That’s how having these enormous trees taken out as we speak is making me feel.

There are a bunch of french guys out there working for me and making my house “better” which, in turn, raises my standard of living.

If feels pretty good, you know?

It has me thinking that I should just go all out and get a contractor in here to do up the first floor.

Maybe even get the oil tank out of the basement while they’re add it. And I should get things rolling on that “tear down the garage and build a brand new one” idea I tossed around last year…

Okay, perhaps that’s a little much… I don’t have *that* much momentum…

But I still have that itch to go all out and just get all of these costly renovations just plain out of the way and in the rear view mirror without worrying too much about how to pay for them…

Sure, you could pull any number of scenarios from when I said I’d considered lowering or eliminating my 401k contribution — something I still haven’t done yet.

Doing something drastic there would definitely make things easier to finance.

And Grant, who pops in pretty regularly with well thought out comments, had a great suggestion too. Take an extended break from my crazy mortgage payment schedule and instead save up to do everything I want to do next year.

Sure, it’d push back paying off the mortgage by around a year but it would also give me a much nicer living situation a lot sooner…

And thinking about it…between December of 2007 and July of 2007 while still struggling with my credit card balances, I spent over $40k on home renovations.

Less than a year later, I was debt free.

I can totally do this.

The problem is finding a contractor…

I just noticed this this morning… ING Direct lowered their interest rate to 1.391%.

The last time that they changed (and lowered) their rate was back on March 21.

At the time, if you remember, it was pretty much expected and it was their third or fourth rate reduction of the year. Every few weeks, they’d lower it a bit.

Things just seemed gloomy all around.

But it’s been quiet since then, the stock market has roared back up, there are media reports of people saving instead of spending, and, honestly, I was actually expecting them to raise the rate sometime over the summer.

You know, to maybe attract all of these reported *new* savers out there???

Now this?

Well, it’s disappointing…

That’s exactly what my wife and I did for the Fourth of July.

In Connecticut, we have to pay local property taxes on our automobiles. We used to be pretty unique in that respect but, from what I’ve heard, now roughly half of the country has a similar tax. Greedy government… Grrrr…

The bill came on Wednesday.

Not including her car (she pays her taxes, I pay mine), total tax due for my two cars was $385.18.

That’s $42.36 less than last year but it still seems like an awful lot for an 11-year old BMW and a 5-year old subcompact Scion.

Here’s an updated chart of my personal property tax bill for the past nine years:

Sure, looking at the tax that I’ve had to pay in the past, I should be quite pleased.

I’m not — $385.18 is a lot to pay on top of the registration fee, my drivers license fee, and the emissions test fees that I have to pay for on each vehicle.

And if I’m not mistaken, upon purchase, I also paid a 6% sales tax on top of the sticker price.

Grand total on the BMW, I’ve probably forked over nearly $10k to the State of Connecticut in taxes alone.

I dunno, seems a little excessive when you put it all together…

Anyway, it’s a good thing that July is a three paycheck month for me — just like last year.

I can spare it.

Earlier this week, we called a few companies out for estimates — Asplundh, an international tree service that you’d normally see doing municipal work around power lines, and two local companies.

Asplundh hasn’t come by yet — they said they’d be coming by next week to check the project out — but the two locals have stopped in and provided quotes.

For the two locals, I should mention that neither of them is the type of thing where it’s some guy with a chainsaw and his brother that’s missing an arm from the “accident” last week — I’ve seen both companies all over the place with multiple bucket trucks and crane type vehicles in tight places.

They’re both appear to be quite reputable.

As far as Asplundh goes, we were planning on green lighting the project even before next week so they’ll probably be coming out too late.

That’s okay, though. I was leaning against them anyway because I’d prefer to use a smaller local company because that’s just the way I am.

And no, that doesn’t mean that I’m one of those folks who refuses to shop at Walmart, though I do refuse to shop at Walmart, my reasoning is because Target is *so* much better.

Back to the trees…

So, in a back-to-back fashion, both companies sent a little french guy covered in sawdust to scope out our situation. Call me politically incorrect but I always thought drywall was their specialty… Apparently, they’re tree experts too.

