Siding Project Begins!

I should have done this a long time ago.

Yesterday, when I arrived home from work, I found that the back of the house had been sided. Wow. Not sure I really expected it to begin so soon, but I’m not complaining either. I’m just glad we have the funds in place to make the remaining payments already.

The colour looks a lot better than I thought it would. I was a little skeptical… I dunno, I thought it might be too dark, but it’s not, it’s perfect. And the improvement is so drastic; I can’t imagine why I held off having this done for so long. Oh yeah… the cost.

On the negative side of things, it’s not seamless vinyl siding. I kinda knew that going in, but amazingly I’ll admit it’s not that noticeable. Maybe it’s the shock value of the house not looking like crap any more that makes me gloss over the seams, I don’t know.

Another thing I don’t really like is how plasticy and semi-squishy the side of the house is now. Again, I knew that was going to be the case going in, and it’s also the reason I’m not real fond of vinyl siding, but the difference in curb appeal will totally be worth it. Still, someday I hope to have an old home with read wood siding — and in great shape. It just would have cost too much to restore and maintain this one and make it look the way I want using all wood.

The contractors have been good so far — a definite improvement over the roofers. I’ll hold off on a final ruling because the roofers also appeared quite good until the last couple of days when they tore most of our screens, put a brick through a window and onto the hood of our car, and on top of it all, they left a dumpster in our front yard over the Christmas holiday (even though the project was complete over a week beforehand).

On the back of our house, there is an exhaust port for a fan in our kitchen. Basically a little spring loaded trap door, when it opens, the fan turns on and sucks whatever out of the kitchen. Well, they obviously tugged on the trap door from the outside and broke the chain that keeps the door shut — and the fan turned off — so when I got home, the door was shut, but the fan had been running for hours.

Thankfully, it was an easy 15 minute fix. No damage done.

Posted on June 14th, 2007 at 7:34 am by Brainy Smurf
Home Improvements | 5 Comments »

Payments Begin

Yesterday morning the materials for our home improvements were delivered and are in piles all over the yard — the work should start very soon.

So it seemed appropriate that I’d start paying back all of the money we borrowed today. All of it is still sitting within the grace period, but I’d like to get started on chipping away at the balances.

First, I added my Bank of America checking account to the CitiBank card so that I can make automatic payments though their website. That’s the card that’s a 0% until May of 2008, so it’s not really a high priority, but after the promo rate expires, it will jump up to 13.81%. I’d prefer to have it’s balance at zero, or worst case, under $1000 for when the rate goes up. As of this morning, I have to wait 6 days for them to “verify” my checking account before I can schedule any payments.

Then I transferred $8k from my ING Direct savings account into the checking account for the next payment to the contractors.

Next, I set up a bi-weekly automatic payment of $150 to my business credit card. Right now, that’s the only credit card I still carry in my wallet — it’s not being used at all for the renovation. I generally only charge about $200/month on that card — though it should go up some because I’ve never used it for personal expenses. It will now include gas, the storage unit rent fee, and the occasional expense when I don’t have cash on hand to cover it. The automatic payments alone will cover all charges plus some. And I intend to continue mail monthly payments in whenever I’ve got some left over after paying the BIG credit card bills funding the renovation.

Then, because Bank of America boasts a list of “common payees in your area”, I also added Countrywide Home Loans to my list of payees and set up an automatic payment. Countrywide has always offered an automatic payment plan, but they also charge a $4 fee each month to participate.

That’s not about to happen, but I wonder how it works if I initiate it from the bank’s side instead. We’ll see — to test it out, I set up a $25/week auto-payment to begin on Monday.

I’m very interested to see where the $25 goes. Obviously, I’d prefer it be treated as additional principle, but the bank website doesn’t give you the option of choosing how the mortgage company processes it. Deep down, I have a feeling I’ll be canceling the future auto-payments on Tuesday.

And I know many PF experts say it’s foolish to pay down your mortgage, but I’m currently sill paying PMI at a rate of $85/month. I’m not that far off from eliminating that, and $25/week isn’t going to kill my budget, but it could take a couple of years off of the PMI charges. That, and regardless of what anyone says, the idea of potentially paying off my house by age 40 is very appealing.

(Oh yeah, for those interested, I did manage to pick up the private plane I purchased over the weekend yesterday. Yes, it’s totally awesome!)

Posted on June 13th, 2007 at 8:38 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance | 2 Comments »

Monday Musing

Slow day at the regular paycheck job.

Currently, I’m redesigning the company’s website, which is a nice needed change of pace from the regular daily grind. Unfortunately, it’s something I work on whenever I get a chance or things slow down, which isn’t very often.

