cmonkey's journal

[cmonkey]

Monthly Update, January 2016

Expenses/Savings

January was definitely the worst month since we began our accumulation phase. However, if you read between the lines we are continuing our trend of normal expenses. Remodel expenses were very high because we purchased nearly everything we need to complete the bathroom in the basement (vanity, tiling, toilet, plumbing, etc...) but then decided to hold off on it until we got the two large rooms done. So then we had expenses for finishing those two rooms too. I'm thinking February won't be quite as brutal, but we'll see. The way we are chugging through all the work we might get to starting the hallway by March.

I have also started putting away a set amount of money each month under 'remodel' so we can have some really nice carpet installed later in the year, most likely in late summer when we are done with almost everything. Estimates for our house are around 4K-5K for having carpet installed. However, we will never need new carpet again and we want something nice so it's worth it for us. By far it will be the most expense thing we do this year.

I called our home insurance company about getting our premium reduced and they came through for us. We had been billed $987 for March and now we are at $638. That effectively reduces the amount I need to save for FI by about 10K bucks!

We also had our semi-annual car insurance payment in January which pushed up our normal expenses by nearly 20%.

Also, my 401K contrinutions are now lower due to lower company contributions. My paycheck is also slightly smaller due to higher HSA contributions starting this year.

On a positive note, our grocery expenses were quite low and I attribute it to cooking more rice/bean meals and eating more stored garden produce. We are also both adhering very well to a WD style schedule and so I think we are eating less food actually.

So overall our savings rate hit a new low for the past 9 months or so, but I still count it as a great month.


Normal Spend - $974.29
Remodel Spend - $2322.76
Total Spend - $3297.05
Total Savings - $2190.10 ; 40%






Lending Club
FAI - $1529.75 (+$35.86)
SWR - 72.65% (+0.03%)

NAR - 14.24% (-0.30%)
Total Charge Offs - 6 (+2)

Dividend Fund
FAI - $679.36 (+$27)
Dividends Received - $8.74

401K/SEPP
FAI - $717 (+$0)


Our income declined slightly this month due to having 2 charge off with LC and only having received one small dividend from GPS. The 401K effectively didn't change at all, the balanced ended about 15 dollars less than January 1 due to massive declines and lower contributions. This month I added a small position of JNJ to our portfolio.



Total FAI - $2926.11 (+62.86)

Time to Bills Covered - 19 Months (-2)
Time to TTM Expenses Covered - 31 Months (-3)
Time to 3% LC - 49 Months (-11)

TTM Expenses - $13745.68 (+$321.80)

Our FAI timeline decreased this month substantially. I changed how I calculate our projected dividends by using our actual yield which is currently 4.76% instead of using a default value of 3.5%. It more will more accurately display where we sit currently and most certainly will change as our yield drops when I invest in lower yield stocks. But still seeing the time to 3% LC drop by nearly a year is nice! Now I just hope I don't target high yield stocks...simply because!

I also changed this year's projections to include expected renovation expenses so you can sort of see the line increases by a smaller amount this year before taking off after we are done with the renovation. I like this as it's much more accurate and I can hope to overshoot this.

TTM increased a little in accordance with an increase in the number of months I'm calculating on. This is settling into ~14K/year.

Remodel

I'll give a small month on month summary here since I am doing regular updates on this now. A month ago we had just gotten back from holiday travels and we had a TON of work ahead of us to get our basement finished. As of today the guest bedroom is complete and the DW's craftroom is nearly there. I have the floor leveled and we started putting down the floor last night. We will continue this tonight and probably finish tomorrow with this weekend seeing me finishing the DW's shelving (she painted it a bright blue/green color) and putting on all the trim and reinstalling the doors.

February will be the month of the bathroom! I am pretty confident I can get it nearly done by March given how much work we've gotten done so far (and I don't have 2 weeks of drywall fixing to do!). Since January 7th, I have only taken 3 days off of working on this project and each day I have put in between 2-3 hours (on workdays) and 6-8 (on weekends). I'd have to say our coffee budget has about doubled.

