[Sylvaa] Channels Her Inner Santa

[Sylvaa]

 

 

Every time my life looks like it will settle down a bit, something else comes along and increases the amount of busy going on.

 

Traveling is still off the table through the end of 2020. I'm fine with this. It is harder to work at home like this, but I'm adjusting and enjoying the extra time with the family.

 

I've still been keeping up with at least some form of daily workout (minus built in rest days). I should be doing more, but at least dedicating ~30 minutes daily to some sort of activity is a start. 

 

Work has gotten very busy and I am leading a Service Line (lab - go me). It's one of those, "mine to lose" leadership positions and pretty important long-term for my career. If I can show that I can be a successful leader on a project this large, it will be really hard for them not to promote me. Unfortunately, between the two service lines I'm supporting, I have a long list of work to do. Setting aside a better way to prioritize and push out work is going to be essential.

 

Also, we've decided to sell our house (pending our conversation with a realtor this afternoon). We'd like to look into something larger since we won't be getting rid of any kids for the foreseeable future (and don't get me wrong, I'm definitely okay with that!). Which is hilarious since usually people downsize as their children get older. Part of our conversation this evening is to make sure we can sell for what we want to, so this part only comes into pay if we really start the process.

 

The Goals:

 

Morning Routine: 

• Wake up at my first alarm (I've been sleeping in recently and not optimizing my mornings like I should) 5/7 days per week
• Create daily plan in planner (I'm using this for work fairly steadily, but not updating enough) 6/7 days per week
  • Include at least one Surgical and one Lab task to complete (5/7)
  • Include at least three house related tasks (7/7)

 

House Routine:

 

 

• Work with realtor to compile "List of Tasks to Make My Home More Appealing"
  • Complete at least one task weekly (note: these are larger than items listed above)
  • Contingent on house going on the market
• Choose a weekend for a family yard sale
  • Take current yard sale boxes over in advance
  • Clean out my clothes for yard sale
• Find a sitter for the dog when viewings take place

 

Workout Routine:

 

 

• Continue with current daily routine (7/7)
• Continue with running program at least twice weekly (2/7)

 

 

[fleaball]

“Santa Claus is coming to town” is now stuck in my head and i hate you for it fyi. 

[Stronkey Kong]

39 minutes ago, fleaball said:

“Santa Claus is coming to town” is now stuck in my head and i hate you for it fyi. 

 

Ditto this... we haven't even had our summer soltice yet.

[Ann of Owlshire]

As someone else in the midst of trying to sell a home, I salute you.

 

We have friends who have 11 people in their house, and quite often house guests! Our friend, his wife, two young adult daughters; his parents; his brother, sister-in-law, and their three younger children. Multi-generational is normal in their culture, but now they’re looking to split the household and finding it hard to find other families looking to buy a house that holds 11 and guests comfortably XD (They aren’t rich, although they have a lot of buying power combined. We call it “the very nicest house in a not very nice area” :P)

 

But yeah, 7 people, I’d be looking to upsize, too. (Although, actually, we are also looking to upsize, because we want space for another kid or two (if we’re lucky) and guests (regardless of # of spawn)).

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following along. I wish you all the best with house hunting and selling, and am glad it's you and not me.

[WolfDreamer]

At first I thought it said "Satan." 😜

 

5 hours ago, fleaball said:

“Santa Claus is coming to town” is now stuck in my head and i hate you for it fyi. 

 

One of my daughter's favorite movies is Home Alone... and Home Alone 2, and she watches one or the other at least twice a week, so I frequently have Christmas songs stuck in my head. This is like a Tuesday for me.

 

Best of luck with the house hunting and with selling your current house. I'll be in the same boat hopefully by this Fall.

[Ann of Owlshire]

Seems to be a lot of moving house (or plans to) in the Adventurers this year... I guess we’re bad at sitting still XD 

[Sciread77]

Maybe my mind went a slightly different direction with channeling Santa. 

[Sciread77]

4 hours ago, Ann of Vries said:

Seems to be a lot of moving house (or plans to) in the Adventurers this year... I guess we’re bad at sitting still XD 

We Adventurers really aren’t that good at sitting still. Here I was planning a possible cross-country move until the pandemic hit! I hate selling houses and moving. Though it would be mostly fun if we were made of money and could buy and sell with more flexibility like a lot of clients I see doing. 
 

Congrats on the work stuff. May the Force be with you. I believe you are the right person for the job. 

