Re: [Pan-users] Moving...

[Duncan]

Duncan posted on Tue, 07 Jun 2016 00:15:34 +0000 as excerpted:

> Duncan posted on Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:11:37 +0000 as excerpted:
> 
>> Looks like I'm going to have to setup some sort of wifi keep-alive ping
>> or something, tho, as otherwise it goes to sleep when there's no
>> activity, and that kills the VoIP dialtone, which IIRC I got once when
>> I first setup so it should be possible, but I haven't heard it since.
> 
> Turns out the lack of dialtone was due to a loose phone plug.  It's
> missing the little dohinky on the side that keeps it from pulling out,
> and it had.  Tho I may still have to setup ping, as the connection will
> go to sleep without activity.
> 
> But the youtube streaming has been surprisingly consistent, as long as I
> keep it to 360p and thus under the 1-1.3 Mbit cap, which appears to be
> deliberate per-user shaping.  It'll be interesting to see if I can keep
> up the youtube streaming when I do the distro repos sync and pull down
> build sources to update, as I expect to do after supper 2nite.


So... nearly four months later and everything on the other end is coming 
together.  As I explained up-thread, the city bought out the property I 
was at, and moved me into a hotel temporarily.  Now I'm moving to my new 
home. =:^)

As was the case in the original post, the more on topic angle is that 
I'll be going offline for a hopefully short period, but parts of the new 
setup aren't yet tested, so it's possible I'll be offline for days.  (In 
the OP, it was possible, but unlikely, I'd be offline for months, luckily 
the connectivity at the hotel was good enough I was back in just a few 
days.  It shouldn't be more than a few days this time, and technically 
could be as soon as tomorrow except I won't really have furniture for 
another day or two after that.)

Given my status as somewhat of an anchor regular here, I don't want 
people to be posting questions and not getting answers while I'm gone 
because people think I'll answer, only I'll be gone.  So please pitch in 
everyone and be especially willing to post answers if any newbies have 
questions while I'm gone. =:^)

Of course this is the "good thing" IRL-busy I alluded to in my post to 
another thread some minutes ago.  Just too much going on right now IRL to 
try one of my hairy detail multi-hour compositions...


The more OT/personal story is that I got real lucky. =:^)

I've been living in an older and over time rather run-down trailer for 
about three decades now.  I owned the trailer but was renting the space 
it was on, after hauling the trailer from Oregon back in the early 90s.  
I had been in the until-this-thread location 10-15 years.

So the city bought out the trailer court, and I was the only one who 
actually owned their trailer.  Most residents were living in trailers the 
legal owners had abandoned years ago as not worth the cost of moving, 
with the park owner simply renting them out again after cleanup.  The one 
family was renting the actual house on the property.

So the law says they had to help relocate the displaced (unlike if a 
private party would have bought it).  The folks that were renting got the 
same 90-days (original) paid in the hotel, because the city wanted to go 
ahead without the otherwise necessary notice and waiting period.  Then 
they got a rent subsidy program, basically the difference between what 
they were paying for the (mostly) substandard trailers and housing of 
comparable number of bedrooms, etc, that met the "decent, safe and 
sanitary" standards, for either 3-1/2 or 5 years, depending on which of 
two different subsidy programs they qualified for.  So the space rent was 
$400/mo, but market rents for 1-2 bedroom are around $600/mo and are of 
course set to go up over the time of the subsidy, meaning these folks got 
around a to-start rent subsidy max of $200/mo, tho if they for example 
found a place that was only $450/mo, the city kept the other $150/mo, 
they couldn't take it in cash.  But in five years, that $600/mo might be 
say $750/mo, while they'd still be paying $400/mo.  Of course, after the 
end of that 3.5-5 years, depending on the program, they'd be back on 
their own.

But I got lucky, because I owned the trailer and was only renting the 
spot.  Actually, I got **REAL** lucky.  The trailer was worth perhaps 
$1000.  But because I owned it, due to the way the laws are setup and the 
state and federal cost sharing the city gets, it actually costs the city 
about the same to set me up in a new place of my own, as it would to do 
the rent subsidy program.  Plus, from their perspective, that makes me a 
new property tax payer as well, so I'm actually paying back into the 
system in taxes that I wouldn't be paying at least directly, were I to 
continue renting.

Again, fair market value for a comparable home, turns out to be about 
$80-90K, 1-2 bedroom, decent, safe and sanitary.  So I got a budget of 
$89,000 to go buy a house with.

See that **REAL** lucky yet?  $1000 value of the old place, nearly $90K 
for a new place.  Plus the about $100/nite for the hotel for (originally) 
three months, plus moving expenses on both ends, plus working with a 
relocation specialist over that period.  Easily $100K.

