Why We'll Be Poor for the Next 30 Years

Kurt and I have some big big news to share: we bought a house! We closed on May 18th. I know most of you know this already due in part to Facebook and to the fact that I’ve told everyone we’ve spoken to in the past month (shh, don’t tell Kurt). Kurt wanted to keep it mum until everything was set in stone, so as not to jinx it. While he’s usually very practical, he is extremely superstitious when it comes to these things. “The house is NOT ours!” he’d say anytime I referred to it as such, and “It’s going to fall through, I just know it.” Ah, the power of negative thinking. Anyway, it’s an 3 bedroom, 2-1/2 bathroom end unit townhouse in the development where I grew up. It’s a little weird moving back there, but everything about the transaction just felt right. 

It needs a little work and a lot of painting, so we’re doing that in the 4 weeks before we move in. The process has been a learning experience, but we’ve been extremely lucky. We had a great realtor and lawyer and it has all gone very quickly and fairly smoothly. From putting our offer in to closing, the entire process took 50 days. Before that, we looked at houses for about 2 and a half weeks.

Here, I'd like to discuss how House Hunters depresses me. When we started looking at houses, I became obsessed with finding the perfect place. I searched realty sites, design blogs (to make our perfect place even more perfect) and DVR'ed every episode of House Hunters I could find. Well, my friends, that last part was not smart. Not smart at all. I learned that in Georgia, I could get a 4 bedroom McMansion in our price range. In New Jersey, well let's just say our options are less fabulous than that. Not to mention the fact that the taxes in this state are ludicrous. Absolutely ludicrous. If we had moved across the river to Pennsylvania, for instance, our taxes would be half as much as they are in this lovely state. This was our biggest source of stress: taxes. Because yes, it is a buyer's market, but the taxes only go up year after year, and in New Jersey, they are already astronomical. They very rarely, if ever, go down. While we looked at houses, I became more and more stressed at what we could afford and where. But once we found this place, we decided to stay in Jersey. It was just too good to be true. And perfect for us.

The neighborhood and town is exactly what we wanted. The schools are amazing and the town is growing. Since I grew up in the neighborhood, I feel comfortable here and I know firsthand it's a good place to raise a family. We feel very lucky to have gotten such a great deal on this place since we almost completely wrote off looking in this town, thinking we’d never be able to afford it. The most exciting things for me in the entire house? The fireplace in the living room. It’s my first fireplace! I'm a little sad we're moving in in June and can't reasonably use it for another few months.

For the past week and a half, we've been working on it; painting the exterior wood trim, trimming the overgrown trees in the backyard, taking down cabinets from over the kitchen island (and moving them to the wall instead. Being where they were, they closed off the kitchen and dining room. Taking them down makes the floor plan much more open. Before and After pics to come.) My dad took up the carpets and primed and painted the 3 bedrooms so the carpets can be installed on Friday. I have a newfound love for power washing, and a newfound hatred for painting. We still have a long way to go, but it's coming along.

So now the fun part starts. Decorating. I have been scouring design blogs and websites, browsing the “home decor” section of Pinterest, and making “to do” and “to buy” lists as long as my arm. I can’t wait to go to IKEA and the antiques market nearby. Kurt and I had agreed awhile ago that we wouldn’t be buying any new furniture until we bought a house and knew what we could fit. So I’ve been antsy. I absolutely LOVE walking through IKEA and finding things to mix and match with the pieces we have already, so that will be one of our first stops. We have some furniture from my Nonni we’ll mix in here and there. I’m thrilled to get to make this place our own, little by little, finding the perfect dining room table here, a great set of stools there. I can think about nothing else.

We won't move in completely until the 15th, so we'll have time to get all the major work done before we move in. I'll be posting some before and afters in the weeks to come. And while I know this is going to be a lot of work, and that our work will never really end, I love it. I love being able to work on "our house," to change the colors, move the cabinets, choose flooring, paint vanities and switch out light fixtures; to really make it a home. For the next 3 weeks, unless we're at work or sleeping, our lives will consist of painting, sanding, and drilling. So if you're in the area, stop by. We'll be there.

Harvest Routes

A few months ago, our friends decided to start up their own CSA (or Community-Supported Agriculture), called Harvest Routes. Essentially, they work with local farmers to provide fresh, local produce, eggs, meat, and honey to the community. There are a multitude of farmers in our area, but the lack of farmer’s markets is apparent. It’s difficult and time-consuming to buy local. Their solution is to provide a box of produce and eggs (and whatever else you would like to add on) to subscribers each week from various farmers. If you’re familiar with a co-op, this is similar, only more farms are involved and when you pick up your box every week, it’s already packed for you.

