House (Not) Hunting

Our lease just renewed last month. We have at least one more year at the Nuthaus, and because we're such good tenants, the landlords raised our rent "only" 5% rather than the standard 10%. Well, gosh, thanks, gracious masters. The fact is that they raised the rent at the house on the other end of the lot 20% when the previous tenants moved out, and I know ours is going to increase next year, too. According to this report, the average PER-BEDROOM rent in our ZIP code is $1161. We are NOT paying that much for our three-bedroom, and that rate includes both some student housing (which seems to be about on target with this, if a kid wants to rent a one-bedroom apartment; if they go with a three-bedroom, they can usually get that for about $900 per month for their one bedroom) and the condos downtown, which are all high-end. Here's a snapshot of the ZIP on Zillow. It actually makes that rate look on the lower end.

So, although we're not "house-hunting" and in no position to move now (between the baby and the legal commitment to the house and the fact that it's so hot, I get exhausted watching our across-the-street apartment neighbors moving in and out), I do keep an eye out on Zillow and Redfin to track real estate trends. There have been a couple of interesting homes that have come up, including a neat elevated house in Lago Vista, north of "Lake" Travis, which has been reduced in price over $50,000 since I started looking at it a couple of months ago. But as much as we love the house, until James can work from home, it's not a great option; ten hours of his time per week is too much to pay, even if the mortgage is reasonable.

This weekend, though, we went and saw a house that James said he "liked... more than I expected to." Here is the Google Street View of the house, which is on a busy road but totally fenced in.

We got to the house a little early; it's only 3 miles from where we live right now. So we drove around the neighborhood and found it to be charming. The houses were built in the late 1940s, so it's very established. Most of the streets are tree-covered, perfect for biking and walking.

There has been an annual 4th of July parade and block party in this neighborhood, which is Austin's oldest HOA, for more than 55 years. In addition to that, it's directly adjacent to a new development that is very popular (more expensive) and growing rapidly.

In fact, this homeowner sold 600 square feet at the back of her lot to the developers so that they could build a pathway to connect this older neighborhood to their hike/bike trail.

Between this house, which is at the terminus of the neighborhood, and the new development is the awesome park where we had Daphne's 11th birthday party.

Behind that is a kids' museum, and in front of it is a food trailer court. The house itself is one mile from a newly-refurbished swimming pool that has slides and a beach entry. Also, the house is only a couple of blocks from the democratic school I've been obsessively investigating for the past few weeks. As much as I'd love Daphne to go there, she's not interested right now... but it might be a good fit for Rooby. The house is no further from James' work than where we live now.

The house is 67 years old, cinder block and stucco construction. It was originally a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home and there has been an add-on, so it's 3 bedrooms now. There is also a mud room that they recently expanded. It is where the washer and dryer are, and it's not air conditioned, which might be a little sticky but will save money. They just put in 14 inches of insulation in the attic.

Apparently, there was a detached 2-car garage and carport in the back of the quarter-acre lot when the current owners moved in, but it was falling apart, so the man tore it down and built an outdoor storage shed, painted to match the house. It looks like it has solar-powered lighting. The current owners also put in a patio, enlarged it, and poured a driveway most of the way to the back of the property. They've recently put in a $50,000 wrought-iron and wood fence, and James noticed that the gate in back has grape vines trailing over it.

Also, there is already a place to plant a garden. And they have a kinkajou, so there's a structure in place outside that is the perfect size/location for a chicken coop, if we decided to build one and get chickens. We don't have to clear out anything; the area's ready.

Our patio furniture would be perfect out back. We'd have to get a lawn mower, but it's really the front yard that requires attention; the back doesn't have a lot of sun-exposed grass. Here's the back of the house from about the middle of the back yard.

So, that's the good stuff. I mean, it's also close to a bunch of local restaurants and, unfortunately, chain shopping, too. And the owner said the house is "basically a bunker" because of the construction.

But here are the main things that give us pause. First of all, the owner's fiance seems to think the house will be ready to list in the next 30 days. If that's the case, we can't jump on it at this moment. The owner is retiring and she said she just wants to be out by next spring. If they do it that way, we'll be in a better position to make an offer.

And there's the biggest rub: This house is expensive. We could spend the same amount of money and get more than twice the house if we bought further out, but neither James nor I has any interest in living in the suburbs. We'd prefer farm land, but, again, the commute is an issue right now.

