A Taxing Day

First, clarification - this post has been in draft stage since the 16th.

In honor of yesterday being tax day (now moved to July thanks to the Corona virus), I worked on our taxes a bit.  You may recall that we sent in estimated payments to the Feds and California in early January.  I used every resource we had and did the most careful projection I could - and am so relieved to say that I was pretty darn close!  We are pretty sure we're getting a refund (small-ish) from Federal and a pretty good refund from State....and that makes sense because I didn't really focus much on our State estimate - I sent a generous amount I was pretty sure would cover it and it more than has.  Refunds!  It's been decades since we've ever gotten a refund.

We continued working on them today - J.'s working on our 'household items and furniture' donation quantification and I'm whittling away at other charitable donations, mortgage interest, etc. .  We aren't in any rush but it is good to know we aren't going to owe a ton more than what we've already paid.

I am so relieved.

In other news, the loan process is in full swing and on Tuesday evening, we were concerned when we realized that the loan docs we'd received (all very preliminary) didn't include any mention of the $65K we gave to the builder in March, 2019.  A few stressful phone calls but by Wednesday morning it was all resolved.  We sent the lender the two receipts we had from the builder - and all was good.  (And our builder sent those receipts after we sent an email inquiry when we first got up - he emailed us back promptly with what we needed).

He doesn't build houses super fast but he's organized about the finances - which is a good thing.

The house is really looking amazing and we get more and more excited every minute of every day.  I've had a couple moments of feeling overwhelmed - sometimes dreading the move process.  But we will get everything moved out of the townhouse first - which will ensure we have all we need to survive in the new house.  Beds, dishes, etc. - and we'll have oodles of time to go through the rest of the stuff as we work on getting settled.  When I think of it that way, it's easier.  We sure hope to get out of both storage units right away - it's $400 a month in expense and we don't want to have to pay that much after the house is ready.

Looks like May is going to be pretty darn busy.

It's been a few days - more than a few, actually.  Today is the 23rd and the above was in draft stage forever.

We went to the house day day before yesterday to meet the Superintendent to confirm the placement of mirrors in the bathrooms.  At least one of the lights needs to be moved - it's mis-centered on the wall and looks off.

Yesterday, J. met the gutter guy at the house to talk through the process and get an estimate.  It's less than we thought so that's good.  So many houses in Carson City don't have gutters....it feels foreign to us as Californians to have a home where water from the roof will just land near the foundation and stay there - especially here where there's a lot of snow on the roof for long periods of time slowly melting.  The builder put the drains in weird locations that don't coincide with a typical 'corner' placement of gutters but we can have the landscaper add a connection and move them to the down spouts.

J. also realized that the laundry room counter top isn't correct.  We have one lower cabinet across from the washer dryer with a sink on top.  We intentionally planned only one cabinet for that wall so we could put cat boxes in the laundry room - but we wanted a countertop across the entire space.  There is only countertop around the sink.  We called the builder's office and his assistant pulled the plans and said 'we'll figure it out'.  They will recut the counter because it needs to be one full piece.  Hopefully, that change won't put them back too far in terms of completion.

We are expecting to close two weeks from tomorrow!

We did a family video call on Facebook today - it didn't last long because B. had to get somewhere but it was nice to see both kids for the first time in forever.  We're going to try to do a video call once a week.

We've got some boxes in the house to start packing up.  I question why in the world I took a ton of clothes out of the wardrobe boxes and hung them in the closet.  I'm wearing the same 24 inches of clothes in a walk in closet.  Guess that's why I did it  super excited to have a walk in closet of my own so I filled it up.  And now I'll be taking it all out of the closet and packing it up again.  Another good opportunity to cull out things I rarely wear.

We finished watching "Little Fires Everywhere" and just started Season 4 of "The Americans".

Supposedly, things here in Nevada are reopening on May 1st but....we're pretty sure there will be an announcement soon to extend the non-essential business closures until mid-to-late May.  It's the best thing to do in a world where no one is really positive about anything.

