Well it's been a little while but things are starting to slow down a little.
The road trip went well. Closing went well. Unloading the truck (and piano!) went well. Everything has been going pretty....well.
Most everything has been un-packed and we have started hanging a few pictures and things on the walls to. Still need to get van registered and our drivers licenses changed over but we did manage to buy a new car while we've been here. Its a 2002 Chevy Prizm. Nice little car and good on gas (which is about $3.30 here...give or take a few Lincolns). Its estimated at about 30 MPG but I havent had it long enough to figure what i'm actually getting.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Packing up and heading out!
Well the moving truck came yesterday(Wed). We have it until Monday and then they will pick it up and drive it down for us. If anyone wants to lend a hand on Saturday the 22nd feel free because that is the day we will be loading this bad boy up!
As for us, since the house will be packed up on Saturday we will be spending a few days with my parents and leaving on Tuesday the 25th.
Time is ticking away!
As for us, since the house will be packed up on Saturday we will be spending a few days with my parents and leaving on Tuesday the 25th.
Time is ticking away!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
We bought a house!
Well we did it! We bought a house!
We left for Texas after work last Thursday and got in around 1am. Thank God for Grandparents! Since we got there late Thursday we had all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to go house hunting. We stepped foot in 16 houses on Friday and decided not to even go in another 5 or 6. We found the house we liked the most on Friday but wanted to look at a few more on Saturday in the next town over (even though they had a little higher tax rate).
The next morning our realtor woke up early and had this feeling like she should call the builder back (it was an inventory house with Gehan Homes) and they said it sold right after we left on Friday! We were bummed but we decided to look at some of their other inventory homes. And we found this beauty!
It's 2,600 sq ft with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The master bathroom has a separate shower and garden tub. All bathrooms have marble counters and tile showers. The master bedroom walk in closet is 14' long X 5' deep! There is a gas fireplace, upgraded kitchen cabinets, upgraded carpet and pad, upgraded foundation, upgraded radiant barrier in the attic, cable in every bedroom, 2 car garage. Its beautiful! If you want to check out more pics check out our flickr page.
Oh and did I mention they gave us $11,500 in buyer incentives?! We can use that money basically any way we want for either a down payment, buying down points, closing costs, etc.
So it looks like after we close here in NJ we will drive down and close over there.
We left for Texas after work last Thursday and got in around 1am. Thank God for Grandparents! Since we got there late Thursday we had all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to go house hunting. We stepped foot in 16 houses on Friday and decided not to even go in another 5 or 6. We found the house we liked the most on Friday but wanted to look at a few more on Saturday in the next town over (even though they had a little higher tax rate).
The next morning our realtor woke up early and had this feeling like she should call the builder back (it was an inventory house with Gehan Homes) and they said it sold right after we left on Friday! We were bummed but we decided to look at some of their other inventory homes. And we found this beauty!It's 2,600 sq ft with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The master bathroom has a separate shower and garden tub. All bathrooms have marble counters and tile showers. The master bedroom walk in closet is 14' long X 5' deep! There is a gas fireplace, upgraded kitchen cabinets, upgraded carpet and pad, upgraded foundation, upgraded radiant barrier in the attic, cable in every bedroom, 2 car garage. Its beautiful! If you want to check out more pics check out our flickr page.
Oh and did I mention they gave us $11,500 in buyer incentives?! We can use that money basically any way we want for either a down payment, buying down points, closing costs, etc.
So it looks like after we close here in NJ we will drive down and close over there.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Our house is sold!
While I haven't had the chance to blog about it yet, we put our house on the market the week before Christmas. Well we accepted an offer on it the other week and will be closing March 25th! Praise the Lord! So much less stress now.
Whether or not the house sold in time was a big deciding factor for a lot of things. We would have had to leave March 5th even though the house wasn't sold yet, we would have needed to find a cheap apartment really quickly, plus a storage unit. Now since we wont be paying two mortgages that frees us to buy a house right away or even get an apartment that might cost a little xtra $$.
Speaking of buying a house, we will be going down to Texas this month to go house hunting. We are really hoping to be able to put an offer down by the time we get back. So thats the update. More to come after our trip.
Whether or not the house sold in time was a big deciding factor for a lot of things. We would have had to leave March 5th even though the house wasn't sold yet, we would have needed to find a cheap apartment really quickly, plus a storage unit. Now since we wont be paying two mortgages that frees us to buy a house right away or even get an apartment that might cost a little xtra $$.
