Frontal view and the view from the back patio.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Home-buying
This isn't quite "must-read" material yet. It doesn't help that I update it on a monthly basis and no one who knows me actually is aware that I have a blog. That'll change soon though. Gotta have someplace to post pics of my new pad ... emailing them to 200 people just isn't prudent. So I'm back ... and planning to be more dedicated. I'll make it my New Year's resolution since -- let's be honest -- I'm not really likely to be back again before January!
So... home buying. I learned a lot. Here are a couple of observations:
1. Just because you're working with Christians doesn't mean there won't be unpleasant surprises when you finally get to the closing table. I suspect in the secular mortgage/real estate world (where profit is the main motivation) there's a great deal of dishonesty or at least disingenuous communication. But I also now suspect that in the Christian real estate business (where motivations ought to be a bit more mixed) there's a temptation to always present the best-case scenario -- or always look through rose-colored glasses. I don't think anyone we worked with was intentionally deceptive, but it did end up that a lot of their end-number prognostications were painfully optimistic.
2. I've been very leery of owning a home for a long time, mostly because I've always felt that the home tends to own you more than you own it. You lose Saturdays to lawn work, money to home repairs, etc. etc. (oh, and gobs of debt). I value my freedom a lot, so I was keen not to be a slave to my house. Well, we moved ahead with this purchase despite my fears and along the way God worked a lot in my heart. I suddenly, inexplicably, found myself looking forward to home repair and yard work. I'm not a "handyman" by any means, but the thought of learning how to do useful things (more useful than knowing how to calculating on-base percentage, for example) excites me, and the thought of caring for something that belongs to me is pretty appealing too.
I'm beginning to think there are some parallels here to child-rearing. I'm leery about children for the same reason: I don't want to lose my life in order to take care of another's. But I've long suspected (because plenty of smart people actually do have children) that there must be something that changes in you when you move toward having a child (i.e. when you get pregnant). Something must happen that makes you not mind the freedom you are giving up and the sacrifices you'll have to make. Maybe it's the sense of ownership: I want to care for my house because it's mine -- part of me in a sense. A Father wants to care for his son or daughter because he/she is his -- a very real part of him. I think there must be something to this bond that transforms our attitudes about caretaking. Any thoughts?
3. Painting edges in a straight line is hard. Using a roller to cover huge tracts of land is easy. I like that part -- the edge part I'll leave for someone else. I love precision and order, but when it comes to painting someone else can do it.
4. Home owner associations can be a pain, and I'd rather not give them money every month, but when it pays for my lawn to be mowed once a week I'm all for it.
This concludes my message for today. Check out the pics!
So... home buying. I learned a lot. Here are a couple of observations:
1. Just because you're working with Christians doesn't mean there won't be unpleasant surprises when you finally get to the closing table. I suspect in the secular mortgage/real estate world (where profit is the main motivation) there's a great deal of dishonesty or at least disingenuous communication. But I also now suspect that in the Christian real estate business (where motivations ought to be a bit more mixed) there's a temptation to always present the best-case scenario -- or always look through rose-colored glasses. I don't think anyone we worked with was intentionally deceptive, but it did end up that a lot of their end-number prognostications were painfully optimistic.
2. I've been very leery of owning a home for a long time, mostly because I've always felt that the home tends to own you more than you own it. You lose Saturdays to lawn work, money to home repairs, etc. etc. (oh, and gobs of debt). I value my freedom a lot, so I was keen not to be a slave to my house. Well, we moved ahead with this purchase despite my fears and along the way God worked a lot in my heart. I suddenly, inexplicably, found myself looking forward to home repair and yard work. I'm not a "handyman" by any means, but the thought of learning how to do useful things (more useful than knowing how to calculating on-base percentage, for example) excites me, and the thought of caring for something that belongs to me is pretty appealing too.
I'm beginning to think there are some parallels here to child-rearing. I'm leery about children for the same reason: I don't want to lose my life in order to take care of another's. But I've long suspected (because plenty of smart people actually do have children) that there must be something that changes in you when you move toward having a child (i.e. when you get pregnant). Something must happen that makes you not mind the freedom you are giving up and the sacrifices you'll have to make. Maybe it's the sense of ownership: I want to care for my house because it's mine -- part of me in a sense. A Father wants to care for his son or daughter because he/she is his -- a very real part of him. I think there must be something to this bond that transforms our attitudes about caretaking. Any thoughts?
3. Painting edges in a straight line is hard. Using a roller to cover huge tracts of land is easy. I like that part -- the edge part I'll leave for someone else. I love precision and order, but when it comes to painting someone else can do it.
4. Home owner associations can be a pain, and I'd rather not give them money every month, but when it pays for my lawn to be mowed once a week I'm all for it.
This concludes my message for today. Check out the pics!
Monday, November 07, 2005
Backing into Blogging
I signed up to comment on someone else's blog ... thebeckster.blogspot.com... but wound up creating my own. Auspicious begining. But you have to start somewhere.
"Somewhere" right now, is actually LaGrange, Wyoming, population 323, and a few cows. Roughly 200 students are at Frontier School of the Bible here, which would be two-thirds of the town if the count the students. Not sure if they do or not. LaGrange is sort of in the middle of nowhere -- 45 minutes to the nearest hotel or fast food, which makes it rather nice I suppose. Very pure, very quiet, very low-key. Quite a contrast to LaSalle Blvd in downtown Chicago, where I was last month, or even my own street in Orlando. It's a nice change, but probably good in small doses only. Give me a month here and I'll be seeing Michael Landon walking down the street or Jane Seymour making house-calls to the sick neighbors.
OK, time to check back on the Pats/Colts game, er, shallacking.
"Somewhere" right now, is actually LaGrange, Wyoming, population 323, and a few cows. Roughly 200 students are at Frontier School of the Bible here, which would be two-thirds of the town if the count the students. Not sure if they do or not. LaGrange is sort of in the middle of nowhere -- 45 minutes to the nearest hotel or fast food, which makes it rather nice I suppose. Very pure, very quiet, very low-key. Quite a contrast to LaSalle Blvd in downtown Chicago, where I was last month, or even my own street in Orlando. It's a nice change, but probably good in small doses only. Give me a month here and I'll be seeing Michael Landon walking down the street or Jane Seymour making house-calls to the sick neighbors.
OK, time to check back on the Pats/Colts game, er, shallacking.
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