It’s been a very productive day so far though — I’ve figured out how to prevent Firefox from looping an Adobe Flash file, when every other browser out there loads and displays things fine. It’s something I’ve been planning on sitting down and figuring out for a few weeks, but I finally did it this morning. I’d had a feeling it was something simple… and it was.

I’ve also filled in the content to two sections worth (16 pages so far). As I’m using a PHP template for this site, this part is really repetitive and *really* boring allowing my brain to ponder other things. If you hadn’t guessed, this is the project that isn’t bringing in any income that I’ve mentioned a few times in previous posts.

On the brain right now? Well, with the pending siding project nearing fruition, I’m starting to look even further ahead. The next potential obstacle to overcome for our homeowners insurance problem is the original knob and tube wiring throughout the house.

I removed some myself this past weekend, but it was all in full view. It’s the stuff behind the walls that’s out of my league. And lately, I’ve really been wishing that we had light switches like a normal house. (Most rooms have a pull chain fixture in the center of the ceiling.)

The greedy side of me would also like a sub-panel installed in the detached garage so we could have power out there again, but that’s just like extra frosting.

This week, I’ll dig up the number of the electrician, John Cyr, from when he upgraded the 60amp fuse box to 200amp service three or four years ago. He also wired a new outlet to the dryer and washing machine at around the same time.

Deep down, I know it’s not the type of project I can get a quote on, it’s understandably, as they say in the business, a “Time and Materials” type of project due to the number of variables hidden behind the plaster, but I think he charged me fairly for work done in the past.

That, and I learned a ton just from watching him and being a “stand-in” assistant. I’d be comfortable with him working in my house, really the most important thing, so I’m hoping he’s up for the project and some quick easy money for a job he can work on at his own leisure.

This will kill any chance of reaching my 2007 financial goal, but as long as I finish the year higher than I started, I’ll still be satisfied.

Saturday’s Cessna purchase is still ongoing as well. I was unable to pick it up today, but the plan is for a fellow from work to help me lift it into my wife’s truck tomorrow morning. The weather isn’t likely to cooperate, but I think it should be okay. For whatever reason, I’m pretty excited about getting it home.

Now I can honestly say that, “I own my own company, I drive a BMW, and I recently purchased a private plane.”

Hey — it’s true in a wacky sort of way.

All that’s left is for me to turn my house into a palace — and we’re working on that!

Posted on June 11th, 2007 at 2:21 pm by Brainy Smurf
Home Improvements, Insurance, Life | No Comments »

Bargains to be had… or just junk?

Yesterday our local mall, which has been vacant for nearly a decade, had a liquidation auction as it’s scheduled for demolition later this year if everything goes as planned.

I saw it as not only an opportunity to see the inside of the old “crappy” mall one last time, but also as a chance to experience a live auction firsthand and maybe, just maybe, pick up something nice at a real low price.

Most of the items that were up for bid were from the insides of a Chinese Buffet restaurant. It was funny, there were three Asian groups there bidding on everything — once the restaurant was cleared, they all left. Some good deals were out there, though it kinda made me think twice about ever eating Chinese again.  The second hand equipment was not clean.  Not clean at all.  Really, my shoes still feel greasy.

Once out into the actual mall, I got more and more anxious as the auctioneer moved closer and closer to the item I had my eye on.

I had one rival bidding against me on the item. I raised my hand like an idiot a couple of times as we went back and forth, but quickly took on the role of a seasoned pro with a slight head nod to indicate my willingness to go higher. (Chalk it up to the years of eBay experience… no, this was a lot more thrilling.)

Sold to bidder number 40! My heart was racing. The item, as well as a quick high-five with my wife upon being proclaimed winner, generated a few smiles in the crowd. I’d won what I considered the pick of the lot.

Anyway, the item we bid on and won is pictured below.

Yes, a coin-operated kiddie ride.

I barely fit into it.

My wife sorta fits into it.

So why’d I bid on and win it?

Well, even if I can’t get it to work (we haven’t plugged it in to test it yet. In fact, it’s still at the Mall as it was too heavy for us to lift), I still think it was a great value for something I’m positive that our future children will enjoy climbing all over and just plain sitting in.

If not, I know I’ll enjoy it. Though I’m not an airplane buff, I never rode this particular ride, and I’m not sure I ever even noticed it the few times I went inside this particular mall, I do remember when rides like this were outside of every grocery store, Ames, Zellers, and really any other department store that Walmart put out of business.

And what I remember most is that my parents rarely said “Yes” and supplied a quarter to make the ride do it’s thing, so in a way, this is like the Speak-and-Spell I asked Santa Claus for and ended up purchasing myself 25 years later.

