Finally Friday

I was going to watch some tv last night, but around 6:30 I needed nap, haha! Just a busy day yesterday with work and my 2 1/4 hour quick trip to see mom and groceries. So, I took a nap until like 7:30. Then I watered the flowers. Then I chopped up some strawberries and we had strawberry shortcake for dessert. The shut off valve thingy on my garden hose with the wand (so I can water the hanging baskets) broke the evening before last. DH got the valve opened, but you can't turn it off and on. It's hard to move from hanging basket to basket without turning the water off, LOL. Makes a mess. Last night dh stood at the main shut off at the hydrant and turned it on and off for me as I moved between baskets. I'm having him find the shut off valve online so I can order one, which is much cheaper than replacing the whole thing.

My mom's state income tax check arrived in the mail yesterday morning. DH was like what is the Dept of Revenue mailing to your mom? I explained it's the rebate. He's like "you should take the check with you and show her! Show her she's getting money! LOL"  I'm like, she won't get it now...but he was insistent, LOL.I told him I know what she will say.....she'll tell me to take the money and buy something for myself. Yep, sure enough, she did, LOL! Of course I deposited it in her account.

This morning I got the latest part of my property tax appeal in the mail, to the assessor guy at the Dept of Revenue. So, I guess we will see. I'll be interested to see all the comps and data I requested from the form he sent me. I would hate to have his job! I would imagine him calling up people, like he did with me would be hard and I imagine a lot of the people he has to call aren't very happy or nice to talk to. I also scanned what I sent him in the mail and emailed it to him and he replied back that he received it.

So, as part of all the data (in a handy dandy spreadsheet!) I gathered was data on all the other 2 acre river lots in our area. There are a lot of them and every single one of them was previously valued the same as the 7 lots in our street, at just around $70k. And every single one of those lots now got assessed at between $115,000 and $117,000. Our 7 lots went up to almost $150,000. We are the only 2 acre lots that high. On the form I filled out I had to put what I think the values should be, so for the land I put $116,000. For our building value, I put it at the same percentage increase (17.3%) that our neighbors had their very nice/similar home increased by. (Ours was increased by 44.25%). Seems fair to me. And if we can't come to an agreement, well then I guess I move it on to the next step, which is an appeal hearing with our county tax appeal board. In my opinion, unless there was some specific addition or improvement done to a home, then comparable properties should increase the same % across the board. Not to mention, the property/house that is the next nearest neighbor to our neighborhood? I was told by the assessor that since we don't actually have river access, being so high up, we are considered "river view" property. Well this nearest neighbor is on the other side of the road from the river, he has a river view (better than our view is) from his house. His 14 acres literally went up $2 and ours more than doubled.

I also need to see about getting a phone chat scheduled with our company 401k advisor. My returns just SUCK! I have some money invested in my HSA (through a different company). It's about 1/12th of what I have in my 401k and that has earned more in total dollars return, than my 401k has in the same time period! That's just ridiculous. My mom's "conservative" investments have earned more than my 401k is returning. I don't get it. I'm going to check into that next week. Find out from my boss who I need to talk to. Honestly, since we moved to this company a several years ago, I have barely earned anything on my 401k.

The night before last I watched the first episode of Justified: City Primeval and then I found that movie jj recommended with Timothy Olyphant called This is Where I Leave You. That was a good movie, I enjoyed it, so thanks for the recommendation :)  I didn't end up watching any tv last night, but will get to the 2nd episode tonight, most likely. Dh is usually watching racing on his computer, especially Friday and Saturday evenings, so I can watch my shows. 

Tomorrow, I need to get some of my laundry done and also want to try out my new steam mop. I also need to get the chicken coop cleaned out. Since dh mowed the lawn on Wednesday, he shouldn't need to mow it this weekend. The hot weather we are now having is slowing down how fast it grows, so he can go like 6 days in between mowings now.