To go into debt for this much is frightening, and especially I dislike the idea of having the weight of that resting solely on James' shoulders, since I'm not working any more. It is at the upper end of our budget (and for us to buy the house we want, we pretty much need to spend that much), and limits his options as far as taking a gamble on a job he'd really love but that pays less than what he's making right now. Also, if we had any unexpected expenses, I'm not sure how we'd manage without going into more debt. At present, we are completely debt-free. At the same time, if we kept renting our house for 10 years, we'd have paid the asking price for this house (minus interest, of course). 

It seems pretty likely that the value of this property will increase as the development next door gets more popular and builds out. And interest rates are low enough right now that even with a VA loan and no money down, our monthly payments would be the same as what we're paying now for rent. The difference now is that if James wanted to take a different job with a lower salary, we'd just have to move when our lease elapses. No trying to sell a property.

So that's where we are right now. I'm hoping we have a few months to think about it, and to see how James likes the changes at his office, and whether this is going to be a good long-term fit for him. We really like the house. But it DOES only have one bathroom (having two bathrooms is definitely at the top of our "must haves," so that's a giant compromise). It's an old house, and those tend to have surprises fairly frequently. What a great neighborhood and location, though.

It's a conundrum, for sure...

Haiti, Day Two: Church, Local Flavor, Sabbath

6/9/13, Sunday 6:30 AM
We were supposed to be up and ready to go at 6:15 but... well, the ladies were. :) There were some issues with some of our phones adjusting to the time zone, and our driver and interpreters had to wait patiently for us to get ready.

The church service we were attending in Petionville started at 6:00 AM and was over at 8:00 AM. Dario, our go-to interpreter and guide, assured us that arrival at 7:00 would be fine.

Our host home provided us with a "quick" breakfast on this early start day: Rebo coffee, many cereals, a variety of breads including a pull-apart cinnamon roll, and fresh bananas. Oh, man, I love local fruit.

Sleeping upstairs in the girls' bunk room wasn't bad. We slept with the windows open, and the sounds of nature were a nice departure from the urban sounds to which I am accustomed. It also helped that I'd had some pre-bed couch time with my honey, and we were both extremely exhausted by the time we called it a night and went our separate ways.

Church Service
There was a whole lot of singing going on by the time we arrived at the church service. Although most of it was in Creole, they did sing a few familiar songs, like "Hallelujah/The Lord God Almighty Reigns," and, I believe "Angry Words" at the close of the service.

Jacob spoke very briefly, which caught Pastor Gaetan Alcegaire off guard because he'd allotted Jacob half an hour and had just neglected to tell him. Pastor Gaetan finished up, then dismissed the service.

This church building in progress is located at the Yahve Shamma orphanage. During the service, a couple of the resident dogs walked in, hoping someone might drop food. It was obvious that the mentality toward wee puppies is different with Haitians than it is with Americans. We were smitten by the little guys; they were just an annoyance to everyone else.

There was a young girl, perhaps 12 - 14, ushering the entire service. When someone would walk in, she would disappear and come back with another chair. If one of our men gave his chair to a woman, the girl would again take off and return five minutes later with a replacement chair.

After church was dismissed, many congregants came to us to shake our hands and wish us blessings for the day. Once they'd greeted us, though, the children stayed. I looked over to see James holding hands with a young man named Marceylle. According to the website, he is nearly exactly one year younger than Daphne. Marceylle has beautiful wide eyes that seem to take everything in, and he had a more serious aspect than some of the other children.

Samantha and Manitha were the first to stick to me. Manitha is a very poised and charming teenager, who clearly adores Jacob and who is also apparently a quick friend-maker, as noted in this blog post (which I highly recommend that you read for a little background of Pastor Gaetan and the orphanage. My favorite quote: "Thanks be to God who moves mountains. And thanks be to God for men and women who pick up the stones, one after another, until the mountain moves."). I also met Lina, a girl about 3 months younger than Daphne, who is not technically an orpan, but whose family cannot afford to take care of her.

At first, it was tempting to feel awkward. There we were: holding hands with these kids, not speaking the same language, just... standing there. Holding hands. And then, once I got over that initial catch, I realized that it wasn't awkward at all. It wasn't any more awkward than sitting around holding hands with my daughter or my husband, and not having to talk, but still communicating.

Sabbath Afternoon

About a half hour later, Jacob had our interpreters tell the kids that we would return the next day, and we left to go get a farther-off perspective on the city of Port au Prince.

