Crystal G

Dad’s doctor from his most recent visit to the Wound Care Center said that his leg should be healed completely within 2 months they think. This is good news. They are also pondering doing surgery on his leg again to remove some varicose veins which might relieve some of the pressure and improve the circulation to help prevent some of these ulcers. While I am not opposed to the idea, it always scares me when my dad goes into surgery. It hurts even worse when I see him waking up from anesthesia and he’s weak and disoriented. I think I cried last time.

House is doing well. I’ve got some razor blades so I can start tearing up this carpet in my room today and see what the entire floor looks like. If the whole thing is in decent shape, I’ll put down a natural finish and start moving furniture in my room finally.

The water softener acts up now and again. We’ve never had one of these before so we’re learning about them and how to maintain them.

Today is the first day it’s rained since our settlement. It’s usually a dry season around here in September/October though. I’m just glad to see the rain.

An semi-amusing story… dad was doing laundry and hanging clothes up outside on the clothesline. When they dried and he took them down, he laid the basket on the ground to go do something else before going inside. Our dog decided it was the perfect place to do his business. Dad was pissed. He had to wash them all over again and hang them up to dry. We don’t have a dryer hooked up yet because we need my cousin to come over and move the electrical hook-up downstairs. Right now it’s still in the kitchen. We have clotheslines inside the basement and outside between two trees though, so we’ll be alright without one for a while.

My uncle was supposed to come over to dig the footing for the chimney today, but can’t because of the rain. Thus the house is still cold, but I have an electrical heater for my room upstairs (where there is no heat at all) and it works perfectly. Actually it works too well because it woke me up from a dead sleep from being too hot.

My cousin Steph came over this week and brought over some old videos of my dad and I during Christmas that I need to get copies of. She also brought over a lot of old photographs of family that I have to figure out who they are. I’m working on scanning all of those in, but she wasn’t allowed to leave the videos, so I will have to borrow them again when I can figure out how to copy them. They amuse me because my dad looks like a big grizzly bear with his dark dark hair and full beard. I think I’m like 8 years old or so in them. I have to be 8 years old or younger because my parents are still together in them.

Courtesy of Mother Earth News. The green one sounds nummy

Talk about perfect timing. Just as the weather is getting cooler and we’re approaching dry-skin season, Mother Earth News reader Pamela Koontz sent in a few of her favorite homemade skincare recipes. As she pointed out, when compared to commercial products, homemade skincare can save you money, is often easier on the environment, and makes it easy to care for your skin naturally. So, go ahead, “whip one of these up and let nature do all of the work!”

Farmer’s Wife Secret Mask
2 chilled egg whites
1/8 tsp cornstarch

Whip the egg whites until they form peaks; then slowly add the cornstarch. Apply the mixture immediately to your face, leaving it on for 20 minutes. Rinse face with cool water.

Bumblebee Facial Mask
1 tbsp dried milk
1 egg yolk
1 tsp honey

Mix honey with the egg yolk and then stir in the dried milk powder. Mix into a paste and apply. Remove after 20 minutes with cool water.

Glorious Green Face Mask
1/2 cup of oatmeal
1 smashed avocado
1/3 cup of honey

In a bowl, mix smashed avocado with the honey, then continuously add oatmeal. When all ingredients are mixed well, apply to face and relax for 15-20 minutes. Remove with a splash of cool water.

No Monkey Business Mask
1/2 banana
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp sour cream

Smash the banana and add the honey and sour cream. Apply to face and leave on 15-20 minutes. Gently wipe off with a damp cotton wash cloth.
Pamela Koontz
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

I sent off my first mortgage payment today, even though it’s not due till November 1st. It was actually very painless. I’ve already got two months of mortgage payments saved up in a separate savings I have for mortgage, so I just put it into my checking and had ING mail off a check for free. And I’ve already got next months mortgage payment sitting there, so that suits me just fine.

I convinced my grandfather not to charge me the full month for the storage trailer, since we only had it for 6 days in October, so that saves me some money as well.

I also paid off what was left on my credit card from house supplies because the interest on the credit card is higher than the interest on my savings account. I figured instead of making payments, it’d make sense just to get rid of the bill entirely. That also feels good.

