Solar Power meets Kermit THE Frog?

Bills, bills, bills.... everyone has them. And let's face it, we hate them.
Living in Maryland has become rather expensive over the last few years, and not the things that we have any control over either.

Water usage rates have nearly tripled in 3 years, property taxes have jumped by thousands of dollars in a very short time and gas and electric rates are through the roof.

In an effort to reduce our family's electric bill we installed a wood burning fireplace, unplug small appliances not in use and converted our lighting to flourescent bulbs.

Of course, my husband being the handy-man that he is, installing Solar Energy Panels to cut down on electric bills is something he would like to do.
And being the super efficient guy that he is, researching how they work, how much they will save us and how to install them has become a passion.

Did you know that the government gives residential and small business grants for Solar Panel installation?

Many states have rebate programs that will give you a discount or certain percentage of the installation fees back.

In Maryland, residential installations that are no larger than 20kW are eligible for a grant amount that caps at $10,000.00 for whole house systems, and hot water solar systems can qualify for 30% of installation costs up to $2.000.00.
These are great incentives, but the grants are limited so applying for them as soon as you decide to install a Solar Energy System in your home is imperative.

Maryland also has a tax exempt program for homes with Solar or Green energy where the equipment is tax exempt. The most recent Solar Energy Grant Program for Maryland was updated on October 19, 2009 with the latest grants and application guidelines.

Another nice thing about Maryland that I have found in my research is that if you are generating enough energy to cover your electric usage, you only pay customer service fees on your electric bill, and you can actually get paid by the electric company for energy generated that you are not using. Basically, if you are generating solar energy in excess of your needs, you are selling it to the Electric Company. This does not look like a reason to install Solar Energy Panels but it certainly is a nice perk!

SO, if you are tired of the ever-increasing costs of living under your roof, check into what can you can put ON it to help out. Look into the incentives and grants available to you in your state and see how much you can save using Green Power.

And for DIY-ers like mine, www.GreenDIYEnergy.com looks like a company that can help. They provide the instructions on how to make your own solar panels and how to install them. This can save tens of thousands on just the installation, but add in the savings by making your own panels and you could be looking at serious cash in hand. Maybe enough to make Going Green NOW affordable for your home.

Going Green is the new catch phrase. You see it on home improvement shows, kids programming- real shows on recycling, not just the ones with Miss Piggy and Friends, infomercials and all over the internet. Green Power looks like an efficient way to cut household costs, and save our environment.
Add the tax credits from the federal and state governments, the tax exempt status Maryland gives you for your Solar Power equipment and the increase in your home's value Green Energy will give, Going Green just seems like it makes sense.

And in the words of the oh-so-wonderful Kermit THE Frog.... "It's Not Easy Being Green!"

But, it sure does help!

Families that DIY together...

I love home improvement shows.

Seriously, I do. I should have invented the HGTV channel. Or maybe the DIY channel.

I enjoy doing my own improvement projects and take pride in the work once it is done. It's a darn good thing my husband knows how to use all those tools in the garage, cuz I sure don't!

We recently put a laminate floating floor in our family room to replace the berber carpet that had been ruined by the kids and dogs. It was only 6 years old, but man was it awful. One little catch of a dog's paw and there goes a whole row of carpet. It looked like a zebra by the time we got rid of it. That and the stains. They would come out with a little bleach and hot water, only to reappear a few weeks later, like magic.

Getting rid of that carpet was the best idea ever!

We, and when I say WE I really mean MY HUSBAND, put down a really nice quality laminate in a cherry finish in a day. And I do mean a whole day. First we, this time I did help, took up the carpet and the padding, which was really gross. Then I vacuumed the subfloor and took up all the tack strips and the staples.

That took like, an hour?

Then we, yep this is the WE that means MY HUSBAND, rolled out the underlayment and put down the first row of flooring. This took like 2 hours! Apparently the wall is not exactly straight and the floor is not really flat so it took some measuring and tweaking to get the first row perfectly straight and level.

Oh, and some seriously precise cuts on that table saw in the garage. The one HE keeps reminding me was worth it's weight in gold because he uses it for EVERYTHING. Yeah, I know, he told me so...

Finally, the first row was down and I figured the rest would go down quickly. I mean all you do is snap the pieces together and keep on truckin'... well, not exactly that easy, but it's not hard, once you get going, right?

We finished up at 1am... yep, it took over 15 hours to put this floor in. Yes, the room is pretty big, 18 x 18, but really, 15 hours!

But now that it is in, and the furniture is in place, and we have been living in this room without stains and the 'wet dog' smell, it's so worth the time and effort we, I mean, he put forth.

So-- KUDOS to MY HUSBAND on a job well done!

