3 posts tagged “home”

So, the house next door sold, and out moved a family with kids about our kids ages.

In moved renters, with a dog, staked outside 24/7, who barks and growls every time we go outside.

His tie-out extends all the way to the property line, which he snaps taut every time I go outside with our dogs or kids.

We ask the landlord for a fence, to keep our kids from doing something a kid would do like chase a ball downhill, and wind up getting bitten.

We've wanted a fence for a while as the back of the yard ends in a cliff down to a ravine.

So far, the feedback we've got from the property manager is that the landlord's OK with it, as long as we pay for the fence he picks out, and our rent goes up because the property would now been improved with a fence and to cover maintenance for it.

On the other hand, we've got our own renters in the house we left behind in the relocation wanting improvements for their own lease extension/renewal.

I'm not only seeing both sides of the fence, I'm seeing it simultaneously and let me tell you; there isn't any green grass on either side.

We've all still got some ass to kick.

Counting the Years

My mind's eye sees us young.

This group peeling layers off the great onion of life.

Jobs became careers and girlfriends turned into wives.

And I add it together and piece it apart.

I've had the same wife for nine years, today.

But I can't keep a bottle for more than a week.

Yes we've had two houses, two kids and two dogs before that.

We hold them, and fix them, and pay all their bills.

Wherever we'll go, that's where home will be at.

And in all, we've been together for eleven years, today.

But I can't keep a bottle for more than a week.

I'm an uncle and wife's an aunt for the very first time, today.

Careful maturing and aging, the form is an art.

See that's the distiller you know, me I'm just an old fart.

Friends married, bought houses and bred.

None of that kept me up nights in my bed.

But I can't keep a bottle for more than a week.

Selfish for sure, but this will be honestly selfish.

My mind says I can't be old enough to know a widow.

The bottle drains quick, looking for meaning or reason.

Some always died, sure, stretching back a long line

Those were the legends, the ghosts kept alive in their stories

And I didn't feel old knowing spouses, or parents, or uncles and aunts.

But the widow.  The survivor of death of a spouse.

Knowing a widow in the group, my memory keeps us so young.

That's the one that has me feeling the aches and the bruises.

Cold and unfeeling, it's the life that hands out these titles,

Now how we live with that life tag

That's what'll define us.

Me, I can't keep a bottle for more than a week.

So, when we moved out here (for a raise), it was supposed to be a five year gig.

Then, soon as a position opened up for my wife back at her HQ in Seattle, we could move back there.

Nine months into our adventure, knowing we were pregnant with our first child, we bought a house.

Since we were certain that we'd be moving back in about 4 years and three months from that time,
we financed the home purchase with a 5-1 ARM (adjustable rate mortgage)

The "5" designating that the loan rate was fixed for the initial five year period, at 4.125%.

The "1" designating that the loan rate would adjust (up or down) to market rates each year thereafter for the remaining 25 years of the loan.

The contract has caps on the interest rate movements.

It can't go up or down more than 200 basis points (2%) in any given year.

The floor is 3% and the ceiling is 9.125% for the life of the loan.

A pretty nifty loan product.  Especially under consideration that we were going to be moving away before the initial lock period expired.

Then, a year ago, my wife left her company that moved us out here to be closer to her client, and went to work for the company that she had previously been a vendor for.

A fantastic career move, and the compensation / benefit package was a move up.

However, the new company HQ is here, which is where we will likely remain for the next bit.

So, now it is likely that we will be in the house when the fixed period of the loan expires and the adjustments begin in two years.

Which has me shopping refinancing rates and products, to see what our options are.

The original loan is not a bad deal.  We've paid down the principal considerably and will continue to put a dent in it before the first adjustment happens.

At the same time, having put a dent in the principal, if we were to refinance, it would be for a much smaller amount than the original loan was amortized for.

The upshot of that is that a new loan, even with a higher fixed rate than the ARM we currently have, would cost us less money each month, even though the higher interest rate meant we were paying more interest with a new payment than with our current payment.

Which isn't as off-logic as it might sound, because mortgage interest is tax-deductable.

So, with a refi, we could lower our payment each month and receive a larger tax-deduction at year end.

Still, I detest paperwork, and there's no shortage of that with a refi.

Add to the mix the used car dealer tactics of loan origination officers trying to sell you there loan, without ever confessing exactly how much in fees you will be paying at closing until you show up with your lawyer and your checkbook.

Which has me skittish.

To boot, I can't get a straight answer from the wife concerning how long, really, we will be staying here before her career moves us away, inside the company or outside with a new company.

She gets a number of inquiries from headhunters each week.

Which further clouds the decision.  If we're moving in a year or two, refi still doesn't make sense, because you need time for the cheaper loan to balance out the closing costs associated with completing the transaction.

Bother...