Speaking of buying a house, we will be going down to Texas this month to go house hunting. We are really hoping to be able to put an offer down by the time we get back. So thats the update. More to come after our trip.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Our Two Week Visit - The houses
The Houses
Erin did most of the house hunting while we were there because I was working most of the time. Although I did get to go out on Saturday and Sunday with her. The one thing I did get to do while working was talk with people and figure out the areas we want to live in.
Some areas weren't that nice and some were more expensive because of the location. While we are still open to suggestions, the area we decided to live in is the Buda/Kyle area. It is about a 20 min. drive to my work when there is not much traffic but during rush hour its about an hour. Which is what I was expecting. And coming from NJ, thats even better than driving to Philly during rush hour. The are putting in a toll road though which I think will help tremendously! Because Texans don't like toll roads no one uses them! So when they add that it should be pretty empty. They are also putting a light rail in Austin as well. So hopefully that will ease the traffic as well.
As for the Kyle/Buda area, they have an HEB (their big grocery store), a Super Walmart, a Cabelas, some good places to eat, its a good school system, and they are also building a hospital.
During our house hunt we decided not to check out used homes because by the time we got there those homes might not be on the market anymore. So we stuck with new construction. After checking a few builders we decided that if we go new then we will
probably go with a builder called Legacy. We got to walk through one of their houses called The Panola (see image). It has:
So all that to say, we will continue our journey in searching for a house when we get there and we might even still buy used (its even cheaper!) but we wont get to look at those until we go there.
Erin did most of the house hunting while we were there because I was working most of the time. Although I did get to go out on Saturday and Sunday with her. The one thing I did get to do while working was talk with people and figure out the areas we want to live in.
Some areas weren't that nice and some were more expensive because of the location. While we are still open to suggestions, the area we decided to live in is the Buda/Kyle area. It is about a 20 min. drive to my work when there is not much traffic but during rush hour its about an hour. Which is what I was expecting. And coming from NJ, thats even better than driving to Philly during rush hour. The are putting in a toll road though which I think will help tremendously! Because Texans don't like toll roads no one uses them! So when they add that it should be pretty empty. They are also putting a light rail in Austin as well. So hopefully that will ease the traffic as well.
As for the Kyle/Buda area, they have an HEB (their big grocery store), a Super Walmart, a Cabelas, some good places to eat, its a good school system, and they are also building a hospital.
During our house hunt we decided not to check out used homes because by the time we got there those homes might not be on the market anymore. So we stuck with new construction. After checking a few builders we decided that if we go new then we will
probably go with a builder called Legacy. We got to walk through one of their houses called The Panola (see image). It has:- 2,776 sq. ft.
- 9 ft ceilings
- granite kitchen counter tops
- marble bathroom sink tops
- 4 bedrooms plus game room, media room, and office
- Walk in closet in the master bedroom and a separate garden tub and shower in the master bath
- 2 car garage
- and a whole bunch of other things as well
So all that to say, we will continue our journey in searching for a house when we get there and we might even still buy used (its even cheaper!) but we wont get to look at those until we go there.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Our Two Week Visit - The Job
The Job
Texas Municipalities League Intergovernmental Employee Benefit Pool, or TML IEBP for short, is the name of my company. We provide Texas government agencies, municipalities, and school districts with employee benefits such as medical, dental, flex, IRA's, etc.
My main role there is to support our online enrollment system that employers and employees use to sign up for these benefits. For those techies that are interested, we are using the LAMP model (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP 4.x). My plan is to upgrade some of these systems but right now we are just working on a back log of projects and issues that have come up since the other guy left.
Great company to work for. They pay 100% of my benefits (I have to pay for the family though), 6.2% into an IRA, $60 a month into a Healthcare Flex account, and instead of Social Security we pay like 6% into what is called the TMRS (Tx Municipal Retirement system). Is basically like social security. But the good thing is that if I work there for 5+ years they will match 2:1 when I retire. Lets see...after 3 years they start paying you $100 per year on your anniversary. So on my 3 year anniversary I get an extra $300. If im there for 10 years I get an extra $1,000. And most people have been there for a long time. 10+ years. Oh...and we also have this healthy initiative thing. Every quarter you get points for doing healthy things. For example: 2 points for every mile you jog/walk, or .5 points if you drink 48 oz of water that day, or even .5 point for flossing your teeth! If you have 200+ points for the quarter they give you $100! So thats pretty nice.
