brother, I’m not just going to get a bill from him, I’m going to have to pay for each item as it arises.  Tolls, fuel, the trailer.  He doesn’t have the money to actually start his dream of a transit company.  I want to help him out, but do I want to risk all of my worldly possessions in the process?

As far as possessions, I’m working on paring it down.  We’ve found homes for one of our couches, our queen size bed, my table-saw, our table/chairs, our entertainment center, a dresser, and possibly the other entertainment center.  I’m still riding the fence on taking a desk of any kind and the futon.  After this weekend, there should be about 20% less stuff in our house.  We should be nearing the point where we can just start stacking everything up in one room and being able to tell how much room we’ll really need to move it all.

Of course, we haven’t even touch the minor home repairs that need to be done to put the house on the market.  I’ve got a few areas of siding to put up outside, the bathrooms and hallways to put trim up, and some painting to do.  We also have continued to debate on whether to take out our wrought iron rail and put in wood, or change it into a half-wall.  Unfortunately, it’s the first thing a buyer will see when they enter the house, so it has to look great.  And any homeowner will tell you looking great = expensive.  In this case, an oak railing for the whole thing would run about $1800.  I’m guessing we could have the half-wall put in for around $600.  Of course, that means we need to find a drywaller that can blend it in, and we need to have him out sometime in the next 3 weeks.

This might be something that gets pushed back until after we leave, and I really don’t want to do that.

There’s naught to do, but keep my chin up, and keep on plowing through items!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

For Sale or For Rent

We own a home in Madison.  We’re moving to Albany.

We built the house.  And by that, I mean we physically built it, with our hands, and the hands of our friends and family.

I’m having a little trouble letting go, wanting to put it on the market.  When I spoke to my boss (and I work for a Property Management company right now), he suggested renting it.

I’ve done some calculations, and I could probably clear around 6% as a cap rate.  But, do we really want to have random renters living in our house?  I was a renter at one point, and my opinion of them is that they don’t care at all about the place they live.  Wear and tear is excessive.  Things get broken or go bad that wouldn’t normally.

It’s a tough choice.  Coupled with the complete uncertainty I feel every time I think about buying a new house, and even temporarily having to pay for 2 mortgages, I’m not sure renting is the best idea either.

Regardless of which direction we go, packing continues.  We keep looking at properties online.  I’ve spent hours scouring job listings for that perfect entry level architecture job for DW.  Hopefully we can find both before the end of the month.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Clogger

That’s me!

The last few months have been a crazy mix of business, and no thoughts of posting here.  That’s no a good reason for a lack of anything, just a good excuse.

We’re moving to Albany, New York.  The thought of picking up all of our stuff (or maybe about half of what we own) and moving it 1000 miles to a new area scares me.

I’m afraid of not knowing anything.  Where’s the post office?  Where are the shipping company offices to pick up missed packages?  Where is the grocery store?  What are my high speed internet options?  Where’s the closest good movie theater?  Which neighborhoods are good?

Throw on top of that starting a new job.  I’m going from being the big fish, to being a minnow in a high speed deep river.

I’m excited, regardless of the fear.  Some of the things that scare me, are things that make going worthwhile.  We’ve been in Madison for just over 9 years now.  Pretty much my whole adult life has been spent here.  I’m not nearly as familiar with the city as some people I know, because I’m a homebody.  I go out to eat occasionally, to the movies, but spend most of my time either at work, or at home.  It’s exciting to move somewhere that’s new.  Career-wise, moving is the best choice I could make.  I could probably remain where I am forever, getting my 4% pay increase every year, fighting for budgetary changes, fixing printers.  Or, I could move to a large company, and have actual technology challenges and growth.

I’m going to miss my coworkers.
I like my coworkers.

This is all about me though.  For me, it’s the right choice, and the right time to make it.

I will try to make more posts, if only to get things written down in front of me to see them.  I’ve got houses to look at, and a job to find for DW.  It’s going to be a busy month!