This time last year, I was talking about trying to get on board with the MFLC and figure life out from there. I had some things I was working on and damn if I haven’t gotten any to fruition. It seems frustrating and it can be, but if you remember my post from last week, about life being overwhelming, I’m working on how to get this overwhleming feeling tamed. I feel like I’m way further along with some of the projects and not so far along with others. More importantly, I’m leaning into this whole underemployed aspect of my current lifestyle. I’m trying to not stress day to day about working or not working. Even though every day unemployed is another day on my ever growing resume gap. Sure, I’m adjunct teaching, and maybe that will help, but I haven’t worked in oil and gas since Nov 2018. Yikes, now that’s a resume gap. I’ve been poring over LinkedIn and other venues for positions, and there seem to be a few more geologists positions opening up, still mostly in Houston. The hiring for the construction aspect of oil and gas, and mudloggers, and service industry folks is really picking up though, so I’m optimistic that geology hiring will start in full swing soon. Of course, Conoco just had a big layoff a couple of weeks ago, so that’s still happening as well. Here’s what’s been going on with me.
Last year was one for the record books in so many ways. And literally, one for the record books in so many ways that none of us want to remember. For me, it was the first time since I was 15 that I was unemployed. Like for real unemployed, not quitting my job in hopes of a better life with the family, type of unemployed. I had lots of ideas for what to do to move forward with income, I put together 5 different business plans, and had a lot of things that sounded good end up not looking so great when you look at the numbers. Yikes! I’ve seen more than a handful of people start an fail at the same restaurant I worked at in KY for almost 5 years. I knew how quickly you could burn thru cash with nothing to show for it. On top of that, the oil industry was already in a downturn. Massive layoffs, companies filing for bankruptcy, a petroleum geologist job was not to be found anywhere and it only got worse as the year went on. Not wanting to burn through all my savings and THEN end up feeling stuck and without money, I decided to get a job. A job at the DEpt of Human Services and friends, let me tell you. It was an experience…
Back when we first started thinking about early retirement, or later on, our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change, we had ideas about what that life would look like in ALL the ways. We expected it would be a happy little family, with ALL the time to hang out together, we would/could have some income from this blog (lol, riiiight), we would/could have income from some yet to be determined adjunct positions, and or find some other income sources that would be fun, since we wouldn’t need the money. If all else fails, we could always “go back to work”. If not in oil and gas, then in teaching perhaps, or who knows, but we’ll let the “future SSC’s” figure that one out, if needed.
Well, the reality was a lot different. In less than 2 years after we initiated our FFLC, we were divorced and all of that planning went out the window. Well, not all of it. I’m positioned really well to be able to follow whatever type of work comes my way, I did get an adjunct position, and I’m working on developing several income streams in the background. Before you ask, No, none of those income streams are from public speaking engagements, or my book “How to Retire Like Me”, lol. With all of that in mind, my Mostly Funded Lifestyle Change (MFLC) has been interesting to say the least. One thing has been pretty certain throughout, is that planning on a return to your former industry is shaky at best.
In my case, I wasn’t ever really planning on getting back into oil and gas full-time. Sure, the money is uh-may-zing, and it’s enjoyable enough work, but it’s not that fulfilling from a personal standpoint. I also never planned/counted on being able to return to my previous salary level, bwahaha, I wish. That bridge crumbled almost immediately after leaving the industry. For perspective, when I left, there had already been a big wave of layoffs from 2014-15 crash and while a lot of those people left the industry for good, many are still out there scrapping for any job openings. I knew the job market would be tight if I ever did want to gain re-entry.
Also, with Covid and the general unpredictable nature of oil markets, the possibility of re-entry is all but gone. Most smaller companies are doing well just to NOT file for bankruptcy, unlike some larger companies that already have or are planning to file, like Whiting, or Chesapeake, as per their announcement this week. My former company is hanging on tooth and nail to not fold or be bought up, after a horribly poor timed and poorly executed acquisition of Anadarko. Remember how people talk about not letting emotions come into play when home shopping, car shopping, or shopping for any other major purchase? The CEO should’ve taken that advice, because the financial structure of that acquisition is the definition of overpaying, just to win the bid. Yay, you won… Long story, but definitely, nothing opening up there anytime soon.
With the kids being here in Oklahoma, I knew I’d be restricted to a smaller market, smaller companies, and less opportunity, even if I did try to jump back in to that industry. Fortunately, I don’t have a lifestyle that needs that outrageous salary, and all the trappings that come with it. What’s my plan moving forward? Well, here are a few of them that I’ve been working on, none of which involve returning to my old industry.
Adjunct Teaching
Yep, I am still teaching about petroleum geology, so that’s sort of kind of on the fringe of that industry, I’m employed/contracted through the school, so not necessarily. At $6k/semester, it’s not even AdjunctFI, lol. That’s been nice, and I’ve applied to some other positions, probably along with the other thousands of unemployed geologists now that the latest wave of layoffs is underway. I have heard nothing yet on any position related to using my degree, and that’s fine with me. I feel okay submitting lots of applications, even knowing that none will probably pan out to anything income producing. It helps me feel better, and that’s how I like to keep personal finance, “personal”. I haven’t seen my contract for the fall yet, and it may fall through, but I at least gave my preference for teaching delivery method (all online, meet at a certain time online, or Saturday teaching… booo Saturday) and am reformatting the course appropriately.
Saturday courses….
Department of Human Services (DHS)
I have an interview with DHS of Central Oklahoma this Thursday, to be a Child Welfare Specialist, i.e. a case worker. Do I have any background in this field? Meh… Not really. I’ve been a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for the last year and a half so I’ve been privy to the inner workings of all of this, more than when I worked oil and gas. But, I also have a BS, an MS, a heartbeat, and a willingness to do the job, so we’ll see how that plays out.
Why work at DHS? Well, CASA won’t be hiring this year, much to my dismay… So, I stepped over to the next best option and applied at DHS. No clue how it will turnout, but you can be sure I’ll be tweeting or writing about it as it does. For me, I’m in a unique position to be able to do a job I want, and not necessarily the first job that says they’ll hire me. That’s awesome, and a great opportunity for me to be able step into the social work space. I’m really excited about it!
Child Advocacy Center
Another income stream I’ve been putting energy towards these days is working on starting a non-profit that would be a place for supervised visits for kids in/out of the foster care system, or just divorced parents that need supervision with their visits. This would also be expanded over time to include more services, but the main service would be providing a comfortable, relaxed space that families can spend having quality family time, and not just visiting at a McDonalds, for instance, or a park, or someplace that might be harder to relax and connect with their kid. Who wouldn’t want to be able to just cuddle and watch a movie, or a tv show, or do arts and crafts, or play out back, or bake in the kitchen? IDK, but that seems like a way better more relaxed atmosphere that feels less like “visiting” and more like bonding time.
