I love it! November 2, 2008

I absolutely love our new house.  Closing went very smoothly — it took less than an hour!  The people who owned the house before us were very nice and cleaned it very thoroughly before moving out.  They took care of all of the repairs we requested from the inspection, and I am just THRILLED with the house.  On Friday we got our express shipment, so we were able to move out of the hotel and into the house.  (We are sleeping on an air mattress until monday when our bed arrives). 

The express shipment arrived mostly intact.  The ancient tv we shipped didn’t fare very well — the buttons get stuck when you push them in, but it still works via remote.  Since we were planning on recycling this tv by the end of the year (it’s so old Goodwill won’t even take it), we probably won’t file a claim for damage — I doubt they’d consider it worth much anyway.  Otherwise everything else looks good.

Also, we decided not to try to paint immediately.  It turns out that without the former owners’ dark furniture, the paint looks much better than I had thought.  It’s still not a great color for our furniture, so we’d like to eventually repaint, but since it doesn’t look terrible, we’ll probably wait a year until we recover a bit financially from all the furniture purchases.  I am also relieved that we are not painting, since we are so busy getting the express shipment unpacked and getting as settled as possible before the main move on Monday.

Our new living room furniture arrived on Saturday.  That went well, except one of the tiles in the top of the coffee table was broken, so they have to send us a replacement table next week.  We found family room furniture last night, a couch and chair, and are having that delivered on Wednesday.  (Monday is the movers, Tuesday the cable guy comes and we need to go vote, so Weds was most practical).

In the mean time I’m really pleased that we got the house we did.  It was definitely worth the longer wait for closing. Also, just as a heads up, my posts are probably going to be a little less frequent until we get the internet hooked up next week.

Countdown to Closing October 19, 2008

We close on our house in 11 days.  I can’t wait to stop living out of suitcases in a crappy hotel room!  I went on-line and moved around the money for closing costs, so it should be all set by that week.  We went to Home Depot yesterday and looked at potential paint colors.  We are going to call the painting contractors on Monday to see what we can work out. I have no idea what kind of scheduling would go on, but ideally, our time-line would look like this:

10/30 – close on house, move most of our stuff from the hotel over that evening

10/31 – Check out of hotel, express shipment delivered, painters come for a consultation

11/1 – New living room furniture delivered (we’ll stash it in the family room ’til the painters are finished)

11/3 - Living & dining room are painted

11/5 – Main shipment delivered

We’ll see if we can work it out that easily. It would be extremely helpful if we could get the living room painted before our main shipment arrives, mainly because we have an upright piano that will go in the living room.  The piano is very heavy, so I’d rather that once the movers set it down, we don’t have to move it ever again.  Also, I worry that moving it on our own would damage the vinyl floors.  

We also did a little browsing for family room furniture.  We found a fabulous leather couch at Haynes that was marked down ridiculously cheap, but I really want to wait until we are in the house before we buy any more furniture.

House Hunting with a Realtor Day 2 September 3, 2008

Yesterday we looked at a second set of condos.  Though they were the same price and square footage, they were not nearly as nice as the ones we had viewed on Monday. They only had a living room, rather than both a living and family room, and they only had one-car garages. Because of the way they were laid out, they just seemed smaller than the other condos.  We also drove around and looked at some neighborhoods — we had checked out some houses online and wanted to see them from the outside before making an appointment to tour the inside.  I really like 2 of them, 1 is ok, but it’s cheaper and in a slightly more convenient location.

I’m noticing a trend there, the more convenient the location, the less nice the houses become. We will look at those 3 single family homes this afternoon. I’m hoping we can decide between them and the condo today, and make an offer on Thursday.  (Our goal is to be done house hunting before Sunday, because C has to go to California for a week for work, and we don’t want to put things on hold another week).  Also, hopefully the sooner we buy a house, the sooner we can close and move in.

In other good news, one of our cars arrived yesterday!  It was 3 days early, which was awesome because that’s 3 fewer days of renting a car. Though we don’t have a place to live yet, it’s nice to drive our own car.  We shipped our other car a month after this one, so we will be sharing a vehicle until October, but since I don’t have a job yet, that should be pretty easy (and much more economical).

We made it to the new state! September 1, 2008

We left Hawaii around 2:45 p.m. Hawaii time on Friday and, 3 flights later, arrived in Virginia at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.  Flying overnight in combination with a 6 hour time change and 2 layovers is exhausting.  We spent most of Saturday afternoon and this morning asleep.