Eggs

70 eggs in January! The only chickens that are laying right now are the easter egger chickens and the blue andalusians (surprisingly because they are warm climate birds). The cuckoo marans, which are the most cold hardy, haven't laid an egg since before holiday! The slackers. We also just finally ran out of the chicken feed I bought back in June and so our chicken costs will go up again. I am thinking I'm going to just go with cheaper crumble feed and supplement with scratch feed each day as this will be a bit cheaper.

[C40]

Your basement is looking GREAT!!!

[spoonman]

Good job with the basement, it looks fantastic. Btw, tell Monty he's a total ham! That is one cute kitty you got there.

[cmonkey]

@C40 and @spoonman, thank you!

Monty is a total ham! Haha. He has got one of the best personalities of any cat I've ever had. Extremely talkative, we hold conversations for up to 5 minutes at a time on occasion. Unfortunately I have somewhat of a dilemma now as I also have two girl kitties in the upstairs* that absolutely hate him. Hissing through the basement door. I really don't want another indoor cat but he will now beg at the garage door if I put him outside. So it seems he is now our basement/garage kitty for good, however, I am going to be ripping out the stairs/basement door and rebuilding them. I'm not sure how that will go since upstairs will open up to downstairs....

* Yes we have turned into those weird 'cat' people down the road...

[Riggerjack]

Interesting, did not know that. I'll look into replacing them, I already have some Square D QO tandems installed. Why only bedrooms? I looked and noticed they are not required in garages, laundries, bathrooms, kitchens and unfinished basements. Seems odds. They need to be in living rooms too?

From the sparkie forums, the pros are a bit divided on arc fault CBs. Some think it is just rules changes for the sake of rules changes, others think it's an upsale opportunity. The codebook gets republished every three years, and you have to have new rules, or nobody buys the book. The process for rule changes is a bit political, but it comes down to safety. Since arc fault CBs are new, the company that holds the patent, pushes for a rule to i increase sales. They then licence to major manufacturing corps, and you get to spend $15/ breaker,instead of $1. You put 3 in your house, and there gets to be a sizable sample size to see if there is a significant safety factor to the new CB.

With electricity (and most regulation), safety is the product, and 99% can't tell the difference between the illusions of safety and actual safety.

I installed arc fault CBs. I don't feel any safer, but I did pass inspection, and it only cost an extra $50. Since you wanted to rewire, I just thought I'd mention it.

[C40]

I've ready that if you have multiple cats, the best combination for them to all get along with each other is for them to all be neutered males. I got two cats some years ago and for this reason I got two males. Other than during the first day I introduced them, I never once saw either of them get mad at the other.

[cmonkey]

@C40, yea we're pretty much in agreement we don't want 3 indoor cats. He'll be going outside when it's warmer probably, especially while I'm doing the stairs.

We have the DW's craftroom nearly done. All we have left is the shelving in her in-wall shelving, the sump cover and the ethernet port left to do. We also need to put the doors back on each room.

We had the room painted over a week ago when we did the other room. All last week I worked on securing and leveling the sub-floor. Thursday we started laying laminate. Friday we finished the floor except for the last couple planks and then this weekend I finished the floor and finished all the trim. We ran out so needed to go get more and repaint them today. The trim actually turned out a bit nicer than the other room. The scribed cuts are a bit smoother and you can't tell as much.

Here's 3 weeks ago.



Here's tonight!












To get the floor to line up perfectly, we simply continued putting it in from the other room and wrapped around the wall.



Here's an image of how I flattened the floor. It worked reasonably well and was easier to use than self-leveler. Under that roofing felt was a layer of shingles. When I say flat, it was withing 1/8 of an inch across most of that. Then we put down a foam underlayment that brought it to within a 1/16 of an inch or less across the whole floor. However, heading out the door it really drops down, it still drops about 1/2 inch. There wasn't a whole lot I could do about it as I was already 2 layers deep and you aren't supposed to go over that. Originally it was over an inch drop! Really bad. It feels very good under foot now. It took about 2 days of working on it to make it good.