So after moving into the hotel and eventually getting the initial 
paperwork setting my shopping budget, I selected a real estate agent and 
went shopping...

The first place we selected and put a contract on was real nice, a condo/
townhouse with all new all tile flooring, three bedroom, ceiling fans in 
all bedrooms as well as the family room and dining area, etc.

Unfortunately, a few weeks in we found out the HOA was about to assess a 
$30K *per* *unit* (148 units) special assessment fee to help with the 
rotted out sewer lines (several million $$, along with some smaller 
ticket repairs).  It was built in the 70s and had cast iron sewers which 
were rotted out.  The problem had been building for a few years and was 
getting unmanageable, spot repairs just weren't cutting it any longer.  
Unfortunately, despite a relatively high (for the unit market value) HOA 
fee of $475/mo (tho that did include electric) and knowing this was 
coming down the road for several years, they had only a few thousand in 
reserves, pocket change compared to the millions it was going to cost, 
thus the $30K/unit special assessment.  The other option was to recombine 
the separately owned condos into a single owner apartment complex again, 
but as the repairs would be figured in, the offered per-unit value would 
have many owners taking a loss.

Oh, they /were/ talking about splitting it up over 3 years, $10K/year, of 
course in addition to the continuing $475/mo regular HOA fee...  Like 
$10K/year for 3 years in a row makes it much better.

If your reaction is that the owners should be having an audit done to see 
exactly where that $475/mo was going and why there are no reserves to 
speak of, you wouldn't be the first...  But fortunately, I never got into 
a position to need to deal with that, as we got the information and were 
able to cancel the deal before close.  So it's not a problem I need to 
worry about.  =:^)

Anyway, the city wasn't going to pay my $30K assessment and I certainly 
couldn't, so that one fell thru.

Of course that threw a wrench in things as I didn't have enough time left 
on the 90 day hotel stay to find another one.  Fortunately the city 
approved another month, after I provided a timeline of what we had been 
doing so they could see I had actually been using the time, not sitting 
in the hotel, lazy.  Thus the four months total.  And tho it was tight 
timing, we made the second one, just in time as the hotel booking expires 
on Friday.

The second one wasn't quite as big, only two bedroom, and has several 
year old shag carpet in much of the house where the other one had new 
tile throughout. (Phoenix, AZ, where we have a "winter" of about two 
weeks and it seldom freezes, and effectively a split early summer and 
late summer with 2-3 months of hell-oven in between, so tile as opposed 
to carpet is a *good* thing!)  But it was reasonable otherwise, while the 
first one felt too good to be true and turned out to be just that.  A 
much smaller condo association, only 48 units, composed of three U-shaped 
buildings of 16 units each, 8 each first and second floor, at each level 
four at the bottom of the U, two on each end.  In each U is a courtyard, 
one a pool, one (the one I'm in) a flagstone center courtyard with trees 
and a BBQ, the third just graveled.

It's from 1968, so is a bit older than the first one, and has some of the 
same iron sewer pipe issues too, as we found out.  Between the time we 
first looked at it before contract, when it seemed fine, and the first 
set of inspections under contract, a clear-water pipe burst, and upon 
tearing apart the wall to fix it they found the rotted sewer pipe as well 
and replaced it while they were there.  There was some mold evidence at 
the first inspection, but we have certified environmental inspections 
saying that's all cleaned up now.

But this is in some ways a pretty good positive.  First, it happened at 
just the right time to get it dealt with before I bought it.  Second, the 
pipe stack is actually in the middle of the unit, so it's only the two 
units one directly above the other, affected, and with it dealt with for 
them now, any problems with the others shouldn't affect us.

There's still some iron under the slab that may ultimately need dealt 
with, but unlike the first place which had everything plumbed to a larger 
common, this one is setup so again it's generally just two in a stack, 
limiting the exposure for individual units.

Plus, the CC&Rs are setup rather better on this one, including a 
requirement for a condo association level inspection every decade, I 
think it is, with predicted costs going out 30 years and a reserves 
audit.  Actually, this is just one example of several in the CC&Rs that 
read to me like the original declarant/owner that set them up had a bad 
experience at some point with a condo, and he really took care to write 
the CC&Rs up to give the owners themselves direct power to curb, for 
example an out-of-control property-manager, etc.  Given the horror tale I 
read while researching another place I was looking at, that's a good 
thing.

