The big move
We love our new house and the cats are very happy!
Our house, 3027 SE Main St in all its glory
So that's the good news out of the way; now the tales of strife and woe. Come on, that's why you're here: admit it.
First the money wired from the sale of Green Wall arrived a day late, sending our seller's agent into a state of apoplexy (hey, I'm the one with 120 grand lost in the ether - you can chill out). In Oregon the sellers move out of the property the day after they've sold it, which meant we finally got in on Thursday morning, just ahead of the truck carrying all our stuff, last seen in Lewes. I open the door... all I smell is gas. I call the gas company in, they identify a leak by the cooker, further identify non-regulation gas fittings, shut off cooker pending repair. So, we're told, no cooker til Monday; the plus side being I have an excuse to eat out for three days. This was merely the first of six call-outs relating to gas, two of which are yet to come. So, no cooker still.
Meanwhile, am hemorrhaging money faster than the Pentagon: new electrical everything, new miscellaneous bits and bobs. In other news at least two squirrels are making random runs between ground and first floors through as yet untraced entrance/exits. The garage is filled with boxes and the bastards at "Trashco" want to charge me a fortune to remove them. No municipal dump as far as I can tell, so it's a nice little racket. I haven't had to grease the Teamsters yet, but no doubt that's next. You have to fork out twenty bucks a month for the buggers to empty one largish bin per week. No, it's really not included in the $3700 pa property taxes which are squandered on luxuries such as police, fire brigade, education and other instruments of "the man". I never thought I'd say it, but it makes Lewes Council Tax seem (vaguely) reasonable. You pay this out from what's left after 22% Federal, 8% Oregon and 1% Multnomah County income tax. Plus salary deductions for healthcare, medicaid and social security, the final two of which I am not even entitled to claim back should I need them. Now you see why people hole up in the woods on Montana. Anyhow, I digress.
The house is really lovely and when we get it fully furnished it will be lovelier still. I think we'll be very happy there. The neighbourhood is really the best in the city with plenty of restaurants, bars and shops just around the corner. It's a forty minute walk over the river, or a short bus or bike journey to the real downtown if you ever feel like it. But for the time being we're really too busy and knackered to be really enjoying it. To give you a picture for just how bad things are: I own a hot-tub and I haven't even been in for a dip yet.
So, am I cycling to work, you ask? Well, the heart is willing but the flesh is weak, as they say. In an unlikely bid to shift the tonnage ahead of time I took to the treadmill at work (the real one, not a metaphorical one, I'm always on that) for about a week or so, 'running' a couple of miles in about twenty mins (hey, I'm not an athlete) before turning to the cycling machine. And I completely fucked up my knees. Which means I'm on doctor's orders not to take it easy so they can recover. Thus, am still taking the ginger mazda to work for the time being. On the plus side, it has been raining for about a week solid, so it's all probably for the best anyway.
More soonish.
Our house, 3027 SE Main St in all its glory
So that's the good news out of the way; now the tales of strife and woe. Come on, that's why you're here: admit it.
First the money wired from the sale of Green Wall arrived a day late, sending our seller's agent into a state of apoplexy (hey, I'm the one with 120 grand lost in the ether - you can chill out). In Oregon the sellers move out of the property the day after they've sold it, which meant we finally got in on Thursday morning, just ahead of the truck carrying all our stuff, last seen in Lewes. I open the door... all I smell is gas. I call the gas company in, they identify a leak by the cooker, further identify non-regulation gas fittings, shut off cooker pending repair. So, we're told, no cooker til Monday; the plus side being I have an excuse to eat out for three days. This was merely the first of six call-outs relating to gas, two of which are yet to come. So, no cooker still.
Meanwhile, am hemorrhaging money faster than the Pentagon: new electrical everything, new miscellaneous bits and bobs. In other news at least two squirrels are making random runs between ground and first floors through as yet untraced entrance/exits. The garage is filled with boxes and the bastards at "Trashco" want to charge me a fortune to remove them. No municipal dump as far as I can tell, so it's a nice little racket. I haven't had to grease the Teamsters yet, but no doubt that's next. You have to fork out twenty bucks a month for the buggers to empty one largish bin per week. No, it's really not included in the $3700 pa property taxes which are squandered on luxuries such as police, fire brigade, education and other instruments of "the man". I never thought I'd say it, but it makes Lewes Council Tax seem (vaguely) reasonable. You pay this out from what's left after 22% Federal, 8% Oregon and 1% Multnomah County income tax. Plus salary deductions for healthcare, medicaid and social security, the final two of which I am not even entitled to claim back should I need them. Now you see why people hole up in the woods on Montana. Anyhow, I digress.
The house is really lovely and when we get it fully furnished it will be lovelier still. I think we'll be very happy there. The neighbourhood is really the best in the city with plenty of restaurants, bars and shops just around the corner. It's a forty minute walk over the river, or a short bus or bike journey to the real downtown if you ever feel like it. But for the time being we're really too busy and knackered to be really enjoying it. To give you a picture for just how bad things are: I own a hot-tub and I haven't even been in for a dip yet.
So, am I cycling to work, you ask? Well, the heart is willing but the flesh is weak, as they say. In an unlikely bid to shift the tonnage ahead of time I took to the treadmill at work (the real one, not a metaphorical one, I'm always on that) for about a week or so, 'running' a couple of miles in about twenty mins (hey, I'm not an athlete) before turning to the cycling machine. And I completely fucked up my knees. Which means I'm on doctor's orders not to take it easy so they can recover. Thus, am still taking the ginger mazda to work for the time being. On the plus side, it has been raining for about a week solid, so it's all probably for the best anyway.
More soonish.
posted by Richard Tammar at 6:06 PM
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