Both seemed pleasant enough and I got a pretty good vibe from both.

The first quote we received was $2750. And the second was $2950.

Pretty close together.

It was funny, once we got down to the pricetag, I wasn’t standing there in stunned silence (like I had with the roof and the siding).

With the first one, I actually had to bite the insides of my cheeks to hold back a smile… Seriously.

While my wife and I didn’t actually come up with a number in our heads ahead of time like we wanted to (in a feeble attempt to prepare ourselves for pretty much any number), this quote was well within our limits. Yeah, the limits we never actually set.

Thinking about it though, nearly $3k is still a pretty hefty sum so why am I so content with it?

Is it simply because I have the funds available to cover it?

Maybe.

When we had our roof done back in December of 2006, we had saved up $2k and thought we were doing really well. The quote, and cost of the project, was $14k. Yeah, we were stunned. But we had to green light the project to begin solving our ongoing insurance problem.

Even worse, by the summer of 2007, we’d saved up around $6k to have the house sided and, again, we thought we were in really great shape. That quote came in at $26k?! Yikes?!

Again, though, we went ahead and had the work done financing most of it on a credit card. (Thankfully, we did finally resolve our insurance problem!)

So, basically, on the last two sizable home improvement projects, we’ve been caught with our pants down when it came to the actual cost.

I think we’ve almost come to expect it to be that way everytime.

Not so.

We had a decision to make…

Which company should we hire for the job?

The guys that they sent out to give the quote were all but identical — yeah, I admit it, I judge people. Their quotes were so close together that I can’t justifiably base my decision strictly on cost either…

Hmmmm… how to compare the two…

The more expensive place definitely has the nicer looking equipment. Basically, their entire fleet looks uniform — red paint, big white letters, cool looking logo. Plain and simple, from their trucks right down to their wood chippers, their stuff looks sharp.

The cheaper place is a hodge-podge of sorts. White pick-up trucks, various coloured bucket trucks, orange chippers, and a green stump grinder. And the pick-ups are the only pieces with an identifying logo.

Not that presentation is everything, and not that I can relate real well with the tree service contractor type of business, but I know I always have more interest in the RFP’s printed on linen paper over those printed on single-ply recycled toilet paper. One is more professional. Obviously.

On the other hand, again, you can put all the lipstick on a pig (or decals and paint on your equipment) you want but it’s still a pig. Or a pitbull. Or Sarah Palin. Or however that went…

The more expensive place is winning so far…

On the other hand, the cheaper place provided us with the quote on a custom carbon copy quote form. The more expensive place put the quote on the flipside of a business card.

Estimate 1:

Estimate 2:

I know first hand that it’s a pretty big expense to have custom carbon copy forms made up, especailly when they’re not at all essential to the business that you do.

For years I’ve contemplated having custom window envelopes made up for my own company’s invoices but it never made much sense to spend so much for something that I’d only send to companies whose business I already have…

This, on the other hand, is something that they were using to attract new business. And, at some point, they decided that it was worth the expense.

And you know what?

In this case, it worked.

Largely, for that reason, a simple yet fancy quote sheet, that first company is going to be the one that gets my business. From the business side of things, they’re the more professional of the two.

Luckily, they’re also the company with the cheaper quote.

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PIAC Post Extension:
The quote form wasn’t the “only” reason we selected the first place. After giving us the quote, the first guy who came out asked us if we were having anyone else come out to give estimates. We said, yes, and told him the name of the other local company.

His response, no joke, was, “Oh, they’re great people. A nice family. They do good work.”

Back in 2007, when our siding contractor asked if we’d had anyone else come to price the project he called our other option lazy and a crook.

In hindsight, I wish we’d hired the lazy guy who was a crook because I can’t imagine he would have put us through the rigmarole the contractor that we selected did. Just thinking about it makes me angry — a two week project took them FIVE MONTHS!?

Basically, this response earned some bonus points for the first guy — not only because he asked the question AFTER he’d given the quote but also because he didn’t bash his biggest competitor in front of a potential customer.