As for the people...they are great. Everyone is very nice and my department is a great group too. Oh, and I have a window cube.
Texas Municipalities League Intergovernmental Employee Benefit Pool, or TML IEBP for short, is the name of my company. We provide Texas government agencies, municipalities, and school districts with employee benefits such as medical, dental, flex, IRA's, etc.
My main role there is to support our online enrollment system that employers and employees use to sign up for these benefits. For those techies that are interested, we are using the LAMP model (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP 4.x). My plan is to upgrade some of these systems but right now we are just working on a back log of projects and issues that have come up since the other guy left.
Great company to work for. They pay 100% of my benefits (I have to pay for the family though), 6.2% into an IRA, $60 a month into a Healthcare Flex account, and instead of Social Security we pay like 6% into what is called the TMRS (Tx Municipal Retirement system). Is basically like social security. But the good thing is that if I work there for 5+ years they will match 2:1 when I retire. Lets see...after 3 years they start paying you $100 per year on your anniversary. So on my 3 year anniversary I get an extra $300. If im there for 10 years I get an extra $1,000. And most people have been there for a long time. 10+ years. Oh...and we also have this healthy initiative thing. Every quarter you get points for doing healthy things. For example: 2 points for every mile you jog/walk, or .5 points if you drink 48 oz of water that day, or even .5 point for flossing your teeth! If you have 200+ points for the quarter they give you $100! So thats pretty nice.
As for the people...they are great. Everyone is very nice and my department is a great group too. Oh, and I have a window cube.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Our Two Week Visit - The Flight
From Jan 2nd to Jan 12th we got to visit Texas. TML flew me out their for some training, orientation, and paperwork. They are a very good company. More on them soon.
Flying with two children
We left our house around 3:30am to get to Philly for our flight. Let me tell you how fun it is to carry 2 kids, 2 car seats, 2 carry ons, 2 checked suitcases and all the jackets and everything else we needed. We had to tell Micah that its so much fun to take off our shoes and walk through the big scary metal detector to get through security. Then they had to open our carry on because we had a portable DVD player in it. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you say that we needed to take it out as my kids were screaming and I was trying to corral their car seats. They eventually realized that it wasn't a bomb but actually a real DVD player.
The flight home was a little better. We checked Gabe's car seat this time so it was easier to maneuver through security. Oh, and we accidentally left our DVD player on the flight there so we didn't have to worry about getting it screened on the way home. The last flight home started to get a little rough though. We decided to sit in a row where there was no one in front of us. I know, how thoughtful! Well some lady decided to sit in the seat in front of Micah. Two empty seats to her right and plenty of empty rows behind us. So every time Micah kicked her seat she would turn around and give us "the eyes." and then when Gabe would cry she would plug her ears with her fingers. I guess she really liked her seat though because she never moved.
So that was our flight. I just downloaded some pictures of the houses we looked at so I will have them up soon. As well as some more info about TML.
Flying with two children
We left our house around 3:30am to get to Philly for our flight. Let me tell you how fun it is to carry 2 kids, 2 car seats, 2 carry ons, 2 checked suitcases and all the jackets and everything else we needed. We had to tell Micah that its so much fun to take off our shoes and walk through the big scary metal detector to get through security. Then they had to open our carry on because we had a portable DVD player in it. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you say that we needed to take it out as my kids were screaming and I was trying to corral their car seats. They eventually realized that it wasn't a bomb but actually a real DVD player.
The flight home was a little better. We checked Gabe's car seat this time so it was easier to maneuver through security. Oh, and we accidentally left our DVD player on the flight there so we didn't have to worry about getting it screened on the way home. The last flight home started to get a little rough though. We decided to sit in a row where there was no one in front of us. I know, how thoughtful! Well some lady decided to sit in the seat in front of Micah. Two empty seats to her right and plenty of empty rows behind us. So every time Micah kicked her seat she would turn around and give us "the eyes." and then when Gabe would cry she would plug her ears with her fingers. I guess she really liked her seat though because she never moved.
So that was our flight. I just downloaded some pictures of the houses we looked at so I will have them up soon. As well as some more info about TML.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Here's the Backstory
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away....
OK, OK! Maybe Atco, NJ isn't so "far, far away"
We have been talking about moving to Texas for quite some time. Ramon's grandparents live there and we have been wanting to go visit but just never did. One day we just decided to stop talking and start doing. So Ramon put his resume out on monster.com to see what would happen.
