Ah, refreshing!

Last weekend was pretty normal for a weekend at my parents' house. Dad actually played Halo with us though--that was kinda fun. Anna, Kayla, Jason and I have been playing the same characters all the time, and they're characters from Red vs. Blue, but Dad made up his own character. Anna plays as Tex, Kayla plays as Church, Jason plays as Caboose, and I play as Tucker. Dad's character's name is Chef, and has the same color armor as Church.

We watched The Princess Bride on the projector screen on Sunday night. That was fun.

I also talked to Dad about my financial figurings, and how I might get money for downpayments and such. Not very many options there. I thought about refinancing my car (I found out I'm paying 10.9% APR), but with only 2 years left to pay it off, getting a lower interest rate would actually cost me more per month than I'm paying now.

Dad told me that when he bought that house he didn't have money for a downpayment--he borrowed money from my aunts and uncles, as well as my grandpa.

After that discussion was well and truly dead, he told me about an idea he'd had for a business, which was sparked by my current housing search and the brochures he'd gotten from the Fleetwood dealer (I'll explain later).

Yesterday, I got my allergy shots after work, and I meant to do my laundry while I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but I got about six chapters read (and dinner eaten) before I decided to take a nap instead. So I set my alarm for 9pm (or was it 9:30?), which would have given me an hour and a half to sleep, while Bones recorded. The alarm went off; it was on my cell phone, so the ringtone for "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" played instead of a beep. I was still sleepy, so I went back to sleep. I "woke up" sporadically (2:30am, 4-ish, 6:45, maybe other times too), but didn't actually get up until my alarm went off at 7:30 this morning. I feel very refreshed now. Turns out, I needed that, because of all the stress of house-finding I've had lately.

Anyway, here's Dad's idea.

Most builders are caught up in building these houses with costs somewhere in the hundreds of thousands--or even the millions--these days, but that doesn't help people like me who are just starting out on their own, or young families who can't afford much.

So, his idea was to revive Dutch Master Builders--Grandpa's old house-building company--only, he would stick-build small houses which would be sold for about the cost of an equivalent-sized mobile home. And instead of spacing them out like regular houses, he'd get about two acres of land and put 30 of those houses (of different models and sizes) close together in groups. Each group would have space in the center for a playground, a basketball court, a tennis court, a pool, or whatever, and each house would have 5 feet of land on each end and in the back, and twelve feet in the front (for a driveway and some green space), with an unfinished basement underneath. There's definitely a market for cheaper housing that doesn't require monthly lot rentals as well as the cost of the house, so I think the company could really take off.

Considering the trouble I've been having finding somewhere to live on my tight budget, I think it's a great idea. It won't be started up right away (Dad says he could begin in a year or so, after some research and a lot of planning and stuff), but we can start planning for it right now, and I would totally quit my current job to do something with this. We figured out that the largest of the houses we'd build (about the size of a smaller double-wide trailer, with three or four bedrooms and two bathrooms) would fit into 1/30 of an acre, with the extra space around it, and room to spare.

Before the company can get started up, however, we'd have to do a lot of stuff like draw up plans for each of the models we're going to start with, plan out the first two-acre community, find investors to fund the company, get land and permits for building and subdivision, get employees (contractors, accountants, secretaries, etc.), and not to mention find office space.

It's an exciting prospect though, and I'm raring to get started.

House Hunting and Decisions to Make

The last week has been really busy. Saturday, I went to look at apartments in Hagerstown with Kimba and Anna. The first one we looked at was in downtown Hagerstown, and wasn't in all that good of a neighborhood. The other one was in Smithsburg, and would cost way too much, even if I had Stacie living with me--not to mention, I wouldn't be able to save up enough for the security deposit.

On Wednesday, Dad, Anna, Kayla and I went to look at the mobile home that's for sale in the mobile home park down the road from their house. It's kind of small (the second bedroom is tiny--not really bedroom size at all, more like a den), and at first I thought I wouldn't be able to afford it alone, but I've done some figuring. I might be able to afford it after all. There are a few cons, but there are a lot of pros too, which goes for all of the choices I've looked at so far.

For instance, the walls in the house are covered with dark paneling. If I can paint over the paneling, that would be great, and it would make the place look more open. If I couldn't paint over the paneling, I'd just cover the walls with posters or something (I certainly have enough).

After looking at the $8,000 house, we went to Hagerstown to look at a house at the Fleetwood dealership there. We saw one with two bedrooms and two bathrooms for $36,000, plus $12,000 placement. So I'd need to get a mortgage for $48,000. The Fleetwood dealership offers financing, but you have to put 10% down (about $5,000 in this case), and I don't even have $500 to spare, much less the $2,500 I'd have to fork out to get that through with Stacie. I figured out that I could probably afford it if I moved in with Stacie though.

Yesterday, Kimba called me at work to say that one of the people she works with may have a room available in her apartment starting around mid-July or so for $450 a month, plus some utilities (I haven't found out which yet--gotta e-mail the girl after I finish this entry). That's a little late for me, so I'd probably have to store all of my stuff in my parents' basement and sleep on their couch for a month or so. I'm not looking forward to doing that.

I looked online for financing I could get with 0% down, and I found one site. They had a form to fill out for more information, so I filled it out twice--once for the larger house and once for the $8,000 house, so they could let me know if I could possibly qualify for either loan.

