We were playing outside. Frisbee and hula hoops. We were having a lot of fun.
Hubby noticed that the fan on the A/C was spinning more slowly than usual and it started to make an odd noise.
A little later we went back outside to check on it. It made a terrible sounding noise (we both stepped back from the unit) and the fan slowed to a halt.
I was due to be somewhere, so I left him instructions of who to call and what to do. I took my leave and throughout the evening found out:
- Companies can come out immediately, day or night, as advertised, but the service charge is VERY inflated for them to do so.
- It was very likely the capacitor.
The next morning we awaited a call from the company whose number was on our unit. Turns out they did not contact us "first thing the morning" and hubby called them to find out what was going on. Apparently this was not the company that serviced us after we purchased the house; they had the old owner's name in the system. They'd be out "sometime in the afternoon".
We found our company's number. They had a tech there within a few hours. Turns out the compressor shorted out and took the capacitor with it. We'd known that if this happened we'd be SOL. The unit is 10 years old, a 10 SEER system, not supported anymore, and very hard to find parts for. We'd learned this from our home inspector as well as the A/C checkup/maintainer guys last summer.
We had figured we had a few years. The unit was doing okay, though the air handler inside was clogged with mold and dust and rust (which hubby cleaned up as best he could, not having the $800 to pay for them to do it). It ran. It cooled. Our average electric bill was about $160.00. One of the goals we had after filing was to save up money towards the A/C.
Nope. Caput. Done. He showed hubby a few things that made sense to him as far as it being truly broken and not just a sales technique. A new part, should they even be able to find it, would cost about $2000. It made sense to get a new system.
And, best party, they could install a new one that afternoon.
We called the office manager who checked with their financing company. Hubby was turned down. (I, of course, could not apply.) I was shocked. He has really good credit, even great. It was good enough to get a good rate on the house, we've made every payment, he has no other debt except for student loans. They couldn't tell us why. She offered to try their secondary company, and I agreed.
I also ran upstairs to log into his BOA account (with his permission). He has a credit card that we don't use. In fact, when he got the new card in the mail after the old one expired, we snipped it right up. No more CCs for us, no siree. Well, we might need it, and I had no idea even what kind of credit limit he has.
$5500 at 16.9%
For those who haven't bought a new A/C lately, they are rated by SEER. Higher SEER levels indicate higher efficiency, and there are tax credits from FPL as well as the government. 13 SEER is the least expensive unit and the least efficient currently available. (This is all based on very limited research and may not be entirely accurate.)
A 13 SEER system (a huge improvement over our old system) for our house was $3918.00. That includes installation, removal of the old system, a 10 year warranty, and one year of service.
We could have gotten a larger system; we certainly have enough room on the BOA card to do so. However, we decided to get the most basic system.
Was that a mistake? Ask me in a few years. We only knew that we have a senior citizen with a bad heart living downstairs and a 2 year old living upstairs. For us we could do a few days without A/C to price shop. For the other family members, there's no way. We got what we could "afford".
Yeah, yeah, we don't have income right now, so we can't "afford". I should say, instead, that it was the most affordable option.
I called the office manager back after getting the card number off the statement (hubby called and begged for the expiration date). Turns out we qualified for the financing.
At 5 years the payments were just over $100/month at 17.9% financing. This was a percent over the credit card, so we didn't go with that.
4 years had an APR at 14.9%.
3 years had an APR at 13.9%.
If hubby gets a source of income, we can swing the $133.00/month payments over the next three years. It's not an ideal solution, but it works.
If he does not get a job, it's still covered, though it gives us less for food.
By 4:45 we had a brand new A/C system and $4000.00 more in debt.
I have a Feeling that something's going to happen to/break down in the older car in the next few weeks. You know how "when it rains, it pours"? Yeah. I have a Feeling.
Showing posts with label housing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housing. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Regrets: Too Much House
I've decided to start a series of posts that focuses on mistakes we've made with our money. This will help me to see patterns and learn from our past. Will it help anyone else? I'm not sure, but since there's a chance it might, here goes.
Regret #1: Too Much House
My husband and I spent our first year together living in the smallest house I've ever been in. It was a mother in law cottage behind another house, 425 square feet, with a tiny bathroom (your knees touched the door and the shower barely had enough room to turn around in), slapdash kitchen (stove burners, a sink, and a fridge), just enough room to walk around the bed, and a living room. It was tiny but we made it work. When we started having issues with our front neighbor and realized the house itself was making us sick (lots of mold) we were out of there.
We moved from there into a condo that was almost exactly twice the square footage. We had a spare bedroom which was where the laundry was and a huge bathroom. It was awesome. We should have known, however, that the extra space wasn't really necessary. The massage/meditation room turned into the piled-up-dirty-laundry room. After discovering that the space was less than ideal (landlady was subletting without permission of the owner, drug deals in the parking lot, etc.) we moved out.