Anyway, as a result, with the HOA papers I got a copy of the latest 
reserves audit and projected repairs and budget out 30 years, report, 
completed in 2013.  They're *MUCH* healthier than the first place, and if 
unexpecteds do happen and they need to do special assessments, they 
should be far more reasonable.  And as I said, what issues still remain 
in terms of iron sewers should be reasonably limited in scope.  And today 
I noted some sewer cleanouts as well, with the significance being they 
were ABS plastic, NOT iron.  Between that and the fact that they're about 
four years older than the first one and thus should be four years further 
along in the replacement process, evidence suggests that they're in more 
or less the reverse position of the first one, mostly ABS now, with a bit 
of iron remaining here and there, vs. spots of ABS on a still mostly 
rotted iron core, at the first one.  Obviously with buildings that old 
there will be repairs, but as I said, things are *noticeably* healthier 
at the new place, and I'm reasonably optimistic.

Besides, worse case would be a 100% loss and I'm back to the renting I 
thought I'd always be doing anyway, so I'm no worse off than I started. 
=:^)


Meanwhile, the repairs took longer than they would have because they had 
to get the HOA involved to get the upstairs unit repaired and covering 
their share of the limited commons between the two.  That's actually what 
nearly pushed us past the end of the month again, but it's done now, and 
as I said, now I don't have to worry about that iron sewer pipe serving 
the upper unit in the wall any more, so it's actually a fortunate 
occurrence. =:^)

Anyway, originally we were supposed to close on Friday, the 16th.  With 
the HOA involved that got pushed back to Friday, the 23rd.  But they were 
still doing finish-up so we thought we'd give them the weekend and close 
on Monday, the 26th.  But they still had some touchups to do on Monday, 
that wouldn't be done in time to get the registration in to the banks.  
So it ended up being this AM, Tuesday.  But we got confirmation, and I 
actually picked up the key from the real estate key-drop lock-box a bit 
after noon.

I had scheduled the electric switchover for Monday, when I thought we'd 
be done then, and got email confirmation of that.  And I filed the change 
of address with the post office on I believe Thursday, via internet.

And I had arranged for the cable-internet installer with a 1-3PM window 
today, when I thought we'd be moving in today.  But the move got pushed 
back a day to 8 AM tommorrow/Wednesday because we weren't closed yet to 
do it today.  Which is why I arrived about 12:30 PM today, to get the key 
out of the lock-box and meet the cable-internet installer there possibly 
a half-hour later.

It was actually a bit after 2 PM when the cable-internet installer got 
there, but that gave me time to meet a few of the neighbors and take a 
bit more leasurly stroll around the area than I had, previously.  
Additionally, I saw the postperson and was able to talk to him about 
getting a new key for the postbox, plus pick up the mail, including some 
junk mail, and the first thing addressed to me, with a change-of-address 
sticker on it, so the post office has obviously processed that request.

Now to get the mailbox and pool/gate keys, pickup the HOA detail rules, 
actually move from the hotel and storage, get my credit cards and etc 
changed over, and buy some furniture, the only thing I really need to pay 
for myself.

So as I said, tomorrow/Wednesday at 8 AM, the movers should be here to 
move me from the hotel (city paid movers) and storage (city paid).  Which 
is why this post, as after that until I get setup again, whenever that 
is, I won't be reading/posting.  With the internet already on at the 
house, technically I could be setup with the computer tomorrow.  But I 
won't have furniture yet.  I'll probably get at least some furniture 
either late Wednesday/tomorrow, or Thursday.  Meanwhile, I'll probably 
stay tomorrow nite and possibly Thursday nite at the hotel, change-of-
cloths only, since I have it until Friday the 30th.  That'll give me some 
time to get at least basics furniture.

Talking about furniture, there's a hotel-refurbishment company in town 
that I'll be buying some stuff from.  It's used and not the cheapest tho 
reasonable, but it's generally good quality commercial stuff so shouldn't 
be falling over on me even if it has a dent or two, something that can't 
always be said about the budget stuff you get from some furniture places.

It actually looks like patio furniture tends to be the cheapest, and 
comfortable, so I'll be getting several patio chairs and a few tables as 
well.  I'll probably skip sofas and the like for now, no need.

The thing I was most frustrated with was beds.  They're expensive, and I 
haven't found anything I really liked, either.  But I mentioned that to 
my real estate agent, and turns out they do amazon, etc, and found an air 
bed to give me as a closing present.  As they explained it, it's not 
permanent, but it's a far cry from the air mattresses people take 
camping, too, and they regularly use them when they stay at their kids' 
places, etc.  And it'll cover the gap for me for a few days/weeks/months 
until I get settled in and have time to look for something I'm actually 
happy with.

