House of Swank

My New Job

I have a new, hopefully temporary, job.  The title is "House Buyer/Seller."

Damn, selling a house and buying a house takes a lot of work!  Especially when you're 200 miles away from one of the houses in question, and you don't have a scanner or fax machine at home.  I'm going to be good friends with the guys at the local Kinkos when all is said and done.

The past few days a fair amount of my time has been spent shuffling paperwork back and forth between us and our agent in Redmond.  Sweetie is unable to print or fax personal things at work, and is only free to speak to outside humans for 40 minutes at lunch time and after 2 pm.  So that means I get to collect any paperwork that needs signing, then gather the signatures from him in the small windows of opportunity available, then get them sent off where they need to go.  Tons of fun!

And we've found a house we want to make an offer on down here (details being withheld so as not to jinx anything).  Which means a whole slew of paperwork begins on this end as well.

This really is a full time job.  And I have NO IDEA how people moved any distance before fax and e-mail were available.

Tomorrow's to-do list (for my reference as much as anything else):

• Fax response to inspection report to agent.  (Basic response:  We'll take care of everything that's actually our responsibility, although not all of it is our responsibility).
• Fax paperwork to mortgage broker down here, and finalize everything is in place for the pre-approval letter so that we can make an offer on the house we want.
• Scope out specific information on First American Title down here, provide info to agent selling the condo so that we can sign all closing documentation down here.
• Research home inspectors, so that once offer is made on our home we have an inspector at the ready.  We do NOT want to use our agent's inspector, as Sweetie ran into some issues doing this in the condo, and when you're buying a 57 year old house you don't want to run into any issues down the line that can be avoided.
• Confirm balances in bank accounts, transfer money so that earnest money is readily available for an offer.
• Be done with all of the above no later than 2:15 pm.

Missing Meetings

I love the internets with all of my heart, but the person who decided to invent the web based seminar (Webinar!  How witty we are!)  is truly the devil in my book.

Theoretically, I suppose, they cold be interesting and informative, but in reality they tend to go off the boredom meter, and I get about 1 minute of useful information for every 30 minutes of my life wasted.

The upside is that when you are so bored you want to bang your head on the desk you CAN.

The bad part is when you are that bored you want to be anywhere other than on the computer and phone, but you know that if you start to wander THAT will be when the useful bit of information arrives and all will be lost.

That's one place where the federal government has it right.  I used to have to do a LOT of the seminars in the last job, but the interface software had pause and rewind buttons, and closed captions, so when you were so bored you thought you might puke you could get up and stretch your legs, go get a cup of coffee, then come back.  You risked not being "live" for the Q&A, but there were never any Qs I wanted Aed, so I rolled with it.

Pardon me, I have to go scrape my brain off the floor now.

Notes From a Rogue Employee

Working in PDX this week has been challenging, but I've learned some lessons, and my next trip down will be even easier:

• Pretty much every library in the universe has free wifi.  But you have to have your wireless card turned ON in order for it to work.  Otherwise you'll NEVER find a network.
• Not every library in the world has the publications you want in the format you want them in.  So do your research, or be prepared to wander.  Perhaps to a small, community library.
• The Multnomah County library in downtown Portland is one of the prettiest buildings for working in I think I know of.  If they had the publication I needed in book format, I might never leave there.
• The lack of Windows Vista compatibility in the world at the moment is annoying.
• Not everyone in the world has Microsoft Word.
• The jump drive is one of the best computer inventions I can think of.
• The jump drive does you no good if it's in Redmond and you are in Portland.
• The Oregon Historical Society and PCC Cascadia both have wifi that you can scrounge if you are parked outside their buildings.

Also, mad props to "sherbama," whose wireless I've been taking advantage of while out at the 'rents.  And slight props to "oregonbeerforce," who has come in handy when I can't find sherbama, but isn't as reliable about letting me on.

The Daily Grind

I'm heading down to Portland Thursday for nearly a week.  I will need to get some work done while I am down there, outside of the meetings and such that already have me heading that way.  None of my parents neighbors are kind enough to have a wifi connection going that I can get onto.  My parents have broadband, but plugging into their network will be a pain, and I  don't want to do all my internet work on their computer, and other stuff on my computer.  So, I'm looking for a place to call home for a few days, that will allow me wifi access.  Any suggestions?  Willing to pay a small fee if necessary, but would prefer free.

Bonus points for:

• Accessibility to food and drink options, but not required purchases
• Open until at least 8:30 in the evening
• Vaguely quiet

Muchas Gracias!

Dress Code

A GOOD thing about working from home is the fact that you can go to work in your pajamas.  Don't even have to take a shower. 

And, later in the morning, when you're sick of feeling skanky, shower and change.

My New Office

So I have discovered this place called the library.  Where they'll apparently let any local yokel in, and provide them with tables and books and computers to use free of charge.  To get access to the good stuff you have to prove you live within the county, but even proving that is a piece of cake.  So you can sit and, in a relatively quiet environment, get work done.  Without the cat wanting to play, or The People's Court tempting you to turn on the TV, or the million other things that can distract while sitting at home.  There are even electrical outlets underneath every single table I've seen so far, so you can plug in the laptop while here. 

There's still the internet-surfing to be thwarted, what with the free wifi and all.

I have deemed this my part-time office for the part-time job.  At half-time, my job should average four hours a day.  Parking at my local library is limited to three hours.  So I can come down here for three hours worth of work done.  And the stuff that can be done while sprawled in a La-Z-Boy with the cat on your legs and The People's Court on TV will be done at home.

As an added bonus, my local library maintains a strong non-profit library, as a cooperating collection of The Foundation Center.  Which is what brought me here in the first place, to do some research in their database.  That's limited to an hour a day (and I have many, many hours of research to do), so I show up, do a little research, then take over a table and pretend it's my very own office.

The only problem I've encountered thus far is the VERY LOUD children whose parents have apparently never taught them about INSIDE VOICES and LOOK THERE ARE PEOPLE TRYING TO WORK AND DO IMPORTANT THINGS HERE.  But, I've got the iPod that kinda blocks them out.  And I prefer them to the former co-worker who would ramble on things that they weren't very knowledgeable about and I'd have to pay attention to maintain good relations and all that.

So if you're looking for me, I'll be at the library.

Snow Day

Last night as we were getting ready for bed the snow was coming down pretty hard, and Sweetie was trying to put odds on whether or not there would be school today.  (There was, with a one hour late start, which is a good thing, because if they take any more snow days this year I think Sweetie might still be going to school in August).

When you work at home snow days are not a fun thing anymore.  Not a chance to sit around the house being a bum all day, but a sentence to be house bound and not even get the quick trip out to go to the store or the post office or breathe some fresh air.  At least not where we're living now, as to the west there is no sidewalk and to the east is a GIANT hill that I would be terrified of navigating with snowy conditions.  One more reason to look forward to moving!

Thankfully, the temperatures are high enough that I took a quick jaunt to the store earlier, so insanity is averted one more day.

Adjustment

There's a lot more WORK to work when you work at home, alone, with no one to distract you.

I need to teach the cat how to take a coffee break.