Now, the second guy who came out never asked if we’d already gotten a quote from someone else but he could probably read it in our eyes. Upon delivery of his, um, business card, he mentioned that the cost quote could come down some depending on how much time it took to truck everything away once it’s all cut down.

Hey, that’s their problem, not mine. I didn’t really like that false “tease”.

But he also said that if we paid cash, they’d waive the sales tax… Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to cancel out the terrible quote delivery method…

Anyhow, this afternoon, we called the first place to let them know that they’d “won” and come Monday, the sun will shine upon us a little bit brighter!

(That is, if the sun ever comes out… It’s been raining for over a month, it seems…)

We still haven’t had that done and haven’t even called anyone about it yet.

Instead, we’re leapfrogging it.

Our second “project” for this summer, now the first, was/is to have some trees in the yard taken down.

This has been something I’ve been meaning to have done pretty much since day one but it seemed so silly to have work done on the trees when the actual house is what needed the most work.

One tree, in particular, has always kind of frightened me.

It is by far the tallest tree in the neighborhood. It’s trunk is an amazing 104 inches around — trees that wide aren’t real common in New England.

It’s also far enough away from house that, should it decide to tip over, it would have enough momentum to slice the house right in half. Yep, just like that picture (which was taken last week less than 10 miles from my house).

Should it fall in a different direction, say good bye to my garage and the BMW and Cessna parked inside.

In another direction? Well, the trunk is still thick enough a few hundred feet up to slice a neighbor’s house in half too. While that could be a good thing, I’m not certain that my homeowners insurance would cover it…

Making things even more frightening is that it’s a white pine. The needles don’t fall off in the winter so the the entire tree is like a sailboat’s sail in the wind. Also being a white pine, it’s a soft wood.

Really, it’s a disaster waiting to happen.

The pine cones are annoying too.

I can’t really take too much credit for it though as almost all of the gains have come in my 401k and the value of my home… Must be that lagging economy or something…

There isn’t really much else to blab about so I’ll go right into the breakdown:

Cash:
Somewhat depleted. I’m throwing a ton at the mortgage of late and this is the category that’s taking the beating.

Savings:
I’m on auto pilot here trying to increase the balance by $1000 each month. I was right on target for June.

Gov’t Bonds:
Still waiting for that investment I made back in April to make some sort of difference but, so far, nothing.

401k:
I almost can’t believe that I’m pondering lowering or even eliminating my contributions… More often than not, this seems like a cash cow.

Home:
Still no where near its high (February 2008) but right back up to where it was before the bottom fell out back in October and November of 2008.

Auto 1 & Auto 2:
Eh, I thought the drop on my primary vehicle was a little extreme but whatever… They’re paid for so I’ll take whatever value they still have.

Credit Cards:
Holding steady here.

Auto Loan:
Nothing to report.

Other Loans:
Thankfully, I don’t have any “other” loans.

Mortgage:
I did an awesome job this month. It might not be the wisest move to pay down a mortgage like this but it’s a safe bet and it will feel really good to get it under $100k.

I was keeping my spending in check for a few months (April was amazing) there but now I’ve officially gone off the deep end.

To my credit, I did fire a warning shot on June 7th.

In fact, I was already “over” budget then…

Okay, here goes:

• $2400.00 : Mortgage
• $617.77 : eBay
• $282.45 : Business Expenses
• $109.26 : Cable/Internet
• $95.14 : Electricity
• $65.26 : Natural Gas
• $52.64 : Gas
• $49.39 : Phone
• $40.00 : Drum Corps Tickets
• $34.35 : Target (Diapers, wipes, and some side snapping baby t-shirts)
• $21.16 : Lowes (Plastic lawn chairs)
• $20.00 : Cash
• $15.00 : Car Wash

All of that adds up to $3802.42.

That’s nearly $1k more than last month. Back in April, I spent $2500 total — this month I spent $2400 on the mortgage alone…

So while the mortgage expenses were the obvious budget buster (term stolen from Debt Destroyer over at Happy Rock), I still have a little explaining to do in some of the other categories…

Yep, I spent a nice chunk of change on eBay this month… And yep, game worn hockey jerseys were the culprit. Again.