 

[Ann of Owlshire]

36 minutes ago, Sciread77 said:

Here I was planning a possible cross-country move

 

Really? I thought you were settling down to homestead XD

 

Some years after Mr bought our current house (he’s had it for 18 years), the UK rolled out Stamp Tax Duty on every home purchase (basically, like sales tax). We’ve estimated it will be about ~£35k for the price range home we’re looking at. Add on to that the agent fee for selling our house, and we’re going to be out ~£50k for this move—and that’s not including the costs of actually moving and settling in. It makes it really unappealing to keep relocating every few years since we’ll essentially just keep taking losses, which was a compelling reason to why we decided to create a home base in which to make jobs work from, rather than keep moving for jobs as Mr has done in the past (and either take losses on home ownership or keep renting). (We are also factoring in social costs for us as adults and for Enting once he starts school.)

 

(I don’t usually talk about money in numerals, but I wanted to impress upon how expensive this is and why we’re really set on picking a place and sticking to it.)

[Sciread77]

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

 

Really? I thought you were settling down to homestead XD

 

My life is a study in contradiction lol. I really love homesteading and investing time and energy into a homestead and garden. 
 

It was the job I was posting about and training for. Initially, I thought that there was an opportunity to stay at the office in my city, I’ve been wanting the career for years, and I’ll age out this year so we decided to go for it. All while preparing this home for homesteading because it wasn’t until later I learned that this office is full up and I’d be sent wherever there were vacancies. We’re always open for adventure but between that and the pandemic and me getting sick the day of the physical test we decided to stay put. 

 

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

Stamp Tax 

*recoils in American with some reflexive tar and feathering* 

 

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

Some years after Mr bought our current house (he’s had it for 18 years), the UK rolled out Stamp Tax Duty on every home purchase (basically, like sales tax). We’ve estimated it will be about ~£35k for the price range home we’re looking at. Add on to that the agent fee for selling our house, and we’re going to be out ~£50k for this move—and that’s not including the costs of actually moving and settling in. It makes it really unappealing to keep relocating every few years since we’ll essentially just keep taking losses, which was a compelling reason to why we decided to create a home base in which to make jobs work from, rather than keep moving for jobs as Mr has done in the past (and either take losses on home ownership or keep renting). (We are also factoring in social costs for us as adults and for Enting once he starts school.)
 

Those are all general reasons we considered too. Though our neighbors, whose house is half the size of ours, just sold for the price we bought at 2 years ago. And houses are selling fast in your neighborhood. We could probably move again and come out way ahead. But without a good reason it seems silly. 

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

2 hours ago, Ann of Vries said:

the UK rolled out Stamp Tax Duty on every home purchase

Have you tried throwing houses into a harbor?

[Ann of Owlshire]

1 hour ago, Sciread77 said:

recoils in American with some reflexive tar and feathering* 

 

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Have you tried throwing houses into a harbor?

 

I don’t usually mind the higher taxes in the UK, but this particular chunky tax is not an extra we want to pay every few years on top of the usual  

 

More seriously, there’s social cost on this one. Because of the financial loss, older folks whose kids have grown and might have otherwise downsized are holding on to their properties which is then creating no supply for families that are still growing, etc. It stops people from moving, which can cause problems in a system that sort of assumes people will be up- and down-sizing throughout their lives. 

 

(Sorry for hijacking your thread, Sylvaa.)

[Sylvaa]

46 minutes ago, Ann of Vries said:

(Sorry for hijacking your thread, Sylvaa.)

 

Is it really a Sylvaa thread if someone doesn't hijack for one reason or another?

 

Update: met with the realtor last night, we are signing the contract with her at the end of the month and then putting the house on the market at the beginning of July. Commence the to do list!

[Ann of Owlshire]

9 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

Update: met with the realtor last night, we are signing the contract with her at the end of the month and then putting the house on the market at the beginning of July. Commence the to do list!

 

Hurray! The first step to more space for the Sylvaa family!

[WolfDreamer]

34 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

Commence the to do list!

 

 

[Sciread77]

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

 

 

I don’t usually mind the higher taxes in the UK, but this particular chunky tax is not an extra we want to pay every few years on top of the usual  

 

More seriously, there’s social cost on this one. Because of the financial loss, older folks whose kids have grown and might have otherwise downsized are holding on to their properties which is then creating no supply for families that are still growing, etc. It stops people from moving, which can cause problems in a system that sort of assumes people will be up- and down-sizing throughout their lives. 

