krishersh

There is no get rich quick scheme that I would ever trust. It all takes hard work and dedication to achieve goals that you've put out there.

Brian and I have a new goal. And it will take a TON of hard work from both of us. We found our dream neighborhood. I'm not going to say the name here because my blog is technically public, so it's picked up by Google. I want it to stay as little known as possible. The prices are reasonable considering how much you get. The problem? They are about $75k out of our reach. The solution? Save an additional $75k for the down payment.

How can we do that, you ask? In theory, it's simple. We both freelance. Brian has figured out what I think is a brilliant idea to do on the side using skills he already has. I would most likely be in charge of the bookkeeping and marketing and we would sell the product together to local shops around town. I would continue to grow my freelance biz.

The goal is to raise enough money in 2 years to buy our dream home. Yep, I know. That's a short amount of time for the money we're talking about. Plus, the $75k figure isn't what we are striving for. We're actually going for $170,000. Why? My student loans, the 20% for the down payment, plus the additional money for the down payment so we can get the house payment down to something we can manage on (God forbid) one income.

My hope is that in this process, I pick up enough clients that will continue to sign maintenance plans where I can work from home full time and still earn a sizable income. The other hope is if we can get into this community, we'll never have to move. Our kids will have the perfect home to grow up in. There's ponds and mini-lakes... wide open fields that will never be developed... lots of really nice people that all wave! WAVE, I tell you. Who does that anymore??

It's so peaceful out there. We instantly fell in love. It's close enough to the city that Brian wouldn't have a bad drive to work, but far enough out of the city where we feel like we're in the country.

Tonight... down to the grind. I'm almost done prepping the bathroom floor. There should be no reason why I can't finish and get the concrete patched up in a few hours. Then next week I can begin the etching and staining process. I WILL BE DONE BEFORE THE WEDDING.

The living room is another story. I think I will do this when Brian is away with his dad in August. I'll have him help me move everything into the garage and move as many of the tanks as possible. If we can get the fish tanks moved, then I can actually use a much faster method of cleaning the floors... harsh chemicals. :)

Once the upstairs is re-carpeted, then the flooring will be done and I can move onto other fixer upper projects... like the backyard. And the kitchen. And the wallpaper. I will have this house in sellable condition in 2 years so help me.

Yesterday, I started the clean up process in the backyard. Weedeating makes my arms feel funny. I also need a chainsaw. I want to remove all of the lumber that's back there because it's gross and takes up way too much room.

Woohoo! Excitement :)

Wow... so, a few months ago, someone suggested that I write a book about all of the nonsense and drama that has happened over the course of my engagement. I shook it off as just a funny thought, but the more I think about it, the more I think I want to do it... I mean, some of the chapters would be just flat out hilarious and unbelievable... although it would all be true... I'd change all the names to protect everyone, even the people who ended up hurting me the most...

Here's another chapter, which happened over the course of a single workday:

We got up and ready to start our workdays. When we got to the suv, I had a very weird feeling come over me that I had a flat tire. As I got around to the driver's side, sure enough, I did. So, instead of dealing with it then, we decided to just take his car. He drove me to work, but seeing how I never leave that late, I didn't even think that my normal way would be nothing but a sea of cars. Amazingly, it didn't take us any longer to get across town than normal, but all the traffic was frustrating. Brian dropped me off at work and headed to work himself. He stopped at the gas station to get his daily caffeine fix. While in the store, his card is declined. The bank had done something and now he's without the jolt that he needs to get moving. While coming back to his car, the person parked next to him is leaving. He turned his wheel really sharp and hit the mustang. Sigh. Not again. We just sold the car and now this idiot has to put another ding in it. It put a dent and took off some paint. The guy is insured but with a crappy insurance company, so who knows how this will go.

After work, we head home and start working on the bum tire. He gets my jack out and all the tools needed. We lower the spare and figure out the puzzle to get it to release. After we find the jack point, he starts raising the suv up. I'm standing behind him as he's trying to get the spare lined up with the lugnuts. He moves it and kind of kicks it to where it hit the truck. About that time, the suv starts rolling backwards. OFF THE JACK. Brian had gotten out of the way quickly enough, so neither of us were injured. The brake landed on part of the spare tire and not the driveway. WHEW. At least there was a silver lining... it could have been much worse.

"We need to get your parking line tightened because that should not have happened." he says. "Ok..." I reply. For some reason, he went to go check the gear shifter and noticed that my parking brake (on my automatic vehicle) was not set. "You didn't have your parking brake set?! Are you trying to kill me?" "Uhm.. no? I didn't know it needed to be set. You asked me if the car was in park, and I replied yes - you can't release the key without the gear being in park." I'm on the verge of a panic attack. Coming from a mechanic's family, I have always tried to learn things as I go, but since girls were supposed to wear dresses and play with dolls, I was never formally taught things.

