marsden_online: (Default)
It's been a long year for everyone. Major positive events were our trip to Auckland to see the Lion King and moving into our new house.

A significant negative event that I didn't post about here was the second arson at Antonio Hall, in November, which gutted the original house and left the entire site basically, finally, awaiting demolition. (After photos, and after the 2019 fire, two years on).

snip )
marsden_online: (skull)
[A quick bash out, things aren't quite as dire as they may read]

Yesterday (Friday) was the last day at work for the year. There's a skeleton crew next week leading up to Xmas but I'm not officially back until January 11th.

I say "officially" because I was back in the office today (Saturday) to make up some hours for the week, and will be next week to finish off my end-of-year cleanup. Weekend visits have become quite regular, partly because I am trying to clock more hours to earn more money and partly because life keeps getting in the way of me competing my targeted, or even my contracted hours during the week. My body clock continues to be uncooperative, and a steady stream of appointments and misadventures have been sucking away at my time as well. (For example D has sprained her shoulder for the second time this year, same shoulder, different muscle.)

I also say "officially" because I intend to spend several half-days in the office over the next few weeks off-the-clock dealing to a project which is eating at my sanity but just isn't going to get done on paid time. It's big but a lot of it is also a rebuild and I hope I can get most of it out of the way.

Combined with the long list of other things which need to be done over the "break" - including some which weren't able to be dealt with last year because we had the kids and I had limited computer access/time, and some which were just shoved into storage in the crush to get moved, and some of which are just "spend quality time with my wife" and "catch up on some webcomics/computer gaming/other me time which has simply been pushed aside" ... although I plan to take things more gently than usual I don't expect the demands on my time to recede to the point where I really feel that I am "on holiday" for more than the odd day which I dedicate to "not anything" .. and odds on those are going to be sabotaged by something.

Speaking of moving, another of the things is "find a new rental by the beginning of February, as close to Rolleston as possible". This is proving unlikely to improbable; in part because landlords really want a year-lease and we don't expect / can't /afford/ to be renting for more than 6-8 months, with prices where they are for the amount of space we "need". So there's the stress of conceptual homelessness.

The build is another sore point, the contract we signed with the building company was to begin work /on site/ in November and yet practically the end of December and they have not yet managed to get the plans into council for consent. (Which also means our mortgage approval is up in the air...) It's not clear to me if the building company are the ones stuffing us around or if as they claim the developer of the sections is stuffing them around / being incompetent by not having information on the land which is that entity's responsibility to supply.

I'm leaning towards both actually. Anyway this close to Xmas/NY shutdown means best-case scenario consents won't be done until mid-January .... which means work may start in February ... we can not actually afford this. We are not actually bleeding money as much as we were (and /that's/ going to change going into a more expensive rental) - but summer has a lot to do with that. The longer things drag on the less likely we are actually going to be able to afford to finish the build, and basically lose everything.

And even then if I can't get my f*&^ing S&^t brain/bodyclock sorted out to work better hours we're not going to be able to pay the mortgage either, because I haven't been managing the hours the calculations are based off and we will have /no/ free capital and /no/ wriggle room in said mortgage for emergencies or even unexpecteds.

So I actually really need to be able to work on recharging and resetting this break. Which is ironically why there are so many things which need dealt-to, as I've identified each of them as taking up mental/emotional resources which I want freed up.

[deep breaths]
marsden_online: (Blueknight)
I have been living at my current address since 1993. This house has done very well by me, but I have had to accept that with D's daughter moving down to join us next year it's just not quite the space we need - or can afford even right now*. We've been looking around the real estate websites and talking to a real estate agent and it's doable to move to a

- recently built or renovated (cheaper to heat/run)
- 4 bedroom or 3 bedroom + convertable-to-quiltspace living area
- house on a smaller property farther out of town (lower rates).

... for what we can probably get for this property less the associated costs, and more practical than my plans for eventual renovation here.

The hurdle we've just encountered to is that the bank is (understandably) willing to loan a lot less to a single (part time) income with two dependants than they were willing to loan to the same income + auxiliary from a boarder with no dependants, and we will have to make up the difference when we close off the mortgage here ... which reduces our budget from "any number of perfectly suitable properties" to "we can make it work" :(

(This caused D. to have a little breakdown feeling that the bank's rejection was all her fault ... which is of course nonsense, you might just as well say it's my fault for being too broken to work a full time job, or for getting the unit built instead of cutting C loose and moving properties when D & I committed to the long-term.)

(This is going to be rough on C too (we are keeping him fully in the loop) - he's also been comfortably ensconced here for 20ish years and this is rut-ending-at-the-edge-of-a-cliff territory. We'll be giving him all the support we can to find a new place.)

~~~

One of the reasons for moving now is so we don't end up moving school zones between E's intermediate and secondary years, which has constrained our areas a bit. We know very little about the schools in Christchurch so we've basically had to be guided by deciles and what little advice we've got from friends online. (Feel free to leave your feelings about particular schools in the comments). We've found ourselves looking primarily at two areas - Rolleston initially and, since learning that Mother has signed up for a villa in a new development and will probably be moving about the same time we are, Redwood and surrounding suburbs.

The current timeline is

- declutter and box up for storage everything we can over July. The kids are down for both weeks of the school holidays.
- The last two weeks of July / first weekend of August finish the boxing and move boxes and unneeded furniture to a storage unit, get the grounds tidied and house cleaned professionally
- to market over August, both selling and hunting. It's impractical to expect the properties we've been looking at to still be available (although if they are perhaps the price will be reduced) but I'm confident the same sort of stock will be available.
- ideally offer conditional on selling, sell, buy, and sort out all the money at the end of August
- Possession / move end of September / October.

