To Sell or Not to Sell?

Back in July, Roy replaced the shutters on the stone house. The old ones were made of wood and they were rotting with peeling paint. The living room window didn't even have any.

He replaced them with black vented style ones and they look much better. We haven't done anything else to the house cosmetically since but we did get an appraisal done.

This week I sent in an appeal form to the county to get my real estate tax assessment reviewed because the county's assessment of the house is a whopping $36,800 higher than the appraised market value. It's not really a big difference if you're talking about million dollar homes (and I would love my house to be worth that much higher) but come on, man. The houses around it are assessed much lower and more in line with current market values so something is off here. Real estate taxes are just getting ridiculous.

Which brings up the question of whether we should sell the house in the near future or not. I've been pondering this for a while and I'm leaning towards selling. We have great tenants that pay on time but this house is not meant to be a rental property and it's not worth the ROI. I'm hoping the assessment appeal is successful and a lower assessment value will be more attractive to potential buyers if we do decide to put it on the market. The house needs new bathrooms and a kitchen, among other upgrades and rehabbing so the buyer will need all the help they can get. And right now I need all the help I can get!

The only thing keeping me from selling it is that my mom once told me to never sell the house. Doh! Not sure what the reason behind that request was but I'm guessing it's because she wanted her kids (and grandkids?) to always remember her and this is her memorial or something. I really don't know. But realistically, keeping the house is not beneficial financially unless we are living in it to enjoy the upgrades and modifications that need to be put into it (and that's a LOT). Her wishes matter a great deal to me but I wonder if she would still feel that way if she were alive. There's been both good and bad memories at this house and what if I regret selling it in the future?

I don't think I will though because it's a house. Yes, it's my mom's house but everyone has a childhood home and eventually it becomes a fond memory. We all become a memory. Whether the house is in my possession or not, my memories and love for my mother will not change. Hopefully Roy and I will find our own little house to start a family in so we can begin new memories. 

On the other hand, in real estate class our teacher told us that, as investors, we should never be selling, only buying. Transaction fees are killer too, so we'll see what happens. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The assessment board hearing took place on 09/26/13 and they lowered my property value by $21,500.  Yay! That's a savings of about $356 a year in taxes.

Canada or Bust

Last weekend we packed our bags and hit the road for an overnight trip to Niagara Falls. Roy and I have been there multiple times but my cousins have never been there. So we left on Friday morning and headed north.  About three hours into the total six hour drive, we were in Corning, NY. Corning is home to Corning, Inc., a major manufacturer of glass and ceramics (you might have heard of Corelle or Corningware). There's a large museum there called the Corning Museum of Glass. It's the mecca for all things glass. It might not sound exciting at first but it is a pretty popular place.

 

 

 

 

 

The museum is huge. They have pieces that date back to the 1500s among many other historical pieces, plus live glass making shows throughout the day and they have a large retail section on the lower level with all kinds of jewelry and gifts like the glass flowers shown above. Admission is free for kids 15 and under. Adults are $15.00 each.

 

By the time we left the museum it was about 2pm. We got into Buffalo at just before 5pm and decided to stop at the Anchor Bar downtown for dinner. It's the place where the original buffalo wing was invented, or so the story goes.

 



 

Can't go wrong with chicken wings.  The falls are only about 16 miles away from the Anchor Bar. Once we got there, we decided to stop on the American side first and walk around.

 

 

 

Jess has Zohan legs.

As you can see the vantage points on the American side aren't that good. We didn't take any tours down to the side of the falls but there are some options to get a better view. Since our hotel was in Canada, we headed to the Rainbow bridge to cross the border.

 

It was getting dark by this time and it took about 30 to 40 minutes of waiting in line to get through the checkpoint into Canada. The Canadian side is much more crowded and there's much more to do. It's lit up like a Boardwalk with shops and restaurants lining the streets. The American side is just ho- hum. Not sure why that is, but my theory is that at one time the US dollar got you farther in Canada so most people spent their time there. Now that's not the case, but it could also be that the view is just so much better on the Canadian side. After we finally got to our hotel and got settled in, we walked down to the falls just in time to catch the Friday night fireworks. Afterwards, we got a glimpse of the falls at night.

 

 



These photos are pretty bad as you can see. They shine these huge lights on the falls in various colors. My favorite is the white light though. I like it au natural. It was about 10pm and there was a Coldstone Creamery that was still open (until 2am!) so we got a late night treat there. Walked back to the hotel and hit the sack.