The incredible lack of leadership in our country these days is terrifying.  Making an already scary time even more so.  I am having more anxiety than I want to admit and it manifests in ways that make me grumpy and over-reactive about things.  To realize that this global pandemic is something our government has done an abysmal job of preparing for and dealing with is overwhelmingly horrific.  There are no words for what's happening - an inept President fueling fear and spreading nonsense.  Not knowing how long 'sheltering in place' will last.  Is doing that - staying in our homes - only going to draw this out even longer?  If we had leadership with communication skills, leadership skills and no ego, we'd be in a completely different place.  But we don't.  We have what we have and we're paying the price.

In spite of the leadership debacle, there are plenty of examples of people with a 'we're in this together' approach.  A Facebook group has people posting one picture with a view from their window.  Only one.  It's fascinating, beautiful and uplifting to be reminded just how incredibly stunning this world is and how amazing people are, everywhere.

Yeast Woes

Since I've been cooking and baking more these days, I've been exploring the pantry shelves we have in the garage and finally located the yeast.  It is in a sealed, air tight container so I thought I'd try it.  Coincidentally, I got a You Tube video suggestion of baking bread with a really easy recipe and method.

First step is to activate the yeast.  Nothing happened.  Tried it several more times - the water temp could be too hot which kills the yeast though it seems like it's just getting cooled off so fast, there's little to no warmth to get the yeast going? 

Four tries, four fails.  I'd say the yeast is dead.  I found a 1 lb. package of yeast on Amazon for $18.97 and was about to push 'buy' when I checked King Arthur - their price is a third of the ridiculous Amazon price so I didn't buy it.  I'm frugal and I'm not paying 3x the price.

We don't even really need bread.  I'm just killing time and if it had been successful, I would have used it to whip up some homemade croutons for our salad tonight in addition to enjoying hot, fresh baked bread.

I'll get yeast at the first opportunity and then the bread baking practice can commence.

I had coffee with a friend in Tracy this morning via Facetime - so fun to catch up and be able to see each other.  Thank, technology!

It's been a quiet day on the homestead - started out rainy but J. wedged in a walk.  It's still pretty cloudy but dryer now.  Not really cold.

Tonight, we're looking forward to the new season of The Good Fight and also another episode of Little Fires Everywhere.  Then I'm sure we'll watch one or two West Wing episodes.  We're seeing scenes on West Wing that neither of us remember seeing before so it's kind of fun.

J. is going to make a trip to the grocery - haven't done that in a couple weeks but we need a few things.  We have masks now - thanks to our dear friend A. in Tracy - and he'll wear gloves, too - and carry antiseptic wipes with him.

We're working on sketching out the house projects that we need to do once we're in the house.  As previously mentioned our goal of having oodles of leftover money from our Tracy house sale isn't going to happen so we're going to have to prioritize what projects we do first.  Tomorrow, we meet the window covering lady at the house to finalize the plans.  Gone is the dream of wood shutters.  They really weren't ever my favorite and they are super expensive.  I've actually really liked the honeycomb shades we have in the rental - they provide privacy but let light in and also can be made to blackout all light if preferred - for a bedroom.  Costco has our washer and dryer on sale until the end of April so we're hoping we can get permission to have those delivered and installed in early May.  Gutters can technically wait until late Summer.  We also want to install the same overhead shelving system we had in the Tracy garage only this time hopefully the type that have the ability to be lowered - to keep us from having to use a ladder to get down stuff.  Shelves aren't the highest priority - we have a pretty big garage in the new house with lots of room for storing things along the walls - so if we can make do with that, we will.  We gave away all of our camping gear and pared down our Christmas decor so hopefully, we can wedge stuff along the walls for now.

And as I was attempting the bread bake, I reminded J. that I really, truly want to get some new baking and cooking supplies.  I want new Tupperware (like) bowls - ours are ancient and need replacing.  New sheet roll pans.  Some pantry storage items.  We found a restaurant supply store somewhere - we just can't remember if we saw it in Reno or here in Carson City - so we'll have to figure that out.  It definitely said 'open to the public' so I'd like to check it out!

Still Staying Intentionally Distant

The Governor of Nevada just issued a press release adding restrictions to continue social distancing.  He's closed golf courses, tennis courts, swimming pools, etc..  He's also prohibiting the sale of dry goods in bulk.  He is being aggressive and that's a good thing.  He said he's receiving photos showing people at these venues NOT distancing so he's taking the steps needed to ensure we do.