I have to say, this living with roommates thing is kind of getting old. I wouldn't mind living in the smaller trailer by myself. I'd have to wait until after I pay off my car in April of 2010 before I could 1) save any significant amount of money per month (though I could possibly still save a little), and 2) repaint the walls (if that's even possible), but that would be okay with me. There should be plenty of room for my furniture, and the site rental plus mortgage payments would only come to $490-500, which should be doable since the power and heating bills will be a lot less there than they are at the townhouse. I don't know if the size of the household has anything to do with my current cable TV and internet bills, but those might be less too, and even if they're not, I have a little of leeway about how much I can afford for those. Also, I might be able to get wireless internet from my parents' house (I'd help pay Dad's internet bill) if I put a high enough mast on the house and Dad got the necessary equipment on his end.

If I live in one of the two trailers, I'd be able to walk to my parents' house and visit whenever I wanted. I could bike too, and that would help me get in shape. But if I lived with Stacie, I might have to sell furniture in order for both of our stuff to fit. The wireless internet mast could also work here, since there's a vacant lot in the mobile home park there.

Apparently, Kimba's friend's apartment is near my work, so I might be able to walk there if I lived in the apartment. But there might not be enough room for all of my furniture in the apartment, and I'm not sure I have enough time to find someone to buy any. I suppose I could just give it away, but if I sold it, then I'd have more money available for a security deposit and such (if Kimba's friend would need a security deposit).

Once I've gotten a reply to my impending e-mail to Kimba's friend, I will adjust my financial figurings to reflect her estimates on utility costs. Since an apartment can't be much bigger (or smaller) than a mobile home, I figure the costs for utilities are at least a little bit comparable, as opposed to the costs for a townhouse that fits five people comfortably.

Also, these financial figurings will only be for the first few days of living wherever I end up living. My 3-year review at work comes up on July 5, so I'll be getting a raise of at least $500 per year (the largest raise I have gotten so far was $1,500 per year). It's not much, but it will help me to afford a little bit more. But first, I have to get whatever housing I can afford right now. That way, when the raise comes, I'll be a little more comfortable than I would be at my current salary.

Tonight is D&D night. We finished our adventure during last week's session, but I've heard that we will have a couple of options to continue with the same characters in different adventures. One option is to join a game in the Greyhawk setting. The other option is to stay in the same setting (Eberron) and make our characters 2-3 levels higher than they ended up. I'd like to stay in Eberron and level my character naturally, since I've never actually played a campaign where my character earned the experience and levelled up without artificialness.

Another Weekend, Gone

Saturday, I gave Jason my arrows. He was playing a Nintendo DS game with his friend William at the time, so he didn't say much except, "Thanks."

Then, I talked to Dad about the roommate/place to live situation. For those who don't know, the situation stands thus:

• Kayla's old room has been vacant since January or February.
• I have looked in many places, and posted many ads to the effect that the room is available. I've had a few interested parties, but they were either a) not currently in Frederick (I won't offer the room to someone unless I've met them face-to-face, for safety reasons) or b) didn't get back in touch with me after seeing the house.
• Our lease is up on June 30, 2008, less than three months away.
• I don't know if Jenn, Amit and Stacie want to renew the lease or not, but
• If Kayla's old room doesn't get filled, the point is moot anyway and we're all screwed.
  
• If they don't, then I'm pretty much screwed unless I find somewhere to live by mid-June (so that I have time to pack up and move out before the end of the lease).
• I can only afford to pay a total of about $550 per month total for rent, internet, water, power, heat, cable, and phone (if I have a land line).
• Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Frederick does not go any lower than $750 or so, and if I go to where rent is only $550, I won't be saving any money, because then I'll have to pay even more for gasoline.
• I can afford to buy a house which costs up to about $60,000 or so, but none of the houses in Frederick cost less than $150,000.

Dad suggested I might be able to live in a mobile home park. There are four or five in the city that we know of. We went to see if there were any vacancies at four of them on Saturday, but the offices were closed for the weekend (where we could find the offices anyway).

The way I figure it, if the site rental, plus the monthly mortgage payment on the mobile home itself (the model I like would be about $24,000 total), and utilities such as I've listed above is less than $550 a month, then I can afford to live there. I could also do without the phone (I have a cell), and even the cable, if my family will TiVo shows for me. Since I mostly watch the shows that Anna watches anyway, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Dad said he would go to the offices today and ask about costs and stuff like that. He also said he would ask if there were any of the mobile homes available for rent, or if I'd have to purchase one myself to put into one of their vacant lots.

After the trips to the mobile home parks (to see if there were any vacant lots and look at the quality of the "neighborhoods"), which was during a grocery trip, Dad made dinner. We didn't do too much after that though, except watch Sydney White and What a Girl Wants on the projector screen.

Yesterday, Anna, Kayla and I woke up, then we played Halo on the projector for a bit. After that, Anna broke out the Clue boardgame I'd gotten her for Christmas but she hadn't opened yet. We played two games (with Jason)--Anna won both times.

Then I setup my old desktop computer for my dad to check out and possibly fix. It wasn't fixable, since it's a Pentium III reporting as a Pentium II. So, we cannibalized it for parts, and I'm going to take the harddrive, the zip drive, the ethernet card and the memory sticks back to my house to see if I can use them there. I might be able to add the first three to Kayla's old computer so that it will run faster, and I might be able to put the ethernet card into my laptop dock. I'll still need to purchase more memory for my laptop though.

After the computer mayhem, Anna, Kayla and I watched the first season (plus some of the second) of Red vs. Blue, which I had never seen before. It's hilarious so far; we got to the part where Lopez and Sheila have decided to make their own army, and the Blues are supposed to be surrenduring both to them and to the Reds at 0600, but by then it was 12:45am, and the second season had been going for about an hour and a half. I thought it would only be an hour, so I asked to watch season two at 11:15. Turns out, it was longer, and since I had to work today, we turned it off before I started to fall asleep. I didn't want to miss any of it, so I was trying to stay awake as long as I could.