While we waited for access to the look-out, we met some local vendors who wanted very much for us to buy their works of art and jewelry. If we insisted that we weren't buying today, they would cajole, "It doesn't cost anything to look!" And when James mentioned that he'd forgotten his money (we did have that rushed start to the day) they suggested that he "ask your friend to loan it to you."

Looking over the city was my first real feel for how populous this area is. The density is a bit staggering. I never felt claustrophobic in the streets (though that might be different if I were having to drive!), but those houses represent a whole load of people.

After the overlook, we headed back to Jean Alix's home. We didn't have much planned for this day, because this was the Sabbath and our host takes the mandate to rest seriously. (Which is ironic, considering that I rarely saw him sitting down for more than as long as it took to consume a meal or to politely visit with us in the morning or evening for a bit.)

Our interpreters had mentioned that they were going to go into town for lunch. Jacob wanted to join them, so we were all invited to go. As it happened, the famous/infamous Sunday pumpkin soup had been prepared for breakfast after we left and saved for us to have for lunch. So we did eat that as an "appetizer." There is a recipe for it here, but I wouldn't use the Whole Foods version... scroll down to the second user, who explained how to make it in more detail. Ours definitely had potatoes in it, but I'm not certain about whether or not it had meat. James really liked it, and I'll try a vegetarian version of this very soon.

Following pre-lunch, we went into town to a small restaurant which we very nearly filled. No one ordered food; we just ordered drinks and then waited for our meals. We ended up getting a varied plate with a piece of chicken, some French fries, fried plantains, a potato salad made with beets (and consequently extremely dark pink!), and very delicious pickled cabbage. It was a lot of stuff, but the portion size wasn't gigantic, so we were able to put most of it away... until about fifteen minutes later when the server brought out plates piled with rice and peas! I hope they weren't offended when most of the rice went back to the kitchen. We were just SO full!

Guibert

With a couple of hours before the afternoon church service at Jean Alix's congregation, we went ahead and drove out to Guibert. This is the village where we were to work on preparing construction materials for a house being built, and was my favorite place that we went. It is up in the hills, and there weren't any big estates with cinder-block walls to obscure the views. There was farmland impossibly situated on the side of slopes, and it was just extremely beautiful. (My pictures of that day start here.)

We saw a completed house that had been built by the 100 Homes Project, on which the group from last year got to work. There are some details about the project here:

(I LOVE THIS VIDEO! You'll see Richard Cadet, an artist we will "visit" later, and I see Lina! Also, Pastor Jean Alix is the dressed up "tour guide" for the house with the pink walls.) If you want to donate, visit Help One Now.)

We hung out near the church and rested, "visiting" with kids while we waited for services to start (taking pictures and letting them use our cameras). We also saw the progress of a guest house that is being built for future groups, so Jean Alix's family won't have to play continuous host, and they'll be closer to the community where they're working.

At church, the service was dedicated to children. They all marched in by age, dressed in red and white. The boys all had on red ties, white shirts, and black slacks. The girls were dressed more individually in red dresses with white jackets or red blouses with white skirts, white tights, and red shoes. Laurie, Jean Alix's daughter, was one of the emcees, and many of the kids presented.

Although the entire service was in Creole, again, there were elements of familiarity. We sang "Father, I Adore You" (Pere, Je T'aime) and then, after a reading from 1 John, sang "Beloved, let us love one another..." complete with the address tag of "1st John 4, 7 and 8." Except, you know, not in English.

I was taking notes during the service (it was more than two hours long, so please have mercy on me), and the boy in front of me noticed my quick scribbling. He pointed this out to two of his friends, who watched me write for some time. I was feeling a little guilty about that, so I was trying to finish up when this same boy noticed my ring finger tattoo. When he mentioned this to his friends, the woman sitting beside him made him get up and go to sit at the end of the row.

Sunday Night at "Home"
Returning to Jean Alix's, we had pasta, chicken drumsticks, eggplant, fried plantain, salad, potato salad, green beans, and some kind of meat-wrapped vegetables. At this point, I was becoming decidedly not hungry!

Once again, our evening living room wrap-up let out at about 9:00 PM and most people went in to play a game. James and I were both exhausted. I invited him up to the girls' dorm with me, and we crashed out on my bunk. It was nice to spend an hour or so with him, even though we were both completely wiped. A bit after 10, Jacob came upstairs to announce that the girls were coming up to bed, so he had to break up the "party." It was literally a slumber party, and was not too difficult for me to resume the festivities once James headed downstairs for the night.