Finally to celebrate our being nearly done with half of our basement, the DW made a pan full of these crullers for tonight. They practically melt in your mouth. It's ok to be jealous.

[spoonman]

Awww man, you had to throw in that last photo! Those look good alright.

[cmonkey]

Haha! Well its only fair, you do your share of tempting These are French so maybe you had some in Paris?

[spoonman]

Now that you mention it, I think we did have some of those in Paris. When we walked by a bakery it was difficult to resist.

[cmonkey]

No sooner did I get the shelving built...



Did it get filled up...



The door is up...



And the DW has moved in...




Craft room completed! My next updates will be work in the bathroom later this week.

[cmonkey]

I've made some good progress on the bathroom. I didn't get a lot done last week after work due to other stuff going on, but I worked a few hours yesterday and today. Yesterday I got all the drain lines cemented together and tested them. They are 100% leak free and are all functioning well. It was tricky because there is only about a 2 inch drop from the tub to the stack outlet and I needed to maneuver around existing piping. I also got the sink drain hooked up. Today/tonight I got much of the framing around the tub completed, there is still some to finish, although I now have a great start. It is 100% plumb along with the tub itself even after sitting for a month. I don't think I've ever gotten anything as plumb as that framing. I really took my time and did it right. The framing near the stack was very tricky due to all the piping. I need to notch several of the boards. We are building the wall so that there will be a strip of bull nose tiling going down the corner of the wall and front of the tub frame.





Back in January when I started messing with the drain I managed to snap one of the pneumatic tube elbows completely in half. This was in a spot where I would have had to completely rip out the jet and probably replace it somehow. Needless to say I was pissed. However, doing a bit of research I discovered a wonder product called plast-aid. This product saved my butt! Our new jaccuzzi was rendered useless with that snapped part, but tonight I used plast-aid to fixed it. It chemically bonded the parts together and is significantly harder than the original plastic. It's amazing.


Here's a photo of it running tonight. I filled it with up a hose. I told the DW that I'd have the tub installed for her by Valentine's day. Well here it is honey! There were two junctions near the compressor that were leaking. One was just loose, the other needed pipe dope. I fixed those and ran it for about 20 minutes. No leaks after that!



Next up will be completing the framing and then putting in the water lines. After that I can start putting up drywall and cement board.

[spoonman]

Wow, I am in love with that bookshelf! And yes, I think your cat will thoroughly enjoy hanging out in that room.

[cmonkey]

@spoonman, thank you, I really love how it turned out as well. I think its the coolest thing I've built in the basement.

I have all of the framing complete and the plumbing is as complete as I need to get the drywall and cement board up. I will hook up the faucets once we finish the walls.

I am really impressed by the pex connectors I got. They are dubbed 'quick connect' and you just push them together. They even work on copper! The ease comes at a cost though, each fitting was at least $6. The T connectors were $10 each. So all these fittings were nearly $100. Not cheap, but if you have ever soldered copper you know it can be a pain in the butt. Getting each piece cut to the perfect length, hot propane torches and trying not to start your house on fire while dripping hot flux/solder everywhere. Oh and then when your joint leaks, you have to take it all apart, drain the stupid thing and redo! The pex is super flexible and so you don't need to get the lengths perfect. In fact the lines/fittings can actually be turned with pressure in them. You can also take the joints apart and put them back together again if you need too. I'm never going back to copper.

Here's a photo of where the pex joins the copper. You simply push the line in as far as it can go....that's it! The inside of each joint has little teeth that grip into the line and also a soft bushing that forms a perfect seal around the line. I was highly skeptical that they'd work, particularly with the copper, but I didn't have one leak. The floor is wet because I managed to dump the container I used to catch the water after I cut into the copper...







Those are the cut-offs for the tub. All I needed was a secure place to screw them down so I hacked some scrap lumber together and put it up. I'm putting a removable grate over that section so I can get to them if I ever need to work on the faucets.