However, this afternoon/evening we were house-hunting maniacs.  We meet with our realtor tomorrow for our first “official” house hunting trip, but we spent last night and today driving around looking at locations/neighborhoods.  It was a little shocking. Houses that look nice on the web usually look nice in person, but their neighborhoods don’t always match.  A number of “nice” houses in our price range were on a “nice” street, surrounded by a number of really sketchy neighborhoods. That helped us narrow down our search quite a bit.

We did find one house I absolutely LOVE, but it’s $20,000 above our price range, and judging by what other houses in the neighborhood are going for, I think they’ve already come wayyy down in price. However, we’ll see how things go.  If they are in that much of hurry to sell it, we might just score a deal.

Update on the big move August 28, 2008

So much has been accomplished it makes me proud!  Here’s a list just so I can show off:

1. Shipped all of our household goods

2. Shipped both of our vehicles (vehicle #2 went today)

3. Booked our plane tickets to Virginia (we leave on Friday already!)

4. Cashed in the change jar (it’s not just a blog name) – we accumulated $52 in change during the 11 months we lived in Hawaii.  We will start again in Virginia.

5. Cleaned up our townhouse, our walk-through with the landlord is tonight, and I’m desperately hoping we will get our entire $2500 deposit back. (Yep, real estate is expensive in Hawaii, even for renters).

6. Emailed our realtor to let her know we want to begin house hunting next week.

7.  Forwarded the mail to my sister’s house in North Carolina — I can pick it up when I go visit her next month.

8. Turned in my letter of resignation at work and had my last day.

9. Cancelled all the utilities

10. Called to get instructions on rolling my company retirement balance (only about $1200, but every bit helps) into my IRA.  

11. Dropped off all furniture/stuff we didn’t need any more at Goodwill and the dump. (Just the stuff with no resale value – I’m hoping to eBay/amazon/garage sale the rest when we get to Virginia).

12. Backed up all my computer files before the move, and made sure we had all our important paper work on hand.

13. Booked our plane tickets to go home (Minnesota) and see the family at the end of September.  (C doesn’t have to start work again til October, so we may as well squeeze in a trip while I’m still jobless — who knows how long it will take to accrue vacation at my next job).

Seeing all of this checked off and finished makes me so happy, I’m actually humming IZ’s Hawaiian version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World.

Honest and Friendly People Still Exist in the World August 22, 2008

For all the media does to convince us that we live in an alienating and crime-ridden country, I have to say that in my experience, there is still such a thing as being a good neighbor or responsible person. I say this because . . .

I got my wallet back today!  I work at a college, and one of the adult distance learning students found my wallet in the parking lot.  She found my staff ID in the wallet, called the number on it, and we met in the parking lot this morning so she could return my wallet.  All cash and (now canceled) credit cards are intact. 

It’s a bit of a bummer that I already canceled my credit cards, but I really feel it was better to be safe than sorry — especially since I’m moving across the country in a week and need new cards before I leave.

 Also, we got rid of the troublesome couch last night!  Though my efforts on craigslist failed, my friends did not.  My friend M came over with his truck last night and helped us haul the couch away to the dump.  He and his wife D, then invited us over for a fabulous home-cooked meal.  This was extra awesome because we are living in a hotel right now and have pretty much been subsisting on Subway sandwiches for the past few days.

Tonight we check into a nice hotel in downtown Waikiki for a 3-day mini-vacation.  Though moving preparations are keeping us pretty busy right now, we planned this last little adventure so we could make sure we got to be tourists one more time before we leave Hawaii.  It’s been a stressful week, but I’d say things are definitely looking up!

Why is it so hard to give away a free couch? August 19, 2008

Our movers came today and packed up all of our stuff, except our couch, because we want to get rid of it before we leave.  Since we don’t have a truck, and we’d need to figure out a way to get the couch to the dump, I figured I’d first try listing the couch under the “free” section on craigslist. The couch isn’t in the best shape, but it has a hide-a-bed, so I figured someone might want it.  I was brutally honest in my ad regarding the condition of the couch and I posted a photo, figuring I didn’t want someone to show up, be disappointed, and refuse to take it away.

The couch has been posted a week and I have gotten 3 inquiries.  The first person emailed me her phone number, but when I called her, she said she needed to call me back.  6 hours later, she called me back, asked if the couch was still available and said she’d have to call me back. 10 minutes later, she calls me back to say she doesn’t want the couch.  Since I was at work during all these phone calls, I was a bit annoyed that all the interruptions yielded no results.

The second person emailed me this message: “wassup I like ur need numbah” and when I replied, I got an undeliverable message.  Frankly, since this guy couldn’t even form a sentence, I was vaguely relieved I didn’t have to deal with him any further.

