Beethoven In Trance - Episode 64

2013 was a good year.

The year started with a bang. I left Progressive and joined the new company in January. The frustration and anger was gone once I made the decision of leaving. So far so good working in the new company. There were some adjustments during the first month, but that was it. It's certainly a different circle of people here, I feel learning different things from them, which is good.

As I mentioned in the last annual letter, I started researching car before moving to the new company since we both needed to drive separately to work. Then one thing led to another, I started to look into our finance. To put things into perspective, I started to review our life goals and planning. One idea hit me, moving home.

The new company is in Solon, a great school district and is expensive too. It has a large Chinese community and there are a lot of Chinese Progressive employees living there. We didn't consider Solon when we bought our first house because we thought Solon was too expensive and we didn't want to pay for the empty space either. We had different needs now. Moving to Solon would give us a bigger space, and good school district, and a big Chinese community for Alice to grow up in. Plus, the mortgage rate is lower this year and it's attempting to take this advantage. So, I ran some extensive analysis and concluded that it made sense to take on mortgage again and move to Solon.

So I started to fix around the house and we started looking for houses in July. We got an agent referral from a former Progressive coworker. and the Agent proved to be a worthy company in our house hunting. He is very knowledgeable of the local market and rehab cost. He is miles better than the one we used for the first house (which was also a friend referral). I said multiple times that the agent was better than the first one we had and how dumb we used the first one and got ripped off. So, we spent the summer looking the houses. It was not easy to find a house we both like. I need a big kitchen and she needs privacy. We made our first offer the second day looking houses on the first house we looked. We have seen the house online many times, so we had some ideas about it already. Coming up with a bid is the challenging part, and we were glad the agent is there to help. He came up with a bid that is lower than our expectation and he said the house was way overpriced. We ended up not getting the house because of the low bid, we adjusted the bid but still not enough. So we moved on to the next one. We actually bought a house at a price lower than our current house which was on state sales. The owner passed away, and the house was put on to sales by the children. We thought we could do a whole house renovation because of the low price tag. The agent did some bargain and got us the house. We talked to our parents that night, and my parents were strongly against it. They didn't like the house whose owner passed away and was left empty. Considering eventually my parents will move in with us, I called the agent right away, and fortunately, we were not on contract because the seller hasn't sent it over, we were able to back out of the deal that day. We got the house and we backed out of it on the same day.

Summer passed by fast, we saw a listing online on the labor day that looks promising and we scheduled a viewing the next day. I knew it's gonna be a house that people fought for since there were not many inventory on the market this year. I was ready to go into a bid war. We looked at the house the next day and we learned that there were multiple offers already. We listened to the agent's advice and went all out on the bid for the house that afternoon. That night, we got the house.

I was relieved and anxious at the same time when the agent called for the good news. We paid more than we liked for the house, but we got the house. The house has a few area that we don't like but overall, we are happy with it. I wasn't sure whether I made the right decision or not when I got the phone call, but looking back now, I am happy with my decision.

While we are house hunting, we packed and moved some stuff into a self storage unit for a few months. At the same time, I was patching the basement and paint the walls with waterproofing paint. Getting a house ready to sell is not an easy job I realized. Especially for an old house like ours, there are so many updates need to do. I asked some contractor, who is a friend of my neighbor to do the dry wall work. He is good, but he is just slow. He is still working the project at this writing. We hope to get the house cleaned up and updated as soon as possible to put on the market. It's been half year already, we will have to get it ready by March before the peak season.

We got the key to the new house in October, and we didn't move in till before Christmas. I painted almost the whole house. We used about 15 gallon of paints and 16 different colors. It was a lot painting, and it saved us thousands. I learned free hand cut in eventually but it was late in the process when there were not much left. Those days I closed my eyes at night and I saw loaded brushes.

I used all kinds of paint, Behr Ultra, Glidden Duo, Vasper Premium, Sherwin Williams Cashmere, Benjamin Moore Aura Spa, and Benjamin Moore UltraSpec 500. Of all the paints, I liked Vasper the least. followed by Sherwin Williams. I like Benjam Moore the most, and Behr Ultra the next. Glidden Duo is on par with Behr. For the brushes, Purdy 3" Flat head is awesome.

Other than painting, we paid the contractor to run the gas line and install a kitchen range hood. It proved to be an extensive project, it took about a month to complete because of vent needs to routed to a different room. But the new range is kick ass. I am very happy about the heat output. The hood is installed at 24 inch above the range. I felt it could be a little higher because that might have the hood more coverage of the cooking area. But it's too late, oh well, anyway.