Posted on June 10th, 2007 at 8:26 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Retro | 5 Comments »

Home Improvement Preparations Begin

This morning, the first $8k check to the contractors cleared (even though I post-dated it for June 11). The ball is now rolling and I’m getting excited to finally get the whole thing going even though it’s putting me back in the hole financially.

Last night, we picked out and purchased the door hardware for the front and side doors that we’re having replaced. It was tough to pick a style or even a colour when we still don’t really know what colour the wood grain on the door is going to be. We decided on a brushed nickel finish — though it’s got a bit of a copper finish to it.

My wife also finished clearing out the attic. We hadn’t really ventured up there since the roof was completed in December of 2006; let’s just say there was some yucky debris…everywhere. A quick shop-vac run took care of that.

We also tore down some of the paper stapled up to “hide” the insulation. It wasn’t hiding anything, and it was hanging down and just looked sloppy. We also rearranged a bit to make it easier to the contractors to get to the windows in the gables. I hesitate to say that it looks good, but compared to what it looked like just last week, yeah, it looks good.

This weekend, I still have to remove some of the unused knob-and-tube wiring up there and then somehow cap off the live lines that extend over to our detached garage. Yes, we have our own personal power lines that run from the house to the garage through the air. Don’t ask.

The downside of doing this is that the garage will no longer have power, but I’d hate to have the vinyl siding elaborately go around something so outdated. This way, the exterior of the house will look nice and right now, that’s priority number one.

We also have a few holes along the roof line that various critters like to call home at various times during the year. Right now I believe it’s vacant. The birds have moved out. And the squirrels won’t move back in until the fall.

I think if I pull down some insulation (right near where the wires I’ll be working on are), I’ll be able to see into their home — and out of the holes from the inside.When we had the roof done, the roofers plugged the holes with some wood blocks.

Sadly, those were nothing but a mild inconvenience for the squirrels. Persistent little animals. This time I want to plug them for good and somehow make it so that they never return. Apparently fox urine does the trick. But getting a fox to pee three stories up may be more of a challenge than I am up for.

Either way, I’d hate to have them work their way through the brand new vinyl that goes up in a few weeks.

Posted on June 8th, 2007 at 10:08 am by Brainy Smurf
Home Improvements | 2 Comments »

The Swatch Watch

Remember those? For me, it was somewhere around 4th grade — the Cabbage Patch Kid craze had finally started to tail off and the new item to have was the Swatch Watch.

The goal was to get the craziest wristband colour combinations and then top it off with that little rubber band contraption to protect the face of your overpriced $60 watch made of plastic.

Then the goal was to wear more than one at a time.

At the time, I think I probably wanted one. I may have even asked for one for Christmas, I’m not really sure.  Eitherway, I never owned one.

Most things that I’d asked for in my youth that I never received (Speak-and-Spell, for instance), I’ve ended up buying recently on eBay to basically catch up on what I’d originally missed out on 20 years ago.

For the record, the Speak-and-Spell totally lived up to expectations. Even at the age of 30.

Anyway, yesterday I was reminded of the Swatch watch of the 80′s in a press release I read announcing that MasterCard Worldwide had announced the launch of the first watch equipped with MasterCard® PayPass. (I wonder if it comes with one of those little rubber band things to protect it? Maybe you can just auto-bill it to the watch?)

Consumers can simply tap their new watches on the PayPass reader to make the equivalent of a credit card purchase at more than 600 merchant locations in Turkey, including major names such as Burger King, Starbucks, Cinebonus, TAV (İstanbul Atatürk Airport Otopark), and the İstanbul Ferry Corporation. The PayPass watch allows users to make purchases under 15 euros, with no signature or PIN required. Larger purchases will still require a signature.

Like the original Swatch watch, it’s a European thing to start – if the bright colours and soccer balls weren’t enough of a clue.

I’m sure it’ll cross the pond by Christmas though. And guess what?

I’m not asking for one. I mean, I understand the desire for convenience, but this is a little bit ridiculous. I’m not about to “wear” my credit card.

The sight of all of the people wearing their cell phones these days is silly enough — now you can wear your credit card too.

Accessorizing has gone too far.

Posted on June 7th, 2007 at 9:17 am by Brainy Smurf
Retro | 3 Comments »

Accident Update

I called the folks at the autobody shop this morning about how the car repairs were going and when it might be ready to be picked up. Next Friday (June 15th) is the tentative date — so the accident will have essentially taken the car off the road for a month.

That’s about what I had expected.

