New Year, New Life, New Goals --->

I'm not much of a resolution maker, never was. But since the structure of some of my life is getting made over with the purchase of this second house, I may as well take a fresh-start attitude about a number of things. I will have to rearrange the way I do some of what I do anyway, so it makes sense to plan consciously, from a standpoint of new beginnings.

Over on Ravelry, kniterati posted a thread (and then started a group) about aiming to restrict unnecessary personal consumption during January 2008. The discussion caused me to think even more pointedly than I have been about where I stand now in regard to personal spending, consumption, possessions, and my personal living environment. These subjects are quite relevant to my current situation and aims, so I appreciate being prompted to look at them with yet sharper awareness.

Reduction of recreational spending is a good thing, sure. I have by now developed a decent program for personal purchases, I think; by this age, there is a lot that I already have, so most buys are about what makes my life work better. What I realize, now that I'm thinking about it: I'm most vulnerable to temptation where adding to a collection can be justified but isn't strictly necessary.

Lemme look at this more closely.

When I need to fill holes in my wardrobe or replace worn items, I either shop the thrift stores or go to discount shops and outlets. If I buy jewelry, it's usually great costume stuff (or silver, with or without stones) at a fabulously low price (garage sales, eBay, or extremely on sale). Shoes are always found at a huge discount, and are only purchased when they really fill a gap. Even my underwear is always discount (Vanity Fair Outlet). Makeup and healthcare - again, wisely purchased, and only when needed. I love my everyday minerals powder foundation and conveniently enough, it is CHEAAAP.

I *did* just get some perfume delivered in the mail. Sounds like a typical feminine indulgence right? Well, I've actively sought fragrance probably fewer than 5 times in my 43 years. This particular one I first came across in 1993; the company makes solid perfumes in carved soapstone jars and it comes in at least...what...14 different varieties? I don't know, lots. I had mentioned my interest in one of these to a friend that year, who was sweet enough to get me an example for Xmas....in a different scent I ended up being allergic to. *sigh* Then recently, I ended up finding the fragrance I'd liked easily available online, and ordered the scent that caught my interest 14 years ago. :P It cost me $9.45 including shipping.

Supplies (like yarn and knitting tools) are acquired quietly and at the best economy-to-quality ratio I can find. I use coupons whenever possible. My stash is pretty small, and is now made up of about 1/4 to 1/3 recycled yarn. I do enjoy reusing thrift store sweaters to enhance my yarn supply cheaply. I tend not to buy knitting books very often, instead putting a few very carefully vetted selections on my Yule list for others to give should they choose to.

So...in the area of personal luxuries, I'm really no spendthrift. Any little indulgences are closely considered. I comparison shop and bargain hunt. I lived through so many lean years that I have learned shoestring living pretty well.

Now, there's a host of other things that can be tempting for me to collect. I won't make an exhaustive list here. But just in writing this post, I can see the pattern very clearly. It is the collector in me...of books, of earrings, of instructional bellydance DVDs...and whatever else I like. And since I really do have "enough" already of what I collect in the first place, it should be a really easy place to cut spending if I just stay aware.

• Resolution: When tempted to add to a collection, THINK FIRST.
• Oh and...knit from stash only this year, as long as possible. Why not? It doesn't have to be an ironclad rule, but really, I have enough yarn to work with for a while.
  

On the flip side of this type of buying, there is the task of keeping clutter to a minimum. As we face moving once again, I'm considering each item I have care of, and can let go of things more easily than ever. This includes objects, and stored information such as trade magazines. Now, it doesn't take a genius to realize that it would make sense to reduce items coming into the home in the first place. Yet so many of us don't think even -that- wholistically.

I have become better at processing any paper that comes into the house via mail or some other delivery channel. I have realized that I need to look at all the trade and alumni mags when they are still timely, mine them for interest quickly, and get what's left into the recycling bin before they pile up. We haven't subscribed to newspapers for years, so those are not a problem.

• Resolution: Keep triaging papers ruthlessly as soon as they arrive in the home.

As far as solutions to managing the accrual of non-flat items, I really like the "one in, one out" or even "one in, two out" rules. These I learned of at squalorsurvivors.com, which I heard about on the knittyboard a while ago. You simply get rid of one or two items as soon as you acquire a new one. It's like...DUH! But how many of us have the awareness and emotional detachment to come up with and enact even such a simple rule?

• Resolution: One in, one or more out.

