Unemployed

I guess I can tell you our latest news now. Tom is leaving his company. When he was hired the plan had been to go shopping for a mill to add to the company. Tom was to help start up and run what ever new mill they acquired. While waiting for another mill his job was to increase production at the existing mill. He achieved and exceeded that goal.

Meanwhile, Several mills were researched and bid on, but none were won or purchased. With the changed economy, buying another mill is no longer in the picture for a while. With no interesting projects through his current employer, Tom would like to be back in Longview. The company agreed to a reduction in force.

We found Oregon exceedingly expensive. We could not afford to join a golf club. As a result Tom has not even played ten rounds this year to keep his handicap. We had to miss Gerhardt's big tournament. We have been going to Gearhardt for 17 years. Tom has no social life in Oregon . It was just work and home. He has many more connections and friends in Longview. If he is going to be hunting for projects and work, Longview will put him back in circulation again.

So, we fell in love with a decrepit old house in our old neighborhood. It is a foreclosure. I bid on it, but the bank turned me down. The house was built in 1940, and is literally sagging on its foundations. Bulging walls upstairs and not a single right angle downstairs. The taxes are owed for three years. We had an inspector go through the house. He asked if the builders had been on crack cocaine, the constructions was so shoddy, a real home made job.

Tom had a civil engineer friend look at the property. He found that the house resided in a slip zone of unstable soil. There were also some sewer lines running through the property limiting where a new house could be situated. The location was wonderful being back in our old neighborhood, but we didn't love the property enough to pay what the bank wanted. The house goes up for auction in 2012, for the delinquent county taxes. Any smart person would walk away. We will take another stab at it at auction. If the bank holds out for the price they want, it will still be available. Its a tear down and start over. We will not pay for the house, we want the land and even that is questionable.

So, I am now shopping foreclosures in Longview. I go up on Sunday to look. I am not thrilled with the list I plan to see, but I will look. I am told in March more houses will hit the market. It took us months of looking for all of our homes. The only one we made a mistake on was this one, in Oregon. We knew there was a bubble but we bought anyway. Portland is now rated one of the top 10 most miserable cities in the country. They measure unemployment, expenses, housing prices among other things to come to that conclusion. We can not disagree.

The schools in Washington go a month longer. If we can get the boys up to longview by spring break, they will be in school later into the summer than if we stayed in Oregon. We have always known the schools were better in Washington. It was one of the reasons I am not opposed to the move. Our area schools really do a good job with the resources they have, but time is against them.

Both boys love the thought of moving back. They remember the club and the pool. They are still in contact with their friends. I don't know if they will love living in an older home that needs a ton of work, or half the size as what we are used to, because that is what I am looking for. I am looking for a deal, a foreclosure.

I have found that the banks wont deal until a house has sat a while on the market. The result is a lot of empty vacant homes slowly decaying. I am going to continue to offer until one takes my money. We have some time, though Tom would love us up there sooner rather than later. I am not going to over extend again.

I am bummed about my job. It is too far to commute once we move, especially with the cost of gas. I told them they should start looking in April for a replacement for me. Because of our March sale and another employee being gone, I didn't want to leave them hanging. Besides we haven't found a house yet. The manager paid me the compliment of telling me I was a strong sales person and that I would be missed. I still had so much to learn, I will miss that opportunity.

I am hopeful I can find something in Longview to satisfy me. I really liked helping people with "unique feet" find appropriate shoes. The amputees, the surgeries, the pains, and neuromas, the plantar faciaitis, the extremely large, everyone has to wear shoes.

That Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times", is so appropriate right now. Maybe I should not bother about finding a new job. It seems like every time I do go back to work, within six months to a year we end up moving.

Tom looks better. A friend of mine told me he looked old. As a result he went and had a professional cut and color. He has been getting up with the boys and helping roust them out of bed. He has been on top of the discipline. He spoke to Trevor yesterday, having heard from me that Trevor had another tantrum about my not letting him have x box on a snow day, and making Trevor look up his missing home work on line, taking advantage of the extra day. Instead Trevor slammed doors and stomped around angrily for me, making excuses. Tom had words with the boy.

I am contemplating having Trevor repeat eighth grade, taking advantage of the move. He has an August birth date. It might help him to get a do over before high school. Tom told both boys they have until 18 then they move out into the world. Finish high school and then they are gone. They had better be going to college or there will be no assistance from us.

Tom wants our next home to be our final resting place. Longview is it. It is a lot of pressure. It can't be rushed. Our dream house may not be on the market yet. Do I go small since we only have 5 more years of children. Or big so the grand kids have a place to visit.


Riley will get Cobra for the next 18 months which has good BMT coverage. Also our USAA has decent coverage if we want to just purchase private insurance. We found out that insurance is not portable across state lines. Each state has its own insurance rules, so you have to buy where you live. Until we have a house in Longview, we will need to probably stick with Cobra. The good thing about Obama Care is that Children can't be excluded or refused care. We can also pay our $1200 a month deductible out of the 401K tax free. So there wont be a cash flow issue.

I just cant decide which room to tackle first. Every room is full of treasures and things. I don't know if I want to do a garage sale or just run everything over to the thrift store. Getting the boys to help has been hit and miss. Riley made a bag of his favorite books and books he wants to read. But then I couldn't get Trevor in to do the same thing. I wanted to donate books if they didn't want to read them. But first they have to decide which ones they want to read by looking at them.

I did make up one garbage bag of papers from the office. It was a small achievement, but a start.