Category Archives: Moving

From Busboy to Software Engineer

I started out my professional career working at Village Inn when I was 16 years old as a busboy. I learned how to clean the tables pick out which cleaners to use and was responsible and timely with all aspects of the job. It paid off. They moved me up to Dishwasher. Eventually I did so well they moved me up to waiter!


From This (not actually me, Im way hotter)

Its much the same as I did for the company I work at now. Just proving oneself can get you places. I started doing some CD production and distribution and now I am working on software engineering projects for 911 and doing software quality testing with no formal education.

For me its all about setting goals and being persistent. I came here not knowing what the vi editor was in unix. Now I can make advanced shell scripts that run at an enterprise level site (have several hundreds servers and several datacenters). Learning new programming languages, learning about system administration, data cabling, fail over philosophy and many many other attributes of computing that I didn’t even know existed a few years ago.


To This (not actually our data center, our cabling is much cleaner)

When I look at where I started it gives me a good sense of pride to know where I am at now. I don’t exactly know what I will do once I get to PR but if the past is any indication I will do whatever it is I set out to do. I’ve never really failed at anything I’ve tried (rentals, carpentry, flying, computers, sports, jobs, etc)

The saying is true. You can do whatever you put your mind to. The part they don’t tell you is that it takes hard work, perseverance and dedication. Most important of all is that you can’t give up. Ever. The best skill that I’ve gained thru all my hard work is that I will do ‘whatever it takes’ to accomplish something.

I feel the same way about our Puerto Rico goal. I’ll do whatever it takes. Sometimes its discouraging to not have already completed this. Cassie and I were talking about it and as it happens to be; we could complete our goal to move to PR today. We could do this pretty easily.

The issue comes from knowing ourselves fairly well. We have realized that we want a challenge out of this. That is what we do, seek out and accomplish challenging goals. We aren’t ready to retire, we want to get to PR and make a difference or a substanial positive impact and have an adventure.

Who knows. I could start out there doing whatever it takes to get by and end up somewhere I never imagined or thought possible asking myself, “How did I get here?”. I ask myself that pretty much daily already, I don’t expect it to change! lol.


To This?

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Happy New Year and New Beginning

Britton and I celebrated the new year with just a few friends. I went over to my friend Kelly’s house for dinner while Britton met up with some of his friends who were visiting from Washington on Wednesday evening.


Dinner with the girls

Thursday I didn’t have to work, but he did, so I had a nice day to clean and get things in order. We have even started cleaning out, packing things up and are trying to sort through the rest of the things. Some of them are going to Goodwill, some to friends and family, some we are tossing, some we are selling on Craigslist, and hopefully just a few things will be going with us to Puerto Rico. It is a big step to finally start getting organized to move.

We haven’t moved in nearly seven years so this is  starting to make it feel real. We really don’t buy much, but somehow have amassed a pretty good chunk of junk. I have been sneezing a lot because of all the dust! How did we just leave some of these things in closets for so long! It feels good to clean and organize anyhow, but knowing that this is the start of the adventure makes it even more meaningful.

Anyway, in addition to cleaning and organizing, we also went over to a friends house in Lafayette (near Boulder) to go to a New Year’s party and play Rockband. It was really fun because they have unlocked all of the songs and even bought extra ones. I like singing to No Doubt, Steve Miller Band and Weezer overall. I also like the drums, but am not a big fan of (read: I am no good at) guitar or bass.

Overall, it was a great way to end 2009 and we are looking forward to a new, exciting 2010 and new decade to boot! I hope everyone else has a Happy New Year as well.

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Goals, Fears, and ETA to Puerto Rico

Goals

Well, it looks like the budget cuts have indeed cost me my job, but the good news is that I will be able to stay on here at the county doing emergency preparedness (EP) work, specifically working on H1N1 stuff. I have already been trained in that and have been doing translations (English to Spanish) ever since I started here, so it won’t be a major change. I will still be able to work on some of my existing projects and programs as well. However, from what I hear, the money for EP will dry up by July 31, 2010, so Britton and I decided that that would make a good end time to move to Puerto Rico. We would probably need a month or so to get everything all ready for the move and so we are planning an ETA (estimated time of arrival) of September 2010.

t be afraid
Britton says I’m like the girl on the edge; ready to make the jump, but still worried

None of this is written in stone, but at least it gives us a working plan. Before we go, we have a few goals that we want to accomplish that we believe are feasible in that time frame:

1) Pay off one of our properties. Britton is very much about security in risk (and I am too, to an extent) and doesn’t want to see all that we have worked toward thus far just lost. This way, he figures, if we have to come back with our tails between our legs we’ll always have a house that we can live in for free.

