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Friday, October 26, 2018

We sold our fixer upper house

It was hard to part with this house after putting so much time and effort into planning renovations, but the fact is we don't have the money or time to continue putting into this house. 

Our plan at the beginning of the summer was to get another loan that might allow us to continue working on the home but in the end, it was easier and faster to get a loan for a better condition home then to continue working on this one.  Once we had made the decision to buy another home, it just didn't make sense to continue putting money into the fixer upper.

I'm very disappointed in Maryland Washington County contractors for their complete lack of professionalism in not calling us back regularly, this is something you don't hear about in TV fixer upper shows.  The cost was always considerably more then what we'd budgeted for and not knowing the business of construction made it very hard to project manage our renovation. 

I don't like to give up but I think it's important to know when to walk away and this was one of those times to let it go. 

We sold the house for 50K, 10K more then what we bought for at the end of 2015, but 10K less then what we had put into it.  It's okay, we'd have lost more in taxes and insurance if we'd continued to hold until spring to hope we might get a little more.  We can now use this money to pay off debt and invest the balance which makes me a very happy person.

Saturday, October 20, 2018

Lamma Island, Hong Kong

After spending over 10 days in China I was so relieved to arrive in Hong Kong with a day off.  I had determined that I would go out and do something that required walking because after the prior weekend, I went back to work of sitting on my butt for 10+ hours.

Lamma Island is a place where friend blogger Grit lived for 1-2 years awhile back and she had me come visit her there twice.  It takes two ferries to get there + a taxi ride and when there I walked 3 miles to get to the beach so lucky for me it was a cloudy day in the high 70's.

Here are some photos from my adventure:






Only tiny work vehicles are permitted, like this.



Very lush and tropical.


This is the pretty view, the other side faces the electrical plant.


Mango smoothie at beach hotel/restaurant!

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Shenzhen, China 2018

My first week in China was spent working 10-12 hour days until Sunday, when the office was closed for a day.  My host took me to downtown Shenzhen for lunch and a walk around a park afterwards.  After a week of sitting, I very much enjoyed the walk and scenery.













Thursday, October 11, 2018

Orange Mushrooms 2018

This is all we got this year.  I don't know what happened but it makes me very sad.