 

The next morning we ate breakfast at Denny's and headed over the Maid of the Mist landing. Roy's dad, two sisters, nieces and friends were driving up that day to meet us. The original plan was to travel all together to Niagara but my cousins had church on Sunday so we left a day earlier in order to leave on Saturday. It was gorgeous out and we even had an Elvis sighting.

 

                    

 

 

 

Once everyone arrived, we headed down to the Maid of the Mist. It's a boat that takes you up close to the falls. It's about $20 a person, $13 for kids (free under age 5). As we made our way to the lower level and got our ponchos, we found out that they go through about 15,000+ ponchos a day, one per passenger. That's craziness.

 

 

 

If you haven't been to Niagara, I highly recommend it. I think I like it better than the Grand Canyon. It isn't extremely tall, but the amount of water that flows over is just amaze balls. Hearing the stories about people trying to go over the falls is also interesting, as well as the amount of erosion that has taken place over the past hundreds of years. It's also nice to get out of the country once in awhile, even if it is just over the border. Put that passport to good use!

 

Speaking of passports, after the boat ride we departed Canada. Here are some shots on Rainbow Bridge:

 

 

 

When we got the to US checkpoint we got grilled pretty hard. We had three passengers with Korean passports. My cousin had a student visa and the agent asked her if she was enrolled in school. After a pause, he asked when she was going back and she just gave him a blank stare. She (and I) thought he meant when was she going back to Korea but the girls answered for her and said next Monday, which is when she was going back to school. He was like, how come she doesn't know?! It was pretty funny but only after he let us through.

 

So it was back to good old Pennsylvania. Although it was a short trip, it was a good one. And lastly, this post wouldn't be complete without a snooze shot of the girls, so here you go:

 

 



Girl Crush

I have a major girl crush on Guiliana Rancic. I think her personality is amaze balls and her husband isn't too shabby either. I found out about her FabFitFun subscription box and I had to sign up because, well, I want presents from Guiliana.

Why am I crushing on her?  Hmm.. maybe it's because she's also a DMV (DC/MD/VA area) girl. She's a UMD and American University grad. I lived near College Park and Friendship Heights (one metro stop away from AU - Tenleytown, holla!) for a big chunk of my life so I have a special place in my heart for Murrland. And now also Guiliana. Plus she's great at what she does and she's been through some pretty serious stuff. Not to mention she is GORGE. See you tonight on #GandB!

via

Watch with Jurry

While my fiancé was out playing poker Saturday night, I plopped down on the couch and searched for a movie on OnDemand. Chick flick time! After looking for like 15 minutes, I finally found something from the Sundance Channel. I've never heard of it before and the plot seemed intriguing. So I watched...

 



As the movie's opening credits rolled, I noticed that it was produced by Plan B Entertainment which is Brad Pitt's production company (he's listed as executive producer). I found that I enjoy Plan B movies (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Time Traveler's Wife) so I was sure I'd like this movie and I did.

 

"The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" is about Pippa Lee (Robin Wright) who married a much older man and after they move to a retirement home in Connecticut, she finds herself reflecting on her past. She had a tumultuous childhood with a drugged out mother and eventually left her parents' home and went off on her own. The cast is pretty stacked. Blake Lively plays the younger Pippa. I love finding movies like this. If you have some "me" time, I highly recommend this movie.

 

I love movies about relationships, marriage, and all the dysfunction that goes with it. For instance, the movie "Revolutionary Road" was mind blowing and very satisfying to me. It also took place during the 1950s which is a time period I'm fascinated with. So I guess you could say those are my favorite type of movies. Pretty dark you might say, but to me, it makes those couple of hours very worthwhile. I guess it stems from own dysfunctional life. I think I should have been a psychologist. "Waitress," with Keri Russell is also one of my all time favorite movies.

 

Roy and I also saw Grown Ups 2 on Sunday and well, I learned what a Burp Snart is and that's all I've got to say about that!

Shark Cat

Caught on Camera

I have a skating video to show you, finally! My cousins were at practice last night and they recorded my flip jump. Here it is:

 

 

They also recorded some of my loop jumps (see full length video below). I can do them from a 3-turn but not from a backward crossover entrance. I think I see where I'm going wrong on those. I'm not rotating enough before I jump and my legs are too crossed. It really does help to see yourself skate. Hopefully I'll have more footage to share on my progress.

 

My spins are back, thank goodness, but still traveling like crazy. I got one good centered spin yesterday so there's still hope.

Here is the full length video. This is during our Monday night group lesson. It was pretty crowded. I think it's time to graduate from these soon and just stick to freestyle sessions. I'm afraid I'm going to hurt someone because there's so many kids skating around!