Posts

So, now that I’m kinda grown up and got a mortgage and such, I’ve been spending time putting together a budget to make sure everything works out, especially now that I have some concrete numbers for the mortgage. When doing the budget in Microsoft Money, it helpfully gives a pie graph of where our expenses are going. I noticed that a very large chunk of it was going toward our mortgage interest. It was about 20% of our monthly expenses. (Especially near the beginning of the loan, the vast majority of the payment is just paying off interest.)

The house is continuing to come along, slowly but surely. The carpets are in, the wood floors are being finished, and the appliances should be arriving early next week. This weekend, we’ll be moving in many things from my parents’ garage. Some things will probably be in their actual location, but many things will likely end up being in our garage.

Also this weekend is Charlton Baptist Church’s Free Market. Jessi and I will be helping out there. Stop by there in the morning, say hello, and pick up something free.

We have power!

Yesterday: Carpets were installed.
Today: Electricity is supposed to be hooked up.
Tomorrow: Linoleum is supposed to be installed.
Friday or early next week: Sanding of wood floors, and installation of appliances.

Looks like things might be moving again. Maybe.

The phone company managed to put in one pole today (Horray!), but they still need to replace the one across the street that will connect to it.

But some progress has been made, at least.

Carpeting/Linoleum should be arriving this week. Finishing up the wood flooring is blocked on getting power. (Apparently the extension cord to my parents’ house isn’t enough for powering their big sanding machines, or something.)

On Saturday, we went to the North American Challenge finals at Milford, which Jessi had qualified for on Wednesday. Luckily, they took me on as a judge that day so I had something to do there. Jessi didn’t fare so well, unfortunately. They had brought in Sheldon Menery, a level 5 (“Professional level”) judge from the Maryland/Virginia area, as the Head Judge. We were ridiculously overstaffed, as there were 8 of us for a 90 player tournament, but that helped everything go relatively smoothly.

I certainly pray and wish all the best for the people being tormented by Hurricane Katrina.

At the same time, I have to wonder about the wisdom of building a large city below sea level. What did these people expect would happen?

Windows 95 was launched 10 years ago today.

It was a major improvement over what there was 10 years prior, and what we have now is so much better than Windows 95.

I wonder where we’ll be in another 10 years…

So, there’s this unpaved portion of Berry Corner Rd., which goes from my parents’ driveway and through to Sturbridge.

Latest Estimates:

• Utility pole: Friday
• Linoleum: Next week
• Carpeting: The following week

The accuracy of these estimates is unknown.

The quality of service from companies based in Charlton has been wonderful. The quality of service from companies not based in Charlton has been awful.