Friday, October 26, 2007

year of the house?

i like having a theme for a year. this year's theme, year of fun, has been awesome. i kinda want to do a redux next year. possible themes for '08 include:
  • year of visiting friends (i have friends all over this planet and i think that could be fun!)
  • year of the house (more on that in a moment)
  • year of productivity (to counter this last year)
  • jubilee year (a year to start new with all grudges and debts being forgiven... dianna don't get any ideas about those shoes)
so if you opinions send them my way.

the year of visiting friends would be fun. marc and michelle are moving to china. i am going to be so sad. they are going to take their sons with them which i just think is kinda unfair. trent and vanessa are in syria. kim and abe are in male, maldives. dianna's bro. is done with his mission in cambodia. alessandro in tuscany (friend from tunisia) invited us to see tuscany; something we have been planning on doing on our bikes. and then there are all my friends scattered around america. so it would be fun. i could use all my vacation time. and frankly if my work travel looks the way i think it will, i can probably get near to some of these places during a business trip.

year of the house would be completely opposite. i have always wanted to buy a fixer-upper house and fix it up. with the housing market the way it is, i think i can get a pretty good deal. i would like to buy a row house in a part of town where if i needed to i could rent it out. i would want a pretty messed up house. essentially something that has a solid foundation and solid plumbing, but everything else could go. because i want to make it a really energy efficient green house. there are all sorts of grants and tax incentives to make a house green, so i would love finding all of them and using the system to help me create a house i would enjoy. this would mean that all of my leave would be used to fixing the house. i wouldn't see any of these friends (well i would probably end up seeing a couple). but i would have to really be disciplined and use my leave to get the house fixed up. i think i would feel really responsible and that might be nice. there are all sorts of cool new materials (think bamboo floors, green roofs and insulation made out of old levis). it could be really fun. plus hopefully i could get some return on the investment.

the other 2 themes are definitely b tier ideas.

so you got an opinion. please comment.

1 comment:

Amy G. said...

i say you come visit your allred family in arizona. call it the year of allred if you must.