The third person sounded like a winner.  He had a truck and would be by the next morning at 8 a.m. to pick up the couch.  Around 10 a.m., having not heard from him, C called him back.  He said that he still wanted the couch, but his truck was not available until after 1 p.m. and that he’d call us back.  3 p.m. rolls around, with no call, and no guy, so C calls him again.  This time, no answer.  So our townhouse is now empty, except for the dang couch.

We leave Hawaii in 2 weeks, hopefully by then we can find a taker.

Important documents and moving August 15, 2008

Yesterday, C and I went through and set aside all the important documents we don’t want packed by the movers.  As we’ve learned from past moves, it’s important to make sure you carry your most valuable documents with you, rather than risk having them lost/stolen during the moving process. 

In our case, these include:

- passports, birth certificates, marriage license, and social security cards

- credit cards, savings bonds, checks and deposit slips

- wills, medical directives, and powers of attorney

Basically anything we may need while our stuff is in transit, and anything that if lost or stolen, could present major problems for us.

I also set aside my vaulable jewelery to carry with me. I was surprised, when the movers came to do the estimate, aside from the usual restrictions (liquids, flammables) they told us that they will not move ANY jewelery, because they do not want the liability in case it is lost or stolen.  This being said, I’m pretty sure that if I stash some of my inexpensive necklaces in a drawer somewhere, they will get moved.

Car Shipment Arranged August 14, 2008

We finally settled on a company to ship my car from Hawaii to Virginia.  My husband’s company will pay to ship one car, but we have two, and after much discussion, we have decided it’s worth it to pay to ship the second car ourselves rather than selling it before we move and buying a new one when we get back to Virginia.

Shipping a car was a much more complex process than I thought it would be.  Essentially, you pay to have them put your car on a cargo ship and send it to California, and then you can either pick up your car and drive it across country, or pay to have a trucking company transport it the rest of the way for you.  We went online and got quotes, and most of them ranged from $2200 to $4000.  The cheapest quote we found was through Secure Auto Transport, but after looking at transportreviews.com and googling the company name, we found it didn’t sound very reliable.  Instead we went with Magic Carpet Auto.  For sea + ground transport, we were quoted $2314.  This was about $200 more than Secure Auto, but Magic Carpet had much higher customer review ratings, so we figure it’s worth it.

To ensure that we weren’t losing money by not driving the car across country ourselves, I did the math. $700 for plane tickets to CA + $400 for gas for the 2700 mile trip + $150 for two nights hotel + $300 for 3 days worth of meals along the way  =  $1550.  When this is added to the  $1079 for shipping from HI to CA, it comes out to over $2600.  So, having a company transport the car the entire trip will cost me less, and I don’t have to waste 3 days of valuable house and job hunting time to drive the car across country.  Plus, I won’t have to put all that mileage on my car, preserving more of its value.

I’ve never shipped a car myself before, so I’m a bit nervous about how it will go.  We drop the car off at the end of the month.  I will keep you posted on what happens.  If you’ve ever paid to have your car shipped somewhere before, I welcome your story and advice!

Yes, I do still exist August 3, 2008

So I have been pretty bad about posting since I started this blog.  I think this is a combination of laziness and the fact that I’m still pretty new to the blogosphere, so I tend to get caught up reading other peoples’ blogs rather than writing my own.  I think thus far, that has been my primary reason for having this blog — a way to organize and add links for other personal finance blogs to read.

So, since I’m taking a moment to post, here’s an update on our move and finances.  C and I opened a joint savings account through ING as a place to store his bonus until we are ready to buy a house in a few months.  I am very pleased with the account, it’s nice to actually see interest accrue in a tangible way.  (Our other savings account interest rates are so low, it’s as if they don’t exist).

Our movers came last week, and packed up our “express” shipment.  This is basically dishes, linens, and extra clothing that we are shipping out a month early so that we have SOMETHING while we wait for our regular shipment to arrive. I was smarter this time, and packed a tv, tv stand, air mattress, and our lawn chairs so that we would have some temporary “furniture” as well.  (They won’t allow you to ship your real furniture in the express shipment).

We also shipped C’s car on Friday, so we are down to sharing my car for the rest of the month until we move. It shouldn’t be too bad, once our regular movers come on the 18th, we will move into temporary lodging that is within walking distance to C’s job, so it’s as if we are really only sharing a car for 2 weeks.  We will ship our other car at the end of the month, right before we leave, thus minimizing any rental car expenses as our first car should be waiting for us in VA when we arrive.

Now that that is all finished, I am focusing on getting our utilities canceled, getting organized for the “real” move, finding a new job, looking at houses online, etc.  More updates to come!