He looks at my now bent jack and is not a happy camper. After digging around in his trunk, he gets his jack out. I'm not sure how well this will work... his car not only weighs less than mine, it also sits on the ground. He nervously puts the jack under the truck again and starts it's climb to pick the suv off the ground. No go. The jack is indeed too low.

I give him my credit card and send him to Sears for a floor jack. I no longer trust the dinky hydraulic jacks and have only had experience with floor jacks... He comes back about 30 minutes later with a beautiful Craftsman floor jack. I'm not sure why I'm in love with this jack, but it's so nice. It also saved our relationship.

Not even 5 minutes later, the suv had a spare tire on it and we were back inside.

1) Trust no one.. unfortunately, there were very few people that didn't actually argue with me when I wanted to do something. And even when they said ok, that's fine, they still did things their own way... luckily there was/is time to reverse it. It's my day, not yours.
2) Unfortunately, you learn who your friends are. I lost a good friend in all of this, but in the end, we weren't meant to be friends forever. Girls who don't like girls don't tend to keep the same girl friends around very long.
3) No matter how far in advance you plan things in your head, you still have to wait for everyone else to catch up.
4) People will tell you are making a mistake because "marriage is an outdated ritual."
5) When they ask when the big day is, they actually say "I'm sorry", like getting married is a death sentence.
6) When I say I'm dizzy, people immediate think I'm pregnant. Uhm, you have to have sex to have a baby, the last I checked. I'm dizzy because everything is overwhelming and it's getting really close.
7) I would have rather eloped than put myself through all of the stress and drama of friends and family being selfish and rude.

I've had a friend suggest that I write a book about my wedding planning experience, cuz "you can't make that shit up!"... haha I'm considering it.

We sold Brian's car!!!

This is an exciting, yet nerve wracking adventure that we're about to go on. Figuring out how to live on one car without inconveniencing friends and family is my number one goal. I think we can do it. I just wish we didn't have a buyer until like June 16th... things are pretty nutty with the wedding right now.. trying to get all of the little details out of the way.

But, we'll figure it out. I think we're going to try and get either a beater or a moped as a short distance backup plan.

Next step... sell my SUV and buy a truck. I am not sure that we'll get to that before the wedding or not. There's only so much stress I can take at once and sitting at a dealership all day is not something I have time for.

I can't wait to pay off all our bills. :)

Last night we got into a conversation about baby names. And I wanted to document them just in case it's 2 or 3 years before we have a kid so that's one less thing to stress over.

Boy: Liam Albert Timmerman. We both like the name Liam and Albert is his late Poppy's name.
Girl: Kaylee Pearl Timmerman. We both love the name Kaylee and my late Mema's name was Pearl.

I thought it would be neat to have the middle name as a family name and the first name be something we both agreed upon. How we had this conversation and names picked within an hour is beyond me. But I love them and now I want fraternal twins. hahaha

Not sure on the spelling yet. I would love to have an X Y or Z in the names... so maybe I can convince him of having a Y in both the girl and boy's names.... Liam, Lyam (will helmet, protection)

AHHHHHH!

The personal agenda bullshit is pissing me off. THIS IS MY WEDDING. If you are going to intentionally try to embarrass me, don't come around me. If you want to do whatever YOU want for MY wedding, then don't come around me. If you just want to stir up trouble because you are bored with life, DON"T COME AROUND ME.

I have tried so very hard over the years to overcome my depression, which included a big environment and lifestyle change. For the most part, I've done ok. My depression spells are less frequent, but anything can set them off.

I'm tired... I'm so very tired of not being a stronger person to deal with other people better.

We're giving the whole 1 car thing a trial run. This morning didn't go too badly. He's very crabby in the mornings anyway, and to be woken up at 6:40 to go to work didn't help things. But, for this one morning and probably one morning only, I found it cute. We left by 7 and amazingly enough, I was still at work 10 minutes early. I think even if we don't keep this up, I found a new way to work.

On a really fun note, we have the honeymoon scheduled... horseback riding, parasailing, helicopter and submarine tours, ziplining, luau... we still have about $500 left in the budget for food, gas and souvenirs and probably a trip to the Ocean Center to hang at the aquarium. And all the hiking we plan on doing is free :)

I'm finally excited about this trip. I wasn't before because Hawaii is so cliche and I just don't like going places that are overrun with tourists. But, I think minus the scheduled activities, we won't be around many people. We plan to do a lot of exploring and bumming around at the condo (well, I'll be on the beach.)

Next on the list is to figure out what all we need to pack. Hopefully we can get everything into one suitcase and take the other for all the crap we'll drag back.

Next week we can get our marriage license. I think that's when we'll both have a case of the dizzies... we're excited about this new phase in life, but I think both of us are nervous.

Back in January when Brian gave me my ring, he had a plan in mind. The unfortunate thing was it was cold and we got up there after dark, so he couldn't really go forth with his plan. He briefly told me what he wanted to do, and honestly, it was the thought that counts. He is a romantic in his own little way and I'm so thankful for the little things he does for me.

This weekend, we we up there for a few hours. I mentioned that I wanted to see the place finally since it was nice out and we were looking for something to do. We hopped on the ATV and headed over there. Along the way we admired all the flowers that have popped up with the recent rains. He stopped at the bottom of this rock/cement pathway that his dad had put in. Once we got up there, I noticed there's a bench and a fire pit. Then he had me turn around and look at the view. It was breathtaking. You could see the entire property from up there and at 250 acres, that was impressive.

Walking through the cactus, he noticed several that were heart shaped. We plucked one off of it's buddies and headed back down to the house... for a shovel... to dig up wildflowers. It was so sweet. Especially since these flowers were basically growing in limestone. But, for the time being, we have a multitude of wildflowers and 2 heart shaped cactus sitting on our porch. I hope the flowers survive, but I'm thinking no :(

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Sunday, I woke up and started on the front flower bed. I got 3 salvias planted, a tomato plant in a pot and the blackberry in a better pot. It was a very productive morning. I wish I could have worked on the floors more, but I need to have the doors and windows open to help filter the dust out. Kind of hard to do with a cat that isn't allowed outside. I'm going to try again today.

I'm also buying the tile for the master bathroom today. At least, that's my hope. I have a tile design in mind. The part that will suck is cutting it. But, I think I'm going to get all of the full size pieces laid out first and then cut. Brian is going to the ranch on the 16th, so that's my install day. Hopefully I can get it all done in time. We won't be able to walk on it for a few days, so we'll be nice and smelly by the end of it. Hahaha

The plan is to have both the dining room and bathroom completed before the wedding. Can I do it? I sure hope so!

So, I got a wild hair up my ass earlier this week and ripped up the bathroom carpet. I just couldn't take it anymore. It was gross and who the hell puts carpet in a bathroom? It's so unsanitary. The first process was, I'll go find clearance tile and put that down. BUT.... then I got another wild hair and ripped up the carpet in the dining room/fish room. Unfortunately, I didn't think that all the way through, but I do have an idea... I'll paint it. It'll be a temporary fix, but I think it'll work out just fine.

And to please Brian I'm going to paint a design into it.. and of course, it has to be the damn zombie patch. HA! Oh well... if we have company, I'll just put a rug over it ;)

So, today, I'll be cleaning the concrete and then we're off to the ranch for the weekend. I'll finish up the cleaning process on Sunday so that I can start painting later next week.

I'm going to price everything out though, because I might be able to find a cheaper solution to the problem, although painting the floor so far doesn't look like it'll cost me more than $100.

Ok... so the age old adage of spent less, make more continues to pop up. My financial situation hasn't been the greatest... I have a lot of student loan debt, but I pay it religiously, so my credit looks beautiful. What's the problem? I CAN"T STAND HAVING ALL THAT DEBT.

Money has been the subject for Brian and I for the last week or so. We've discussed this subject quite often over the course of our relationship, but now we're getting to the point where we need to think about the money and how WE'RE going to spend and save it.

I'm the saver... Brian is the spender, but luckily, he's not an irrational spender all the time. He just lets go of it a little easier than I do. I am the saver, but have compulsive moments. Something I also need to rein in.

The other night at counseling we were talking about how we're trying to sell Brian's car. It was his idea and I'm fully supporting him because the payment is just way too high. The plan is we'll buy a truck and when we get my vehicle paid off, I'll take the truck and we'll get him a car. Pastor asked him, "well now that I have heard ya'lls plan, Brian - would you consider driving Kristal's vehicle?" He replied yes and I added he wouldn't like it, but it's just a car.

Since then, I've been thinking... why do we need 2 vehicles? We don't really go anywhere at different times and are often times together. So, I have proposed that we try (after the wedding) to use only one vehicle for a month and see if we can make it work. I'll change my work schedule so it fits better with his. I would have to learn to drive stick, which would suck.

The plan - sell BOTH vehicles and get a truck. Mine will be easier to sell since we should be able to sell it and pay off my loan. We may be stuck with his for a little while... but we can use that extra money from my vehicle to pay his down so that it doesn't hurt so much.

Plus, we intend on switching cable companies, which will save us about $65 a month. We considered canceling it all together, but the fact of the matter is, it's part of our entertainment budget. We don't go out to see movies or go out to eat and we can't starve ourselves of everything... That's just not American ;)

So, by selling and trading vehicles and cutting other bills, we can basically save my entire paycheck. Which means, I can put my entire paycheck towards my student loans and have them paid off within 2 years, maybe less if I continue to freelance, which I will - but I haven't decided if that money will become our savings or if we are going to save part of Brian's check for that.

Debt-free in 2 years... that's a crazy concept, but so very achievable.