Our back yard, showing off a bit

Down in the lower right you can see the 5-foot fence and the extension ladder for scale. Click for the bigger version if you've got the bandwidth and the screen size.

One of my favorite things about moving here has been the fall. It starts a little later than I'm used to. It's quite a bit warmer than I expected. (I haven't really been wearing a jacket regularly - we're still breaking 70 during the day.)

It also lasts A LOT longer. In Ohio, it seemed that the trees would change color one day and then be bare the next. Here, it seems like the trees change one by one, with each type getting the spotlight for days at a time. Maybe it was just that there are a lot more trees here than there were back in Pickaway County. I don't know. But whatever it is, I like it.

And the best part? No long, grueling winter at the end of it. A couple months of chill, an occasional dusting of snow to make it pretty, a few ice storms, and we're done. At least that's what I'm told.

In other news, we may have chickens by the weekend after Thanksgiving. More to come on that one...

No phone, no TV, no internet, not a single luxury...

unless you count well water, or electricity. (Okay I'd count those. But still...)

You never realize just how dependent you are on something until you don't have it. We are currently without phone service (land line or mobile), internet, or television. We are virtually cut off from all forms of communication with the outside world, short of the mailbox at the end of the driveway. We have been for almost a week.

We can't quickly look up where the nearest hardware store is. I can't return emails for my freelance work. We can't call our real estate agent in Ohio. We can't get in touch with friends or family.

Even when I'm at work, with a vast telecommunications network at my fingertips, I still can't call my wife and ask her if she can pick up that check, or find out what essential items I might need to grab on the way home.

The biggest near miss to a problem came on Friday, when I got a call from the school that Amelia had a fever. In order to go pick her up and take her home, I'd essentially have had to miss half a day of work at a time when I have no paid time off to use. And I had no easy way to call Lori and let her know.

Luckily, Lori and I had already arranged to meet for lunch, so I could let her know to go get Amelia.

It seems like there are a dozen times a day when I think, "Oh I should call our friends and see if they're home" or "I'll just look that up online," or all the other little mundane things that I can usually do without a second thought. Right now, it's about 4:30 in the morning. I was so exhausted last night, I fell asleep putting Amelia to bed. So I woke up extra early this morning. I can't do much unpacking or rearranging without waking up the rest of the house. I can't flip on the TV or surf the web either. And our books aren't even unpacked. No books, forsooth!

Thankfully, we should have this mostly resolved by Monday night, when our bundled services finally get installed. And at some point after that, I'll post this.

Meanwhile, I think it's time for a snack. I burned a lot of calories yesterday...

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Follow-up: I think I missed the phone more than I thought I would, and the TV less. And internet, don't ever leave me....

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We don't need no stinkin' hybrid

It has been a crazy few weeks.

The new job is going well. I'm really going to like it there.

The commute, for now, is a bear. It will always be something of a bear, but right now it's as bad as it will ever get.

We close on our house Tuesday. That will cut a good 10 minutes off the drive. Plus the kids morning schedule will be different, so I can leave earlier and beat some of the traffic, probably cutting another 10 minutes off. And in six months, I'll only have to do it twice a week.

But right now, it's rough. 44 miles of rush hour traffic. On a good day, it takes me an hour. That's one way. Then I have to do it again to get home. If there's an accident, make it an hour and a half.

And so far, I've generally had to do it in our "farm truck." It's an early 90's pickup that's more rust than metal. The rear fuel tank leaks too much to be usable. The front fuel tank doesn't leak, as long as you don't put more than 12 gallons of gas in it. But since it only gets about 12 miles to the gallon, that means I have to get gas after every third trip. (Not round trip, mind you.) It has no A/C, no CD or cassette, no cruise, no power anything. It's really not the right tool for the job.

So, dear readers, I have acquired a new tool. Soon the farm truck can go back to doing what it does best - hauling occasional loads of bulk materials, and rusting.

Once I have jumped through the necessary hoops of getting license plates and insurance, I will be driving what may be the perfect vehicle for this endeavor: It gets 50-55 miles per gallon. But it's a four door sedan, so it could conceivably take our whole family on errands without too much trouble.

How much did I pay for this dream machine?

Twenty-five hundred bucks.

No, not twenty-five thousand.

It's a 1997 VW Passat TDI. It's been well-maintained (and the maintenance well-documented), and tweaked for fuel efficiency. It also handles like a dream, and it can run on anything from filthy tractor diesel to B100 biodiesel.

I've been playing with the calculator. Just in fuel savings, this thing will pay for itself by April. I could drive to our house in Ohio and back on a single tank. I could drive my long commute every day for two weeks and still not need to fill up.

And once I get my telecommute privileges, it'll be six weeks between fill ups.

Think of that: One fuel stop between now and Thanksgiving.

And I'm not talking Canadian Thanksgiving either...

Why I will never move again...

Tuesday: Drive to Akron & back (2.5 hours each way) after work, with e5 tagging along.

Wednesday: Take strangers on a tour of our property. Their real estate agent sent them. I happened to see them so I gave them the grand tour (outside only). They say they'll schedule a showing on the weekend.

