I'm feeling SO much better, no longer stuck in a holding pattern. Yesterday and today were both big money days for AS: She got $3600 and $1400 respectively. Add in the $4K from earlier in the week and she received $9K this week!
NT has started shopping for some LONG-overdue work clothes -- dress shirts, slacks and a suit. He thinks he can keep it to about $600.
We went ahead and set aside money for the rental cars for our two upcoming road trips, and reserved hotels for the longer one. The rentals will be about $575 for the longer trip and $230 for the shorter one. The hotels came to less than $500 for three one-night stays in different cities.
The fence guy came by to finalize his estimate. It was very close to the initial one -- $2640. We're splitting 50/50 with our neighbors. And we should have the back yard fenced in within 3 weeks! I've taken some "before" photos so I can share them along with the "afters." I think it's going to make a world of difference.
Today I had off work and spent much of the day prepping for the garage sale tomorrow. AS helped me a ton. We lugged out boxes from various places, and tables from the porches. We bought sodas and snacks to sell at the sale as well. I spent $45 on sodas, granola bars, fruit snacks, posterboard and pricing stickers. Any food/drinks we don't sell will definitely get eaten up by the family.
It's the only expense for the sale -- our $10 registration to the neighborhood sale will be refunded because NT discovered we got left off the map. But there are enough sales around us that we're not too worried. They did give us a sign to put in our yard to signal that we're part of the sale.
Our neighbors contributed some items too. Instead of keeping track of what money came from whom, we agreed that any proceeds would go toward something shared -- probably plants or soil for the garden.
Now that we've been getting serious about fixing up the house together, I've been giving some thought to their wish that we sell a portion of it to them. I'm definitely in favor of that in theory. But I feel like I want to talk through the ramifications -- tax, insurance, estate planning -- with others before we finalize it. All this past year, I've felt reactive -- trying to make up for not having properly prepared before each big decision. I want to be knowledgable about this next step before we take it.
Money rolling in etc.
May 16th, 2015 at 04:52 am
May 16th, 2015 at 11:19 am 1431775174
On the other hand, I can see where your friends are coming from- I wouldn't feel comfortable paying for significant improvements to a property I had no legal ownership of.
May 16th, 2015 at 12:54 pm 1431780843
I was *so* relieved to learn that my in-laws do not want to inherit Tahoe property from Grandmother (MIL has 2 sisters that would also inherit). It came up recently because one of the sister got weird about it. The weirdness was unexpected BUT I am glad it got everyone talking. If we do ever inherit, which is still likely, we will probably just refuse our share. Which may cause family drama, but whatever. I don't want to own a house 50 miles away with 5 different people. It's not worth that much and would be such a hassle. The current drama is it's impossible to insure with all the fire danger. I do worry my dh won't be able to emotionally let it go. But maybe if we own a money pit for a few years and have some drama with his relatives he will see the light. I'd prefer that he not have to learn the hard way.
May 16th, 2015 at 02:18 pm 1431785904
May 16th, 2015 at 03:02 pm 1431788538
May 16th, 2015 at 03:04 pm 1431788650
May 16th, 2015 at 03:28 pm 1431790137
May 16th, 2015 at 08:26 pm 1431807989
Repay them for the improvements they've paid for, rent to them, and keep friends and real estate separate.
May 16th, 2015 at 08:59 pm 1431809969
For me the pros are: They'll help us maintain the common areas, share utilities expenses, share expenses of major common area improvements, help us raise the kids, watch our pets while we're away, and we get to live with some of our best friends. Not having to deal with the city rental inspections and licenses. Having them committed to the place so we'll never have to rent to strangers.
The only cons would be if something went wrong, so that's why I want to talk through the legal, tax and insurance ramifications. But we all intend to stay here, and the friends are already in our wills to take care of the girls if anything happens to us, so I don't have much worry that things will go wrong. I just want to know what the options are if something DOES go wrong.
May 16th, 2015 at 11:39 pm 1431819543
May 17th, 2015 at 06:29 pm 1431887354