Making a tactical retreat...

Down below I posted this picture under the header "Guess where we are now."

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

I suppose I should give an answer. It's kind of important to the purpose of this blog, after all...

That's our new apartment. It's a sixth-floor unit on the corner of a hotel-style building. In other words, almost the perfect form of what I hate about city living. But the thing is, I kind of like it. More on that in a second.

The short version is that after a year of struggle, a lot of hindsight, and some number crunching, we realized that we weren't going to get anywhere anytime soon. In fact, the bills threatened to bury us. Our condo was on the market, but the price, we knew, wasn't realistic. The Realtors were begging us to drop the price, but even where we had it, it still would have cost us thousands in closing costs. So, we decided to do a short sale.

We'd tried negotiating with the bank before, but until you miss a payment, they couldn't care less about you. So, this month will be the first time we've missed a payment in more than two years. We hate it, it's embarrassing, but it's all we can do. The savings are just about gone and it's about to come down to this: baby formula or the mortgage payment. (He's a perfect child, but man, that kid can eat. In goes the formula every couple of hours, and out goes the, well, you know. I've spent more on diapers in the last six months than gas, methinks...)

We're reasonably certain we can unload the place in a month or so. We've already been getting positive responses at the new price, and we have a team of Realtors and a lawyer working to ensure everything goes smoothly--and that we're not hit up by the banks later on for the difference.

This is partly a calculated maneuver. It's also partly the result of my apathy. Working my day job plus running a moving business in the evenings, all while trying to be a good husband and father just wore me out. When, for a week or so earlier this month, my wife suggested we try a raffle for the place, the mere thought of another project nearly brought me to tears. "Sure," I said, "But that's your baby. I'm done." Unfortunately, (or fortunately?) that option was killed by the law pretty quickly.

So, once we made up our minds, we went apartment shopping. We ended up signing a lease on the first place we saw, although we did look around at quite a few others. And ironically, the place we chose is the site of one of my moves. (That's actually not so surprising considering how many places I've been in the last year). Four months ago, it was a dump. It even made my truck sad, and the battery died in the parking lot. But they've since renovated it, and it's actually pretty nice. Except for the construction dust that keeps getting everywhere, it's clean, has new hardwood floors, new paint, granite counter tops, and my favorite--a decent view of the south-southeastern sky which will mean EXCELLENT telescopic viewing of Jupiter, Orion, and possibly even Saturn. (I have to reacquaint myself with the night sky).

Still, it's a hotel-style apartment building. I will consider this my penance for stupid real estate sins of the past.

I'm optimistic. We've cut our housing budget by more than $1,000. The business is poised to do very well (just a couple more regulatory hurdles), and we have acres of additional space. Oh, and speaking of the moving business, the building is only about 30% full right now, and the management suggested I put flyers up advertising my services. My own building will be a small cash cow for a while.

So, that's that. Lessons learned.