Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Everyone is buying a house...

Pretty much all of my blogging friends who are about Kyle's and my age are writing about their house adventures.  Either they've bought houses, are closing on houses, or are house-hunting.  Lots of people are even painting inside their houses (PS friends, I want to see pictures!).  This reminded me of something I haven't blogged about simply because I hadn't blogged much at all lately...

...we bought a house, too.

Well, so ours is a very different story.  We've actually lived in our house since we were married (and I've lived in it since the summer before, so three years for me altogether).  But we didn't own the house then.  Waaaaaay back when Kyle and I decided to get engaged, my parents made a pretty good investment on a house in Muncie.  The plan was that they were going to buy a foreclosed house near campus.  My parents and Kyle and I would remodel the house so that it was very, very nice (or at least better than it was when we got it!).  This we did before I even moved in three years ago.  We've lived in it ever since and my sister also stayed in it until she got married a year ago.  Then, after I got my first teaching job, we'd take out a loan and buy the house from my parents.  They would get what they bought it for plus what they put into it.  They wouldn't lose money, and we would HUGELY benefit by living in it rent-free for the first few years and then buying the house for super-cheap after.

So that's exactly what we did!  The paperwork was finalized in March, I believe, but the process began in January.  We didn't mortgage the house.  Instead, my parents sought a lawyer and deeded the house to us for free.  Then, officially owning the house, we were able to take out a home-equity loan for up to a certain percentage of what the house is worth (trust me, that's a lot more than we paid for it!), so we were able to use the equity loan to pay my parents AND have a couple extra thousand dollars to continue making improvements.  Also, by deeding the house and doing a home-equity loan, we were able to avoid closing costs, saving us about $3,000!  

Now I call that a bargain!  We plan to live here for the next few years and after we do some more remodeling upstairs, it'll be big enough to stay in for quite awhile.  We have to at least stay in this house for another two years to avoid having to pay closing costs on the house.  It's part of the home equity contract. 

I hated remodeling the house three years ago, but I do love furnishing and decorating it!  We've since been able to spend most of our money that we put toward the house in making it more our home than anything.  We still, however, have a lot of remodeling on our plate if we are to make an even bigger profit on the house later.  With the surplus funds from the loan, we're hoping this summer can make this possible.  We have an entire floor of the house that is virtually unused space right now.   Did I mention it also has an extra bathroom that just needs a date with the plumber?  The upstairs renovation is our next big project, but there are also some other things I'd like to see done with the house soon:

1) sealed and cleaned up basement with a FINISHED food storage room (the old coal room will be great for that)
2) a remodeled screened-in porch at the front of the house (perfect for summertime and plants)
3) painting the outside of the house to work on our curb appeal (when I bring this up, Kyle gets overwhelmed.  We're thinking maybe next summer)

Working on our old house is never done.  For pictures from the first remodeling process and updates, check out my Facebook album called "This Old House."

Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Upcoming Week

So much for a break!  The post-school week is really panning out to be busier than a typical school week!  But, the most important thing is that it begins to really knock off some things from our to-do list for the summer:

Saturday (today):  going to the gym, going out with the missionaries, cleaning the house, laundry, making dinner (first time in ages!  I'm kind of excited!)

Sunday:  church then going to Kyle's parents' house in Indy to stay over for his dad's birthday

Monday:  spending Memorial Day with Kyle's parents

Tuesday:  Last Teacher Day at school then date night with Kyle

Wednesday:  ANOTHER day in Indy!  Dropping off my wedding band to be plated, Kyle's physical for an Adderall renewal, Kyle's dentist appointment, probably shopping in between?  Yes!

Thursday:  Garage sales in Fort Recovery with my mom and sister

Friday:  Kyle's gall bladder consultation in Muncie

Saturday:  Friends' graduation parties in Dunkirk

What a week!  Hopefully I can get some organizing out of the way this week as well.  I'm so glad to be able to take care of these things that needed to get done and spending time with people we don't get to see too often during the school year :)

Sunday, May 20, 2012

The Blog Continues...

Today I have decided that the blog will continue.  Yes, I'm sure everyone thought I forgot about it (actually, I kind of did).  But now that summer's coming, I think I will try to renew my endeavors to blog.

So I'm going to give it another shot.  

We have one more week of school and then my first year is done.  That's pretty hard to believe!  I haven't blogged much about school (more out of, duh, legality than anything, of course) but there's not been too much to put up about it even if I did blog more often.  The first year was both easy and hard at the same time.  That's a little confusing, huh?  Well, it was a heck of a lot easier than student teaching was, I can tell you that.  Mostly because in student teaching I had no clue what I was doing and just trying to survive.  This time I had some idea of what to do, and each month just got easier.  I can't imagine how much different it will be in 10  years or so!  Probably lots!

It was a lot harder though in that this time, I was truly responsible and accountable for that whole year of a kid's education.  If I messed up, I couldn't rely on someone else to take charge for me.  It was all me.  I think that made me work all the harder, though.  And I'm glad for that.  

I'm feeling pretty darn accomplished now that I've got one year under my belt!  Plus, the end-of-year grading is almost finished!  I've got about 30 or so more projects coming in and then we'll call it a wrap.

As for summer plans, here's just a small sample of what we've got planned already (plus much more to come):

1) Doctor's appointments.  Very neglected!  This ranges from physicals to dentist visits to gall bladder surgery for Kyle.  So we get lots of doctor bills to pay...Yay (not).

2) Finish landscaping.  This is almost done for the year...just a few more finishing touches, and then I'll post photos (I promise).

3) Baseball games.  We're definitely going to a Reds game in June and probably will hit up some Indian games at some point in the summer.  Sounds like a great time to me!

4) Garage saling.  Both going to them and hosting them.

5) Organizing.  Cleaning out all of our closets, the fridge, the desk, our dressers, the garage...everything!  

6) Movies and TV shows.  It's already on our summer itinerary to see The Avengers again as well as The Dark Knight Rises and the new Spiderman movie.  Plus, I think we're going to invest in Hulu Plus so we can continue to watch The Office, Bob's Burgers, and Downton Abbey.  Who knows what new shows we can find?

7) Camping.  I think we'll go back to Clifty Falls and actually camp this time instead of staying in a hotel.  Don't blame me for wanting to stay in a hotel last time!  It was below freezing!  And sorry, I don't mind camping but I am NOT a Boyscout!

8) Summer reading.  I have a whooooooole list of books that I'm dying to get started on!  I'm reading The Hobbit now per Kyle's request.  I'm just starting to like it a little bit :)

9) Remodeling.  This is going to be the BIG summer project this year...remodeling the upstairs of our house (eeeeeeeeeek!).

10) Cooking.  Kyle's been on dinner duty pretty much the whole school year.  He does this while I'm in school and I do it during the summer so he can write.  It's a beautiful arrangement.

11) Lots of late-night summer walks.  I love talking walks with Kyle when it's nice out.  We've been doing them more often now that the weather's gotten warmer and I'm so excited for next week when we can do them every day if we wanted!

12) Best thing?  Getting paid every other week to do all of these things :)

Enjoy the last week of school!  I know I will!