I’ve been super excited about participating. I’ve always thought it a shame that “The Garden State” doesn’t have more opportunities to buy local and seasonal food. Farmer’s markets are growing in our area, but they’re only once a week and still somewhat limited. We picked up our first box yesterday – an enormous box filled with kale, mustard greens, arugula, radishes, oregano, lettuce, leeks, eggs and more (see pic below). Since we get whatever is in season, each week is a fun surprise. I love it. I’m already looking up recipes for some of the produce I’m less familiar with. Because of Harvest Routes, we'll be trying and experiencing new foods and learning new recipes. There's nothing a foodie loves more. And I love that we’re supporting the local farms. As summer gets into full swing, we’ll be getting tomatoes, watermelon, green beans, beets. And everything is fresh, seasonal, and local. 

One of the best features this CSA offers is flexibility. You can sign up for weekly or biweekly pickups and can add on raw honey, fresh coffee, and more to your box. If you go on vacation, you can “freeze” your subscription until you come back. It’s a really great feature. Since it’s just Kurt and I, we’re signed up for biweekly deliveries at the moment and I think it will be plenty of food. For more information and a much better explanation, you can visit their website: www.Harvest-Routes.com

Antigua (a.k.a. The Longest Blogpost Ever)

I know I’ve been M.I.A. for awhile, but not without good reason. We’ve been house hunting (more on that in a future post), vacationing in Antigua, and otherwise keeping insanely busy.

I know you’re all dying to hear about our vacation in Antigua, at least I’m dying to relive it through the written word. So here it is:


As previously mentioned, we had been looking to book a vacation for this Spring. This vacation had two requirements: It had to be cheap, and it had to be somewhere we’ve never been, which turned out to be a pretty tall order. Unless you want to spend 5 days in Ohio (no offense to Ohio-ans, I'm sure Ohio is breathtaking, it’s just not where we were thinking), you have to leave the country to save money, but you can't go too far as flights are ridiculously expensive at the moment. Months ago we found the perfect vacation via CheapCarribean.com. It sounded almost too good to be true. Five all-inclusive days in Antigua (flights and transportation to and from the resort included) for less than 2 flights to Europe? We were in. Then I started to panic. In my experience, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. My mind started reeling: The food will be inedible. The room will be tiny and dirty. The island will be dangerous. It must be the rainy season. I worried for naught. Everything about our vacation was practically perfect. I’ll give you that we’re not hard to please, but I can’t imagine many people finding fault. The weather was perfect; not too humid or hot, with the most perfect island breeze. It rained a bit on the first day we were there and poured on the morning of our departure (while we laughed and pointed at all the sorry tourists having to spend their last day in paradise packing inside), but otherwise, we had sunny and somewhat overcast skies (I’ll tell you, those clouds ended up being a godsend. Whenever the sun came out of the clouds, the temperature rose about 15 degrees and I could feel my pale half-Irish skin burning quickly).


When we arrived at the island, we found our way to our car service and loaded our bags into the van (not before being told about a departure tax that we had to pay if we wanted to leave the island, which I confirmed to be truth and not scam with every other tourist we met). Here’s the thing about the drive to the resort: As Antigua was once a British colony, Antiguans (or at least our driver) drive on the left side of the road, while hugging the center line, passing everyone they can, while pedestrians, goats, chickens, and stray dogs walk along the road. So as not to panic every time we almost hit a dog/car/pedestrian/chicken (which was about every 5 seconds) I focused on the landscape for most of it. Driving on the left blew my mind. I’ve been to England before and for some reason it didn’t faze me as much. Maybe the streets in London weren't so narrow or the taxi drivers weren't so liberal with their interpretation of driving laws, I don't know. What I do know, is it's a good thing we hadn't decided to rent a car. On our way to the hotel, there were a few 5 road intersections at which Kurt and I both admitted not knowing who had the right of way.


We arrived at our resort, Jolly Beach Resort, an hour before check-in and were encouraged to leave our bags at the front desk and explore the resort. Mostly we explored the bar at the pool where I discovered my favorite drink for the rest of the trip: Antigua Kiss - a combo of pineapple juice, peach Schnapps, and white rum. When it was time to check in, we were driven to our room, a junior suite. The entire resort featured white concrete walls and our room was no different. At first glance, the bed seemed hard and uncomfortable, and the room seemed a bit sparse, but we quickly realized we were in paradise and couldn't care less what the room looked like. The room was clean, had all the amenities we needed including 2 balconies with beach views, and the bed turned out to be more comfortable than our own. We quickly (but carefully) threw on sunscreen and our swimsuits and headed to the beach.