GOSH that's going to be hard at yard sale season...oh but ya know what...I will make an exception to this rule for jewelry items. They take up so little space and are so easy to store.

(About squalorsurvivors: it's a fascinating site where one can learn about extreme cases of "stuff" overwhelming lives, among other related problems. This group of people therefore studies the relationship of "stuff" to lives intensively, and they come up with cleaning, storage, and stuff-management solutions we can all profit by. It's quite interesting. Yes, I know about flylady.com too.)

Ironically, one economy I have made in the past was not spending anything on storage solutions for what I did want to keep and organize; over the last few years I have seen the error of that way and now I absolutely see the value of shelving, tubs, drawers, and so on. In fact, storage tubs were on my Yule gift list and dear husband got some for me. As soon as we got home from the holiday...in went the wool stash and WIPs! "That was awesome."

• Resolution: Make sure that everything has a place, and PUT it there. (Oh yeah...the in/out rule doesn't apply to storage solutions either.)
  

Back to thoughts about spending: things that other people spend a lot on that I don't include gourmet coffee, cigarettes, soda, and eating out. The ground-fresh-every-day gourmet coffee I make at home is at least as good as what I can buy out, and it's strong enough that I'm not tempted to have any more after the morning dose. So no problem there. I smoke only clove cigarettes, and I buy about 4 packs a year at the most. Soda/pop? Never liked it much. I'll end up having maybe 30 ounces a year, out of dead thirst when there's no other choice.

I don't spend that much on lunches during the workday, and keep social dinners out to a minimum. In fact, this last is an area where I want to play a little more loosely. I don't want to be so frugal as to give up social (and potential business) opportunities; there can be benefits to a little spending in this area.

• Resolution: Budget judiciously for social dining. Roll over what I don't use, weekly. If I have "extra" at the end of the month, use that to pay down debt. (See below.)
  

Now...just like a lot of us, I've had to do some borrowing to find my place in life, so I need to make moves to remove liabilities in my net worth. I am of course paying things down as I go. I have come to enjoy some of the recordkeeping, watching balances shrink and available credit grow. In keeping with the improved paper management above, I'm also getting better at organizing my financial records and eliminating every piece of paper that I don't need. I'm actually looking *forward* to doing my taxes for the year. Huh??

• Resolution: Keep an organized financial center. Add storage and organizing solutions as needed; monitor credit and finances regularly; pay down debt aggressively.

All this is well and good. But now....we come to an area of expenditures that I have no experience with: decorating an entire house. This new place is virtually 99% a blank slate. The floorings are all serviceable as are, so at least we don't have to make decisions about them (besides cleaning and a little repair). Otherwise...ya know, choosing paint colors and such is kinda stressful!

And of course, whatever we do...we have to pay for. At this point I have no clear picture of what the true cost will be of all the little repairs we need to make, all the paint, the new countertops, the new appliances (there are none in the house now), the new kitchen cabinet pulls, the replacement of the ugly dining room chandelier, any new furniture that will be needed, and so on. In the past, I wasn't very demanding about my furnishings or wall colors or anything like that; I didn't have a lot of choices and that was ok. But now I feel that we should invest some energy into making the new house really work for us, so that we can just LIVE forward happily and not have that underlying mental breath-holding of "someday" having our home environment be satisfying in the present. Enough deferral. Now's the time.

So, clearly...I have some competing financial agendas. I will have to do some spending this January, but on something I see as an investment. It's ok...I will remain in financial awareness and keep a balanced approach to all of it. In outfitting this home, my husband and I will do what we always do -- bargain hunt, try to keep down the cost to value, and enjoy the challenge of making each dollar work its hardest on our behalf. 2008 is going to be a great year for us.

Buying Another House.

So, my husband and I are buying another house. We'll be real estate investors as of the very first of 2008! I wouldn't have guessed that this would be where we were, exactly 5 years after the week we "met" on the internet.

Since I keep *meaning* to post about real estate, and both our houses will need a little remodeling work to suit us, I'm planning to document the progress of the projects here.

Now, I can't guarantee that this is going to impress anyone. Frankly, I'm viewing the prospect of redoing 2 homes as rather a chore, and know that (even if I'm not doing it all with my own hands) this ain't HGTV and it won't be easy or quick. It might be slightly interesting, and it might help encourage me to make the effort to "decorate" in a more serious way than I've ever done before, but no guarantees!

Our current home (which will eventually be rented out) was built in 1971, and the one we're moving into was done in 1972. They are quite different, however, and have also had updates at different times which make them seem to have even less in common.