I lost my business partner for that plan. I haven’t lost her, but I’ve lost any access to capital from her currently, due to erm, life? It seems no one’s plans are working out as well as they thought, lol. I’m currently stuck at the board of directors stage, writing the charter, and all the paperwork accoutrements that come along with starting a non-profit. Also, I haven’t previously had access to cash, to buy “the perfect property” yet, but that is not the case right now. Woohoo!! Now I’m ready to pull the trigger, which leads me to the next topic.
Me, when I find the “perfect” house
What the hell is going on with real estate markets?! It’s as hot now as it ever was, at least around here. House pricing hasn’t come down, at all. Houses are on the market for 3-12 days before they go to pending and they usually sell for close to their asking price. It’s crazy. Until I find the right property, I’m still just dealing with paperwork and that aspect. When I DO find a property, I can always rent it back to myself, from the non-profit, or if that business doesn’t work out, move into it or put it up for sale and recoup some money from that venture. A bonus would be having more space to put my woodworking equipment and use the property for that as well. Also, another potential rent-back opportunity for garage space. Until that pans out, I’m still reaching out for other board members, as that is my limiting factor at the moment.
Medical Marijuana
I’m stepping into the MM space. It seems tight, and a bit overloaded here, especially with the number of dispensaries and the like, around Norman alone. Statewide, as of last week, we had 137 pages of registered dispensaries, and at 17 listings per page, that’s over 2300 dispensaries. I’d rather deal with plants than people, tbh, and so I’ve been emailing about commercial rental spaces I can use for that operation. I’ve been learning all about Triple Net Leases, buildout for indoor grow ops, and THC extraction methods from flower and that has been an enlightening experience. I’ve been trying to keep that rental as close to home as possible, so my commute to “work” wouldn’t be a hassle, AND I could visit it at odd hours, if I get a “real job”. So far, 3 rejections, with offers WAY more space and overhead than I currently need. I’m not wanting to tie down the first year of operations with massive overhead while it’s a fledgling business. I haven’t signed anything yet, but hopefully very, very soon.
I have a business partner for the manufacturing side, and some potential people to tap for the grow side, but first, I need a space. I’ve all but given up on finding some land east of town that could work for this operation. This is due to the last property I looked at, being the residence of a “crazy old coot”. I mean, wow. Just wow… So, until something out there comes along, I’m into the rental space now.
The main plusses for this income stream, in my opinion, is that at the very least, I could have some cash influx about 3 months after getting my certificates. Because we’ll be sourcing our own product for manufacturing, that greatly increases the profitability margin. Amazingly, the licenses, packaging, and certificates to grow, sell, and make MM products, is WAY, WAY, WAY cheaper and less regulated than starting a nano-brewery. Freaking crazy, in my opinion, but hey, the gov’t does, what the gov’t does… Also, why not learn something new?
What Now?
I don’t know what’s coming next, to be honest. I may get the DHS job, I may not. I may find a house for the advocacy center and go full steam with that and definitely try my hand at the MM space in the meantime. I also started an Etsy shop, Could Have Been a Book where I’m successfully paying for picture listings, lol. Thanks to the support of a lot of you in the Twitter space, I have been getting items sold, and more pics added to the shop. Thank-you to everyone that has been helpful in supporting me in that way. My main goal is to have a nice inventory and supply built up prior to the holiday rush and get a local Facebook page for people within driving distance that don’t want to pay for shipping on the bigger carvings and products. Is that going to solve my money woes? Nope, not at all, lol. However, if it helps stop the leaks, then that’s awesome, and it keeps me focused working on hobbies and away from the computer because holy cow, my activity level has been SO low lately. Even with a “supposed” triathlon in Boulder this fall. Fingers crossed, but I know I won’t setting any PR’s on that course. It will be a great time to catch up with my college buddy, play even more music, and spend some time in CO, even if it’s just Broomfield…
Summary
That’s about it. The most recent catch up on all things, Jay. Not much has changed since last time though. I feel like I need to pivot this whole blog, whatever the hell it is now, out of the PF space and into, I have no clue where it would go.
I don’t write about PF stuff anymore. I’ve been blogging almost 6 years, I left an industry, was unemployed for almost 1 solid yr, and adjunct only for almost 1.5 years now and I STILL haven’t written a book, made any positive net income from the blog, or have actively been trying to monetize this platform. Too much work, not enough “give a crap” from my side. Plus, what would my book be about, “How to retire like me!”, I see way too many of those as it is, and don’t have anything new to add to waves arms around that whole space. Who knows, but you can be sure you’ll read about it here, or somewhere, when that pivot happens. Until then, stay safe, be kind, and if you need any support, join our PF Group over at discord.
For anyone that’s ever done any mountaineering, or just plain old hiking in the mountains you’ve experienced false peaks. For those not aware of the term, it’s essentially when you see “the top”, push to “the top”, only to get to “the top”, and then you see the actual peak even higher than where you currently are. It can be defeating, if you’re the kind of person to let mountains push you around, lol. I kid, I kid. But recently I’ve found out I’ve been dealing with nothing but false peaks, and I’m just about ready to pack up and hit the beach. Seriously…
Most of my false peaks seem to be around work, and income. I had been applying to jobs back in January, February, and I mostly stopped around March. In all, I applied to 42 jobs, and heard exactly nothing back from any of them, lol. Why did I stop? Lots of reasons, but these are the main ones.
First, there were no new jobs appearing, just the same handful of positions I’d already applied to.
Second, this whole buzz about some virus coming out of Wuhan seemed to rattle people.
Third, I had been talking with My CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) supervisor in January and she hooked me up with her daughter for a potential position with her son-in-law’s excavation company. Anyway, that hasn’t panned out yet, lol, but no worries, I’m optimistic.
Fourth, she mentioned that CASA would need a new supervisor position sometime around the 1st quarter and I’d be her preference for that position, so I was mostly just waiting for that, but applying other places, in the meantime.
Fifth, and final reason was that she (same CASA supervisor) also mentioned that she would love to help fund, start, work at, the child advocacy center I had approached her about starting.
Those are a myriad of reasons and seem to be scattered, but each one was a false peak and here’s why.
