2008 Year in Review
Since we didn’t do such a good job last year, this entry will be called:
2008 Year in Review
The House
The year started off with us living in a condo (really, a studio apartment) in NW Portland after we sold our house on Willow Creek Dr. It was a tiny little place and Mike got very stir-crazy working in it. We ate out most every night and our waistlines showed it. Meanwhile, we were steadily looking at houses to buy but getting very frustrated that nothing struck us. In fact, we wondered if our expectations were too high or whether we would ever find the house. We were also concerned that we would settle for a house that wasn’t perfect. Stella, our real estate agent, was driving us nuts by then and we were definitely not getting along.
We had made plans to go to Las Vegas as a surprise for Susie’s birthday. Just before Vegas, I found a house that we were interested in look at. It was a little farther west than we wanted but it looked promising. When we visited the house, Mike and I both knew that it was “it” – that was the house that we wanted. Not sure if the feeling was the result of an exceedingly frustrated search, we slept on it. Upon much deliberation (undoubtedly at a restaurant over a beer), we decided to put an offer on the house. The market was terrible for sellers so we offered $10K below asking price. Stella learned that the sellers were going to counter-offer in between the demand and offer – so $5K more than our offer. We told Stella we were staying firm at our offer. She was not happy. She sent us a snarky e-mail reminding us that the difference in price was the same as giving up a latte every day and she “would be disappointed” if we didn’t get the house we wanted. She recommended paying the counter-offer. We were pissed! Where was the support? We felt she just wanted to get rid of us because we were fairly picky clients and she saw her cut going down the window.
At that time, we went to Vegas. Mike and I had decided that we were going to fire Stella if this house fell through because she was simply not a good match for us. We were fairly resigned that the sellers would not meet our demand. When we landed in Vegas, Mike got a call on his phone from Stella. He called her back as we were in the shuttle going to the hotel. The sellers agreed to our offer! We were ecstatic, which was good because when we got to the hotel, they didn’t have a room for us. Travelocity had screwed up and we waited over an hour to get a room. It was OK with us because we were still really excited about the house. The hotel felt bad and upgraded our room to a sweet corner room and gave us a free dinner. Sweet!
All was not over. The house inspector found water staining in the attic-area. The sellers investigated weakly and refused to do more. We demanded a further inspection and the sellers, reluctantly, agreed to split the cost of further investigation, but only if something wrong was found. Stella recommended a contractor to look at it and when I looked up the contractor’s CCB #, I was appauled to see he wasn’t even licensed. We vetoed Stella’s selection and hired an expert that I use at work to investigate construction defects. He wasn’t cheap but he was reliable. Now, who would pay the bill for the repairs? The cost to make the repairs (at last what everyone thought was the repairs because no one could definitely find the solution) was $750. We said “No way.” The sellers said “No way.” Stale mate. We knew the sellers would cave in but didn’t care one way or the other because we told Stella that we weren’t paying for it and either the sellers or she would have to figure it out. Stella, weak as ever, just agreed to pay the repairs out of her fee for the sale without pushing the sellers or the selling agent.
Finally, we moved in. That week, I had to leave town for a work trip. Mike spent several days alone in the new house and started having second thoughts about whether we did the right thing. We eventually made the house “our own” and love it!
Summer
We hiked quite a bit that summer and spent two nights at the Neds’ place on the lake in Washington for the Fourth of July. We also spent some time in the Gorge, which we already wrote about. We also took a fabulous 2-week vacation to Glacier National Park and Yellowstone, which we already wrote about too.
The Gym
After our vacations, we started work on building a climbing gym in our garage. Mike had envisioned five sections – two 8′ sections on each wall and a joining corner piece. I tried to convince him that 2 sides and the corner would be fine. Then, I tried to convince him that 2 side sections along the depth wall and one section along the width wall of the garage would be great. Nope – we built it all. It was quite the adventure too. We over-thought and probably over-built the gym but it’s solid now! And we love it!
We got padding for the gym and starting collecting holds. We need a lot more. For Mike’s birthday, I bought him a couch for the gym. The truck can still fit in the garage, but barely. More on the truck later. It seems the poor truck is now stuck being parked outside because we’re starting to use the gym more and more.
The Marathon
I ran the Victoria Marathon in Victoria, B.C. this October. I didn’t run it as fast as I had hoped but I did have a great race. I felt pretty good during most of it and was able to keep the first 13 miles on race pace. Then, my legs just wouldn’t go as fast as I willed them. I ended up cutting 5 minutes off my PR. The trip to Victoria was short for us but fun. We ate at a funky restaurant and enjoyed exploring the new city. After the marathon, I was crippled – my legs and hips hurt sooo bad. To top it off, the power on the island went out. We had to walk the stairs to get out of our hotel and there was nowhere that we could buy food for dinner. Luckily, we had some bagels and snacks with us. Eventually, power was restored but it was quite late and the restaurants needed time to re-heat their stoves. We ate dessert only. Fun.
The wild life was a great part of the trip. On the way there, I saw a bald eagle sitting in a tree. Mike missed it because he was concerned about driving, even though it was me driving. On the way back, a school of killer whales swam beside the fairy that we were on. The fairy captain stopped the boat and we were able to get some great views and photographs of the whales. They were beautiful! Then, we saw another bald eagle in flight as we drove through Washington. It was a very good trip.
A TV or a Truck?
This fall, we debated between buying a HD TV with all the fixin’s or getting a new truck. As typical for us, we ended up doing both – but that wasn’t the initial plan. In early fall, we decided to buy a TV and sound system and hope the Chevy lived another year. The TV is fabulous. This winter, we had to renew the truck registration, which meant a DEQ test. Mike found the perfect used truck for us on Craigslist. It was a 2005 Ford F150 with canopy. So, we did what we usually do in these situations and justified buying it. We love the Ford! We traded the Chevy to my parents for padding for our gym. We can’t wait to take the truck on a real road trip. This fall, we plan to go to Yosemite and we’re so excited about it.
Snow and the Holidays
Portland had quite the snow storm this year – really. For a little less than 2 weeks over the holidays, we had snow and ice to the point where we had to cancel our trip to Spokane for Christmas. That was the sad part. The fun part was that Mike and I spent the holiday in our new house, walking in the snow, watching the birds and squirrels and eating like crazy. Now, we are paying for all the eating and drinking and are trying to work off the extra weight.
