Category Archives: Rincon

Time For a Little Sunshine

4 Replies

Yellow Flowers

Britton has been enjoying his time off and resting after his major medical incident back in November. He has recovered nearly all of his memory and is functioning quite well with the treatments of the doctor. He has been sleeping through the whole night again and doesn’t seem nearly as anxious either. Life as a whole has gotten much better for him and us. He is scheduled to return to a modified work schedule near the beginning of February.

In the mean time, our good friends have been talking about picking up a property in Puerto Rico as well which would be awesome because we would love to hang out with them there. They love the tropics as we do and I think together we would have a blast. They had a few properties they wanted to check out, and like we did a few years back when we first unknowing found our house, are sending a scout, our friend Matt, to check them out. Britton thought it would be a good time to go on a trip since he is using up all of his time off for the year and it’s a rare opportunity to do something like this with his best friend.

anasco beach

So Britton and Matt will be in Puerto Rico for a little less than a week in the middle of January. They will be staying at our place in Rincon while together they look at properties and do a few  fix-up jobs and clean-up around the property.

Since it is just a short trip, I am going to stay home and vicariously enjoy the sunshine through Britton and Matt’s updates. It will be tough since we’re in the midst of the coldest part of the year, but just knowing that they are down there getting it ready for our final journey coming up will make it all the more sweet.

 

Rincon Sunset

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (4)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Moving to Puerto Rico Checklist

6 Replies

Lately Puerto Rico has really been in our mind. We are MORE THAN READY to move mentally/emotionally. So we have been thinking about getting ready to move physically. We wrote up all the things we will need to do in the next few months so that we can just up and move there. A lot of this is a general checklist for moving pretty much anywhere, but some of it is specific to moving to Rincon Puerto Rico.  After living somewhere for so long (Greeley) there are things we just don’t think about much.  We have lived here in our first home for 10 years.  Things like car titles, using up old stuff, medical and school transcripts/records , making sure we have Social Security cards, etc.  Also we don’t really have an “address” to ship stuff to, so that will be something to figure out.

For those of you who have already made the move to Puerto Rico (or elsewhere), are there any other things we should think about/take care of before we ship out?

  • Banks (change over address and ensure future bank cards are delivered to us)
  • Open new Bank Account inPuerto Rico
  • Cars (get titles together, sell)
  • Buy new car inPuerto Rico
  • Go thru all Stuff/Junk (to friends/family, charity, sell or toss). *Question: How much should we take with or replace?
  • Find new homes for the chickens
  • Get Kitty’s vet records and learn what it will take to bring him with us on the airplane
  • Get house cleaned professionally (carpet, bathrooms, kitchen, etc)
  • Put remaining properties under managment(2)
  • Host a going away party!
  • Put together all personal / professional records
  • Call insurance agents to cancel car insurance and change home policies to rental and update address
  • Sell assets we can’t manage from afar
  • Use up old stuff and don’t buy new stuff (Frozen food, cleaners, canned food, bathroom supplies, etc)
  • Look for boxes and pack up / label and have family ship to us when we get there
  • Buy airline tickets and line up rental car for appx 1 month while we look for a new car
  • Find new homes for our plants (coffee, banana, orchids)
  • Get tax documents together for 2012 filing
  • Update address with property tax assessor, 401k, IRA, etc
  • Setup things we need down there (we already have water and electric.  Mayyyybe internet?  Cell phone? )
  • Find new server / hosting for website and promote

We have been thinking about this a lot more lately as it appears we will be moving our date up.  We don’t have an exact new deadline but we figure we can take care of a lot of these things now in preparation.  Stay tuned for posts on many of the items in the above list!

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (1)
  • Awesome (2)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (1)
  • Bummer (1)
  • Whoa (1)

Can We Make it a Year (And Do We Want To)?

11 Replies

We are nearing the year mark for the countdown to Puerto Rico. But lately we have been asking ourselves, “Can we make it a year…and do we want to”? As I mentioned before we are pretty well set up to move. We have a good savings. We have some income set up. We have the property paid for in Puerto Rico. Lately it just seems like we are READY! In late January Britton had a dream that he would leave work in 9 months…which is now. October. I told him then that he was one year off of the goal. But now I wonder if he had been on to something.

Everything is changing at both of our jobs. Britton is down to a team of two from five when he started and the additional work is a heavy burden. His on-call has gone from once every 5 weeks to every other week which is super stressful to him. At my work, we’ve been having delays with grant contracts. As I await the start date of the grant in which I do inspections, I have realized how much I really do enjoy being out of the office. Because of a delay in this grant, I’ve had to do much more office work, and I just don’t think I can live in the cubicle anymore! I have had a small taste of freedom and want it back! We are also getting a new division director and so there has been a lot of change in this season of change.

And what’s more, as the weather begins to turn cold we just keep asking ourselves, is it time? Is it time to make the leap to the unknown? To our own personalized paradise? Then come the doubts and excuses…should we be more prepared? We should save more. What if I wanted to come back? What if this is all just some crazy (early) mid life crisis? Will I regret this? Blah. Excuses not to move. Excuses not to grow. Excuses to be comfortable instead of hit in the head with LIFE!

I know this is a bit of a rant, but I just really felt like I needed to get it off my chest. What do you think? Are we crazy? Should we stay and be cautious or throw it to the wind and roam! Can we make it a year? Or should we?

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (2)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

New Deck: What We Are Working For

3 Replies

We have completed another month and as such we are coming up with another goal that we are working for.  In previous months we’ve worked for a new  roof and to pay our taxes.  This month we decided that we would work for the funds to replace the deck on the house in Rincon.  The wood deck is original (built around 1990) and has been exposed to the elements since the place was fresh.  The wood has gotten pretty bad and is rotting out.   It is getting to the point where you really don’t want to even walk on it.


Under Deck


On Deck

You can see the condition of the deck (click to enlarge)


Cassie

The deck will be a fairly major part of living in the house and our day to day activities so it will be important to replace it.  I think I may be able to do a lot of the work myself if I can aquire the right tools (a really tall ladder).  It will be a matter of just cutting boards, and screwing them back into place.  I imagine I would simply replace what is there piece for piece. 

This is what it looked like when it was first built:


Fresh Deck

 It would be good to have a nice deck to cook food, entertain and watch sunsets from.  This is a worthy goal to work towards this month!

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (6)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)