We got back from our 10 day trip on Sunday. My mom and DD did great together while we were gone. My mom took her to daycare during the weekdays so that she had some downtime, which was definitely the right choice. At first my mom said that she could just take care of DD 24/7 and that we could submit vacation time at daycare, but I told her that maybe she didn't remember how demanding taking care of a 1 year old was and that she might want some time to herself. She was very happy to have that time. Plus my dad flew in for the first weekend that we were gone, so my mom got to share the work with him. My mom commented on how hard it must be to both work full time and take care of our daughter (yeah, tell me about it!). Overall, it went well. DD never got upset at us being gone, probably because she knows and trusts my parents. She keep her routine intact by going to daycare each day. And when we got back, even though DD has always been a good sleeper, she actually goes down to sleep easier than when we left.
Unfortunately, we both got sick right before we left for our cruise and I still haven't recovered (2 weeks later). I have been so sick all week and am on what feels like a million prescription medications to control mucus and coughing. But luckily my co-workers were out all week, so I haven't needed to go into the office at all. It is truly times like these that I thank my lucky stars for having such a flexible job.
We also spent way too much money on our trip. I thought I had prepaid gratuities, but nope, I didn't. And though we barely bought anything for ourselves, we bought loads of things for DD. A sweatshirt in Venice, lace dresses in Burano, a sundress in Olympia, etc. Mostly clothes, because there isn't much else to buy such a little kid. We also booked another cruise for March 2020 to the Caribbean. DH is super excited to take DD on her first cruise. We picked one of the big boats with lots of cool stuff to do on board. That was a $300 deposit. To cover the costs, I had to borrow from ourselves and have set up a plan to repay ourselves over several months.
And last night, we finally finalized the purchase of the travel trailer. It took forever for the seller's bank to clear their loan and provide the payoff letter to clear the lien on the title. Tax, title, registration and a permanent plate cost $1720, but we had the money waiting so no surprises there. I called this morning and paid for a year's insurance, $318, also planned for and covered. So tomorrow I will be going to secure our storage space for the trailer. This should be $36 per month going forward. I called a bunch of storage facilities near us and this was the most cost effective and the nicest, both for the facility itself, but also being close to both our house and the highway.
And finally, we got an updated quote from the contractor. It came in just over $60k, which is the hard stop for our budget. I have inquired about cutting out the painting and us doing that ourselves to save $4k. That will give us a enough wiggle room to be able to cover the carpeting after the project is done, since that isn't actually in the current quote. Though the amount is high, it is almost $40k less than the other contractor and their breakdown shows that they are quoting less than the individual contractors that we got quotes from for things (plumbing, HVAC, framing and drywall, etc.). So basically, the difference is that we are paying $8k extra to have them manage the project, which is just 15%, a very fair rate since industry standard is generally 20%. After spending all summer and fall trying to get quotes with little to no luck, I just can't manage this thing myself. Also, I think labor is just really expensive were I am because there is a lot of demand and not as much supply. So we have decided to move forward with our project and just work to add the other elements (wet bar, theatre room furniture and electronics) as we can. Hoping this all goes smoothly.
). Work is giving us our choice of a free turkey or ham, so I'm getting the turkey and DF is getting a ham, so it looks like we will have both to cook. Lol.
