One Year Later

One year ago Mr. Cabbage, ZimMaster Flash, and I were living in an motel with a litter box, a smelly hockey bag and all our belongings that weren’t in storage. Somehow we lived like this for 44 days through most of the summer.

Homeless and hopeless no more

In the course of a week:

• I was in a car accident that totaled my paid off car

• The house we were purchasing completely and utterly failed the home inspection causing us to withdraw our purchase offer (hence the motel)

• Our condo was sold leaving more cash in our pockets than ever, and yet still utterly homeless

• My mom decided during this same week she just HAD to suddenly move out of her house and into a senior living facility in another state

If you’ve ever heard the phrase “it was a week” or how about this one “when it rains it pours,” nothing was more true at that moment for us.

However, as you may have guessed… since I am finally writing to you all, we survived! For many 2020 is A YEAR, but for us, it is a vast improvement from where we were at this time last year.

I cannot under any circumstances imagine hunkering down in a shitty motel during coronavirus, nor am I actually sure it would be allowed.

Mister Cabbage and my relationship is so much stronger and more resilient having survived that storm.

It is probably insensitive to say that it may have taken the forced slow down coronavirus has forced me to look around, take a deep breath and appreciate everything around me with gratitude.

Tell me: What has the coronavirus caused you to take stock of in your life? Are you finding good in this unpredictable and unprecedented time?

Follow us to find out how we’re moving down our road to financial independence. We are by no means professional finance experts but we’d love to share our wins, losses and bits of wisdom with you and learn from your journeys as well. Travel with us toward that independent, worry-free life!

When it Rains it Pours

We put the condo on the market on a Wednesday. We had 22 showings and an open house in five days. On Monday we reviewed seven offers, six of which were above list price. We sold for 5.26% above list price, which is 20% above what I paid nine years ago.

While this was all going on, I was spending the weekend in Florida with my mom. We took those keys away from her (win) and introduced her to the idea of assisted living facilities (another win). She willingly accepted that she shouldn’t be driving and LOVED the facility.

When I got back from Florida, Mr. Cabbage and I continued our hunt for a place to live. Over the course of this hunt, we think we saw approximately 80 houses between the two of us. We tried three failed contracts that weren’t taken seriously because our offer would be contingent on the selling of our condo – which clearly took such a long time. Our one heartbreak during the process was a terribly unique house, in our price range that was beautiful – until we saw the 80 page inspection report done by the last people who backed out of their offer. We could not in good conscience put an offer in on the money pit.

Last weekend after visiting five houses and getting terribly down, we made it to our sixth and final house… a log cabin. We found our house. A beautiful log cabin on 6.5 acres of land about an hour commute each way from work and our very own oasis. The owner already had an offer on the property who was contingent on their own home sale, but he had a kick out clause and he used it. This property is 21% less than the condo sold for… or very close to what I paid for it nine years ago.

So this week we’ve been busy arranging inspections for both properties, transferring utilities, packing, signing endless documents, and so on… while my mom has signed a lease to move in to a facility she can afford to live in for about four years. She is very excited. We haven’t told her she is either GREATLY downsizing after that which she may not know the difference or she might need to pass by then. Oh well for shopping around and just testing the waters out with a tour.

And the cherry on top this week was Thursday morning on my way to a doctor’s appointment at 8am getting T-boned coming out of my neighborhood when turning left by someone FLYING through the light. I was shaking, but I’m ok and it was very wonderful that Mr. Cabbage was able to drive over and calm me down, which was so much more helpful than the random passerby who told me to keep calm since I was clearly expecting. Actually no fucktard, I’m just holding myself to stop shaking but thanks for helping the day’s spectacular hit get even better.

I haven’t even lived in a single family home since I was four. Everything about the country is going to be an adventure for us. Stay tuned!

The Four Worst Pets, or… Why I Need New Neighbors

So… I may have written an email to animal control. Now, listen up… I am not an animal hater. We have a very adorable cat who you can follow on Twitter (@zim_flash). I don’t even just hate dogs… but Mr. Cabbage and I both very much love peace, quiet and the freedom to SLEEP! If we didn’t love sleep so much maybe we’d consider children… NAH!

While talking to our realtor about our intention to sell, I fretted about how you even hold an open house with loud, boisterous animals sitting in the kitchen window of the townhouse next door scaring anyone who comes near our house. At our realtor’s suggestion my first step was emailing the insanely overpriced condo association who is always quick with their threats to tow cars or shutdown an Airbnb.

Sadly, they didn’t want to take a stance on how many dogs is permissable or how much noise they are ok with them making. The president referred me to the city… which led me to animal control. They were so set on shutting down my Airbnb which helped me pay 7% of my mortgage last year when in the previous eight years I had only paid 13% COMBINED…. I highly recommend hosting an Airbnb if you can… but I digress.

Hello,

I am not sure what can be done, my neighbor has four dogs, which I have been told may be a violation of City law. The dogs bark very loudly anytime anyone comes near my residence. They wake me up nearly everyday. Is there anything I can do about this? It has gotten so disruptive, I am considering selling my property to get away from the situation.

Their address is XXX. Please let me know if you need additional information. Thank you so much for any help you can provide in advance.

Respectfully,

DC Beth

Now, I don’t know what you would expect if you were to write an email to any city department… but I expected nothing. No action, no response and for that email to fall into a deep dark hole of oblivian.

However, Mr. Cabbage called me the very next day at work to tell me Animal Control was standing in our parking spot, and taking note of the poorly behaved dogs who were barking feverishly in the kitchen window the neighbor’s kitchen. How exciting! I had written and my voice had been heard.

My neighbor (the adult male) waited for me in his kitchen window and came out to meet my car when I arrived home from work that day. He confronted me about having called animal control and said they had been there. Duh… I have spies. I know things.

Then he went on to tell me that the dog was his mother-in-laws and they took the dog in when she passed away. Yes, I know I’m a monster.

Do you know how much money I am spending on a house where the FOUR dogs is all I hear sometimes? He said his family would fix the issue but shock collars were cruel and also they are trying to move to a bigger house.

I believed him and left the conversation excited. Mr. Cabbage asked me where the “For Sale” sign was… hmmm…. good question! I see your point sir.

Stay tuned… I’m pretty sure we’ll be hearing more from these folks.

What do you think did I go too far? What would you do if your peace was being stolen?

**PLEASE NOTE** This is not the first time I have gotten immediate response from a government official. Stay tuned to hear how I wrote my Congressman and saved three years worth of interest on my student loans!