Technically, though, I made these purchases right at the end of last month. I just didn’t actually pay for them until June. Doesn’t make it any better, I’m just sayin’…

The business expenses line is also quite inflated. Before Duncan was born, we’d planned on creating our own birth announcements rather than use the kind you can buy at any store that sells stationary.

We wanted full color. We wanted gloss. We wanted alligators. We didn’t want to have to write something in any of them. And we wanted it to look professional.

I designed them myself so that part was technically “free”.

I did spent around $100 on stock imagery, though, and the printing company that I use (and recommend highly) also hit us up for over $100 for printing the cards. Then we had to mail them all.

Costly, but totally worth it. If you were fortunate enough to recieve one of the announcements a few weeks ago, I hope it stood out as a Brainy original. Maybe I’ll post a picture of them here on PIAC…

All of the related costs fall under “business expenses” because I use all of the same vendors for my, well, business. This was essentially just a non-paying project for myself.

The car wash expenses will end this month though — that’s for certain.

In short, a bird pooped right on the door handle on the side where we have the car seat installed. That just wouldn’t do. And it seemed like a fun thing to do at the time…

I’m not going to say that next month will be better — what I don’t spend on eBay, I hope to send towards the mortgage — but I’m going to try my best to perpetually keep my monthly expenses under $4000.

At the onset, I really only had two goals for this year.

1. Find a contractor to gut and remodel the entire first floor of my house. New kitchen, new bathroom, new floors, new walls, and new ceilings throughout.
   Preferably, I’d like to have the project nearing completion by May 2009.

2. Pay for all of the work done by the end of the year. Realistically, we’re going to have to find financing for a great deal of the work and, again, I’ll probably use my credit cards for most of it.

Well, my second goal can’t happen without the first actually happening. And we’re beyond May 2009 and we’ve made zero progress on that. Hmph.

It’s not that I’m stuck in the mud or anything, I’m just not aiming towards anything either. There isn’t any excitement to be found on my spreadsheets of late… (How nerdy does that sound?)

Of late, I’ve fallen back on an old habit, debt repayment, to try and salvage the year. My only remaining debt is the mortgage so I’m attacking it like I did my old credit card debts.

See, while I’d love to have the first floor of my house remodelled, I dunno, for some reason it doesn’t excite me the way that not having a mortgage payment does — and when the time comes that I don’t have a mortgage payment, well, that’ll free up a lot of money for all of the remodelling I could possibly dream of.

That’s how I’m looking at it now anyway… (Apparently, I was thinking this way back in January too.)

So how soon can I get there?

I put together a chart this morning detailing when my mortgage will be paid off and how much of an extra monthly payment I’d need to make to get it there.

I went in increments of $250 all the way up to $2500. Yeah, $2500 per month extra. That’s crazy buy when I was at the height of my credit card repayment, I was sending VISA and MasterCard just shy of $2500 each month.

I could afford it then so there isn’t any reason I can’t afford it now — though at the time I was throwing every last penny towards it and somewhat struggling to have enough in my checking account to cover the bills as a result…

Looking at the chart — if I just pay the minimum, the mortgage will be paid off in September of 2026. Seeing as I’ve never paid just the minimum on my mortgage, this isn’t a scenario I’m looking at…

I mean, in September of 2026 I’ll be turning 50. I can’t imagine still owing money on something that I bought when I was 25. I just can’t imagine that.

Really, the first few rows of the chart don’t interest me at all. I know people say that every little bit helps, I say it too, but I think that this chart proves that every “a lot” of bit really helps.

On the other side, the last few rows look a little too lofty. They also don’t seem to make enough of a difference to the end date to justify how much we’d struggle financially to make the payments in the first place.

The $1250 mark is where things start to look attractive to me with the end date of May 2014. For another $500 per month, we could fast forward things over a year.

In that scenario, my house will be paid for in less than 4 years?!

Can I delay the first floor remodel for 4 years? Probably not — I’m not really sure.

At the very least, we’d need to have “some” work done between now and then. Maybe not the remodel I picture in my head just yet but, either way, it’ll slow our progress towards this goal some.