Oh, and the cost difference from doing it ourselves and having it done by a 'professional'?
$450.00 versus $2200.00!!! Yikes! We saved like $1700.00 on this project alone...

I wonder if it is too soon to tell him I NEED the carpet in the boys room replaced with this laminate too...?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle... and the Mortgage Company From Hell?

Here I sit, on my couch, under an afghan, watching tv while the sun is slowly coming awake to warm the chilly air outside and bring some light to the world.

I am curled up under an afghan because it was 33 degrees last night, leaving ice crusted over the garden pond, and we have a heat pump system that just does not seem able to keep the temps comfortable during freezing weather.

This bothers me immensely.

Oh, sure we can sit together as a family under blankets in front of the fireplace watching TV through the winter months, and honestly, we really do.

Not just because we love each other, but more importantly, because we need to be warm and need to keep the electric bill to a manageable amount. Last winter we had bills of 1000.00 and more per month. Nope, that is not a typo... it really was that high.

This year we have a new, highly efficient hot water heater and brand new high efficiency washer and dryer set to help off-set some of the cost of running our home during the colder months.

We have also converted almost all of the light bulbs to those curly ones and use re-chargeable batteries in most of the electronics on our home. We unplug the laptops and shut down the power strips that have the TV, DVD player and Wii systems plugged into them.

We are recycling just about everything we use... and it seems that our recycle trash is 3 times the amount of the regular trash! Who knew so much could be recycled?

All of these things we do to cut our costs, and lower the cost of living in general, quite willingly.

In our plan to down-size expenses and reduce waste we contacted our mortgage holder to find about modifying our adjustable interest rate loan last October.

When our loan was bought by one of the Chase companies our interest rate jumped considerably. We were given 30 days notice that the payment was jumping by nearly 800.00 a month. So I did what was being recommended and contacted them to try to fix things before they became a problem... I did say I did this a year ago, right?

Well, here it is 13 months later and we still have no modification of our loan. Not only do we not have a modification in place, but the payment plan- or the "trial modification period" as they call it- has actually hurt us more than it has helped.

When I called last year I was told what we needed to do to be considered for a modification and I did it. I have been on 4 of the "trial payment periods", each lasting 3 months so that the powers that be can see we are committed to paying our bill on time each month.

At the end of the 3 months the modification is supposed to be locked in and all will be well... or so I have been told. After 4 of these trial periods and dozens and dozens of pages being faxed multiple times to the Loan Modifcation account representative we still have no modification and I only recently found out we had no account representative. Or at least not the one I have been dealing with since March of this year.

It seems he was taken off our case in early October, but no one told us until the end of the month. Which explains why the 8 phone messages I left for him the month of October were never answered.

So in our attempt to be proactive and reduce expenditures and tighten our belts, we have only made our problem worse.

Our account is now being reported as 6 months in arrears because the reduced "Trial Period" payments are less than our regular payments and apparently our mortgager does not accept partial payments...
which is what they consider the reduced payments to be since we have not been locked into a modification program...
and that means they can charge us with fees for making these partial payments and late fees because we are behind because we did not make full payments...
and apparently the whole "You qualify for the Federal Loan Modification Program" conversation that I have had several times over the past 13 months is just that... a conversation as it now seems we do not in actuality qualify for it according to our mortgager...

so now what do we do???

Well... for anyone in this predicament- of which I am sure there are many- try using this link and signing the petition there.


PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION TO GET CONGRESSIONAL HELP FOR HOMEOWNERS TODAY!!!

http://www.petition2congress.com/2/2564/petition-to-us-government-from-american-homeowners/


Then use the link to send a letter to your congressmen and senators to let them know that you need their help

I even added a personal note to the form letter to let them know that I have jumped through all the hoops and played by the ever-changing rules with nothing to show for it but a ruined credit rating and a house payment that has gone up once again.

I hope that my experience helps someone else as it does not appear it will be helping us...

But Hey! I still believe in Miracles ...

WOW, iPods and Growing UP?

Today is my youngest child's 11th birthday.

Now when did that happen? He was just a little guy with strawberry blonde hair, big blue eyes and the most adorable dimple in his chin... and now he is this tall, lanky, freckle-face young man, who still has the most awesome blue eyes and dimples to die for by the way.

I know the kids grow up. I mean we would all go insane if they didn't, but really, they are growing OLDER sooner than they used to.

My oldest child is now 29. I remember her playing with friends when she was 11... playing with dolls and playing "teacher".

Now 11 year olds play video games and hang out on the computer gaming and reading their email... well, not mine of course since I think kids that young should have more cerebral pursuits...

