Saturday, June 20, 2009

Being unreasonable

I've been avoiding kvetching about my first world problems. These include: being out of my comfort zone, a lack of guidance, and a general sense of feeling sorry for myself. You'll note that none of these problems involve not having shelter, food, or clean water to drink.

You'll note that won't you?

So all this awesome stuff is happening. We're buying a house. My job challenges me -- sometimes more than I'd like. And my retirement funds aren't looking so flimsy now that I have a 401(k) again. We're all reasonably healthy.

I slept for 12 hours on Tuesday night. 6:30pm to 6:30am. And I was still tired when I finally got up. This is representative of my week.

It probably shouldn't be a surprise. When I get stressed, I get sleepy. (Where's the evolutionary imperative in that?) And buying a house is one of those high stress situations everyone tells you about... except there isn't anything tangible to be stressed about. We've been saving for 9 years, 5 of them steadily. I've been reading books on the subject for three years, web sites for just as long. I'm mentally prepared! Or maybe not. I think it's the 30 year mortgage that's doing me in. I have to keep doing what I'm doing for 30. More. Years. I'm not sure I can -- oh look GRANITE COUNTERTOPS.

The seller is cooking us lunch at the house today. That's a little weird, isn't it? He's preparing pasta; I'm bringing brownies. After lunch we'll wander through the house so we can pick out stuff we want since he's going somewhere furnished. I may secretly scrape some popcorn off the ceiling so I can have it tested for asbestos. Or not so secretly. I haven't decided how important it is for me to have it removed. I'd rather replace the siding, and put new tile in the downstairs bathroom, and build a pantry out of the closet. Oh I have plans.

Anyway. To make myself feel better I just bought two sets of towels on sale from SmartBargains.com. They're a bamboo/cotton blend. Very soft.

I don't want to be too controversial, but I am pro-bamboo. There. It is out in the open.

For some reason it doesn't help my mood that the house I loved first and mentioned here went back on the market and is now listed for 15k less than before. I love the house we're buying more, so it's all very unreasonable to be affected by it.

Stay on target, Christy. Closing is only a month away.

4 comments:

Maya said...

You are very lucky to be able to buy a house right now, so count your lucky stars! Try not to worry too much about the 30 year part. When my parents paid off their mortgage, their payments were only $100/month. Can you imagine? Remeber, that the hardest time is now, and the longer you have that mortgage, the lower those payments will seem...

Folly Blaine said...

It's true, Maya. We are extremely fortunate to be in this position and it's important that I don't lose sight of that. Thanks for the perspective.

George said...

Yeah, when we bought in Santa Barbara in 1997, all the money involved seemed ridiculous. Since then our house went up 3 times in value, rents went way up, things leveled a bit but not as much as elsewhere and we pay way less in mortgage for a whole house than many friends do to rent. It's a good investment and will make you feel more comfort in many ways for years.

Folly Blaine said...

Thanks, George. That's good to know.