Today was payday at work and I had an extra $55 on my paycheck due to being switched to PA taxes instead of MD. I guess they take out less taxes up here, which is fine with me. The extra money will be useful

I’m sorta anxious for tax season now, as I want to get the car paid off ASAP. That’s going to be such an amazing feeling. I can’t wait. I’ll literally have no debt except the house and what’s left of my friends loans after that. Granted I’m going to start taking on my fathers two debts after that, but they aren’t -my- debts.

My total Debt:
Car Balance: $6,923
Friends Loan: $5,775
Mortgage: $159,344 (not counting todays payment, and not really counting this towards “current debt”)

Total current Debt: $12,698

My dads total Debt:
Beneficial Loan: $5009
Medical Bills: $1300 (I don’t have the exact number, but this is around the right amount)

Total current Debt: $6309

Time to start researching 0% APR for 12 months balance transfer cards to tackle my fathers debt.

I’ve paid back two four people who loaned us money for the house, which is the start of my payback sessions. I’m doing all of the smaller balances first (I assume those people may be having tighter times), and working my way up to the larger ones over the next several months. Two people have refused to let me pay them back, which leaves a total of $1100 I don’t have to pay back.

I’m going to be alternating between that and putting money into the car so it’s paid off by the end of March.

I think I’ve decided to set a huge goal for myself. It’s not one I’m sure I can reach, but I’m certainly going to give it my best shot. I want to pay off the $7k on the car, the $5k on my dads loan, the $1300 in medical expenses by the end of 2009. That’s almost $14,000 worth of expenses paid off in 14 months. That’s a big goal, but one I think I can reach with the first time home-buyer tax credit (aka the interest free loan).

That’ll just leave my only debts as the remainder of the down payment people, the interest free loan to the government that I have 15 years to pay back, and the mortgage. The first of which I could easily have paid off within a year.

In other news, dad plowed up where we will be putting the garden today. We’re really excited to be able to have our own garden again, and I plan to have another small garden for herbs and such once I pick out a location. Eventually we’re also going to build a small greenhouse off the side of the house.

Today at the Grove we held a canning workshop of fruits and veggies. We made blackberry jam and dilled garlic carrots. I’m excited to try them out We tasted some of the blackberry jam earlier and it was delicious.

We also had the John Deere dropped off today, so dad will be plowing up the soil tomorrow to get things ready for spring. Everything is really starting to feel like home here. His friend Buzz is going to help us build the back deck, and says they can finish it in a weekend. I also hope we get the wood-stove soon because mornings are chilly up here in Gettysburg.

All that is left is 2 trailers and my yellow bronco. The blue one I will be selling probably. The two trailers hold 6 cord of wood and a bunch of outside equipment. Then we’ll have everything back again.

A lot of people came up to visit today while I was at the Grove, which makes me sad that I missed them. Still not sure when to start having people up to see the place.

My cousin Jon’s murderer’s are up for parole next month, 10 years after his murder. My mom wants me to write a victim impact statement to be read during the parole hearing. I will have to work on that in the coming weeks.

The more I think about me buying this house, the more I think that this all couldn’t have happened at a better time. I’m almost tempted to call it fate with how ridiculously awesome things have turned out over the last 3 months since the estate kicked us out wanting to settle. If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have allowed myself to get so devastated the way I did.

An example would be, the way the market has been crazy the last couple weeks, would have probably prevented me from getting the loan in the first place, let alone the 5.5% interest rate. Fortunately I got in literally right under the wire.

Another example: I tried to get my realtor from Remax to show me this house back in late July and he wouldn’t. He said I wouldn’t be able to afford it, despite him allowing me to bid on a $179k house prior, and this one only being listed for $169k. Still, I was able to finally get a realtor to show it to me and dad and I both fell in love with it instantly.

And yet another example: The day after we put a contract on this house with our good faith deposit, someone else bids on the property higher than we did, but a day too late .

Another example (in my mind), we were able to start this process -right- as I got my monthly bills down to their absolute minimum. That process took several months to achieve as I tweaked and analyzed my monthly spending and necessities, including saving up my 6 month car insurance premium which was due in August. I reached my goal -just- as we got the devastating news that allowed us to get this wonderful place.

This house has everything we wanted out of a house, and more. Nothing is wrong with it, all of the inspections passed, including the FHA inspection which I was worried about the most. It’s in a city that will never be too heavily developed because of all the battlefields and historic landmarks around here. It’s an easy drive to work and close enough to the city that I’m not driving 20 to 30 minutes to the nearest grocery store anymore.

