The first present we chose was a powdered coffee gift with two fairly decent glasses with it. I thought we had lucked out. Then, of course, as the game is played…our gift was “stolen” by someone else and we had to choose again. This time, we got what had to be the worst present: pigs feet and Spam! Yuck! But it was a pretty funny present.

Kelly LOVES the pigs feet haha :-p

We had a fun night out and then Sunday we prepared for Puerto Rico. We are leaving this week!! Lots to do still, but we are looking forward to going back to the property and getting some work done.

At Texas Roadhouse in Greeley

Then we went over to our friends Matt and Jamie’s house to play some Texas Hold-Em poker (a very Texas night for some reason) and ring in the new year. We played tournament style which takes way too long for my patience, but is fun for a night counting down the hours, minutes and seconds to the new year.

After about three hours of playing everyone starts getting restless and not paying much attention to the game and instead starts telling jokes and messing around.

Me and Hailee playing around

To add a little spice to the night, Britton and I had  decided beforehand to play a practical joke. We found some “untearable toilet paper” at the dollar store the other day. Britton inconspicuously traded out the regular paper in the bathroom for the un-tearable kind. We thought about removing all the regular toilet paper under the bathroom sink, but thought that might be too mean, so he just removed and replaced the roll on the spring.

After about 2 hours of playing poker, finally someone went to the bathroom. Britton and I waited to see what would happen. Finally, our friend Erin came out and said “Matt and Jamie, what IS this stuff? It’s just about impossible to tear. Are you trying to re-use your toilet paper?” They were mortified and said, “We just bought it at Wal-Mart the other day.” Britton and I just laughed along with everyone else, and no one knew it was us for the longest time until we came clean. We were just shocked that Erin was actually able to pry it apart and even used it!! That takes some doing. It was pretty hilarious.

Erin with the TP around her neck

Finally as we were nearing midnight only Britton, Erin and I remained as the last three in the poker tournament. We decided to call it and Britton and I took first, and she took second. So we walked away with $60! Not too shabby!

This was the final table. I had the most chips (on the right)! Yay

Erin, Jamie and Me- Making the Money-haha

It was a fun night out with friends and a great start to the new year. We hope everyone has a wonderful and prosperous 2012!

Friday we baked cookies all day long. Then Saturday we spent the evening with Britton’s family. On Sunday we went over to my grandma’s for Christmas dinner. And on Monday we took Britton’s niece and nephew out to lunch and to pick out a present of their choice. So while it was nice to sleep in, we didn’t really get much of a break otherwise. The time went by rather quickly and 2012 is rapidly approaching as well. We hope you all had a nice holiday with friends and family.  Britton and I are looking forward to 2012 and our next trip to Puerto Rico which will be at the mid to end of January.

For Diane, the owner of Vintage Inn, she said that in the case of a bed and breakfast it takes the ability to be ok with having strangers living in your house and at times messing up your stuff. She said her husband couldn’t stand it, and that is one of the reasons he is no longer involved in the business with her. She said you have to like people, entertain them sometimes, and graciously deal with complaints as they occasionally crop up. She said overall you just have to be flexible and good with your resources (time and money). She also mentioned that it doesn’t hurt if you like to cook, throw parties and decorate. In her guest house she had a couple of different rooms that she decorated different ways such as a Japanese “Zen” room, a Tuscan-style room, and a French/Parisian room.

Outside Vintage Inn in Eaton/Galeton

I think we have what it takes to run a business like this because we not only have our single-family home rental business which has taught us a lot…but we also rent out our basement bedroom/apartment. We have had all sorts of people live with us in that basement bedroom over the course of about four years.

Basement Bedroom

First we had Kosei, our Japanese high school exchange student who lived with us for a year. Then we had Jasmin a college student from Germany for just a couple of months. Then we had Luke, a student and volunteer fireman from Sterling, Colorado. We’ve also had Mark, a Culver’s franchise-owner, and Matt, his replacement. We had Bob, a municipal lawyer for the City of Greeley and Winna, a former Wal-Mart employee. We had my aunt Laura and we had Lisa, a UNC meteorology student. And now we have Jennifer, a medical student on rotation to be a P.A.

The Wetbar area of our basement used as a kitchenette by our guests

It has been very interesting meeting all of these various people. Sometimes there have been minor issues, but for the most part it has been a great experience and we have enjoyed sharing our house with nearly all of them. Some are  more outgoing and others have kept to themselves. Some we will probably be friends with forever, and others we will probably never see again. It is just cool to know that we were, for a short amount of time, a part of their lives, and they, of ours.

So I really think we’d enjoy having people stay with us at our property in Rincon. Plus, we wouldn’t even need to have “themed” rooms as they would already be naturally themed in their own way. There would be the jungle treehouse, the cabana (or two), maybe a “surf shack” and the villa. Plus it would be so fun to decorate and get them ready for people to stay with us. It would combine my love of “home” (I am a Cancer sign after all) with my love of people and their stories and become a viable business to boot.

Thanksgiving 2011 at Grandma’s house

Then we went over to Britton’s family’s house for another meal. So we were highly stuffed.

While we are happy to have a four-day weekend, in some ways we are ready to get back to the normal work week for a few reasons. 1) My car broke down when I was out doing inspections on Wednesday. We had to get it towed from Fort Lupton back to Greeley. Because of the holiday they won’t even look at it until Monday. That makes me a little anxious. And 2) Britton is on-call this whole weekend, so on Monday he’ll get to turn the pager over to someone else.