So, for the remainder of the year, I’m going to attack the mortgage like it’s a nasty credit card balance.

I won’t throw every penny at it but I’ll be sure to fall somewhere between $1250 and $1750 each month.

They were calling to let us know that “Ducan” (yep, they massacred what I’d consider, while rather uncommon these days, a very simple and traditional name) had an outstanding balance for his May 26 “procedure” and that we’d need to “set-up” a payment plan.

Like a seasoned telemarketing pro, they proceeded right into the list of various payment options.

Confused, my wife interupted with a “What?”

Obviously used to this type of treatment, the caller just pressed on until my wife finally got a word in edgewise.

“We’re not going to set-up a payment plan without a bill.”

Makes sense, right?

The caller then said that the bill had been mailed…

YESTERDAY.

Now, mail service is pretty prompt around here but not *that* prompt.

My wife futher explained that we hadn’t yet recieved a bill and until we had a bill in hand, we weren’t paying anything and definitely not over the phone.

Now I know that the person on the other end of the phone encounters a lot of deadbeats that also claim that they never received a bill in the mail — I realize that — but when the they’re the one that offers up the information that the bill was mailed out YESTERDAY, I mean, c’mon…

We’re not late — we haven’t even recieved the freakin’ bill. (That was just the insurance company’s explanation of benefits last Thursday.)

So, after making my wife feel like a deadbeat, the caller apparently came to terms with the fact that it was plausible that we hadn’t yet receieved a bill…but she still insisted on knowing how we intended to pay the outstanding balance…

“Sorry, we’ll pay you when we receive a bill.”

Click.

Plain and simple, this was a collections call thinly disguised as a courtesy call…

I’m not terribly impressed.

I actually find it completely ridiculous…

Disgusting, even.

And with that, we’ll probably sit on the bill until just days before it’s due.

Had they left us alone, they probably would have had payment in full before the holiday weekend.

(For the record, it wasn’t a scam — it really was the hospital calling.)

The nerve…

Can you believe that?

Even though I wasn’t born in the US, if I had been, I’d be one of those bicentennial babies. What that basically means is that the Jackson 5 were a little before my time. But it also means that I was the perfect age for MJ’s solo career.

My parents were still listening to popular music when “Off the Wall” came out in 1979 so I got my share of “Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough” and “Rock With You” riding in the back of the car.

I don’t remember either song being a favorite (neither could top Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” or Christopher Cross’ “Ride Like the Wind”), but I certainly remember hearing them an awful lot.

By the time Thriller came out, sure, my parents had turned the dial to the oldies stations instead but I was six years old by then — I had access to my own radio dial.

Best of all, our next door neighbor was an audiophile. His “band” was the Who but he also had the Michael Jackson album before anyone that I knew. I’m not sure he’d be willing to admit it but he had it in his collection probably the same day that it came out.

We used to go over there, put on his enormous headphones and giggle endlessly wondering what on earth “Ma-Ma-Se, Ma-Ma-Sa, Ma-Ma-Goo-Sa” meant… Back then, you couldn’t just jump to a song as easily as you can now (partly because we weren’t allowed to actually touch his turntable) so we listened to “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” (the first track on the album) more than any other song on the record. In fact, I’m not sure we ever listened to the flip side…

My friend Chris and I even used the “Ma-Ma-Se” thing as a greeting? Weird.

We were living outside Chicago at the time and I remember walking to school with Chris and his older brother Kurt pretending that the sidewalk was lighting up in front of us like it did in the “Billie Jean” video.

I also remember very long sessions of attempting to moonwalk on the kitchen tile with our slipperiest socks on. I never quite mastered it.

I remember the hi-fi guy, Kurt and Chris’ dad, saying that it was a fake special effect but we kept trying anyway…

As 1st graders, we had no idea what the song, “Billie Jean”, was about but we certainly knew all the words. When “Beat It” came out, well, game over, everyone that I knew was asking for the Thriller record for their birthday.

I got it on tape that summer — along with a tape recorder.

Then we moved to Connecticut and my access to Hi-Fi music was dashed. But with the move to New England came something new — cable television and MTV.

