• 25 Posts
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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • I got a job that was a 45+ minute commute each way a few months ago. I bought a place to be closer to work, it’s only 5 minutes now. Seems every time I complete a task, three to five more spawn, and 1+ of those are “must be done now”.

    I called the trash company to get a bin, they said it’s tied to property taxes and call the township. Ok. Township says no problem, well tell them to send a bin, should arrive in 6-8 weeks. What? Fine, I guess. Oh, by the way, you are not living there are you? Guess what. There is no certificate of occupancy.

    Ok, let me get the inspection. Guy says be there at 1500. Late for a night shifter, but let’s get it done. Never shows up. Stay up all day and have to call off work. Lost a 10 hour overtime shift worth over $400.

    Notice while waiting that the house doesn’t seem to warm up. I had been moving stuff before, so just attributed the cold to having the door open too much. Nope, it’s the heaters, they’re barely warm. Turns out they only wired the 240v heaters for 120v. Enough power to keep the place from freezing outright, but struggles to get to 50f inside. Good thing I do industrial maintenance, I can fix this. $400 in parts later I’ve got them wired correctly and the house is 65f.

    Get the inspector to show up. House still fails. Need a CO monitor, no problem. Railings are 6" too short and need rebuilt; annoying but ok. Bedroom window is not large enough for emergency escape and needs replaced. Going to cost $700 for the window and a month to deliver. Inspection report says I have 60 days to fix.

    Seems I can’t blink without this house costing me $500+. So much that needs done but can’t seem to get ahead to get a chance to do it. Meanwhile I’m now paying two mortgages, and struggling to get the bank account back in line after 6 months at a lower paying job that bled what little buffer I had.

    Mom is living in old house, but can’t afford her bills before so I’m paying for that house and bridging the gap on her bills too. Her neighbor wants her place for the land, but the title never got transferred properly and the next of kin refuse to just sign the paperwork. So we need $2000 for the lawyer to get a judge to fix the title before we can sell it. Her car also quit recently, after $500 in repairs they say it also needs a transmission. Told her just try to get by with borrowed rides until we can sell her house.

    Once we can sell her place, the plan is to buy another house near the new one, which needs work. Hoping that the sale of hers will cover the new place and getting it livable. Then she can move down and we can sell my old place. By that point hopefully be clear of mortgages, both have houses, and not driving too far to work. But wow is it a struggle right now.

    I don’t even know what it’s going to cost to heat this house yet, but my guess is a lot. I want to put in a heat pump, but that’s going to be $5k+ of hardware so definitely need to get these other things sorted out first. Although, paying 2-4x for electricity to heat in the meantime makes it necessary to get done as soon as we can.