OKAY! You got me. I DO think they should have more mentally stimulating activities, but my kids do play World of Warcraft (or WOW as it is affectionately known in our home) and have PSPs, iPods, Playstation, X-Box and Nintendo gaming systems.
They also have a large selection of DVDs to watch should they tire of video games.
Oh, and yes they have books... thousands of books are in our home and YES! the kids have actually read them, not just used them to prop up broken desk legs or hold down science fair projects while they are drying.

The one thing that they DO NOT HAVE is a cell phone. No phone until they can pay for it themselves. And I mean go to the store and get their own account and pay the bills themselves.
My 3 older kids had to do it that way so the 3 younger ones are stuck with it.

So now that my baby is 11 and no longer thinks he is my baby, what do I do?

I throw a frickin' party that's what I do!
Only 7 more years and the last one will be of an age to fend for himself... not that he will since his 20 year old brother is still living at home and is not financially secure, but he will be old enough that he could be on his own.

The count-down has begun... I still miss the little boy that was, but I am looking forward to meeting the man he will become... and celebrating his achievements over the next few years on his way to being that man.

Oh, and the vacation I will be able to go on once he has left for college... well, if I can afford one...

Ghosts, Pilgrims and Santa... Oh My!

Halloween is over. The Holiday Season has officially begun; the weather has gotten cooler; the leaves are vibrant shades of orange, red and yellow; and clocks have been thrown against walls in homes all over the Daylight Savings time zones!

The alarm clock rang this morning at 6:00 , er, 5:00 because my husband forgot to re-set HIS alarm clock yesterday. Hey! It's on his side of the bed set to go off at 6am so he can ignore it completely. I don't need an alarm. I get up every morning, multiple times, to get the kids up and out the door to school, put HIS coffee on and get my day started.

Another sign that Holiday Season has commenced? The Christmas Trees and ornaments standing in the aisles that on October 31st held Halloween candy and costumes. In less than 12 hours the stores were transformed from Haunted Scary to Happy Merry!

But I have to ask... what happened to Thanksgiving? The poor Pilgrims have been pushed to the sidelines by Santa and Elves earlier and earlier every year. Now they don't even get their own aisle at Wal-Mart!

What does this mean? Well, in our house it means the Wish Lists will be appearing on the fridge any minute now. And one of my kids has already asked if we can put the tree up now... Ummm, can't we get through Thanksgiving first? I mean seriously do we have to rush by all the good things on the way to Christmas?

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's about family, food and friendship. Commercialism hasn't ruined it... Thank God!

So as we jump headlong into the Holiday Season enjoy the Fall colors on the trees, the crisp scents in the air and Daylight Savings... without it you would leave in the dark each morning and arrive in the dark each evening... and Sundown Syndrome would be an epidemic rival only to the Swine Flu...

Mortgages and Nightmares- The Same Thing?

Just when you think everything you have worked so hard for is about to happen, it doesn't.
Has that ever happened to you? Well of course it has. And it leaves you feeling down and put upon to say the least.

I have been working with our mortgage company to get our adjustable rate loan modified since January of this year. Please note I said since January. That would imply that the process is not yet complete because it isn't.

I have filled out forms no less than 4 times, over-nighted and faxed them to our account manager multiple times and made dozens and dozens of phone calls requesting return calls to no avail, have gone through 4 of the required 3-month trial payment periods to find myself still waiting.

And just when it looks like the modification is finally done.... it's not.
A new account manager, more forms to fill out, more tax forms needed, more time, more money, more stress and anxiety...

And when it is all said and done what will we have?

That remains to be seen.... I'm off to fax yet another round of forms I have already faxed to answer questions I have already answered...

Finger's crossed...just one last time?

Now IS The Time...

It's 7:30 am and the kids have gone off to school in a mad whirlwind of book bags, brown paper lunch sacks with jackets trailing behind.

There was the usual morning tug-of-war to get them out of bed and into clean clothes, fed and appropriately groomed; the endless battle of wills to get them to put on jackets or hoodies before heading out into the cold, damp foggy morning. And now that they have left, en masse, the house is eerily quiet and calm.

So now is the time for me to get some work done. I have entered into a new financial endeavor, writing ads online. So far it has earned me 53.00 and cost me about 100.00. But the ads have only been up for a few days so I am still in the learning curve thing on how to make the ads catchy enough to generate more traffic to the merchandisers site.

Now is also the time for me to do some online reading on how I can use my writing skills to add to my income. Which at this point is non-existent so it can only get better, right?

I know a lot of you out there see the 'Work From Home' ads online all the time and are leery. Well, some of them are real and seem to actually work. At least they have for me thus far.
Don't get me wrong, it takes time and a certain ability to put words into some kind of sense that will catch the attention of John Q. Public, but other than that?

Well, it seems now is the time for me to try new things and think outside of the box....
Maybe Now is Your time too!