Hubby called me and told me he'd found an awesome place and we'd love it. I met him and the owner with the check for our first month's rent and deposit. He had written down the wrong amount so I had to borrow $1000 from my parents in order to make the deposit, but we had to find a place right away and this place was gorgeous.
It had three bedrooms. The largest one made our bed look small and had a walk-in closet and attached bathroom. The other two shared the guest bathroom. There was also a huge office, dining room, and kitchen with breakfast nook. In the center of the house was a huge living room that led out to the lanai and beyond that was a huge back yard and lake.
We spread our stuff out. We had to purchase a washer and dryer on credit as it didn't have one. We made one bedroom our meditation room and the other our massage room. I bought a second-hand dining room table and chairs for the dining room. We upgraded to a king-sized bed. Eventually we bought a pool table and put the dining room table in the massage room.
I loved many things about that house, but it was stupid.
The first year we lived there it cost us $1000 a month plus utilities. The A/C was inefficient and our electric bills were frequently high.
After the first year he raised the rent to $1200 a month.
Now, at the time, that wasn't a horrible rent. My parents were paying $965 for a smaller 3/2 house and that was considered a fabulous rent.
The reason why it was expensive was because we didn't need the space. I wish we would have moved into a 2/1 or 2/2 apartment and saved all that money.
At the time it felt like we were gaining space we psychologically needed. We justified it by claiming that we deserved it after the year in the tiny place.
So, so wrong.
Looking back I realize that we were unable to keep our belongings organized and clean in the cottage. Dust and mold got everywhere. We didn't have room to have people over and the lack of full kitchen drove me nuts. I love to cook.
We would have been fine with a full kitchen, enough room for a table and chairs, and a better organizational system. The condo would have been perfect if we'd have been able to stay there.
I guess the moral of the story is that we need to really figure out what is bothering us about a situation before we try to fix it.
Regret #1: Too Much House
My husband and I spent our first year together living in the smallest house I've ever been in. It was a mother in law cottage behind another house, 425 square feet, with a tiny bathroom (your knees touched the door and the shower barely had enough room to turn around in), slapdash kitchen (stove burners, a sink, and a fridge), just enough room to walk around the bed, and a living room. It was tiny but we made it work. When we started having issues with our front neighbor and realized the house itself was making us sick (lots of mold) we were out of there.
We moved from there into a condo that was almost exactly twice the square footage. We had a spare bedroom which was where the laundry was and a huge bathroom. It was awesome. We should have known, however, that the extra space wasn't really necessary. The massage/meditation room turned into the piled-up-dirty-laundry room. After discovering that the space was less than ideal (landlady was subletting without permission of the owner, drug deals in the parking lot, etc.) we moved out.
Hubby called me and told me he'd found an awesome place and we'd love it. I met him and the owner with the check for our first month's rent and deposit. He had written down the wrong amount so I had to borrow $1000 from my parents in order to make the deposit, but we had to find a place right away and this place was gorgeous.
It had three bedrooms. The largest one made our bed look small and had a walk-in closet and attached bathroom. The other two shared the guest bathroom. There was also a huge office, dining room, and kitchen with breakfast nook. In the center of the house was a huge living room that led out to the lanai and beyond that was a huge back yard and lake.
We spread our stuff out. We had to purchase a washer and dryer on credit as it didn't have one. We made one bedroom our meditation room and the other our massage room. I bought a second-hand dining room table and chairs for the dining room. We upgraded to a king-sized bed. Eventually we bought a pool table and put the dining room table in the massage room.
I loved many things about that house, but it was stupid.
The first year we lived there it cost us $1000 a month plus utilities. The A/C was inefficient and our electric bills were frequently high.
After the first year he raised the rent to $1200 a month.
Now, at the time, that wasn't a horrible rent. My parents were paying $965 for a smaller 3/2 house and that was considered a fabulous rent.
The reason why it was expensive was because we didn't need the space. I wish we would have moved into a 2/1 or 2/2 apartment and saved all that money.
At the time it felt like we were gaining space we psychologically needed. We justified it by claiming that we deserved it after the year in the tiny place.
So, so wrong.
Looking back I realize that we were unable to keep our belongings organized and clean in the cottage. Dust and mold got everywhere. We didn't have room to have people over and the lack of full kitchen drove me nuts. I love to cook.
We would have been fine with a full kitchen, enough room for a table and chairs, and a better organizational system. The condo would have been perfect if we'd have been able to stay there.
I guess the moral of the story is that we need to really figure out what is bothering us about a situation before we try to fix it.
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