Whew, it felt like we just started this year and it’s finally, holy shit! It’s still, April!?!? Whoa… I don’t know if the rest of you feel that time has lost all sense of relevance and has been distorted recently. I know I have. It reminds me of the scene in the Jerk where Steve Martin’s character is talking about time distortion…
Navin Johnson: (Speaking to Marie in bed while she sleeps) I know we’ve only known each other four weeks and three days, but to me it seems like nine weeks and five days. The first day seemed like a week and the second day seemed like five days. And the third day seemed like a week again and the fourth day seemed like eight days. And the fifth day, you went to see your mother and that just seemed like a day, and then you came back and later on the sixth day, in the evening, when we saw each other, that started seeming like two days, so in the evening it seemed like two days spilling over into the next day and that started seeming like four days, so at the end of the sixth day on into the seventh day, it seemed like a total of five days. And the sixth day seemed like a week and a half. I have it written down but can show it to you tomorrow if you want to see it.
Yep, it’s been like that around here. Kind of crazy if you think about it, how time gets distorted.
For me, it’s been a slap in the face of what “traditional retirement” would look like. I didn’t realize how much time I spent at the kids school, and the CASA office until they shut down. And holy hell, did I turn into the old guy just puttering around the house, talking to his little dog about the government, politics, and the weather… Yikes! Seriously, I turned “retired” really quickly! The first week or so was super productive. Then I went into #sluglife mode for a week and a half. Mostly, I was dealing with mild depression and apathy for life, and went with it. That burnt me out on tv, lol. Then I decided I needed to be more productive. Between the divorce, trying to start a new business, and all the projects I had from before, I have a lot to do.
There has been a lot going on lately around here. Between the separation, figuring out life, figuring out finances, figuring out new income sources… It’s a lot to take in, let me tell you. I’ve felt overwhelmed, underwhelmed, like I’m drowning financially, and also feeling at times like I’m sort of safe in my little lifeboat floating above it all on a calm sea just watching storm clouds building in the distance. To be honest, that last statement sums up how all of this “new phase of life” has felt for me. There are worst places to be in in SO many ways, but my Mostly Funded Lifestyle Change (MFLC) has helped create that lifeboat and let me decide how to deal with those storms building in the distance.
Storms on the horizon…
I’m really fortunate to be in a really, really, good place financially (all thanks to Mrs. SSC, thank-you Mrs. SSC!!) and this is what I’ve done with that freedom.
Mostly Funded Lifestyle Change, MFLC
With all changes come new acronyms! MFLC, Mostly Funded Lifestyle Change, is where I am. Am I FI? Hahahahahaha, no. Am I really well off financially? Hell to the yeah!! Am I still “retired”? I honestly don’t know that I ever was, but I’m not exactly looking for permanent full time work, except for when I am. More on that later. My financial reality stays grounded with my friends and people around me, unlike PF Twitter where I’d be “a failure”, “a retirement fraud”, “SAHD doesn’t count as retiring”, “I money poorly” and more of the usual helpful (read shaming, not helpful) stuff that tends to make the rounds in the Twitterverse. I’m not saying it’s all like this, but lord knows there’s plenty out there to go around, lol.
To start, it has been a major relief being as financially stable as I am, even with this life upheaval. I can’t imagine my mental state and levels of anxiety if I didn’t have such a nice cushion to fall back on, draw from, look at to ease my anxiety and more. While this is nice, I realize not everyone is as fortunate to be in this position, so I try to stay grounded to that reality.
By staying grounded I mean, in the span of 6 months, it seems almost everyone I know that has been debating leaving their current living situation, finding a new partner, or getting a divorce has made movement towards that and they have been finding their footing just like me. Unlike me, they don’t all have a shitload of money set aside to be able to relax and figure out what they would “like” to do. They’ve been scrambling to save up enough money to move out on their own, figure out new budgets, etc…
Money: The Cause of and Solution to Most of Life’s Problems
We’ve, my friends and I in this sort of situation, had lots of talks around that topic because it is triggering as hell when your mental space is almost 100% occupied with money worries. I’ve written about it, and how I get triggered even being in my current financial situation. It’s real, and if you’ve never been triggered by money stress, count your blessings that you’ve lived a very fortunate life so far. Not everyone’s that lucky, so I’ve helped where I can. Besides giving my tips to reducing my money anxiety, I’ve also introduced the group to helpful apps like Acorns, Mint, YNAB, and more, although the cost for YNAB is out of reach for some. Yes, that’s the level of income and financial security they’re dealing with. It helps me feel grateful and fortunate for my current position in life, because I know I can be back there in no time with a few poor decisions here and there. I’ve also introduced those interested in budgeting tools, blogs, and more to help with their situations and help alleviate money stresses.
Being active with them and other friends going through similar life upheavals and transitions has given me a constant appreciation for where I am and being fortunate enough to have the time and capital to look into creating a passive income stream and not desperately “looking for any J-O-B” to cover the immediate bills.
…I’m not exactly looking for permanent full time work, except for when I am…
Life. It Keeps on Moving. Always…
I can’t believe it’s almost March. March! What the hell!? Where did the first 2 months of the year go? It went by the wayside if you weren’t paying attention or doing anything productive. I was being productive, although at times it sure didn’t feel like it. At other times I felt like I need to slow this train down, sort of like this current week. I feel like this morning is the first day to take a breath and relax. By relax, I mean I have 283 steps since waking up this morning because I’ve been at the computer catching up. I’ve been emailing with students about a project, tidying up my Canvas material, reviewing/editing upcoming lecture material/in-class work/homework/reading, researching entrepreneur possibilities, commercial space rental prices, and more…
I finally had a month where I didn’t feel like I was buying new/used everything to stock a house/apartment. So, I can finally figure out what my monthly occurring expenses are and create a financial plan, budget and outlook for 2020! OMG… I just typed “create a financial plan, budget, AND outlook for 2020!!” And I’m going to do it! I think that even though I get triggered by money stresses and anxieties, doing little things to ease these anxieties really helps me out a lot. One of those things is applying to jobs like Oprah giving out cars.
Ugh, not a J-O-B…
My level of “income needed” is pretty low currently. I currently have zero debt, and just monthly rolling financial obligations. This is amazing because it opens up WAY more opportunities than if my Lifestyle needed the level of support that the Oil and Gas salary would provide. And let’s just say, Thank the sweet baby Jesus for that, because oil prices are in the toilet and no one is hiring. Or rather, no one in O&G in OK is hiring.
Some would call this “under-employed” to which I would reply, “Yes. Yes I am. That was the point of our Lifestyle Change. I would leave my career, which involved turning down a promotion, and supporting Mrs. SSC in her new career, while transitioning to being the SAHD/Default parent. It is exactly what that means, underemployed.” Personally, I don’t want to be “adequately employed” or whatever is a level above under-employed, lol. That was literally the concept of our Lifestyle Change.
I miss this view…
This means I can look for more meaningful work, meaningful to me as a human, not my bank account, because we all know social work pays about as well as substitute teaching. I’m still holding out for the CASA supervisor position, it is still in the pipeline but based on numbers alone, at least 1 new supervisor will be needed if only PT, but most likely, would be FT or turn into FT quickly. That would solve lots of problems and I’d get to work with people I like and get along with and feel like I’m helping the community at the same time.
What About Health Insurance?
Yeah… The elephant in the room, am I right? Currently, I am on Mrs. SSC’s insurance as were still married and she’s very nice. In our last discussions, she was going to leave me on it as long as possible, or until I do something dumb to irritate her enough to take me off of it. This is my biggest fincancial worry. Without health insurance covered by a job, my out of pocket would double my yearly income needed, for the most basic of plans.
I can’t say I didn’t expect this, but I am definitely kicking that can down the road as long as possible. Yay for having one of the most broken, expensive health care systems in the world. If I didn’t have kids, I’d be interviewing for one of those “go teach English in China for a year” type of positions, Wuhan province would be on my “no list”, lol. I would have no issue with becoming an expat for a bit and dealing with life as a global citizen, but since I’m tied to OK for the next 12-15 years I’m also tied the shittiest health care system ever. Yay ‘Merica…
Needless to say I currently have no good plan for health insurance beyond self-funding medical costs, (note to self: please don’t get seriously injured or sick during this time), applying to be a student and getting student insurance (yes, this would be cheaper than buying a private health plan – stupid backwards country…), or getting something thru ACA or private insurance market.
Beyond “J-O-B’s”
I’ve also been researching multiple other income streams. These range widely in scope, startup capital required, and more. The list of potential ideas now includes:
Rental Properties
Medical Marijuana Dispensary
Medical Marijuana Grower
Micro/Nano Brewery
CASA Related Venture
Brewery Tours
These all have their own pros and cons which I’ve been working on researching over the past few months. Look for a more detailed comparison of these ideas in a later post. Currently, I can’t do much until the divorce is finalized and I get access to my share of the assets. Until then, affidavits dictate no selling, hiding, being shady, etc… with the assets to ensure everyone is being treated equitably in splitting up said assets. Yay, life!
That’s about it on updates and more from me. Life is moving, always moving and I feel like for the first time since December, I am sort of, kind of, getting a grasp on the new Lifestyle. It’s different and has it’s own challenges and opportunities. I’m more excited about what’s to come in many, many ways, more than focusing on the negatives of this situation, and that is a big win for me!
Before I quit my job and headed into the great of unknown of being a Stay At Home Dad (SAHD) I had all kinds of thoughts about how this blog could follow along. First of all, I could be different from other bloggers that hit retirement and then faded into the sunset (and kudo’s to them for pivoting away from the blogging world to live life). That won’t be me, I said, I can write about all this new stuff! There’s so much new stuff it won’t be difficult at all coming up with blog posts each, I said… That’s true! I have a shitload of new and different situations going on with the SSC family. Except that one thing has changed that has made a significant impact on the blog. That one thing is the fact I’m not in front of a computer 8-10 hours a day anymore.
Unlike most bloggers, I did most okay, all of my blogging at the office. Oh yeah! I got to work at 6am and had a solid 2 hrs before the rest of the company showed up to work. If you look back at old comments you’ll notice most come between 6-7am, lol. I also used that time to write posts, edit posts, and tinker with the blog. Nowadays, my computer is upstairs in my music/art/office area. It’s great!
The instruments are right there!
My own little space, nice view out the window. A perfect writing nook. For it to be functional, I need to actually be up there and writing and that just hasn’t been happening. I’ve got too much other stuff going on to head upstairs for 2-4 hours a week and bang out a post, respond to comments, etc… Life is just too damn exciting!
What’s Been Going On
I’ve been staying busy with the house, kids, getting adjusted to the SAHD lifestyle. It’s been pretty great so far! I haven’t been super great at managing time as I wanted to be. My time debts get racked up pretty quickly some weeks and others are smooth sailing. The cold has finally broken here so I’ve been a bit more focused on the outside since things will be green, ticks will be out (wait, they’re already back), snakes and scorpions will be out again, and I can’t willy nilly go grabbing anything off the ground. We’ve gotten a LOT done over the winter and the “backyard” is way more usable than it was when we moved in last summer. Not the fenced in part, but the woods outside of that area. We had someone gather and haul off 120 cubic yards of brush/trees that I’d gathered up or where scattered around the property. I cut down over 30 trees and hauled at least 20-30 cubic yards of mostly decomposed wood into an old ravine on our property. I figured I could use it to make a hugelkultur of sorts and fill it with wood. The guy with the skid steer squashed it down once, then I mounded it up again and he squashed more and then topped it with dirt from around the yard. At least some of the trees will go back into the ground, right?
School and CASA
School volunteering is moving along, but it hasn’t been as consistent as I expected. Mostly from my own doing, but I’m getting back to at least once a week being a Watchdog. Prior to that, I’ve been volunteering for every other thing like, field trip chaperone, state testing monitor (OMG, so dull…), PT librarian, and more. That’s been fun and it’s great getting to see the kiddo’s during the school day.
CASA training is nearly complete! Woohoo!! 8 weeks of training is coming to a close and we’ll have our swearing in this Friday. It’s been difficult as it has been 3 hrs a week of training, but mostly difficult because it occurs at the same time as my DBSA group meetings. DBSA is the Depression Bi-polar Support Alliance and the have group meetings for people dealing with those issues or anxiety or anything else they want to come and talk about. Those have been super helpful for me and I’ll be glad to get back to my Thursday meetings. It’s just nice having a place to share and be open with people dealing with same/similar issues. It’s been rough missing those, but that’s almost over.
Hobbies
I previously thought I’d be doing exercising/training a lot and putting in time to all my different hobbies with all this free time and that hasn’t quite worked out how I thought. Everyone is always saying “retire TO something…” not away from things. Well, I have a shitload of stuff I retired to, but like my last posts have pointed out it doesn’t mean that your hobbies are now your new default time killer.
Yep, whatever habits you had before retiring don’t magically change with more free time. If you wasted a lot of time on phone games, that won’t change until you break that habit. Same with TV, naps, procrastination, etc… Like Maggie at Northern Expenditure said, “Retired you is still you.” That is SO true. I’ve struggled with this even though I’ve also been doing hobbies and tackling the yard/woods/house like crazy. I finished building my banjo and it actually plays! Yay! I put together 2 adirondack chairs and stools that my FIL brought up for us. I’ve got the plans picked out for the cedar woodstrip canoe I’m starting on, and have been scouting spots for a garden for next year or this fall. I’m putting in a compost pile today and have the front flower beds I’ve been transplanting bushes out of and making a plan for them.
Inside, I have a lot of painting to do, an attic exhaust fan to rebalance, one last horrid push of adding insulation before it gets really warm and the attic comes to life with spiders, scorpions and god knows what else. They’re already moving around as I saw a spider in our shed yesterday, so sooner is better than later… Also, it’s a really, really tight spot, just to get into another really tight spot. Shudder…
Exercise
Triathlons and that kind of exercise have disappeared lately. I let the Texasman tri and OKC Memorial Marathon (half-marathon for me) sneak up on me and won’t be ready for either of them. Mainly because I haven’t been running consistently or swimming at all since we moved. Unless it’s open water swimming, my only other option is joining the university pool or the Y. Both are a little spendy considering when the kids get out of school in another month or 2 I won’t have free time to bike, run, or swim as I’ll be full-time babysitter. Yipe!!
Also, the meds I’m taking are not helping with my motivation. In short, if I could nap 2-3 hrs a day I would. I sleep from about 10-10:30 pm – 5:50 am so it’s not like I’m getting too little or too much sleep. Regardless, I feel like I have zero energy constantly, zero motivation, and a massive amount of apathy towards exercise in general. That’s led to putting on about 8-10 lbs though, so I need to get over it and get back into exercising, drop some weight, and be a better health role model for the kids.
Time for New Habits
In short, I’ve designated April as the month to break bad habits and work on new ones. Starting with this blog post! Sure, it’s a day late from my usual Tuesday posts, but it’s also a month behind my last one, so… You gotta start somewhere right? Secondly, I deleted a couple of phone games as I realized they’re way too much of a timesuck. I’m going back to my previous google calendar schedule of exercise, playing music, painting, woodworking, CASA, school volunteering, etc… This will just have to be a slower approach to some of these, but as long as it’s consistent I think it will work. Finally, I’m getting back to blogging consistently, well more consistently than once a month, lol. There is a TON to write about with how things have changed with our budget, lifestyle, routines, spending, just everything. I need to be better at putting it out there and writing about how things change post-work life and every other thing I’m now dealing with, like grocery shopping (I found our ALDI and had good $$ wins there), being default parent (kids dr’s, dentists, summer programs, homework, laundry, etc…), and taking care of this property. There’s so much I want to do, but it just takes time. Like bees! I wanted to get a couple of hives, but will have to wait until next year due to budget issues – mainly my allowance is at $0.
Summary
I let life run my schedule and didn’t fight back when important things got pushed out of it. It’s easy to get so “busy” living life, cleaning house, doing your thing that you realize it’s been 2 months since you’ve done the stuff you thought you’d be doing all the time. It’s time to be more mindful of my time. I mean, I’ve been mindful of it, it just hasn’t been spent the way I would’ve thought. Now to redirect it back to the things I’d rather be doing, and the blog is one of them. Yay! It will continue! I realized when I was working I had limited time so I made the most of my free time and tried to fit as much stuff in there as possible. Now that I have loads of free time, the drive isn’t there because – I can do that tomorrow – and guess what? Tomorrow never comes… That changes this month.
As I wrote in my last post transitioning to a non-work life is hard. I think a lot of what makes it difficult is having all of that unstructured free time and figuring out what to do with it. We all have visions of early retirement and what we would do with all of that time. I know that I did and I was severely mistaken how that looked when I actually did have all that time to myself to do whatever my heart desires.
Today I’ll be talking about intentionality with your time. Like being intentional with your money, if you’re not intentional with your time it gets away from you. You can rack up all kinds of “time debts” and stress yourself out in new ways you didn’t even know existed. The beauty is that just like monetary debts, you can free yourself from these time debts by being intentional with your time. Here’s what I’ve noticed over the last 6 months and how I’ve racked up and cleared a lot of time debt with myself.
Time Debts
You’re probably asking yourself, “What the F*** are time debts?” I see time debts as things you need or want to do yet, push off for some meaningless, worthless task that distracted you. For instance, let’s say in the morning, I plan on reading blogs, commenting, and checking in with the PF (Personal Finance) community before I go do other things. Easy Peasy right? Nothing to stress about and it’s an easy task. After Mrs. SSC heads to campus at 7am, I sit on the couch and slowly sip my coffee and flip thru the news on my phone. Then I flip thru Twitter, because it’s PF related too right? I get an email pop-up and it reminds me I need to research brush hauling companies, and while I do that I get spun off researching used trucks and next thing I know, it’s an hr and a half later… I’ve done nothing of what I planned.
What I did do was create a time debt that I’m going to have to pay back to myself by taking from some other planned activity later in the day or the next day. That sounds a lot like surfing the internet or getting distracted, so what’s the big deal, right? I thought the same thing until I noticed I was adding stress into my life creating lots of these time debts. Like credit cards and student loans, they don’t magically disappear, they just compound and get bigger and bigger. Eventually, you have to pay them off. Especially like credit cards and student loans, they just add an additional background layer of stress reminding you that they’re there. I find it very annoying. How can we pay them off or avoid them altogether?
Spending Habits Apply to Time Too
I found that how I spend time is VERY correlative to how I spend money. In the past, I had no issues acquiring debt, and I would spend money like a drunken sailor. I’ve reigned it in quite a bit, but I can still spend all of my “allowance” money every month and wish there was more around. Yikes! How am I a PF blogger?! When I initially had free reign over my time, I found I also spent it very freely and very unintentionally. Actually, it was intentional, but more selfish intentional. For instance, I’d be in the yard cutting down trees, and chopping them up until the kids got home. Then I’d keep on until Mrs. SSC got home. Instead of having dinner started and time with my family, I still needed to put up tools and take a shower. I’ve not only created a big-time debt for me but also my family, because I’ve just stolen their time for me to do yard work and they have to cover dinner and other responsibilities. Damnit, now I’m a time thief?! Argh!
I found that exactly like finances and spending, I had to be intentional where I spent my time and where I was stealing time from others. Instead of having this looming feeling of guilt that I’d stolen time from the family, I could stop working by 3pm, because it will be there the next day, and be cleaned up by the time the kids get home. It sounds like a simple concept, but man, it was really hard for me to implement.
Habits are HARD to Break
I started thinking, how can I quit creating these time debts and being so sloppy and un-intentional with my time? I tried making a schedule and putting it on Google calendar but all that did was give me more things to dismiss during the day when the reminders would pop up. This wasn’t helpful for me in establishing new habits with spending time, so I gave up and quit trying. Ok, I’m kidding, I didn’t quit, I just kept trying new things. I found that using Google Calendar was good for setting schedules like kids snack day, dr appt’s, vet appt’s, school events, volunteering, training, FIRE MM’s, etc… but what about that pile of free time I had in between all of those?
How do I keep from building time debts doing stupid shit like playing phone games instead of doing something more productive and constructive? I have to be intentional about it and use discipline. Gah!! Not discipline… Why can’t it just be easy and happen without work? Well, that’s not how life works unfortunately, trust me I tried. For instance, yesterday, I walked 16,000 steps and ate an apple and I didn’t lost one pound!! So frustrating! It should all be easy, but it just isn’t. If you’re not willing to put in the work to make the change, the change won’t happen. Not with spending time currency, real currency, or trying to lose weight.
I also found that a change in mindset was needed. Instead of feeling guilty about some of the time debts I’d create for myself, I’d just acknowledge that I wasn’t a good steward of my time and work to do better. I would note what I was unintentionally spending time on and curb it. Deleting phone games is easy – thumb down, move to trash, and done. It took time, but I noticed patterns and worked to create patterns I liked better.
Track Your “Time” Spending
Time and Money are so similar, it’s eery. After realizing this, I realized I needed to track my time. What were my time thiefs, what were my time equivalent of daily $6 latte’s, or $250 monthly gym fees that aren’t being used. Paying attention to these will tell you a lot about yourself just like tracking your $$ spending will. Just like tracking $$ spending, tracking your time spending shows lots of patterns and you can use that information to adjust your schedule to something you’d want to spend your time on and not fritter it away unintentionally. It reminds me of someone that used to say, “That’s a future Mr. SSC problem”. Guess what? I’m future Mr. SSC and I still don’t want that problem.
I found that a lot of my time debts came from phones and tablets. Who would’ve thought?! Shocking, I know! I also found that I needed to set alarms on my watch so that when I’m busy into something intentional, I make sure it doesn’t bleed into stealing time from someone else. My hobbies created a lot of time debts for me with housework, groceries, dinners, etc… Like I mentioned before, seeing those patterns helped with setting boundaries and like finances, learning to better manage my time.
New Patterns Emerge
I settled on a hybrid version of a rigid schedule and calendar reminders. While I still use calendar reminders religiously, and couldn’t be effective without them, I found other things that helped me develop better time spending habits and have settled on this type of schedule.
I put things into days like, Monday’s are for cleaning, Tue/Wed/Fri is for hiking/running, and Thur is for volunteering at the kids’ school. The rest of the “free” time in those days is where I put all the other stuff like groceries, yard work, wood working, music playing, etc…
I also found that I am more of a list person. If I have a list of things that need to be done during the week, and I am MUCH better at getting them done within the “free” time frames that don’t steal time from others. I find it hard to be a set schedule person because some days I may feel like woodworking, and not cleaning. Ok, I never feel like cleaning, but I can bump it to a day that I’d rather be inside or that most of my day is chewed up with other time sucks. By being intentional, I am aware that if I bump cleaning to a different day, it will cut into hiking, which will cut into woodworking, which will bump it into the next day. I ask myself, “Is it worth it to not clean today, when it might mean I can’t do woodworking tomorrow? What am I going to do instead of cleaning that is better than woodworking and make it worth it?” I found that just framing it like this to myself helped a lot too.
Now I can keep a more fluid schedule, a list of “must-do’s” for the week, and have a general idea of what my “wants” are and be able to spend my time more effectively. Get it? Spend… Time… Groan…
Summary
Time is like money, and like money, I was not very good at managing it effectively. I racked up a lot of time debt and had to figure out how to clear it all and get into better time spending habits. I did it by tracking my spending of time, finding my time sucks and eliminating them, or at least acknowledging they are there and being aware and intentional toward any “wasted” time going towards them, and finally finding a good time management strategy that works for me. Like personal finance, your strategy will be different from mine, but I think it’s worth looking into and figuring out. I found it took a lot of background stress and noise away.
“I told Althea I was feeling lost – lacking in some direction.” This lyric by the Grateful Dead has been bouncing around my brain the last 6 months. Why the last 6 months? That’s been the amount of time since I moved from Houston to Oklahoma. The plan was that I would transition to Stay at Home Dad (SAHD)/default parent and Mrs. SSC would continue working. Why do I get to quit work and she doesn’t? Well, in short, she wants to continue teaching because she loves it, it’s her passion and it does a lot to invigorate her soul. It’s the main reason we switched from pursuing Early Retirement and started working to create our Lifestyle Change. While I loved what I did for work, I’ve written about many times before that there are always things that I’d rather be doing than working.
If you read any FIRE (Financially Independent Retire Early) blogs, eventually you’ll read, “You should retire TO something, not AWAY from something” and it’s a valid point. You don’t want to wake up retired and ask yourself, “what now?” There should be some plan in place for what you want to do with the amazing gift of free time that you just gave yourself. I had one in place, and much like our own FFLC (Fully Funded Lifestyle Change) plans, it needed to be flexible because it too has morphed quite a bit.
The Original Transition Plan
My original plans with my “free time” seemed to be pretty simple. I wanted to do more exercising/training for triathlons, more yard work/gardening, play more music, volunteer at the kids school, volunteer as a CASA, fish more, do woodworking, and homebrew more. Oh… And keep the house clean, laundry done, weekly menu planned, groceries stocked, kids bathed, dogs vet appt’s and medicines on schedule, and stay on top of home maintenance duties. Easy Peasy, right? I figured I would set up a similar schedule as Justin at Root of Good and see, there’s time for everything I want to do right there, including video games!
Here’s the thing. Major life transitions and schedule changes don’t come easily. Also, I had the first 3 months of relocating feeling chained to the house with the remote assignment I got with my company. Loved the money, hated the feeling of limbo. That threw things out of whack for a while because I felt like I wasn’t fully committed to anything. Eesh… Also, it seemed that whenever I’d start to get in a routine, something would happen and throw it out of whack. You know, life.
What Actually Happened
I think it’s easier to start with what didn’thappen with those above mentioned “wants”.
The triathlon training/exercising went out the window pretty quickly. I started running when we first moved here, but after a month or so, it dropped off.
Playing more music and learning the dobro. That is also not where I’d like it. Maybe it’s that the instruments are upstairs, but mainly, it’s just not as much of a priority as I expected it to be.
Homebrewing started okay, but I’ve only brewed 1 batch since I got here and have 1 batch on deck. Maybe I’ll do that today.
Volunteer at the kids school. They have a program called WATCH Dogs and I applied to that before school started. It took until mid-December to hear anything back and be able to start volunteering, so I say that’s a 50/50 as planned. Regardless, I couldn’t do much with it until mid-December, so it didn’t go as I planned.
