(South)Westward, ho!

Well, peeps, we're moving on, perhaps for the final time before Mister retires.

It's not as bad as it could be. We're not going anywhere new and we're not going to England, but we're also not going to Fort Meade again. That would have been a nightmare for us, and by "us," I mean, "me." We are returning to that fiery chasm from whence we came: Augusta, Georgia.

Logistically, however, it's a bit tricky. See, we have a nice little house there. It's too small for us, but the current mortgage is really cheap (we got an excellent fixed rate!). So we looked at rentals in the area in the size we need.

That is so not going to happen. $1200-1800 per month for a 4-bedroom in the county we want, which is more than Mister will receive in military housing benefit.

So we looked into the cost of adding a 4th bedroom, walk-in closet, and second full bathroom. For $30k over 10 years, we'd be adding less than $400 per month to our mortgage, and will still be under Mister's benefit. That'll be really great especially during the summers when I won't be working.

Mister will be heading southward on or about April 15th. While he's home alone, he'll be ripping up the dining room and kitchen floors so we can install lovely fake hardwood flooring. We'll save about $1k installing it ourselves. We want to install a dishwasher and new exterior doors, too, but I'm no dummy and we'll let Home Depot install those for us. A kitchen island, pantry cupboards, and new carpet will finish the inside.

The final change we're going to make is to the back yard, which needs a drain. This is a weekend-ish project that will cost us next to nothing to do ourselves, just time and muscle.

Wish us luck! We'll probably need it.