My house accomplishment today is one that W is probably sick of me celebrating. She was on the phone with me whilst I was finishing and listened to me crow for many, many minutes afterwards. I actually completed a spreadsheet of all the initial expenses and on-going capital expenditures that I have had on my home!

You see, when I first bought the house, I did not have enough money for a down payment. I borrowed $12K from my brother, but only on the promise that he would share in the profit. What this amounts to is that he will nearly double his investment in four and a half years. He is actually quite wealthy, while I just get by. Yes, there has been the equity in the house, but I couldn't really tap it unless I moved.

I was rather dismayed to see that I have put in nearly 52K into the property since purchasing it because it was in such poor condition (not including landscaping and on-going maintenance). The only way I could do this was re-financing twice in the last three and a half years to access the equity. Doing so is why my mortgage is high, although, to be fair, I have to admit that it is no higher than if I had bought a home that didn't need such repair.

I had been dreading the accounting because, while I have a 3-inch binder with top-loading sheet protectors (of course) filled with receipts covering EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING that has been done to the house, the receipts associated with the work number in the dozens and dozens and dozens. The thought of plowing through the "supplies" receipts alone made me shudder. Naturally, I had left that task until the end. So, to my surprise, it went well because I was chatting with W while tackling it. [The "supplies" total was nearly 6K.]

So, now I have a spreadsheet of all my expenditures, including sub categories, ready for the "accounting" of the profit on the sale of my house. Really, I think that the sight of that Excel workbook is almost beautiful.

Next, I have got to finish my novel and the scanning project!


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Have I discovered that I was ill yet? The jury is still out. Does having a scratchy throat for four days count? I have to say that I would prefer to either become colossally ill or no longer having a reason to give thought to the area between my mouth and esophagus...