Other than that, we’ve been enjoying the time off and the opportunity to think about our lives and be thankful for all we have. We’ve accomplished so much this year! It’s amazing. We are so thankful. Since the holidays are about bringing family together, it also made me remember how much I miss my dad. Holidays are hard like that. Sometimes in a weird way, I am happy I still have such strong feelings about my dad inside me though. It makes me feel like he is still here, somehow.

We’ve taken a couple of walks and even walked down inside the Greeley ditch (since it is empty this time of year) to stay out of the crazy wind. It’s like finding a new world to explore down there. Old ditched (literally) rusted bicycles, tree branches and crawdads line the bottom. We avoided Black Friday like the Black Plague and stayed inside and made turkey sandwiches, tea and brownies. We played Wii Frisbee golf, bowling, and the airplane game on Wii Sports Resort.

This week we also got our medical student who moved into the basement bedroom, but she is with her family this holiday weekend, so we have the house to ourselves. We also got our vacation time approved and are planning on going back to Rincon toward the end of January! We are already making a list of all the things we want to do when we are there!

Anyhow, that’s what we’ve been up to lately -the highs and the lows. Happy Thanksgiving!

And, if you haven’t already, you can check out my latest post on the site about buying a house in Puerto Rico and some of the similarities and differences between buying property in the states versus Colorado. Or if you would prefer, I have pasted it here. Can you think of any other similarities and differences when buying in Puerto Rico? 

REPOSTED FROM RINCON LIFE
Buying Property in Rincon, Puerto Rico

Hi all, it’s Cassie from Lifetransplanet  here! I am so excited to be a part of the Rincon Life community! I suppose currently my role in the Rincon community is just about to start because we only recently purchased our fixer-upper property in May. That being said, we know quite a bit about buying (or trying to buy) property in Puerto Rico.

In 2008 we attempted to purchase a property -a finca- in Lares, in the central part of Puerto Rico. It is from that experience and our current experience buying our house in Rincon that we’ve learned that buying property in Puerto Rico is not exactly what you might expect stateside. We own five properties in Colorado as well (rentals and our house) so we do know about that process as well. In some ways buying a property in Puerto Rico is quite similar to in the states, and in others, it is very different. Here are some of those similarities and differences:

Similarities:

• Puerto Rico is part of the United States and so Federal regulations do apply to housing.

• Most banks/mortgage lenders require the same paperwork: application, appraisal, survey, etc

• You need a contract to buy/sell

• The deed/title proves you own it. In Puerto Rico you own property basically just as in the states.

• You will have a closing and they will give you the keys. It is very informal with less paperwork compared to the states

• You can work with a real estate agent or with the seller in “for sale by owner”

• Closing with “cash” instead of a mortgage is less hassle

Differences:

• Puerto Rico does it DIFFERENT. Puerto Rico has its own government and housing stimulus packages and requirements that differ
• You can’t use a mortgage lender in the states. It must be a Puerto Rican lender.
• The paperwork may be in Spanish (or it may be in English)

• There is no MLS -Multiple Listing Service. This makes it very hard to search for a property in Puerto Rico.

• Because there are so many people who sell “by owner” and because there is no MLS, you will be doing a lot of calling and setting up appointments to see houses instead of doing them all at once

• Puerto Rico’s title laws do NOT guarantee a spouse (especially a woman) will inherit the property if the other spouse (the man) dies so this must be considered or explicitly stated in a will or other legal document

• Notaries in Puerto Rico MUST be a lawyer. Basically you will need a lawyer at some point in the process if you are planning to buy a house in PR

• The negotiation is generally not written out. In the states all offers need to be written. In PR, in our experience, only the contract and final paperwork was written out

• Many houses, especially outside of San Juan or out of a subdivision are “non-conforming” in one way or another. This may make it difficult to buy a house with a mortgage. In our attempt to purchase the Lares property they found that the access road to the house was non-conforming as it went over a river. Other things could be if the septic tank is not accessible or even if the house is made out of wood like ours in Rincon. There are “non-conforming” houses in the states as well, but there seem to be a lot more in PR.

• People buy houses with cash a lot more often than in the states. This is to avoid a lot of this red-tape.

• Property tax is very low and sometimes nothing at all in Puerto Rico, especially for people with only one property that they live in (as opposed to a vacation home).

These are just a few examples of differences in buying a house in Puerto Rico as compared with the states. As for us,the property deal in Lares fell through for a few of these reasons. We were attempting to purchase it with a mortgage, but it not only  had problems because it was non-conforming but also because the title was not filed correctly. With the Rincon property we determined that it would be best to get a personal loan from the states (a 401(k) loan) instead of getting a mortgage to avoid a lot of the hassle and since we knew we might be given some grief over one of the buildings being wooden. We did get a lawyer because 1) you have to for the paperwork and 2) to make sure everything was titled correctly.

Overall, buying a property in Puerto Rico can be somewhat of a challenge if you’re used to the way things are in the states, but it is really not too bad and in some ways it’s actually better/easier. In any case, we are so happy we did and we can’t wait to get back to our home in paradise. If you’d like to check out our property, here are some pictures and videos.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to being not only a member of this online Rincon Life community but also in “real life” Rincon as well. See ya on the beach! -Cassie