I was originally set to get a 6.0% interest rate, but last minute my loan officer called me and said he was able to snag me a 5.5% interest rate that he had been keeping an eye on. Since July I had been talking about how I wanted 6.0 or lower, but the more mortgage companies I talked to, the more hopeless that looked. To be able to get a lower rate than what I was wanting just boggles my mind but makes me so happy.

I was able to convince the seller to pay $9,000 of the closing costs, and my friends raised $7,000 for the down payment in one swoop of an awesome gesture.

Then you have this $7,500 tax credit for first time home-buyers going on right now.

The house itself was sold from a settlement, which means we had more room to negotiate and they were able to leave a lot of goodies behind for us (like the chest freezer, grinders, air compressor, etc).

Things just keep popping up constantly that convince me that this was supposed to happen right now.

According to “The Consumerist“, after the bailout, AIG Bought Themselves a $440,000 retreat.

“ABC says that the documents show that the company, yes the company, paid more than $400,000 for a week long retreat at the resort. The bill included $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 in spa charges….

…Congressman Waxman also said that there was evidence that the former CEO changed the bonus schedule in order to insure that top executives would continue making multi-million dollar salaries, even as their company went broke.”

Great idea government. Can we stamp “Epic Fail” on your forehead now?

Dad’s sugar was really low (34) on Sunday from all of the moving. Fortunately I had 2 beat-up jolly ranchers in my purse for just such an occasion. I’ve bought him some organic hard candy to keep in the house while I’m not there.

I’ve noticed I’m more disoriented in the mornings now because my usual routine is different. I have a bad short-term memory, so morning habitual routines help me to remember to do everything I have to do each day. Now that everything is different and separated, I have a hard time making sure everything is done until I get a new routine situated.

I also need to invest in some lamps. There’s no lighting at all in the office, and I have one light in my bedroom with a switch in the hallway. I’ve already started picking out lamps from Target and making a “housewarming wishlist” at the request of friends and family, which I will post soon.

Otherwise I am getting quite familiar with the house and settling in. I love the living room, and we’ve started hanging up a lot of our old west decor in it (pics will be forthcoming once I’ve fixed my USB issue).

My dad was able to meet one of the neighbors yesterday who came over to meet and greet. It was actually someone he already knew from the country restaurant, so that was a pleasant surprise. Apparently everyone else around is rather old, one woman down the street is 100! I like the idea of living in an older neighborhood because I think they will be more tolerant of our animals and things will be more quiet.

I’ve yet to go explore the woods or the abandoned house next door. I went to the organic market yesterday and didn’t get home till dark, and now that it’s getting darker earlier, my excursions will most likely have to be on weekends.

A woman I spoke to yesterday with the trash company says there is no recycling in the area, which I find hard to believe since I spoke to someone a few weeks ago that said there was. If there isn’t, I suppose that is something I can start being vocal about in the township.

I’m not sure what our next big project will be now that this round of painting is done. I do want to get some white paint to do trim and ceilings around the place, and I do want to start looking into the crown moulding/barn plank moulding I watn to do. Perhaps I will start looking into finishing my bedroom floor, which I will most likely sand by hand (glutton for punishment, that is).

I also plan to start figuring out how to do a lot of these things on the cheap. Painting was fairly cheap for me because I borrowed equipment (roller handles, paint pans etc) from my Aunt and we did everything ourselves. The supplies I did have to buy were rollers, paint, tape, and drop-clothes (which I probably could have done without and used an old blanket or something, but everything was packed). So for under $100 I was able to paint two rooms and have excess for touch-up or additional rooms and/or furniture as needed. I think the dark paint I may use on furniture in the guest room since I plan to eventually paint that more of a sage green.

Maybe I’ll start keeping a tally of these totals so I have a running list of how much I’ve saved updating this house.

General Move-In Pictures

Living Room on move-in day:

From Move In

Living Room after paint and nasty curtain removal:

From House After

My Bedroom before with nasty seafoam green:

From Move In

My Bedroom after first portion of painting (still need to do ceiling and trim):

From House After

You can also see several other pictures of the living room updates and my bedroom. I’ll try to get better ones, a lot of these are grainy, and my camera has spots I think, oi.

My computer is having some issues as of late, probably due to the move. It wouldn’t recognize the keyboard yesterday, so I’ve put in my old keyboard for now till I can figure out what’s going on with the USB ports.

As such, I still haven’t been able to download photos from my camera, but I hope to do so this weekend.
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