Just a 46-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). **It was terribly windy yesterday. I dreamt that our fence blew down and I felt very relieved that we just had passed the $5k mark on our non-emergency cash savings. Replacing the fence is high on my list of things we will spend our savings on in the near future.
Of course, in my dream, I was informed a fence cost $20k. Though IRL I had seen we could probably get it done in the $1k-$3k range (through random web searches anyway) I was informed that was the national average. In California, a fence for 0.05 acres cost $20k. Figures.
(In my dream I forgot we'd only be on the hook for half - shared fence).
I woke up before I had too much time to panic over this. I think you get a glimpse into my psyche though. I am not sure if I will ever feel "prepared" enough.
When I awoke and showered I could tell the wind was pretty fierce. No doubt feeding into my dream. I was going to peek outside and see if the fence was still standing, but I forgot to.
I've said before, but there are a number of houses on our street that NEED paint jobs. Bad. (Ours will pass because we had the luck to pick a light color, which is close to the color of the stucco so you can't see it peeking out underneath. The dark houses look pretty bad). & the fences the builder put in? Crap. I can't believe us lazy procrastinators (when it comes to home improvement anyway) will be the first to cave. It's kind of sad. I've just been hoping to save up the cash in time for when our neighbors are ready to replace their side of the fence; for when the HOA send us a notice to paint or face the consequences. I never dreamed we'd be the first to take the initiative to show some pride of ownership.
As crappy as the fence appears, it sure can withstand some wind. I'll give it that. 
Though I have been more frantic about the whole thing ever since our neighbor lost a portion of fence last winter or spring. I wouldn't call a fence replacement an "unforeseen emergency" in these circumstances.
**Reminds me, I saw another foreclosure; street behind us. House was bought about same time as ours, for $300k. It just foreclosed for $320k??? Means that was the loan still owing. I don't know what to say about that one.
Though, in the grand scheme of things, these people didn't borrow near as much as I've seen with most of the other foreclosures.
No wonder there is such a disconnect between our reality and people's assumptions about our situation. Give us 2 minimum wage jobs (or one $40k wage) and the mortgage will get paid. Quite easily. I think most people assume we pay about $40k/year for our PITI. People also don't understand that while they had 10 rent increases, our mortgage payment stayed stagnant, and then lowered due to lower interest rates. Oh yeah, but "NO ONE" can refi in this day and age. Just stupid people like us who pay down our debts while everyone else is borrowing into eternity. You don't know how many people have called us stupid for paying down our mortgage. Actually, I am sure many of you can relate. Being able to refi under a 5% fixed rate is sweet revenge I guess. "You got under 5% for TWO years? I get it 30 years. I was only paying 5.75% to begin with. With no risk of increase." Yeah, stupid me.
Dreaming...
March 30th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
March 30th, 2009 at 11:04 pm 1238454249
March 30th, 2009 at 11:23 pm 1238455429
We just want to FIX it up. A splash of paint here and there, some minor but necesary landscaping and maybe some internal remodelling that we can do ourselves (like knocking down a wall and maybe doing a bit to the kitchen). DF's dad was over (who is a builder) and DF was mentioning how he wants to put these thin pieces of timber along the joins in the ceiling and walls, as is the style for the era that our house was built (70's). DF's dads response? no no, you can put gyprock over everything and modern it up - adds thousands to the value of the house. YES, but it costs thousands!!!
also we mentioned terracing the hill behind our house, for retainment. DF's dads response? no no, put one large retaining wall in, fill the rest of the hill, put in a deck down the bottom and then build out your current deck and make it into an extension of the house. eeek! approx $5k for the terracing, versus god knows how much for the retaining wall, fill, deck and house extension. probably 40-50k??
i appreciate his help and ideas, but there is no way i am getting myself in that much MORE debt, when our house is perfectly liveable already!
i would rather pay more off the mortgage balance and only put up a smaller amount for house maintenance.
March 31st, 2009 at 03:58 am 1238471895
The rule is absolutely absurd, and I am grateful they waited 8 years to even bring it up. But I literally just had to roll my eyes. Who is going to paint in this economy? Anyway, when we had more cash I did want to paint the house and replace the fence. Lord I hope it doesn't cost way more than I thought it would. As to everyone else? YEah, good luck with that, HOA.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:06 pm 1238623606