Radon is good for you, right?

So, I'm sitting here in my in-laws' basement, typing on my trusty 5-year-old desktop. The basement has been gutted because the sewers overflowed just after we moved out of here the last time, back in 2003. My monitor, speakers, and joystick are on top of a small plastic folding table, and my keyboard and mouse are on a slightly-smaller card table (green and white weave pattern) that I was able to slide under the plastic table. This is my new computer desk. My new computer chair is a folding chair with 1/4" of padding on it. This will most likely be my sanctuary for the next two years. I'm a little upset about this general situation, but overall I'd have to say things are pretty good. I'm almost done with my second play-though of Half-Life 2, and Abee is upstairs reading the new Harry Potter book.

So why are we in this situation? Well, "Half-Life 2: Episode 2" is coming out soon, and I still have yet to play "Half-Life 2: Episode 1" for the first time, which came out LAST summer. I didn't want to start Episode 1 without having the original Half-Life 2 fresh in my mind. And Abee is reading the new Harry Potter because she wants to read it before someone tells her the ending.

Oh, you meant why are we going to be here for the next two years? Well, as it turns out, we bought a condo in Ft. Lauderdale at what will probably become known as the absolute worst time in the state's history to buy one, October of 2005. If I haven't told the story yet, here it is: We were renting a really nice place very close to the Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport, where I worked. There was a tremendous real estate boom going on at the time, and most apartment complexes were being sold to companies that wanted to "convert" (i.e. sell) the apartments as condominiums. Our apartment complex was no exception. We were soon told we could buy our place at a "discount" of $180,000, or keep renting it but risk having it bought out from under us when the place goes on sale to the general public.

We knew we weren't going to live in Florida forever, but didn't know how much longer. We knew we loved our place and didn't want to risk moving to a place we would end up not liking, and with the way the market was going it looked like our choices were "buy or get out." Well, it's generally better to own than rent, and we were getting it at a discount besides, right? So we took the plunge and shortly thereafter the rest of the complex went on sale to the general public. The starting asking price for a unit of our floor plan was $225,000. We thought we had done pretty well. We knew the housing boom had to end someday but we felt we had enough of a cushion to survive and even probably make a little money if we had to sell the place in a hurry.

Just over a year later, when I got hired by Chautauqua and we decided it was time to go back home to Indiana, the market was completely different. Now our place has been on the market for 7 months, and in that time we had four people come look at it. We now have a different realtor and he says that to really get people in there, the minimum asking price needs to be $169,000. Let's say it finally sells for $160,000 (and this is probably being optimistic). That's a $20k hit, plus commission and fees and we're looking at probably $30k or more in the hole when it sells. We're pretty much counting on that now, and we're planning on staying here with Abee's parents until we make up that difference or they kick us out. The former will probably take us about two years. And until the place does sell, we're leaving my wonderful computer desk, and my very comfortable computer chair, down in Florida.

So now onto your next likely question, how can I then be saying things are pretty good? Well for one thing, we're knee-deep in family between living with Abee's and visiting mine several times a week, and that's pretty nice after being 1300 miles away for four years. I still have my job at Chautauqua, which is still a great job, and I now have over 400 people below me seniority-wise, which is great furlough protection. And like I mentioned the other week, I don't have to make an aerial commute to or from work anymore. I could go back to that and Abee and I could go back to living in our place in Ft. Lauderdale for five or so years until the market turns around. However, I really didn't like that commute, and Abee's made it pretty clear that she'd rather live here than go back to Florida. So here we are, and here I am, in the basement, about to play a little more Half-Life 2. I love Half-Life. Things are good.