~~~

* It's a serious blow to the confidence to realise that while you always thought you were good with money it turns out that it was just that money was always there and when it actually gets tight you pretty much suck at being able to budget and spend in a disciplined fashion.
marsden_online: (write)
I communicate with the pollsters by e-survey, especially since auto-dialers put me offering my phone completely. One particular company often starts with the question "What do you see as the biggest issue facing NZ today.", or something similar. This week it was beefed up a bit and led to an extended series of thoughts which I posted on FB (as being the most convenient format at the time) but am repeating here as a less ephemeral record.

The question:
What are the main social problems in New Zealand that the Government and community as a whole need to address?
My initial answer:
Inequity and poverty:
With our GDP per capita there should be no excuse for not being able to provide everyone with the basics of a warm, dry, private space to call their own and sufficient to eat; as a matter of right with no need to jump through any hoops to prove they are entitled to it.
Address this issue and a great number of other issues which stem from or are exacerbated by it will also recede.

Half an hour or so later I also wrote the following (edited a bit for clarity):
---
Ongoing thought about why our current social welfare system doesn't work very well wrt eg housing and food.

It consists of (reluctantly) giving people money and then leaving them to be able to procure the required services from "the market". But they're not dealing with /one/ market they are dealing with /many/ markets - accommodation, food, electricity ... - /each of which/
- has the goal of acquiring as much of that money as possible /without concern/ for the balance of the customers' needs
- and prices accordingly.

The result of course is that there is not and probably will never be "enough" money - see also for example how private rent increases have tracked the accommodation supplement.

The supply industries also benefit in their pricing strategy from individuals being given the money to spend rather than the services being purchased in bulk by a central authority with the clout to negotiate and keep the prices down.

For this reason I'm not opposed to government purchasing services from private providers; I /am/ opposed to the private providers being selected on the basis of lowest cost or metrics such as how fast they can get people off their books (churn). The correct metric has to be based on standard of care.

That would unfortunately require the government to care about the well-being of it's /entire/ constituency, not just those who voted for the "ruling" party or contributed to its coffers. :/
---

Back to now and a couple of other thoughts

Dealing with poverty is not a problem which can be solved by a single approach.
- Giving people money (or some form of equivalent discretionary resource) directly so they can target their own needs in their own situation is one part of the solution and has been shown to work well for getting people back on their feet. But as a sole or primary approach it risks capture as described above; where funds meant to help people into a position to better their lives end up straight in the (mostly metaphorical these days) pockets of "service" providers.
- /But/ poverty is relative and targeting the affordability of common - even "basic" goods and services is another piece of the puzzle. Not in an ad-hoc manner (eg taxes on/off fresh/processed foods - this has been a regulatory nightmare wherever it has been tried, save it for genuine luxury goods) but in a whole-of-market approach like Pharmac.
Bulk demand can shift the costs down but this is not something those already struggling with their living situation are in a position to organise. In a democratic/capitalist welfare society this should be a function of government.

One government department I think could make more of an impact here (if they were permitted) is Housing New Zealand; right now they are limited by having to use their own housing stock (which they have been forced to run down and sell down over the past decade); but if they were also able to function as a not-for-profit property management company effectively handling maintenance and property standards for those who for example
- have an investment property "retirement plan" but find the details of renting it out more effort than it is worth
- have a social conscience
- will accept a low-end-of-the-market-rent-range return

they might well be able to
- apply downward pressure on rental prices
- fill up some of those homes we hear about sitting empty
- reduce their waiting lists
- provide security for a lot of people who currently have found they can't ever trust they will still have a place to live after the next review
- upgrade some of NZ's abysmal housing stock
- and potentially be in a position to acquire some of those properties to replenish their own stocks when the bubble bursts

Yes the deal would have to be structured so as to appeal to the property owners opening it up to the criticism of being a government handout to that class; but I am reasonably certain it could be made to work for no more than is currently being handed to them indirectly via the accommodation supplement and putting beneficiaries up in motels for a week while simultaneously lumbering them with a paper debt which will, realistically, never be recovered.
marsden_online: (write)
What makes a place more than a shell of ordered construction materials? Use and purpose; a past, present and future; history and memories; hopes and dreams. People.

These things make a house a home, a restaurant a favourite, a business an attraction.

Not "if we build it they will come" edifices of steel and concrete and glass designed to hold someone, anyone for a period of time and then have all trace of the occupants scrubbed away in preparation for the next. Not malls, travelled by hundreds of people everyday but where next week a favourite business might be gone, replaced by something completely different with no sign it was ever there. Instead places built (or used) with purpose, meaning something special to somebody.

Buildings like people can have scars (or tattoos) and each one is a story. Like people (or as an extension of people) their purpose can change without losing the sense of what has gone before. (Buildings can even undergo more extreme "surgery" than people - completely torn down and *rebuilt* while still retaining the sense of place, purpose and history.)

A real building is like a tapestry woven with threads from people's lives. Places where each owner has left their mark, even if the who and the why have been forgotten. An extension here, an alteration or repair there, people say "oh that used to be the so and so" even though they do not remember it themselves.

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