Finally a bit of motivation to update: we received our tax rebate today! We didn’t get the full $7500 first-time homebuyer’s credit as we owed a bit of money this year (Jules and I both worked a full year and made over double last tax year) but at least it was a positive balance! This is the first time it has paid to itemize the deductions rather than taking a standard one since everything got pretty complex (significant charity donation, purchasing a car and a house all in the same year.)

The first thing I did after I saw that the money was in the account was write the final check to the home improvement Visa card we got when we had our major plumbing and heating system done in November. The nice thing about that is it is interest-free until the beginning of March so we didn’t lose out on the deal by financing it. This is major, since it was no small sum of money. We have one payment left on the roof and then we are free of the debt caused by home maintenance incurred simultaneously. Then, finally, we can begin to enjoy a positive cash flow and begin paying back debts to family members and actually saving again! I have been stashing away a little bit of money the last few paychecks so we have a small amount of savings, but it’s nothing like what it was prior to buying the house. Oh well, at least it’s all gone to improve our home and thus isn’t wasted! Feeling much better about finances now.

I am still going garden-crazy. I got Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square Foot Gardening and have been getting a lot of good ideas from it. Hopefully if the weather is nice this weekend we can go to Home Depot and buy some cedar lumber so I can construct the beds. At the moment I am considering making 3 4′x4′ beds so I have room to work in them but we also have room for our outdoor furniture without overcrowding. I have the food scraps compost bin in full swing and no longer feel bad tossing away kitchen scraps as they are going directly into the soil! (Well, they will when they break down, that is.) I received my wire bins for leaf composting this week and hopefully will also get a chance to set those up. I’m getting pretty excited about harvesting the “black gold.” West Seattle has a plant nursery near the cats’ vet which seems pretty well-stocked from the outside so soon we’ll have to make a trip over there to check out their selection of compost, peat moss, and see if they stock vermiculite. Filling these beds is going to be pricey but at least it’s a one-time expense since I’ll be filling them with compost after this.

I have one square left to go on my Tetris blanket. Annoyingly, I had purchased just enough yarn to finish HALF of the final square, but no more. Now I have to wait a week before the yarn arrives from my online purchase. Still, there are plenty of threads to weave back into the blanket so it will probably take at least that long to finish. The end is in sight!

Here’s hoping for a beautiful weekend without rain or snow!