So when last I wrote I had made an offer on a house. They accepted.
I had the inspection on the 23rd and it showed very few problems. The major 4 were: 3 cracked tiles on the roof and flashing loose, no screen door off kitchen, the fire door between garage and house was made insecure when they put in a peephole and a gate is very loose.
I am waiting for the roof inspector to give an estimate on replacing those 3 tiles but then I am going to ask for all of those and the items from the past report (a few pieces of dry rot) to be repaired. I already know they will do all on the pest report.
I have been trying to plan a budget around the mortgage payment, expected income from my FT job and known expenses. I called the gas and electric companies for an estimate of what the current bill averages have been for the past year. I know sewer/water/garbage rates every month. I have estimates made for the next year worth of expenses. Any estimates that come in under will be swept into a house account for those months when things are higher or for repairs or things I want for the house.
We are getting a raise in July of 3%. 1% automatically goes into retirement as mandated by the union contract but the other 2% will go into my 401k and 457. I don't need it so easy way to save more for retirement.
I need to buy a refrigerator, washer, dryer and am looking at replacing the water heater before I move in. I'd love to replace all the flooring but that just can't happen before I move in - it lowers my reserves beyond what I am comfortable.
I plan to rent one of the extra rooms for either $450 plus half the utilities or $600 even (which should be just about the same). I am hoping to put new carpet the extra room I want to rent out and with fresh paint it would look very nice. Since it is a smaller room I might be able to do it with just a remnant.
I called a friend who is a contractor and asked if he has any crew members who want to pick up some extra cash and paint the inside of the house. He said yes there are. Once I have the keys we will go and buy paint and all they need to paint the inside of the house for me before I move in. It should take 2 days or less. I am thinking white for most of the house, a dark blue accent in the kitchen walls as very little shows but would make the kitchen pop, and gray in the living room-dining room.
I have received my first housesitting payment of 2015. It was for drop in care on 12/31 and the morning of 1/1. I am waiting for another payment more from this client for this past weekend, another clients payment for three days the last week of the year. I am currently on a house sit that will pay enough for the dryer I need to buy for the house.
I have several other drop in care appointments this month. So I will more than meet my goal of $700 earned this month - 11 months to go!
I have been pulling together all my tax papers for the business. I pay all my memberships, insurances, business license, po box etc. in December so it makes it easy to put into my tax papers once I print out all the receipts. I do my paperwork monthly for mileage and income so all I need to do is finish Decembers mileage report, hit print on the reports and the year is done. Once I get my w2 from my employer I can send it all to the accountant.
Wow so much going on and 2015 budgets
January 7th, 2015 at 01:56 am
January 7th, 2015 at 06:11 am 1420611073
My favourite trick is to use the colour palette from Benjamin Moore which transfers to Best Buy brand. BM paint is more costly because they have very knowledgeable staff and a huge advertising budget. It helps to use the correct product for the different rooms. The best paint job relies on how well the walls have been prepped to ready for paint. You might take the information from the listing, photos, or cell photos of a couple of rooms, noting whether they have south facing windows for example, and ask staff for colour palette suggestions/recommendations.
Your agent can make arrangements for a visit for window measurements, pictures, baseboard, floor details etc.
January 7th, 2015 at 07:14 am 1420614841
January 7th, 2015 at 06:24 pm 1420655091