May 22nd, 2006 - Frugalest $1000 lost + garden news
We made the most frugal decision we might ever make last week: We’re not buying the house. We made the decision essentially 2 weeks ago. I couldn’t post about it because I don’t think it’s right to write about ongoing contract negotiations. It all finally came through on Sunday morning–signed and delivered to our agent that they agreed to let us out of the contract and they kept our earnest money. It was quite a stressful two weeks trying to get them to agree. 10 days in I finally called a lawyer (the one who did our wills turns out to be real estate attorney as well to our luck) and she said we wouldn’t be in too much trouble if we simply walked away. The worst they could do was sue us to buy the house anyway. And that was unlikely because they had to keep trying to sell it. (This, by the way, is NOT something I found out online. Everything there said “You signed the contract. You have to buy the house. No other option.”) And suing us would be very expensive in terms of legal fees. We were betting they would agree–especially since it was an estate sale and they wouldn’t want to tie up the estate for months or years over it.
So, we lost the $1000 plus the money we spent on the house and the storage unit. And, I get to look forward to months of unpacking. On the positive side of that, we’d already decided we’d carefully go through everything for consideration of getting rid of it. We’ve been able to live quite nicely without everything so far. (We can’t get rid of all of it–it includes things like winter clothes, books, the power cord for my keyboard, and the mini chopper–things we don’t use often but still want around!) I’ve already started piling up things that weren’t even boxed yet to get rid of. We really like the openness of the house–and it wasn’t cluttered before.
I cried over the decision–I should note it was Eric who insisted on it. But I immediately felt relieved that the decision was made. I, too, had been worrying about it. For a while, we thought we might have to go through with it anyway. And I realized I would prefer to lose $10,000 or so reselling it because I’d have more sleepless nights and worries about money in that house than I would if we lost the money and stayed where we are.
So I got a late start on the garden this weekend. (It rained and rained and rained for the last two weeks, so I couldn’t have done all that much sooner, although we would have tilled earlier.) Friday I ordered 5 yards of shredded wood mulch which was delivered Sat morning. Eric tilled up the grass on Saturday. I had a lovely vision of dark earth appearing after he tilled, just like our neighbor’s garden looks after tilling. We were sorely disappointed, although recognized our mistake immediately. Their garden is years if not decades old. It’s all lovely, lovely earth. Ours is still mostly grass!
Yesterday, I laid out the beds and started on the aisles (with Eric’s help). The middle aisle is still to be done–hopefully after work today. Then I’ll slowly start planting and mulching the beds. It’s a bit overwhelming, but I’m telling my self I don’t have to plant everything all at once, even though I want to! A little bit each night after work or after Maggie goes to bed and I’ll be done by the end of the week. I have 10 beds, plus some planting in the back garden. (The back garden was going to be raspberries and strawberries but that will wait another year. So I’ll put in some flowers and popcorn instead.) I think I need to buy a pitchfork; I’ve wanted one for years and keep looking at garage sales to no avail. I’m certain I could put it to good use turning the dirt in the new garden to make things easier to plant. So I’m going to go ahead and pay full price.
We also have the rest of the mulch to spread. So this morning before work I weeded the back part of the tulip bed–no tulips there because I thought it wouldn’t get enough sun. Was going to plant with lillies from the neighboor; another thing that will await next spring. Had to weed so that we can put mulch there. 5 yards is a lot; we’ll use about half on the garden aisles, which leaves quite a bit for other areas of the yard.
I’m really looking forward to fresh veggies! So I ground up almost all of what was left of last season’s dried veggies. (For Maggie’s crackers and sprinkling on her meals.) I know I won’t have anything from my garden for a while, but the farmer’s market starts up June 3 so I can get fresh veggies in just 2 weeks!
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