Normally I don’t mind taxes. They’re the price we pay for civilization. But when you throw around words like “stamp” and “poll” near the word “tax,” all my innards seize up. 
 

Social costs on that sound awful. 
 

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

(Sorry for hijacking your thread, Sylvaa.)

 

1 hour ago, Sylvaa said:

it really a Sylvaa thread if someone doesn't hijack for one reason or another?

*takes off ski mask* Yeah, sorry about that. 

[Sciread77]

We hijack because we care. 
 

I always imagine we’re all standing around in someone’s garage or garden when we have an off-topic convo on a challenge thread. 

[Sylvaa]

16 minutes ago, Sciread77 said:

We hijack because we care. 
 

I always imagine we’re all standing around in someone’s garage or garden when we have an off-topic convo on a challenge thread. 

 

Pfft, you can come into my living room or kitchen and have an off-topic conversation for all I care.

 

We have a habit in our house of using "Plot Twist!" when we randomly change subjects or go off topic. It's a way to let the other person know that what we are going to be talking about doesn't have anything to do with what we were talking about. Every time someone hijacks my thread, I just randomly visualize them running into the room screaming "plot twist!" So it definitely makes me smile.

[Sciread77]

5 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

 

Pfft, you can come into my living room or kitchen and have an off-topic conversation for all I care.

 

We have a habit in our house of using "Plot Twist!" when we randomly change subjects or go off topic. It's a way to let the other person know that what we are going to be talking about doesn't have anything to do with what we were talking about. Every time someone hijacks my thread, I just randomly visualize them running into the room screaming "plot twist!" So it definitely makes me smile.

Yeah, well, that’s what I’ll be yelling in the garage or garden from now on. 
 

Maybe even the living room (but probably the kitchen)  once my anxiety allows me to imagine being inside with other people again lol. 

[Sylvaa]

@Sciread77 your hidden message made me laugh.

 

Week 0 is going as well as planned I think....

• I've woken up with my first alarm every day this week. The next step is to actually get out of bed with that first alarm....
• I've also been more on the ball with my planner.
  • I'm trying to decide the best course of action for things that do not get crossed off my list. Particularly work items (because I'd prefer not to work on the weekends).
    • I'm thinking about keeping Friday as a clean up day and not putting anything "extra" on the list, I'm just not sure how feasible that will end up being.
  • Anyone else have issues like this?
• We've also bought our plane tickets for vacation. Vacation was on hold due to COVID-19, but now that we are back to green, we can take the time off. We are just going to my parents for a week, so it should be relaxing without being too stressful. 
  • The kids are also staying two extra weeks. We keep laughing that it will be our honeymoon - 8 years later. But in reality, it'll be nice to get things done without kids around.
• We did make up our lists of things to do before putting the house on the market. We're estimating getting the majority of it done in the next 10 days (very few things are more than simple cosmetic updates and cleaning). It was actually pleasantly surprising that there wasn't more to do.
  • The dryer did start making funky noises while drying a load of towels and blankets the other day. So we are adding potentially changing the belt on the dryer to our list....
• We also have a meet and greet with a new dog watcher. Our previous girl is no longer boarding at her house, so we are on the lookout for someone new for both vacation and house showings. Luckily, we also have my brother as a backup (who rents from a person who allows animals, so it'll be fine for the little time she'd be over there).
• My daily workouts are going well. I skipped one day because I was exhausted,  but I'm back on track.
  • I have not been running as I should. I just am not making it as much of a priority. I need to either wake up and do it in the morning, or take an afternoon break from work and do it. 

[Sciread77]

Oh goodness. I didn’t realize I sent a hidden message, I was definitely trying to make a public post!

[Snarkyfishguts]

2 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

Anyone else have issues like this?

 Definitely! When I worked in an office, I kept Fridays open for last-minute chaos and catching up on paperwork before the weekend. I loved Fridays because meetings were usually over for the week, and I could just quietly work. 

 

I hope you enjoy your time off!!

 

Okay ten days to get the house ready? That's AMAZING. You're clearly on top of things. Social distant high fives!

 

 

 

 

[GoodDoug]

Getting the house ready to sell is always interesting: "Hey, this house looks pretty great now! Why don't we just stay?"

 

Good luck on the house hunt

[RES]

On 6/16/2020 at 6:23 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following along. I wish you all the best with house hunting and selling, and am glad it's you and not me.

What he said^^

Though in my case it worked out because hurricanes and flooding kept me from getting a house that would have been not good for us