Apparently we tore a hole in the floor of the car which still needs to be stitched up, but the body work is done and the car had a primer coat put on yesterday. I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes out.

And then driving it to see if it feels the same. You hear so many horror stories from people claiming that their cars never drove the same after an accident. I’d like to experience that firsthand and then make my own judgement.

Also, from the Allstate side of things, I still haven’t had to pay my deductible. I’m not sure why, I’m not even sure how that’s supposed to work. In the mail, I’ve received a couple of things from them basically confirming that a claim was indeed filed and that a check was issued — but no “bill”.

Not sure if this is the norm, but I’ve got $500 ready and off to the side for when the time comes.

Posted on June 6th, 2007 at 8:36 am by Brainy Smurf
Accident, Insurance | No Comments »

Circle the Wagons!

Okay, we’re not being attacked, but with the pushy sales tactic, sometimes it feels like it.

We’ve decided to green light the siding project!

So today I spent some quality time with my trusty calculator and the various “convenience” check offers we’ve received over the past few months from our credit card companies. (Yes, I’ve been collecting them in a pile on the kitchen table for months to the delight of my wife.)

So, subtracting the CitiBank 0% transfer of $6000 last month, we still need to come up with around $18000 relatively quickly. I’m able to throw around $2000 from my checking account balance at it, so now we’re down to $16000.

I’ve got it down to two offers. The first is on a card from Chase Bank. I don’t carry a balance on the card and the limit is $22k. The offers are:

0.99% for 6 months with the usual 3% fee with a ceiling of $99
or
4.99% until paid in full with 3% fee and a ceiling of $99

I’ve decided to go with the second option and write a check to myself for $8000, which will actually end up being $8099 on the card after the transaction fee.

The second offer we’re considering is on my wife’s CapitalOne card. Right now, she’s carrying a balance of around $800. We’re going to wipe that out this week and then use their offer of:

1.99% for 1 year with a 3% fee. No ceiling

So, if she writes a check to herself, or me, for $8000, with the transaction fee, the balance will be $8240.

Total borrowed will be $22339.

The plan, which we should be able to stick to, is to continue on our aggressive debt strategy on a slightly smaller scale.

We can pay it all off before the rates jump by paying roughly $600 per month per card. That’s $1800/month which is actually less than what we’ve been paying back on a monthly basis for the past 3 years.

Being that the Citi balance is at 0%, it might be wise to just pay the minimum on that card to focus more on the higher rate balances, but each way I’ve calculated the various repayment scenarios, they all fall within a span of about $60.

So, while just a day ago I was fretting about having to borrow over $20k, now I’m seeing it’s not really that big a deal.

Posted on June 5th, 2007 at 2:45 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Home Improvements | 4 Comments »

Home Renovations: Round 2 – Vinyl Siding

Stunned silence.

That was our reaction when given the number.

First things first — we called a contractor for an estimate last week and they came out on Friday evening. Now, my wife and I like to buy things, we don’t like to be sold them. Why is it that every contractor has a seedy sales team? It’s worse than buying a car.

I digress. Plain and simple, we want vinyl siding. We want the little fish scales in the peaks, contrasting trim around the windows, a new front door, and a new basement hatch. That’s it.

We don’t want 10 free windows. We don’t want free gutters.

Don’t tell us what colour we should get. Don’t tell us that shutters are in style.

Don’t tell us what we want.

And don’t ask us to sign something.

 We *know* what we want, and we’re asking if you can do it for us and for how much.

And don’t tell us that it will be hard to find the right size basement hatch or to install a specific door. We don’t care. We’re paying you to do it. I can’t imagine doing that in my job — offering something and then telling a client, “Well, that’s really hard to do.” What?

On the bright side, they do good work. There are a number of homes in the area that they’ve resurrected from the dead and we’d really like to join them.

On that note, they kept calling our house a “show piece”. One of the houses they recently completed is just up the road — and they took us over to oogle their house. Right around dinner time. That had better not happen with our house. I don’t want a “show piece”. And I certainly don’t want strangers walking around my house.

Anyway, it was the bottom line that left us stunned — basically between $24k and $26k in total. Unfortunately, that’s about $10k more than we were prepared for.

To finance the project, it looks like we’ll be using a few of those handy “convenience checks” that credit cards sneak in there on page two of the bill. Using those, our interest rate will top out at 4.9%, which is a lot better than the 15.5% loan we took out from Bank of America to finance the roof.

It still hurts, though, to have just crawled out of the hole and instantly be buried under another 5 figure balance.

Posted on June 4th, 2007 at 8:48 am by Brainy Smurf
Home Improvements | 8 Comments »