Current: About 1300 s.f., designed as a 3BR, 1.5 bath. The house is a 4-level split that has bedrooms and main bath on the upper floor; open plan living room that L's with the dining area, and a small kitchen are on the ground floor. The next lower level is the "family room" and extra room with a built-in wet bar, with half bath tucked behind that. Finally there is a half-basement where the laundry is. There is a rear screened porch, and a 2-car garage that was originally added to the property 13 years after the house was built.

New acquisition: 1828 s.f., 4BR, 2.5 bath. Its 2-story style is characteristic of the area, with a family room behind the 2-car attached garage (while the living room is in the front), and half bath on the first floor. Upstairs, the master bedroom has its own shower bath with double sink; there is a walk-in closet there. Main bath has a tub. Half of the basement is finished with a sizeable room down there, plus a small side room. The rest is laundry/mechanical.

As for the work that was done to these houses before we got here: the small one had been "updated" back somewhere in the late 1970s. The formerly mango-yellow walls were covered with light-toned woodgrain paneling. The also-mango kitchen received white wallpaper patterned with a wild rose trellis pattern mainly in green, with yellow rose blooms. The kitchen floor was overlaid with a yellow geometric vinyl tile, the original cabinets got moved into the garage and were replaced with rather nice maple cabinets (but the doors have maple veneer over oak; however, the whole bit has a "walnut" finish). I'd bet that the countertops were also a replacement; they are a sunny egg-drop yellow marbled Formica. (We actually like the counter!)

I'm not sure whether the sculptured avocado green wall-to-wall carpeting is original, but it probably isn't *exactly*, vintage though it is...likewise the weird marbleized cladding in the baths. The upstairs bathroom vinyl tile floor is likely to have been an "improvement" from the redo, and possibly so is the classic oak parquet tile that floors all of the bedrooms.

We like the parquet. And funnily enough, the new house has it too -- the downstairs hall is done in the same rich patinated oak.

The new house was a rental when it got foreclosed on. Its interior walls are painted entirely white, lacking any personality whatsoever. The only break from the white walls and the beige carpeting is the aforementioned parquet, a mottled gray-brown carpet in the family room (ok, and the nice oak shelving above the fireplace there), and one wallpaper border at the top of the half bath (I was going to call it "the powder room" because that's what we called them back when.) The kitchen has boring golden oak cabinets with brass pulls (blech!) and an ugly blue laminate counter. At some point, plain white ceramic tile was put into the kitchen and all baths. So this place is more of a tabula rasa, with less needing to be undone to begin with. I'm hoping that we'll really love it once we can warm it up with our own choices. Our own paint colors, our own lighting, and our beloved Stuff.

I've never really even done "window treatments" before. In the past I wasn't allowed, or didn't need to, or didn't care, or couldn't afford it. Now I have to go consult some design resources to point me in some kind of direction....hmmm...

Career Change -- Throwing in the Towel AND...

I've decided that real estate is so not for me. I'm joining the circus!!

I'm ready for towel- and hat-throwing -- into the 3-ring! I've ordered a custom sequin outfit (only $1379!!) from everythingshiny.com, and polished my trapeze act. I'm just waiting for my new troupe's RV to get here and whisk me away to Montana!

Have you ever tried to throw a hat? The best ones tend to be heavy knitted hats if you want to hit someone. Most of my hats have brims, and they wheel like frisbees. Well, that's part of my act. Kind of different, I think. And then there are the towels. You thought I was kidding with that one. Nope -- Egyptian cotton towels, set with multicolored rhinestones for weight and sparkle, are going to be tossed in patented ways never before seen.

This is going to ROCK.

So...which is it?

Am I a Realtor who knits, or am I a knitter in the real estate business? Umm...both!

Those are not my only pursuits, just a couple of my more public ones. Knitting a public pursuit? For sure, now it is. I belong to a few local knitting groups and we get together now and then, usually in certain coffee shops, and Knit In Public. 'n if you think knitting is only for grannies, dude you are behind the times. (I crochet too, as of October 2004.)

I've used the name "the Knitting Realtor" in a few places on the Internet, but I'm changing that, because technically we Realtors (members of the National Association of Realtors) should not use the trademarked term with such modifiers, really. So henceforth, I am the KnittingAgent. Not quite as precise, but it'll have to do.

As my first official act, I have planned...a couple of knitting projects. Stay tuned!