{"id":4682,"date":"2022-12-31T16:41:49","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T16:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zuschlag.us\/?p=4682"},"modified":"2024-08-31T16:26:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T16:26:59","slug":"2022-christmas-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/?p=4682","title":{"rendered":"2022 Christmas Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trigger Warning!<\/strong> The following missive is some of the most intensive navel-gazing you’ll ever encounter in your life.\u00a0 \u00a0The sheer amount of self-absorbed whining may be too much for sensitive readers.\u00a0 Please read at your own risk.<\/p>\n

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Like all new years, this one arrived full of hope and expectation.\u00a0 And, like all new years, those expectations soon had a confrontation with reality.\u00a0 And reality always wins.\u00a0 \u00a0But in the early days there was snow on the ground and it was beautiful.<\/p>\n

The cold and snow of January is expected but nevertheless unwelcome when you\u2019re trying to build a house.\u00a0 Half the work crew was out with COVID at any one time, and frozen ground made it difficult to do other things too. \u00a0So for most of the month, construction on our new house was at a standstill.\u00a0 Still, the snow helped identify where the roof leaked.<\/p>\n

While construction delays are inevitable, the lack of progress was really freaking me out.\u00a0\u00a0 We were \u2018supposed\u2019 to finish construction in April and had been working nicely toward that goal up til now.\u00a0 But what if we didn\u2019t finish in time? (spoiler alert: we are still not finished as of this writing at the end of the year).\u00a0 \u00a0Reading the tea leaves in Washington it was becoming more and more apparent that the Fed was going to reneg on its pledge not to raise interest rates until 2023. \u00a0And that was making me very, very, nervous.\u00a0\u00a0 Forget the spiraling out-of-control costs of construction \u2013 how would we afford the monthly mortgage payment if interest rates rose?\u00a0\u00a0 Short answer \u2013 we couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 This whole project had been predicated on stable prices and rates during construction.\u00a0\u00a0 Well, pricing of materials was already triple what we had anticipated, and there was no way we could afford our house if rates even blipped up a few pennies.<\/p>\n

Luckily after frantic poking around and untold ridiculous questions and concerns about my source of income (grist for an epic rant that I will spare you now), I was able to lock into a great rate and felt quite proud of myself.\u00a0\u00a0 I could sleep well at night as long as we finished construction by May (when the rate lock expired).\u00a0 The builder assured me that that would be more than enough time to finish.<\/p>\n

Thus relieved, I spent most of my free time working on the interior of the new barn and getting my new pigeon and chicken pens all set up for the breeding season.\u00a0 I won\u2019t bore you with the details, but my goal was to have a modern easy-to-clean and labor saving set-up, and I think I succeeded.\u00a0\u00a0 At least I did in the design. \u00a0On paper it will be fantastic (once it\u2019s done!).\u00a0 But the press of real estate business meant that my \u2018spare time\u2019 was pretty miniscule.<\/p>\n

The good news was that we finally sold the condo in Alexandria and, after being \u2018underwater\u2019 for so long, Keith was delighted to be able to get his money out. \u00a0The other good news is that the real estate market showed absolutely no signs of slowing down, in fact it was the busiest January of my career.<\/p>\n

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