We figured it would take a couple of months to find a job but we started getting offers for interviews right away. Although, most were in every other state but Texas. We did find one place on monster called TML IEBP (Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Employee Benefits Pool) that was located in Austin and they set up an over the phone interview.
The first interview with the IT Director and the CIO went well so they set up a technical interview with one of their technical people. I passed that interview with flying colors and before I knew it they were flying me out to Austin for an in person interview.
The in person interview was more like a meet and greet. I left the house in the morning around 3:30am so I could be in Texas around lunch time. As soon as I got there we went out to lunch at the Texas Land and Cattle Steakhouse with the HR Manager, CIO, and IT Director. Great place to eat! After lunch we went back to the office and introduced me to everyone in the department and even showed me their systems and what they did. Then it was off to the airport so I could get home around 11:30pm. I was in 5 different states across the country in one day.
So by this time I was ready for them to offer me the job. When they finally did, they had to check references first, I accepted. and the $15K raise over what I was currently making didn't hurt either.
Oh, and everyone is also asking...why Texas? Why do you want to leave NJ? Let me give you that before I sign off as well. First off, while I know every state in the country has its downsides, NJ sucks! It's run by the mob, it's a very liberal state, taxes are outrageous, the cost of housing is so high we could never afford a single family home, should I go on? Oh, and did you hear about the 2% exit tax?! Don't get me started. But our family is here aren't they? Kinda...Ramon's parents are moving to Texas soon, Erin's parents are thinking of moving to Washington in the near future, Melissa - while she doesn't know where she is going - is going somewhere, Diane and Eric live in CO. Sure there are cousins and Aunts and Uncles on both sides that are still in the area but we gotta do what we gotta do.
Texas on the other hand, is a lot more conservative as a whole, is nice and warm, has no State tax, property tax is better, cost of housing is like 40% better, schools are better, etc. So yeah....off to Texas!
OK, OK! Maybe Atco, NJ isn't so "far, far away"
We have been talking about moving to Texas for quite some time. Ramon's grandparents live there and we have been wanting to go visit but just never did. One day we just decided to stop talking and start doing. So Ramon put his resume out on monster.com to see what would happen.
We figured it would take a couple of months to find a job but we started getting offers for interviews right away. Although, most were in every other state but Texas. We did find one place on monster called TML IEBP (Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Employee Benefits Pool) that was located in Austin and they set up an over the phone interview.
The first interview with the IT Director and the CIO went well so they set up a technical interview with one of their technical people. I passed that interview with flying colors and before I knew it they were flying me out to Austin for an in person interview.
The in person interview was more like a meet and greet. I left the house in the morning around 3:30am so I could be in Texas around lunch time. As soon as I got there we went out to lunch at the Texas Land and Cattle Steakhouse with the HR Manager, CIO, and IT Director. Great place to eat! After lunch we went back to the office and introduced me to everyone in the department and even showed me their systems and what they did. Then it was off to the airport so I could get home around 11:30pm. I was in 5 different states across the country in one day.
So by this time I was ready for them to offer me the job. When they finally did, they had to check references first, I accepted. and the $15K raise over what I was currently making didn't hurt either.
Oh, and everyone is also asking...why Texas? Why do you want to leave NJ? Let me give you that before I sign off as well. First off, while I know every state in the country has its downsides, NJ sucks! It's run by the mob, it's a very liberal state, taxes are outrageous, the cost of housing is so high we could never afford a single family home, should I go on? Oh, and did you hear about the 2% exit tax?! Don't get me started. But our family is here aren't they? Kinda...Ramon's parents are moving to Texas soon, Erin's parents are thinking of moving to Washington in the near future, Melissa - while she doesn't know where she is going - is going somewhere, Diane and Eric live in CO. Sure there are cousins and Aunts and Uncles on both sides that are still in the area but we gotta do what we gotta do.
Texas on the other hand, is a lot more conservative as a whole, is nice and warm, has no State tax, property tax is better, cost of housing is like 40% better, schools are better, etc. So yeah....off to Texas!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Come follow us!
Follow us on our journey to Texas. I will be using this blog as a place to keep everyone in the know about our move to Texas. Sooner or later I will start posting pictures, thoughts, stories, and anything else that might pertain to our trip. So stay tuned.
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