We also got some furniture from Ikea. Bed, sofa, chairs, and a kitchen island (an as-is item). One foot board of the bed is damaged, and we are in the process of replacing it. I have to tell you it's not an easy process so far we haven't got another reply from the company yet. We couldn't get it from the store because it was the last one. Lesson learned, don't buy the last item in the store!

Now we have both houses in a mess. We haven't unpacked in the new house, and we haven't cleaned up the old house. To keep it tidy, we bought a few vacuums. One steam vac for the carpet, one for the basement, and we use the old one for the general rooms. We also got a spray mop to keep the kitchen clean.

I also installed to kitchen base cabinet pull out draws. Those are pain in the ass to install. I had to cut extra wood piece to secure it to the cabinet to make it sturdy. It would be destroyed if I load it with my pots and pans unless I do so.

We have been spending major $$ in Homedepot, Lowes, and Ikea. That leads to my believe that these stores stocks will get better in the coming years when housing market picks up. Speaking of stocks, I was fortunate to add MasterCard (MA) in my portfolio this year. It performed beyond my expectation. The other ones I picked in the 3rd Quarter didn't perform that well at all. It was the peak of the year, and I loose money on most of them. Overall however, our portfolio performed within my expectation. Our 529 play performs above my expectation as well. I think we are on the right track financially.

Alice has been doing well. She is still kicking and screaming every chance she got. She is loud, but also very fun when she is not fussy. She doesn't like to speak Chinese much, English by default. We are working hard to make her speak Chinese at home.

Jessica applied new jobs in the company, it's time for her to change as well. She tried and failed the first one. I wasn't surprised and didn't feel sorry. It was not a good fit and I didn't like her boss that much either. She tried another one and got it just now. She will start the new job this month. She said yes before the manager finalized the salary, a move that I don't recommend. I think it's a game that she should play. There is no benefit to give up the advantage in the negotiation. Well, hope the manger comes back with good news.

I haven't done much exercising in 2013. Since I moved to the new company, I have been busy with house hunting and projects. I would love to get back to running and swimming soon. Solon has a community rec center. it's much expensive than Mayfield. This is where Progressive + Mayfield wins. Well, you just can't win it all I guess.

I have watched a lot of movies in xD theater this year with my friend Ankur. Pretty much all the Summer Blockbusters. Gravity is a great one, followed by Pacific Rim (for 3D presentation). Other movies are ok. Superman is a big downer. Too loud and too much fighting. "Croods" is a cute animation movie, and "Wreck it Ralph" is another good one, unfortunately it didn't win the Oscar, which is surprising to me. "Now you see me" is a refreshing thriller.

Walking Dead and Game of Thrones became 2013 favorites. Even the Walking Dead game is a lot of fun. My game of the year has to be Tomb Raider. A great reboot of the series. I also revisited Battlefield 3 with game pad, that was actually fun. I think game pad has a future for FPS. The new COD Ghost requires Win8 64bit now, I had to install it on one of my hard drive to play it. It was an ok game, I wasn't too impressed. I haven't got the Battlefield 4 yet. Too much projects to do around the house, the basement is not yet in shape to be the man cave.

"The way we were" is a hunting melody. I got it couple month ago and didn't get to listen to it till recently, and it's been in the "corner of my mind".

Food. Not much going on, saw king crab in Costco the other day and didn't bite the bullet. Will do that when more people around I guess. Tried king crab legs though. It was good, but not worth the extra $$. The dungeon crab in Chinatown still the best buy.

I installed the WeChat since I came back from China last December. I have been keeping in touch with friends back home the whole year. Good app, it has potential.

We didn't do any travelling in 2013. Too much was going on. We planned to do some vacation next year when our parents are over. It will be two trips, one with my parents, one with in-laws. We also want to visit South Africa in the next 3 years. My friend Aimee Kuhl is there working on her Ph.D. And we like to visit home again when we are 40.

It's getting difficult to write everything happened in a year into one letter. I think I need to do more writing throughout the year.

2013 is a good year, moving seems to be the main theme, moving to a better place to be exact. It also leads me thinking of my parents future here. They are motivated now to move over (luckily we have the room for them now) since my cousins parents moved to New York couple month ago. I have told them to get ready before but they weren't paying attention. Now they are. It's going to be interesting.

I look forward to 2014, as we settle in the new house, there will be new things, new people, new life. We already received a season's greeting card from a Chinese family living in the neighborhood. How did they get our names and address? That was my first question, I am feeling they are church people reaching out...