As for dressers, my boss says her daughter is trying to get rid of one 
right now, that I can have.  I've not seen it, but I could do that and 
wait until later if I don't like it, or just pick that up at the hotel 
refurbishment place too.  Until then, like most single men I don't have 
much kitchen stuff, and there's way more kitchen storage space than I'm 
likely to use for kitchen stuff any time soon, so some of those might be 
sock and t-shirt drawers, for now.  And I can leave some stuff in boxes, 
and have a few shelves in storage, plus a few builtins in the various 
closets.

But the big thing remaining is something for the computer monitors, three 
of them, two actually bigscreen TVs, 42 and 48 inch, and one an old 21-
inch monitor.  I actually have them setup in the hotel, the 48-inch 
perched on the hotel's luggage rack, in turn perched on the dresser 
beside the hotel's 32-inch TV, so it's up in the air above the back of 
the dresser, the 42-inch sitting on top of a partially open dresser 
drawer, arranged so it's below (y-axis) and in front of (z-axis) the 48-
inch, to the left of the hotel's 32-inch TV, and the 21-inch sitting on 
top of my 5.1 home-stereo amp, which is in turn sitting on a chair to the 
left of the big-screen stack.  The computer is sitting in the chair hole 
under the dresser, along with the subwoofer for the 5.1, with the power 
cables beside it and under the chair with the 5.1 and 21-inch on top.

The point being, I had to use some ingenuity to figure out how to get it 
all setup in the hotel room and I did that, so I'm sure I'll figure out 
something for the house as well, even while I am still short on 
furniture.  But it's unlikely to be while I don't have /any/ furniture 
besides the airbed, so I'm likely to be out a couple days, anyway, and 
while I have the week thru Friday off to do the move, I'm back at work 
this weekend, so if I'm not done in a couple days, it could be week or 10 
days 'time I get things setup and back on the list.


Oh, one more thing:  Superstition, karma, fate, God, or just 
happenstance, call it what you will, but I'm convinced there's a bit more 
to the story, as well...

You see, last Christmas season, before I had a clue the place was going 
to sell and all this was going to go down, for the first time in years, I 
had a bit of extra money laying around.  Of course there's still bills to 
pay and it would have made a nice start on an SSD as a present to myself, 
but my neighbor was having a tough time of it.  His wife had left him, 
drugs and she had spent the money on that that should have gone to rent 
and electric, so he was behind.  Additionally, he was suicidal for a 
time, thinking with her gone he didn't have much to live for.  His 
daughter helped pull him thru that, but I decided he could do with 
someone else doing more than tell him he was valued.  A "still small 
voice" as the saying goes, told me to forget whatever else I could do 
with that money, and put $100 of it toward helping him with rent.

So I did, and had quite a happy Christmas knowing I had been able to 
actually help someone else, not just with the money, but with the message 
that yes, someone else /did/ consider him worth spending that money on -- 
and he knows how I struggle sometimes too, so he knew it wasn't spare 
change...

Anyway, yes, I owned the trailer, having bought it from my folks, but I 
never put it in my name, and the papers had long since disappeared.  The 
trailer was last registered in Oregon, and I got a temporary permit to 
move it down here.

So I really had no chance of finding the papers for it, and with Oregon's 
last record of it being a temporary permit from a quarter century or so 
ago, chances of getting anything from them were pretty slim as well.

As a result, when I moved into the hotel, after exhausting my last chance 
to find them in the move and with the trailer condemned to demolition, I 
thought I was only going to get the rent subsidy thing too.

But the land lady who was selling to the city thought well of me, and 
after all knowing that I /had/ pulled in the trailer when I moved in, 
apparently arranged to take the responsibility for the trailer herself, 
in the remote chance someone did try to make trouble.

But I'm still convinced, the powers that be arranged for me to have that 
extra $100 last December to see what I would do with it, and had I used 
it for myself, I think things would have turned out quite differently, 
and at best, I'd be getting the same 3.5-5 year rent subsidy as all the 
others.

So like I said, call it what you will, karma, fate, happenstance, God, 
whatever, I'm convinced had that $100 gone elsewhere, I'd have never seen 
this place.  It could have gone that way /so/ easily, and by all rights, 
/should/ have gone that way.

OTOH, one explanation is that it's exactly that sort of personality that 
so impressed my landlady, that she took that responsibility and insisted 
as part of her deal with the city that they treat me as the owner she 
knew I was.  Had I not given my neighbor that $100 despite having it 
extra for the first time in years, I'd have been someone with a different 
personality, who wouldn't have so impressed my landlady, and she wouldn't 
have made that bit part of the deal so I'd have just gotten the rent 
subsidy.

Either way, I'm both convinced that had something to do with it, and not 
complaining about how it all turned out. =:^)


Meanwhile... I'll be shutting down in a bit to sleep, and then getting up 
to move.  "Y'all behave while I'm gone, OK?" =:^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman