HisHersMoney

I know, we haven’t been around for awhile. Life gets busy sometimes!

At the beginning of April we bought a 30% ownership in a ski condo in Colorado. We live in the Washington DC area so we closed on it by fax and wired the money. We got a really great deal on it and only paid about a third of it’s estimated value and we paid cash.

In order to pay cash we basically had to empty out all of our accounts, and yes I do mean all! Luckily we still had enough money to pay all the bills and we also have some savings bonds that we didn’t have to cash in. If something happened and we really needed some cash quick we could have cashed these in if needed.

A few weeks ago we made our first trip out to stay in our new condo, meet the property management, and see the area when there wasn’t snow on the ground. We absolutely loved it! We went hiking, biking and walking around everyday and enjoyed breakfast, lunch and dinner outside a number of times.

While we were there we spoke to the property management about upcoming renovations that were needed to our unit, the biggest thing being a need for new furniture. I can’t tell you how lovely the pink chairs were and how comfortable they were when you sat in them and could feel the frame below what once was a cushion.

First up was the bedroom. A new headboard, king size bed and new linens as well as a matching dresser. Luckily some other owners had bought the dresser and decided against the design before buying the rest of the set so we got the dresser at a discount and just bought the matching bed. It was really quite nice. In time the nightstands will need to be updated as well but for now they could stay.

As for the living area which consisted of a couch, chair and a small dining table and chairs we weren’t really liking the proposed choices in new furniture. As a result we asked them to hold off for a bit until we found something a little more tasteful and so we plan on tackling that this fall.

Since we own 30% of the unit we will be responsible for 30% of the costs. For the bedroom updates I think our portion will be about $1000. Not too bad for what we are getting. I think the shared ownership thing works well in that everyone gets to enjoy the entire place and the new furniture this year but everyone only pays for a smaller portion of it.

We won’t be back there again until Thanksgiving time but we are looking forward to it!

As of July 1st we are moving out of our apartment and into a house we rented. The new place is just over ten minutes from where we live now so not too far away. We currently rent a two bedroom apartment in a pretty nice building but with our lease renewal they wanted to raise our rent up more than we were willing to pay. We found a three bedroom three and a half bath townhouse that was really in great shape and had a big back deck so we decided the extra amenities that the apartment building offered weren’t enough to keep us. Our rent will actually be cheaper at the new place even though it is much bigger. RIght away we will see a $450 a month savings just in base rent (yes the utilities will probably be a little higher).

The townhouse is three stories high and the bottom floor has its own bath room and walk out patio area in addition to a large amount of space. We have a friend who was looking for a place to rent and it turns out that it is perfect for him. We didn’t ask for too much rent, just enough to save us some money and be a great deal for him.

After the additional rent savings due to our room mate we will actually save about $1000 a month! While we are psyched about this savings, we wouldn’t have done the room mate thing if the house set up wasn’t what is was where he have have his own space downstairs and we can have ours.

Hopefully it will work out for everyone! We will post in the future about how it’s working out.