Weekly menu planning. Sweet Jesus, did this crash and burn spectacularly… It’s only been this past month that I’ve been doing that more and staying on top of it. Whoopsies!
Fishing more. I did more fishing with my oldest in the last 5 months than we did most years in Houston. He’s started asking to go fishing more often and we live right by a lake. We also used to live right by a lake, but he didn’t want to go much back then.
Woodworking… Ugh, I didn’t get my bandsaw setup and put a blade on it until January. I’ll call that a fail.
Video games. Even with Red Dead Redemption 2, and Battlefield V coming out, I’ve played less than I did in Houston. Maybe less need to zone out in a game and unwind? IDK…
I did get sucked into a LOT more yard work and home maintenance than I thought. I’ve created another massive pile of brush and trees, similar to that first massive set of brush piles when we first moved in.
There’s 1 more pile of brush not pictured. SO much work…
As mentioned before, I installed 264 batts of insulation, replaced multiple electrical outlets, replaced the guts to 3 sinks and 1 toilet, vacuumed the walls, ceilings, and cabinets of the house due to the massive amount of dust present when we first moved in.
The treadmill gets used!! So much insulation, not all pictured here.
I unpacked and organized some rooms, but so many more to go (organizing, not unpacking, lol), scheduled and met with 4 different AC guys to replace furnace and AC, same with insulation peeps, carpet installers, and multiple various repairmen for things like the septic system or water softener that I won’t tackle myself. Yet… I know there are way more I didn’t mention, but you get the idea.
“I’m becoming less defined as days go by,
Fading away…
Well you might say I’m losing focus,
Kinda drifting into the abstract
In terms of how I see myself”
— NIN
In short, I didn’t know who I was, who I was supposed to be, what role I was supposed to be filling and I felt like I was doing a poor job at all of them…
Health – Don’t Forget Your Brain!
I also spent a LOT of time at Dr’s appointments it seemed. A main focus was to get my mental health in check, something I’ve wholly neglected the last 5 years and have been treating ineffectively the last 10-20 years. Exercise and occasional Serotonin boosts don’t do shit to a chemical imbalance. You know what’s made a 180 difference in my life and my families lives this past 6 months? Depression meds. Funny, how that correlation works. I wish I’d done it decades sooner but am more glad I didn’t wait decades later. Don’t be like me. It’s not a failure to admit you need to see a psychiatrist. I know it felt like it to me, but that’s just the depression talking. Trust me, that’s the single best thing I’ve done for myself and my family since I’ve had a family.
I also went to a general physician because my last full checkup was ~7 yrs ago. Turns out I’m still healthy, but follow-ups on a couple of minor issues took way more visits and time than expected because… doctors.
Essentially, even though I had a lot of “free time” it was all focused on my health and getting the house and yard where we want it. But, every time I felt that I had some things under control I’d get reminded that I was letting other things slip. D’oh!
The Current Schedule
I had a lot of calendar reminders setup to help me with everything I mentioned above that I didn’t end up actually doing, and eventually, I deleted all but a couple of those. It was just something else to dismiss when it popped up on my phone or watch.
I realized that I’m the only one in charge of my time and why not focus towards things I want to focus on? Simple, but brilliant!
I get up before 6am each day, and get the kids up, their lunches packed and ready for school, that’s the same.
I have coffee and time to slowly sip it, while I watch deer in the backyard, or check out news, or new blog posts from PF peeps.
Cold day for hiking!
Then, I do one of a few things that are “for me” things. This can be going hiking, I’ve gotten into getting out there 2-3 days a week, playing music, painting, or woodworking.
Liberal Arts
Mrs. SSC and I are also taking an oil painting class, and man, I’m digging it. I’ve never painted with oil before, but it’s fun. Very Zen and relaxing and I can see continuing that after our class ends. Plus, I keep finding cool old oak trees while I’m hiking that I take pictures of and think, “Oh, that would be a cool painting, especially in spring when the leaves are just starting to come out…”
This will be fun to paint!Looks dead but it isn’t yet. Can’t wait to see leaves on it.
Playing music hasn’t progressed as much as I’d have thought, but again, it’s just not as much a priority as I thought it would be. Things go in cycles, and it’s on an off cycle evidently. I do still play more than between Aug. – Dec. but not as much as I would’ve thought. Oh well.
Woodworking
I got my bay of the garage set up to where it’s a functioning shop now. I hung 2 new LED shop lights, a dust filter, and have it where it’s workable. I need to build a router table for my next project but have an old desktop I think I can repurpose well for that.
This was such a chore to do solo. 2’x3’x1′ thick and 60 lbs…
I’m currently finishing a banjo I began building from scratch ~7 yrs ago. I got it to the point of connecting the neck and pot and then our son was born and I let it fall by the wayside. I’m almost finished with it and hope to have it done by the weekend. So exciting!!
The dowel being fitted to the pot. It holds the neck on.Drilling the hole for the dowel. Lining it up correctly is tricky.
I got the approval from Mrs. SSC to build a shoe cubby for our entry way, so that will be the next small project and my next big project is building a wood-strip canoe. Oh yeah! Starting from scratch again with that one! Of course, I need a planer now, but that’s kind of how these things go. I can use it when I build the stand-up paddle boards next. Yeah, I found plans for those and can build my own lighter and cheaper than commercial ones. Good stuff!
SAHD Life
I’m embracing the SAHD role more and more. I’ve gotten my own schedule for groceries, Mrs. SSC and I tag team the weekly menu some weeks, others I just do it, no big whoop. I’ve gotten into a better routine for kids’ laundry, cleaning, and you know, house hold stuff.
CASA training started last week and will go another 7 weeks, so that is coming to fruition.
Volunteering at school has been great! I’ve been doing at least 1 day a week at school as a WATCH Dog and it’s been awesome getting to see the kids there during the day. I cooked some chili for a cookoff that raised $140 for a classroom and I got 2nd place! I also called Bingo for the chili/bingo night. I have been volunteering enough there that I get told, “We were excited to see you were on the schedule, thanks so much for coming in!” So yeah, that’s been great.
Summary
While the transition to SAHD hasn’t gone as planned, life has been pretty good. It could’ve been better and definitely could’ve been worse, but no complaints overall. If you’re looking to make a transition to anything, just remember it will take time to “get it right”. What you think should be “right” might not end up being that at all. Just be flexible and go with it.