2) Save up enough for the transition to be able to buy furniture, a vehicle and other necessities. We are not too sure how much this needs to be as we’ve never moved so far away. For those of you who have made a life changing move, what do you recommend? How much do used cars cost in PR? We heard they are about $2,000 more than in the mainland.

3) Find a place to live in Puerto Rico. We would like to go down there again some time this winter with the clear intention of finding a place, putting in an offer and closing (not sure if that would be one or two trips).

4) Find jobs. This is really open for interpretation. This could mean working remote, working on virtual projects (the internet), running a guesthouse and farm and/or one or both of us finding part-time or full-time work there. We are open to all possibilities. We do know that it will entail us remotely managing our properties in Colorado since we are not planning on selling them (nor do I think we should in this market).

We don’t know what will happen in the future, but who does, really? We can’t be afraid to live. It is exciting and fun, and darling, do not fear what you don’t really know.

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Puerto Rican Property Considerations

So we’ve been looking for properties in Puerto Rico online for a while now. We’ve found a few that we are pretty interested in, but it really depends on what we are looking for in a property.

1) On the one hand, I could see buying a property that we could both live in and use as a guesthouse to earn income. It would be fun to live in the same place that you work! A gorgeous tropical guesthouse with a pool, ocean views and a couple of acres. Most of these are very expensive. In fact, they are between 2 and 3 times the cost of a single family home (like the second example).

front of house
A Guesthouse Possibility with ocean views (thanks Nick and Miri for checking it out!)

2) On the other hand, I could see just a single family residence with about 1-2 acres of land that is about 5-10 minutes from town and the beaches. I would like to have enough land that we could grow fruit, have a vegetable garden and some chickens, maybe start a CSA or small farm.

Aguada house
Small House with about 1 1/2 acres near beaches/town

3) Then, there are beachfront properties which are about as much as an inland guesthouse (double to triple the cost generally of the smaller houses). They are pretty cool, but never have much land (usually less than a 1/4 acre) and I’ve heard the maintenence costs are higher due to the sea salt and higher levels of hurricane and tropical storm damage. Plus, they are not usually set-up to be used as guesthouses and we wouldn’t be able to afford them just to live in.

Beachhouse
Beachhouse -Beachfront property

4) There are also other properties like the one we put an offer in on in Lares that is very remote in the high mountainous jungle, but with quite a bit of land. For example, for about the same price (approximately $150k) as the second example -a 1 1/2 acre 3 bd/2 bath house in Aguada that is 10 minutes to the beach like the second picture, we could buy a property with between 6-15 acres, two dwellings and natural springs or wells. The downside? About an hour to the beach and the rest of civilization.

Country House
Country House on 6 acres

At this point we really need to hone in on our “dream house” or goal because if you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s hard to know if you’ve found it. With our houses here in the Greeley area, we knew what we wanted; for our personal residence: a single family home, two car garage, 3 bed/2bath (that is now 4 bed/3 bath due to basement finish), AC, fireplace, walk-in closet and a view. When we bought it, it didn’t have AC, a fireplace or even a yard, but it had the basics to make it nice (and now has everything we originally wanted). Same thing with the two rentals. Small, nice single family homes, two car garages, 3 bed/2bath in town.

I just recently finished reading Ben Stein’s book called “How Successful People Win: Using Bunkhouse Logic To Get What You Want in Life” and the very first premise is very logical.  Know what you want. Then, ask for what you want and work to get it.  Our idea of what we want is still fuzzy and vague.

After the Lares deal fell through we contemplated whether or we would have enjoyed living there or not.  I was reading XN’s blog, and noticed that she wants to live in the San Juan area when she moves to Puerto Rico from the New York City area. It made me think that maybe what we are looking for in Puerto Rico is similar to the life we know here, because we are very certain that we don’t want to live in the San Juan area, just as we are certain we don’t want to live in the Denver area–it’s just too big.

So, I’ve also lived in a super small town growing up (300 people) and I think I would be more comfortable in a remote area, but Britton has always lived in Greeley, a mid-sized (~90,000 people) city. I think for that reason, I loved the Lares property more than Britton did/does. However, I also like living in Greeley, so I think I would like something similar to what we have now: a mid-sized agricultural area where we could ride our bikes, garden, and raise chickens but would like a little more land, and a lot less cold in a totally new (Puerto Rican) culture. Not too close, not too far away, as the real estate agents like to say. That is getting closer to knowing what we want, but still is pretty vague.

Maybe it means taking another trip out there with the sole intention of finding another property that just feels right, putting in an offer and taking the dive…What do you think? Did it take you a while to find the perfect spot? Do you think finding a mirror area (similar size, amenities, lifestyle, etc) is smarter than finding something dramatically different? What’s your story?

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