The completed framing around the tub. That tub is just as solid as the concrete under the sub floor. Sitting on the edge is like sitting on the edge of a brick wall. I made sure it was since we'll be sitting on it when we get in and out. To make it extra secure, I slid some very thin shims under a few of the spots where there was a tiny gap between the framing and the tub.



This weekend I'll be doing the drywall and cement board on both the walls and floor.

[cmonkey]

Oh my! That is a horrible experience. Was that the little rings that you use a clamp on? I thought about those but they just didn't look like a good way to do things. These are very secure I can hardly get the pex apart with the little C type removal tool. Here's a link to what they are. Actually I can't get the copper apart! I tried for 10 minutes because I wanted to see if I could.

I had thought about starting a 'renovation thread' or something like the garden thread to try to get jacob to start sharing his renovations as well.

[spoonman]

ffj's story is the sort of thing I am terrified of. Not sure if I'll ever truly embrace a DIY attitude.

Those are really beautiful photos, your project looks very elegant.

[cmonkey]

Yea there are times when I get turned off to the DIY approach...like right now. I probably have a busted toilet drain. I won't know until I get someone in next week to scope it. I have not decided yet if I'll DIY or hire it out. It will depend on how much I'm quoted I guess. I know how to do all the work, its just a matter of how crappy the job would be.

At least I decided to look down that pipe before putting all the tiling in!!

[cmonkey]

Relief!! Nothing is wrong with our septic line, just some minor scaling. No tree roots, no breaks!

Here is the culprit!



They stuck their camera down and immediately saw this old toilet fitting! Ultimately they couldn't get it out and so tried shoving it down into the septic tank but on the way they caught it on their auger and pulled it out. Much better than having it sit in the septic. The rest of the line looks fine, just some minor scaling. Since the charge for clearing that is something like 400-500, we didn't do that. Everything drains perfectly despite it.

Anyway now we can get back to work again! This past weekend I did get some drywall up but my main project was getting our fan/vent installed. We had fabulous weather on Saturday so I could do the work outside and not freeze. I'm glad I did since it helped with the stink of the sewer work as well.





Here's how I did the outside vent. First I driled a hole as high as I could from the inside to see where I would land on the outside. There was a chance that I'd be too low on the siding in which case I'd have to run this up the wall a bit.



Turned out it was perfect right where it was so I traced an outline and used tin snips to cut our steel siding.





Next I drilled 4 holes with the drill around the perimeter of the outline. This just helps with cutting. Less to cut and its easier to make a circle. I used a reciprocating saw to make the main cut.





Last was foaming it all up with spray foam.








Here's the installed fan. It sucks a lot of air! Our bathroom will be quite dry.




Some tasks I have ahead of me for the week include getting the vanity light box installed and hooked up. Then I can finish the drywall on the north wall. Also getting the floor cement board down and level and the cement board around the tub installed.

This is where the bathroom remodel gets tricky because I need to rip out the plumbing from the upstairs bathroom to finish the basement bathroom but I need a functioning basement bathroom to rip all the stuff out from upstairs.....

[cmonkey]

Time for an update, its been a week since my last update so I'm due for one. I've gotten quite a bit done despite the awkwardness about this part.

My goal at this point is to get the toilet fully installed. At that point I can cut out all the plumbing in the ceiling and get the rest of the drywall up including the ceiling. To get the toilet installed I first needed to get the floor down around it and get the drywall up, mudded, sanded, primed and painted.

I have the entire subfloor prepped for mortaring and tiling. I also have around the toilet tiled. It took forever to nip out the tiling around the opening but I have it big enough to get the gasket in and out. Its all fully hidden with the toilet sitting in place. The cement board on the floor is Hardie Backer Board. It is high quality stuff and solid as a rock. It took a while to figure out how to score and snap it. Then I mortared it down and let it sit over night. Last night I mortared the tiling down. It turned out great.

Here's the subfloor before the cement board. It took a small bit of leveling.