Never in my life have I seen water so blue. It was amazing. I spent the majority of our time on the beach just staring at it, mesmerized. The shade of blue, coupled with the soft sand and green mountains on either side of our beach's little cove made for the most amazing scenery. We spent most of our time on the beach, relaxing and reading. Every once in awhile, a local entrepreneur would show up and try to sell us jewelry, fresh aloe (even though we weren't sunburned yet), a jeep tour of the island (and some illicit drugs), and massages. We turned down every proposition, yes including the illicit drugs (do you not know me at all?) and each would-be vendor bid us good day and walked away. 

On our third day on the island, we decided to splurge and buy two tickets for a catamaran tour around the island. The tour was to be 7 hours long, included lunch, snorkeling, and drinks. It was the best thing we did. 

Since we'd only had 1.25 days to get any sun, we decided to sit under the awning so we didn't get burned. We made our way around the island with about 40 other passengers (including some old German men in speedos - and I don't mean the racing speedos that offer a bit more coverage where it counts, I mean high-cut, bikini speedos that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. And believe me, these men were not the type of men you want to see in speedos.). For about 20 minutes, we crossed the Atlantic in open water and I felt incredibly seasick. For the longest 20 minutes of my life, I sat in silence, staring at the horizon, willing myself not to vomit, while people on the front of the boat held up their arms and screamed while we rode the 10-foot swells like a roller coaster. Once we got back into calmer waters though, the seasickness subsided. We pulled into a little cove with a private beach and those who wanted to go snorkeling (me!) were given masks, flippers, and flotation devices. 

I nervously jumped in the water and followed our tour guide around the coral reefs. I thought it would be a little scary or at least unnerving, but it was beautiful. The fish were gorgeous, colorful little things that didn't even seem fazed by the 20 enormous humans hovering above them. At one point, I looked up and saw a tiny long-snouted fish right in front of my mask. On our way back to the boat, our tour guide called out, "Quick! Get over here! There's a stingray!" Naturally, assuming he meant we needed to hurry up and GET AWAY (I mean, one of those things killed Steve Irwin!), I swam as fast as I could to catch up to him. When I arrived (panting), he said, "Look! It's right underneath us!" Heart pounding, I looked down and about 20 feet below us was an eagle ray, with a tail longer than I've ever seen on a sting ray. And it was beautiful. Seriously. It looked like a bird flying through the water. I watched it until I couldn't see it anymore, and we headed back to the boat for lunch and a 2-hour stay on the private beach.

I think this is as good a time as any to mention the food. I was beyond impressed with the food on our trip. It was spectacular. While I'm not a picky eater, I know good food and prefer it. And this was good food. There were 4 restaurants on our resort: a buffet place called Hemisphere's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, an Indian restaurant called Utsav, an Italian restaurant called Bocciolo, and a seafood restaurant called Lydia's, and we ate at every single one (Utsav was so good, we ate there twice). I was so impressed with the food. I couldn't believe how good it was. My main concern with an all-inclusive resort was the food. I had read many, many customer reviews of other all-inclusive resorts and they all mentioned the food and that it wasn't good. The reviews for our resort mentioned good food, but I had no idea how good. At Jolly Beach, it was fresh, flavorful, tender, all the good food adjectives you can think of. Even the lunch on the private catamaran tour was fabulous. Plus, while eating on the patio at the buffet, we could watch the birds face-off. About every few minutes or so, two birds (or Carib Grapples as we would come to learn) would face-off over a piece of food and for all intents and purposes, dance at each other. Whichever bird danced better, won...like West Side Story...at least in my mind.


The day after the catamaran tour, we ventured off the resort, something I was longing to do. I'm not the kind of person who is content going to a foreign country and not actually seeing it. We chose Antigua because it didn't come with a "don't leave the resort" disclaimer. We walked to the little harbour town near the resort, explored a bit, and walked around the grocery store. If we had been there for more than 5 days, we would have explored a little more. I would have liked to have done a jeep tour of the island or gone to St. John's for the day, but the beach was just too appealing. Next time. Because there will be a next time. I would go back to Antigua, back to Jolly Beach, in a heartbeat. 


The resort had plenty of activities throughout the day, though we chose to relax instead of joining in. At night, there were dance shows, dancing, and a bonfire with limbo and fire-breathing.


We made a few friends over the duration of the trip: a quintet of sisters from Canada and their husbands, some Italians with whom I got to practice my language skills, and a few other couples. We learned early on that not everyone was part of the all-inclusive package, which meant there were tip jars at the bars. Kurt and I being overtippers to begin with and seeing the poor countryside, felt weird not tipping the staff, so we periodically visited the front desk for change for our twenties. Tipping wasn't necessary I guess, but we figured, why not?


All in all, the trip was near perfection. The island was beautiful, the locals were friendly, we felt safe the entire time, and the food was FABULOUS. The only thing we wanted more of was time to further enjoy the island.