Last week, the casinos confirmed they have been ordered to stay closed until April 30th.  Casinos are sending out updates via emails and mailings.

So far, Carson City has less than 25 (known) cases - and I have to add 'known' because there are very few tests and most people who may be infected and sick are not being tested.  It's a strange situation we're in right now - a President who disbanded (fired) all the pandemic control staff; has little interest in the realities of this pandemic and very limited resources to manage what's happening.  While our numbers of infected and deceased will be more accurate than China's, they will not be reflective of the true reality of the pandemic - because there are no tests to use to confirm most cases.

Other than a 10 minute trip to the drive through teller and a quick drive to Dairy Queen for a cone last night (drive through), I haven't left the house in 17 days.  Oh wait - we did have to make a quick trip (requested by the construction superintendent) to the house to confirm how we wanted the fireplace tile set.

It's a little stir crazy at times but I know it's the right thing to do.  J. did end up playing golf last week - they moved the day to a better weather day - and I was pretty nervous about it - though his group absolutely DID stay 6 feet apart at all times - and they all had separate carts.  I tried to explain to him that sure, you are social distancing but you don't know about every other person you encounter.  Sure, you can disinfect the cart steering wheel, where gloves, etc. - but you still don't know you won't be infected and that means the people you live with (me) have to re-start the 14 day clock of 'have I been exposed and am I going to get sick?'.  I am sick of that constant 'counting' - it's really making me anxious.  I'm sure we all feel that way.  We are being very careful - washing hands a lot, have disinfecting wipes we carry with us if we do have to go anywhere.  J. is the designated errand runner - we made one joint trip to the grocery a couple weeks ago and quickly regretted doing that because it doubled our exposure.  So now we stick to one person going out - as minimally as possible.

For the most part, we're just staying in and hanging out.  Watching way (WAY) too much TV.  I've done a bit of baking and cooking - starting to enjoy having the time to cook.  And (unbelievably) even enjoying working around the house.  Cleaning passes a lot of time, too so that's good.

I was just starting to type that I'm trying to reach my Aunt M. in Massachusetts and haven't been able to when my messenger interrupted with a text from my cousin - with an actual land line phone number to use.  She doesn't have a cell phone anymore.  I'm going to call her tomorrow for sure!  It will be so good to talk to her.  I also got a wonderful surprise call from my sister earlier this week and it was great to hear from her!  She's keeping busy with house projects and gardening - made me wish we had our house yard to take care of and work in because J. and I both love doing that and it would pass a lot of time.  Someday.  Pretty soon, I hope!

We had movers here today - according to the house construction Superintendent, we're 30 days out - and that was actually a week ago so we're less than 30 days out, we hope.  We've had a bit of a glitch - thanks to COVID-19, the jumbo mortgage market is having liquidity issues - we can't get a jumbo loan.  So we'll be using a lot more of the Tracy house money to buy the house - which is OK.  We're blessed we have the needed funds - and the only regret I have is the house sale was our last windfall - likely ever.  Now we're re-crafting our budget for window coverings, washer/dryer, etc. - because instead of having LOADS of available funds to do all the things we want to do, we're going to have to carefully budget.  And we'll have to figure out how to fund the October cruise we have planned - and the Alaska cruise planned for June, 2021. 

The good news is - we are absolutely fine.  We considered making a savings withdrawal to cover the additional funds needed but with the stock market plummeting recently, it's not the best time to be selling things.  So we'll hang in there and create additional liquid funds when we need to after the market has recovered a bit.  (Hopefully more than a bit.  It's got a lot of recovering to do).

We're getting very excited about the house.  The impromptu visit yesterday was the first time I've been inside since the cabinetry was installed - and they've put on the hardware as well and we love it.

The movers were highly recommended by our soon to be new neighbors - very fair pricing - hourly rate for their time and a flat fee for their truck and supplies.  They will help us move everything from the town house to the new house first and then make a trip (or two) to storage and move both storage units to the garage of the new house.  We'll have to park our cars in the driveway for a bit but at least all of our stuff will be in one place.  We'll be super busy for weeks going through things - and I can't wait to start that process!!