Thursday: Drive to Cincinnati & back (1:45 each way) for work.

Friday: Drive to NC (8.5 hours one way), with e5 tagging along

Saturday: Home inspection @ new house in NC

Sunday: Lori's stuck at home with the other two kids, cleaning the whole house for a showing. The people stay an hour past their showing time.

Meanwhile, me & e5 attempt to drive back from NC, but break down in West Virginia. We get towed 30 minutes in the wrong direction, back to Charleston WV for repairs. Only it's Sunday night, so NOTHING is open. Lori loads up the kids and drives 2.5 hours to retrieve us. We sit in the Hurricane WV McDonald's for 2 hours waiting for our ride. We all drive 2.5 hours back home, arriving at about 1:00am.

Monday: Drive back to Hurricane WV (5 hours round trip) after work to retrieve the truck.

Tuesday: Unload boxes and furniture from storage unit in the blazing 95F sun. Leave for several hours while the people who came on Sunday for a showing come back for another look. They asked for 2 hours this time. They stayed an hour late again. Pack up non-perishable food.

Wednesday: More unloading of storage unit. Laundry all day (and night).

Thursday (today): Take care of the last of the storage unit at dawn, when the heat index is only in the high 80's. Pack clothing. Retrieve broken mower from repair shop. (Since we're moving and they can't get the old one fixed, they just gave us a brand new one. Wow.) Load all books and lumber and other "heavy" items into the back of the truck.

Friday (tomorrow): Drive to Cinci and back (90 min. each way) one last time for my last day at the old job.

Saturday: Finish packing. Leave the house in "showable" condition. Drive to NC (8.5 hours) with both vehicles.

Sunday: Get set up at our friends' house for temporary housing / long visit.

Monday: Start new job. Get kids registered at new school. Showing scheduled at the old house in Ohio.

Late August: Movers go get our remaining furniture and possessions at the old house.

Early September (hopefully??): Move into new house.

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Event Horizon

This week will likely represent a big turning point for us. We expect the new job offer to become 100% official sometime before the end of this week. I'll also need to give notice with my current employer by the first of next week. And to top it off, I'm driving down to the new location this weekend for a home inspection.

You see, we're doing something that's probably very foolish: We're buying a house in North Carolina, even though our Ohio house hasn't sold yet.

We know it's a move that doesn't make sense in this economy. We know it will make us quite poor in the short term. Or, more accurately, it'll make us poor for some undetermined amount of time.

Given the low interest rates, our downpayment, and other factors, the mortgage on the new house will be half as much as our current mortgage. HALF.

Doing this will solve a wide range of logistical problems, but of course the big downside is that until our Ohio house sells, we'll be paying half again as much in mortgage payments. Which by extension, means that our remaining income after housing will be cut in half. (I know, halves everywhere, huh?)

In essence, we'd be doing the financial version of one of my old favorites, The Half Project.

So we've been going over our budget with a fine-toothed comb. We've squeezed every penny we can find among our assets. We've investigated every expense and change we can think of: differences in property, income, and sales tax; differences in benefits and deductibles; differences in bills (and some bills in both places); differences in driving miles, fuel costs, grocery costs, and everything we can think of. Budget cuts of course. Or "austerity measures," as the headlines like to say.

And if the whole thing completely goes to hell, well, at least we'll get some good practice at being poor.

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Instant Homestead Sale!

Dory: He says, "It's time to let go!". Everything's going to be all right.

Marlin: How do you know? How do you know something bad isn't gonna happen?!

Dory: I don't!

- Finding Nemo

As many of you guessed from my last post, we've more or less made up our minds. Oh in theory there could still be some dramatic last minute change of heart (or circumstance), but mostly we're just waiting for the Gears of Bureaucracy to turn. We're pretty close to the point of no return on this decision though.

But as a result of these impending events, our Instant Homestead has been significantly discounted from our original price. We're down about $20,000 from our starting point.

We did have four showings last week, including three in two days. That's more showings than we had from November through June. So we feel a bit better. We may end up dropping our price some more though if something doesn't happen soon.

Unfortunately, we'll most likely take a loss on this place. We put our money into things that just don't add to resale value - like really good fences.

But what can you do? We could stay put, and have my job disappear in six months. Or stay put and have my job move to Texas, which is almost as bad. (No offense to my Texas friends.) In my line of work, there are only so many employers to choose from in any given metro area, and none of the ones around here are hiring.

There is no obvious best choice here, and either direction could turn out to be a bad move. So you go with what feels right. A friend of mine advised that in situations like these, you should make up your mind decisively, and then do a Happy Dance. If it doesn't feel right, switch your decision and try again.

So here we go. We've come up with Plans A through at least G or H by now. We've got contingencies upon contingencies. We'll navigate it as best we can.

And as soon as everything is official I'll have some stories to tell. This blog will pick up again, perhaps somewhat sporadically at first as we do all the million things we need to do. But I can feel the writing piling up inside. It's just not quite time yet...

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