What a year 2018 was for the SSC household. There was a LOT going on with the kids, the dogs, our house, and most importantly both of our jobs. At the beginning of the year we were designing a house to be built on our property at Canyon Lake and expecting to be in Houston for another 2 years. By the end of the year I wasn’t working and we were celebrating Christmas in our “new” house in Oklahoma. Wow! Just wow… Even for us, things seemed to come so unexpectedly the only thing that we knew to count on was that our plans would constantly be changing. Ultimately, it was the year we kicked off our dream of the Fully Funded Lifestyle Change (FFLC)!! There was a lot more detail than just that, so let’s get into the 2018 recap.
Moving Time
Early in 2018, Mrs. SSC landed a really sweet gig working at a well-respected University with a strong and established petroleum program. This forced us to move to Oklahoma and it wasn’t even on our radar for places to live. We found a great place out in the country with 2 untamed acres. On the plus side, we could shape it to be as wild or as manicured as we want because literally nothing had been done to the woods except let them grow wild.
Goodbye Green Wall of Doom!
The downside is that there is a TON of downed timber across that 2 acres, a lot of underbrush, and it isn’t anywhere I’d want the kids or myself wandering through in the summertime. I’ve been putting a big dent in clearing that brush, and I’ve cut down about 20+ trees already. I have marked so many more trees with flagging tape that I ran out of 200’ of tape. Yipe!
Selling Property Sucks
Our Houston house went on the market in mid-March and we figured it would be slow until summertime, but expected to be able to sell it over the summer. It went 90 days without a showing, in part I believe to the “okay but not great” photos that were taken. Pro-tip – interview multiple realtors prior to picking one. Ours was Mrs. SSC’s trainer and was convenient, but I feel like we could’ve found a better realtor and saved ourselves a LOT of $$ and anxiety. Mid-summer we got an offer and man were those buyers nit-picky. They argued over every single dime wanting us to put up more and more money. After a month of negotiations on post-inspection fixes, we found out these jack-wads weren’t even approved for a loan! How does that happen!? Well, they barely squeaked by for a pre-approval with a high 500’s credit score. Fast-forward 5 months and who has been missing car payments and racking up MORE debt? Those guys. Needless to say, their credit score had dropped to low 500’s and they couldn’t get approved for the loan. Thanks for keeping our house off the market the last month and a half of summer and being jackasses about EVERY single item… Ugh…
Buyer #2
The next buyers wanted our property, but didn’t want to make an offer until their house sold. However, they wanted us to take it off the market and hold it for them. Can you hear me laughing? That was rejected, and the house stayed on the market. Another buyer put in an offer and had the inspection done, then pulled their offer 3 days later. Their main concern was having to replace the water pipes due to the amount of rust coming out of them. We were puzzled and then remembered we’d replaced the main shutoff and the plumber told us to run the water to flush any rust/sediment/etc… that had gotten knocked loose and that it may look dirty until it gets flushed. We asked our realtor to do that and he had done it, according to him. Those pictures of the bathtub with rusty looking water said otherwise… Ugh…
Third Time’s a Charm
FINALLY, we got another interested couple, they made an offer, were easy to negotiate a price with, and we were under contract. We waited for the inspection and heard nothing. Literally nothing. We contacted our realtor and he said that they’d gotten the inspection and didn’t have any follow-up requests for us to fix. Yay!! While we technically closed in 2019, we did finally close on that house and that 2018 contract went thru. Yippee!
Leaving My Job
Me leaving work was a little tricky due to the fact that I had to prep the house for sale, keep it under wraps, AND spend time driving up to Oklahoma for house hunting, home inspection, and closing. It was easy enough to tell work that I’m “taking time off” but everyone was convinced I was interviewing at other companies. That was just fine with me, because what do I care what they think? I’m leaving in 3 months.
One Friday, I was at my desk and get a call from my boss to come to our bosses office. I get nervous and then think, wait, why am I nervous? I didn’t do anything wrong. Then I got excited thinking I might be getting laid off and could get a severance package. Buoyed by that prospect I went in, sat down and was told I was being promoted to my bosses position but for our Texas-Delaware Assets. Hooray… Ultimately, I declined that offer, and you can read more about it here. Since my upper managers now knew I was leaving in August, I wasn’t getting any more additional work or put on other special teams. Double yay!!
When the time got nearer for me to leave my boss proposed a 3 month remote work assignment to help with reserves. It got approved and ultimately we had 3 more months of pay, health insurance, and a little extra $$ we hadn’t counted on to help with the “new” house projects. It turned out to be a mixed bag that you can read more details about here, but ultimately it worked out well for everyone.
Money Pit
The new house is the last big topic of 2018. When we moved in we knew it needed some cleaning and maintenance as it looked like it hadn’t been maintained in the 16 years it has been around. We got the ducts cleaned, I vacuumed the walls, and I dusted and cleaned every other surface and Mrs. SSC was still having troubles with allergies and breathing. The previous owners had a cat, so I suggested that we replace the carpet sooner than later. We did that and her breathing got immediately better. Hooray!!
The house temp wouldn’t get cooler than 83/84 F on days when the outside temp was over 93. We had an AC inspection and it was working correctly and pumping out cool air, but that wasn’t the issue. The issue was that it was a 3 ton unit and this house needed a larger unit than that to be effective… I shopped around 4 different contractors and found a great deal on a higher efficiency unit than we previously had, and after it was installed problem solved.
I also noticed that the upstairs bonus room was a heat/cool sink for the house. Everywhere else appeared to have adequate depth blown-in insulation but the walls for this rom were only 4” thick. I wanted to get some more insulation and add it to them along with some other spots I’d noticed that had thin blown in insulation (4” or less). On Black Friday, Lowe’s had 30% off their insulation. Score!! I bought 24 batts (11 pieces in each batt) of R-30 insulation for ~$1k discounted, installed it myself, and have seen some great results. Plus, now I can keep the heat off in the bonus room. On the coldest nights it gets down to 58 but mostly stays between 60-64 without any heat on. Double Score!!
Summary
That’s the very long recap of our year. I’m sure I may have missed some things, but those were the biggest ones for us. So far, we’re loving the town, country living, the kids school, and our neighbors. While this state wasn’t even in the running for places to consider living in, we are really liking it. There’s more topography than we expected, especially in our home area. The people are super friendly and it feels like it has a great sense of community about it. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2019! Be on the lookout for a “new” home spending post. There’s way too much to put into this one, and it is ridiculous…
Hope your 2018 went as great for you as it did for us.
One Friday, I was at my desk and get a call from my boss to come to our bosses office. I get nervous and then think, wait, why am I nervous? I didn’t do anything wrong. Then I got excited thinking I might be getting laid off and could get a severance package. Buoyed by that prospect I went in, sat down and was told I was being promoted to my bosses position but for our Texas-Delaware Assets. Hooray… Ultimately, I declined that offer, and you can 