8-24-11

7:30am

First day of school!

Boy 6:00am came early along with

all the thunder, lightning and rain.

That made for a perfect morning to figure

out where to take Christopher to the bus

stop and where to find a place to park.

I parked in an alley near the intersection.

It down poured at the bus stop.

We had umbrellas and still got soaked!

When I got back home Tony went on 

to work.  He stayed home long enough

to watch Jonathan while I drove

Christopher to his bus stop.

Well at least I have an hour and a half

before the next bus comes.

Not even sure how many kids will be at

our stop because truck driver neighbor

changed his kids school to somewhere else

so there's two less kids.

And two other kids moved onto junior high.

I'm thinking we might be down to three.

I think at Christopher's stop I

counted 9 kids.

And here are the kiddos this morning

before school.

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8:00am


4 squirrels in the yard this morning.

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9:20am

Got the truck unloaded from our
apartment dive last night.
Here's all the things we found.
There is still a large outdoor fountain
and a bicycle on the patio that
we will need to go back and get.

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Well after making a shopping trip
to Kroger yesterday, so I would
be able to pack the kids lunches,
I today just got the confirmation
letter for .40 cent reduced lunches.
Man, that was quick!
I guess I need to quit filling out
the forms and sending them in
and continue each year to do them
online to get a MUCH faster response.

 I'll still continue out this week
with packed lunches.


Another thing I got in the mail
was a reappraisal value for our home.
Not sure how an auditor appraises
homes without even seeing them in person
but they do.  Every house on our street
is pretty much identical.  I checked out
most of them on the auditor's web site
and most are in the $80,000 to $90,000 range.
How in the world is it that our home
keeps dropping in value?
3 years ago the appraisal was $89,900.
It says on the auditor's web site
the home was updated in 2008.
It's not outdated!  It has newer floors,
bathroom, furnace, water heater, windows,
roof, siding, a new fence & a new very large shed.
Plus I think a corner lot would have more value.
Then it dropped majorly down
to $72,000 about a year and a half ago
and now they dropped it down
to $71,100.
A difference of $18,800 from 3 years ago!!
It says you can fight it and they
have meetings you can go to
but who has the time.
Maybe if I keep it at the value
that they appraise it at the taxes
will be lower?
It says on the notice that they will
use the current value to determine our taxes.
So I guess I'm not worried about
it if I think that way since
I have no plans of selling it.


Now if I was planning to sell it
I would fight the appraisal.
When we bought our home the basement
was partially finished.  It has drywall walls,
and a ceiling with lights in it. 
It still has the concrete floor though.
Our realtor told us that if we could
get the basement finished it 
would raise the value of our home.
They would see it as additional
living space with more added
square footage on the home.
So we could go from 932 sq ft
to about 1,398 sq ft.
So we hope to do that within the
next couple of years and make
it a rec/family room down there.


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