Back in the world

A lot has changed (again) since my last blog post. Now I can say with certainty that I am a North Carolina resident and a Duke employee. For a while, it wasn't looking like either would be definite.

We arrived in town after a long week in the car, driving from Portland to Durham. My skin had pretty much blown up -- whether from getting cross-contaminated with gluten from something (looking at you french fries) or sleeping on scratchy hotel sheets washed in industrial-strength detergent. Most likely a combination of both. Deciding to eat chicken ended up being the smartest (and really probably only) decision I could have made. I literally lived on salads with grilled chicken from McDonalds and Wendys -- often twice per day. This will likely be TMI, but it's my blog, so I'll say what I like. How the hell do people on the Atkin's diet go to the bathroom? I was eating virtually all protein, eggs, chicken, with some iceberg lettuce and random fruit mixed in when I could find it. Granted, my sensitive digestive track requires more care than most, but by the end, going to the bathroom or showering could reduce me to tears from pain. It's going to be a LONG time before I want to attempt any kind of long road trip again.

When we arrived in Durham, things rapidly headed downhill -- our house we were so excited about was not ready to move in, it was disgusting, with an overgrown lawn, and tons of trash the previous tenants had left. The landlord was less than responsive. We had to stay in more hotels, virtually homeless. Working-class homeless as I called it. We would stay as long as we could until check out, then live in our car for the day, trying to keep Myrapup out of the heat, trying to find a new place to live, trying to take care of paying for all the deposits for utilities, all while not really sure where everything was located. It was stressful for all of us.

When it looked like we would have to make a hard decision (go stay with my parents, have Tim drive up to Mass while Myra and I stayed in an extended stay place, etc), when we really needed to find a place to live where we could get in immediately, we found a new home. And the tide turned again. The house is perfect for all of us. Really quiet (for Tim). Huge yard for Myra. Clean and well-maintained (for me). We have great landlords. We were able to move into the house a day after looking at it. It's furnished, which helps, because it is a lot bigger than what we had before. The stuff we don't want/need, we are putting in a storage shed, but for the most part, it complements our stuff well.

I found out from Campbell that it is a no -- for now. They really like me and want to talk to me if another position opens up, they said it's just not the best fit for this particular consulting group, and honestly, I had got that feeling from the consultant who heads up that group. So I am a Duke girl now. I might keep job searching, who knows. But at least I have a job, and our life can settle and we can find a new normal now. Trust me, just sitting here, blogging, with my boy and my pup in the next room, knowing we don't have to be anywhere, is a most welcome slice of heaven right now.

the house we want

We are going to look at the house and the neighborhood today, but from the listing, we absolutely love it.

If things go well, this could very well end up being the house we try to buy.

The house we love

The first house we really love

We went to look at a few houses in Milwaukie today, because we are fairly sure that if we buy a house, it will probably be in Milwaukie. A little cheaper, more land, and still really close to Portland and everything we want to do.

The first one. Meh. The house itself was cute (and from the pictures, we would have loved the kitchen), but we hated the neighborhood. Tim and I both felt like we had somehow ended up in a part of Vermont neither of us wanted to be in. Tim: "It feels familiar, and not in a good way."

So we followed our mock GPS (laptop with google directions saved on it) to the next house. We LOVED it. Great yard. Cute house (and definitely the closest thing to a Cape you will find out here). Really quiet street. Cute neighborhood, good for running. And about 6 minutes door to door from there to where we live now. Check it out here.

It is on the high end of where we would like to be, but if it stays on the market, it is definitely one we will check out.

Whole grainy goodness

We just got back from Bob's Red Mill store, where they have Whole grain...Everything, pretty much. I bought high fiber pancake mix, granola, muesli, flaxseed, protein powder, hummus mix, all kinds of fun and healthy things. Hooray! And it is right down the street.

We also started checking out some homes in Milwaukie, and that might be an area we add to our list for buying a home, the yards are huge, the homes are a lot cheaper than in Portland, and it is only 5 minutes from that neighborhood to our current neighborhood. A very good Saturday afternoon.

One step closer

To a house.

T and I went to a first-time home buyers class this week, and it was very informative. They walked us through everything you have to do when you are buying a house, what the different stages are, what you have to do to make an offer, how a real estate agent helps, etc.

And they also talked about money and mortgages. They do have no-money down programs, but you have to pay closing costs. Or you can pay down "points" to get a better mortgage price, or if you put down 0-5% of the cost, you get a much better interest rate. We figure we won't be able to hit 5% by the time we're thinking of looking, but we will easily have 3% down, possibly 4% down, which makes our interest rate MUCH better.

They also talked about what determines your interest rate, and while credit score was a big factor, so is debt to income ratio, and my debt to income ratio is fabulous. And they don't look at total debt you owe, they look at your monthly payments. And I only have a small school loan and the car payment, which they pretty much expect everyone to have. One thing they said was make sure you don't buy a new car before trying to get a mortgage, because they don't want to see new debt right before you qualify for a mortgage.

And they didn't talk about job history. They said you need two years of W-2s, two months of pay stubs and proof of your assets. I asked about if you are a contractor or self-employed, how you verify that, and they just said they just look at the tax returns for that.

So I feel like this is a goal we can really work towards, and we will continue to save as much as we can and pay down my school loan and start paying on Tim's.