Not only could I listen to MJ, now I could see him too! I’d seen the videos before, probably on Solid Gold or something, but never over and over and over again.

I remember when the Thriller video came out — I think it was even listed in TV Guide — my parents even watched. And they enjoyed it!

Imagining my son being 7 years old now instead of one month, I’m not sure I’d be able to “enjoy” the music or the videos he might be watching right now. Somehow, in the early 1980’s Michael Jackson was able to appeal to 7 year olds AND 37 year olds.

My next big MJ memory came a few months after the big Thriller music video.

I had the jacket from Thriller in 3rd grade — it was awesome.

Yeah, my parents were too cheap to buy me a glittery glove that I also wanted but they totally went all out and hooked me up with a red and black pleather jacket.

Did I mention yet that it was awesome?

I remember it almost having a Michael Jackson like effect at the bus stop.

No, the girls weren’t passing out or anything just being in my presence but they were asking to try it on and I thought that was pretty cool.

While I can’t prove it here with photographic evidence as I’m not sure a photo of me in the jacket even exists — thank god, too, evidence like that would have jeopardized my popularity in high school — trust me, I had it. And it *was* awesome.

I’m sure that if I dug through the attic enough, I’d find it. Or maybe my parents still have it? Mom?

Anyway, I’m not really sure where it ended up but I’d hate to think that we just threw it away…

The next time Michael Jackson came up was when I was just heading into junior high school.

It was the end of the summer and I had a birthday party to go to and I wanted to buy the “Bad” tape for my friend Ryan.

Problem was, the album was being released the day of the party *and* it went over the $10 birthday present limit my mom had set. (Yeah, back then, cassettes were $16.99 for a new release).

My mom ending up buying the tape last minute (going over the $10 limit) and as my friend was opening his other presents, I was a little worried about he’d react to mine.

See, Michael Jackson wasn’t as cool as he’d been when we were in third grade but when he opened it, everyone at the party was excited. (I did a little fist pump in my head. Yes!)

I remember after the party, when his mom was driving us all home, she had the tape playing in the car (they were loaded so, unlike the rest of us, they had a tape player in the car – remember, this is 1987!) and we were all in the back clapping along to “The Way You Make Me Feel” which was the first song on the album that none of us had ever heard before.

If I remember correctly, that was pretty much the last real birthday party that wasn’t just a sleepover with a few friends that I ever attended. Later that week, we were, afterall, junior high schoolers and far too grown up for “Fudgie the Whale” cakes.

His next album was “Dangerous” with the big prime time network debut of the “Black or White” video and the morphing faces at the end.

I was in high school at this point and while it was okay to admit that you thought the end of his video was cool, it was best to keep being a fan on the hush-hush.

I bought his Dangerous album in Germany on tape because, yeah, I didn’t have a CD player yet and because I was certain that I would probably never again see any of those Germans there to witness me purchasing it.

Yeah, in 1992, there was a little bit of shame in admitting that you liked Michael Jackson *and* Pearl Jam.

I’d say that it was the first MJ album that I didn’t play the crap out of.

It’s not that it wasn’t worthy, but I think my tastes had begun to slide over to less mainstream stuff like They Might be Giants. And, um, Pearl Jam.

Crazy to call a guy like Michael Jackson mainstream, huh?

The last time I gave Michael any thought, prior to Thursday, was when HIStory came out in 1995. It was in the summer of 1995 and I was taking a few courses in University.

My friend Alison, almost as a joke I think, suggested that we line up to buy the album at midnight.

Thinking that sounded like more fun than watching Baywatch and Unsolved Mysteries reruns I said that I’d be up for it.

When we got to “House of Sounds” on Princess Street in Kingston, which still sold records at the time, there was already a line up?!

I couldn’t believe it!? At a time when few would admit to even liking Michael Jackson, he could still get people to line up in the middle of the night to buy one of his albums. Amazing.

Anyway, 6 minutes and 15 seconds past midnight, I owned HIStory… and Disc 1 (best compilation EVER!) is the CD player in the car right now…

(Though I must admit, I had to dig through a few boxes this morning to find it.)