All the cement board down and some tiling as well.



I also have the drywall up behind the toilet and vanity. Tonight I put up the top piece after we picked up our wall cabinet/mirror and did the first mudding. We had to wait for it to come in so I could do the electrical before completing the drywall. Turns out its just a plugin type light so I put an outlet behind the drywall that is wired to the switch. I also put up a second light on this circuit. It made a huge difference in brightness.



I have most of the cement board and drywall up around the tub. I'll have to take a couple pieces off when I cut out the stack and finish the faucets, however.



Finally here are both lights and the giant mess of plumbing I'm working around. The plan is get all this cut out this weekend. I have a bunch of metal cutting sawsall blades and will probably go through a few cutting out that cast iron. I am also planning to rent a wet saw this weekend if I can manage it and get all the tiling done.

[cmonkey]

Monthly Update, February 2016

Expenses/Savings

Expenses were up for our 'normal' expenses. We had a couple of one time things to pay for. First was our tax processing fee for Turbo Tax. The second was $200 for a sewer line clean out which I classify as maintenance. I'm glad I did it as I have peace of mind as to the state of our sewer line. We also spent a bit of money on some gardening supplies, some seed potatoes and a couple of (very expensive) trees from Trees of Antiquity. I'm hoping they are worth it. Grocery expenses were also a little up. In the end our TTM value increased above 15K and combined with a drop in our effective dividend yield (due to rising stock prices and COP's cut) our timeline increased substantially this month. You win some you lose some I guess.

More positively we didn't spend as much on the renovation as I had planned. We also got our tax refund which boosted our income for the month. Overall savings rate was 69% for the month which is good but not stellar.


Normal Spend - $1259.84
Remodel Spend - $1093.53
Total Spend - $2353.37
Total Savings - $5358.18 ; 69%






Lending Club
FAI - $1713.65 (+183.90)
SWR - 71.89% (-1.53%)
NAR - 14.33% (+0.09%)
Age - 7.1 Months (+0.6)
Total Charge Offs - 7 (+1)

Dividend Fund
FAI - $730.04 (+50.68)
Dividends Received - $48.64

401K/SEPP
FAI - $751 (+34)

We received dividends from CAT, PG and T in February. I added PBCT and CMI to our portfolio. We also got our first ever organic dividend increase from T! A whopping $1.84 added to our forward income just for owning a good company. Hey its a start.



Total FAI - $3194.69 (+268.58)

Time to Bills Covered - 21 Months (+2)
Time to TTM Expenses Covered - 36 Months (+5)
Time to 3% LC - 62 Months (+11)

TTM Expenses - $15168.76 (+1293.66)


So we effectively just went back to where we were in December plus a few months in terms of timeline. March might drop again if we keep our expenses down. We won't be having many more garden expenses and won't be doing any sewer cleaning or tax preparation! Of course other things always come up.

However, we did bust through the 3K annual mark! Our income also shot up to $230 bucks for February, effectively covering 18% of our normal expenses for the month. Yay!

Remodel

A month ago we were still not quite done with the DW's craftroom. We had about a week left until we finished it. In fact I don't even think we had the floor down yet if I remember right. I got ramped up on the bathroom during the second weekend of February and have been working on it now for about 2.5 weeks. I posted my last update last night and we have much of the cement board and drywall up. Some of the tiling is done around the toilet. We'll be getting the toilet installed next and then cutting out the plumbing in the ceiling.

I haven't been putting in the hours like I was on the other rooms simply because I'm comfortable with where we are. I really have no due date, I need to remember that! I have been working on getting rid of my tendency to set due dates in my head for certain tasks. I need to learn to just go with it! Things get done as they get done as long as I do something each day. Frankly I'm impressed with myself with how I have been keeping at it. It's difficult to find energy in the evenings sometimes.

Eggs

We got 116 eggs in February, up from 70 in January. All the chickens are laying again including the Cuckoos. These past few days they have been laying 7-8 per day on average. We are drowning in eggs once again.