Tuesday, July 27, 2010

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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8 Comments:

At 7/27/2010 7:38 PM, Blogger Katie said...

Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. No apologies. Good luck!

 
At 7/27/2010 7:47 PM, Blogger e4 said...

No guts, no glory, right? Or something like that anyway...

 
At 7/27/2010 10:21 PM, Blogger Wendy said...

The new house is beautiful! So, is it suburban? *grin*

 
At 7/27/2010 10:53 PM, Blogger knutty knitter said...

Looks fine to me. Anyway being rich is overrated :)

Good luck.

viv in nz

 
At 7/27/2010 11:02 PM, Blogger e4 said...

Wendy - No, it's about the same distance from civilization as we are now. 10 minutes from Chapel Hill, NC, maybe 45-60 minutes from Raleigh or Durham. (As opposed to 10 minutes from Circleville, 45 minutes from Columbus.)

There are some definite similarities, but also some distinct differences.

3.5 acres instead of 9. Older house, a little smaller. Mostly wooded instead of wide open fields. Near lots of small farms instead of a few gigantic farms. No pond, but instead a stream and a natural spring.

And if our Ohio house doesn't sell before we move in to the new one, I may just dig up my little orchard and take it with me. :)

We'll get chickens as soon as we can manage, and maybe a couple ducks. We may consider getting a couple dwarf goats, but not until we get a feel for things. And at least to start with I'll be focusing my gardening efforts on crops that aren't interesting to deer. I'm guessing they'll be my biggest gardening challenge.

 
At 7/28/2010 6:51 AM, Anonymous daisyfae said...

it'll work. and although it might be temporarily painful? you'll get to the other side and be able to have "luxuries" again.

 
At 7/29/2010 7:13 AM, Blogger Tammy said...

Very nice looking home. Downsizing will be liberating once the Ohio stuff sells, and it will!

 
At 8/14/2010 6:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

By HALF. Yup. S'what I thought. But man... that's STILL a LOT of house, dude. The surrounds remind me of our place, but... it's BIG.

A lot of people are just turning the keys to their old places in and walking away. Not saying that's right, but it's happening. I hope you sell...

-aNNa

 

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