by Adam Dawson
My parents and 3-year-old nephew were visiting us during the holiday weekend, and it was nice to work together to make meals at home and spend some time thrift shopping and rehabbing furniture! A very thrifty weekend indeed.
But Tuesday after the long weekend brought its own unwelcome news. This morning, Emily alerted me that the water had gone out from all the faucets in the house. We called the well service and after a diagnostic call, they informed us that the water level in the well had dropped too low and the well wasn’t producing water. Our well ran dry! Texas is in its 3rd year of a historically severe drought, and the issue just became drastically real to us. Thankfully we have a large storage tank and can have water trucked in.
But after the well diagnostic call and the water delivery today, we’re out about $200 already, and we haven’t begun to fix the problem yet. Hopefully they can lower the pump deeper in the well (several hundred dollars), but if that doesn’t work, drilling a new well will be thousands and thousands of dollars.
To top it off, the tenants’ washer and dryer went out, so that’s going to set us back a few hundred more. Our nascent emergency fund is going to take a huge hit this month and we’re praying we don’t need a new well drilled – that would likely put us deeper in debt. Oh to be debt free and able to withstand financial shocks! One day!
So join us if you will for the Texas Rain Dance!
I like reading your blog and am cheering for you guys – and I hope the water situation works out – but that choice of video was unfortunate.
Thanks for cheering us on! The video is from 1939. Good to know we aren’t the first ones in this situation.
So sorry to hear about your well issues. Take heart that nearly everyone experiences a setback of some type when they first start budgeting and getting intense about debt payoff. It can make you throw up your hands and just say “I’m done!!”, but don’t let it. Whatever the outcome, just try to adjust your plan as best you can and stay the course.
The rental situation continues to have me concerned for you guys. I know it reduces your mortgage payment, but I’m afraid the upkeep and headache of it will eat away at your profit and sanity. I would sell our rental property in a heartbeat if I thought it would sell and we wouldn’t lose our shirts over it. It’s been a nightmare for 3 years now. I know your situation is different with it being a part of your primary property, but it will still be a headache nonetheless.
this comment is so encouraging, actually. yes, people do have setbacks. that’s all this is, a setback. hopefully no more than that.
So sorry to hear about the water situation! I really like you guys and are cheering you along! I have to say, though (and please don’t take this the wrong way!!), it’s kind of nice seeing this type of set-back. I’ve only been reading the blog for about a year and one thing I could never relate to with Claire was her super-high income. It seemed like all she had to do to pay down debt was watch her spending, and everything was fine. I’m a recent Ph.D. grad still on the job market and although I’ve found a couple contract positions that give me a (meager) paycheck, I’m still teetering the line between balancing income with expenses. Generally I’m able to put a little toward debt every month, but about once every 3-4 months I have to bust out the credit card just to keep up with necessary bills. Again – this is terrible news and I feel for you guys!! But I’m glad you’re “keeping it real” in terms of letting us know the situation and the possibility of maybe having to accrue more debt. I guess it just makes you guys more relatable to me.
Hoping for the best and crossing my fingers for some massive Texas rainstorms!!
thanks for sharing your journey with us! i’m glad you can revel in our misfortune 🙂
you’ll do great for yourself with a Ph.D. good luck.
Since you do have home and rental property maintenance to deal with, perhaps building the emergency fund should take priority over debt payoff for even just a few months to give you a better cushion against this sort of situation? Sometimes if something nonessential (not the water supply) goes on your own house you can defer the repair or replacement for a while until you set aside the funds, but you don’t have that luxury of time with a rental unit.
If you are hesitant to delay debt payoff in favor of building the emergency funds, perhaps a extra PT job for a few months would get it done. I love our kids to bits but when they were young and we really could have used the extra funds it just wasn’t possible to commit to the extra job evenings and weekends. With a spouse who travels for work regularly I’d have had to pay a babysitter on a regular basis which would have made the PT job pointless. Instead I looked for ways to cut expenses even further, to sell items we no longer needed, and the method that worked best of all was to do odd jobs for family, friends and neighbors when they fit our schedule. Now that the kids are old enough not to need care while we’re out I can consider a PT job on top of my real career. Now the only hesitation is motivation. The only debt we have now is about 2 years remaining on our mortgage. We now live massively below our income and are making extra payments on the mortgage every month so now it’s hard to get motivated to give up my evenings and weekends just to speed it up buy a few months.Now that we have the time to take on an extra job, we’re less desperate for the extra cash. Ironic how things work out.
I, too, am sorry to hear about your situation, actually a Murphy’s Law situation. My husband and I moved to NC for me to take a teaching position and bought a house here. We rented out our house in Colorado, utilized a property manager, did background checks on the folks, etc. Everything that a conscientious business person and landlord would do. It turned into a major headache due to Murphy’s Law and people. Between the renter, the property manager who took advantage of out of town landlords, a CO law that prohibits the landlord from entering the property one owns without getting written approval. Renter who dodged the permission giving for us to enter our own property. Renter causing damage to HVAC and going over the town limits of occupancy. Renter not paying rent for over 3 months. Going through a lengthy eviction process but then they moved out in the middle of the night (literally). Renter scamming Town of Castle Rock water which makes owner of property liable (different in NC, renter legally responsible for own water account/bill). Hundreds into 1,000 dollars for travel, hotel expenses to track down prop manager and renter.
We did not set out to be real estate moguls, this was to help pay the mortgage on the CO house until the market turned, we were underwater by $80,000 so we thought this was a good plan! Ha! Stupid tax and Murphy’s Law! People do weird things to homes, have a even stranger ethical system, and some people are chronic scammers. The rental house sucked our savings, etc and more importantly, was very stressful. Luckily we did not have any major credit card/car bills, etc but the renters and the house set us back in setting away money rainy day money for ourselves.
Good luck to you guys, being a landlord takes a lot of stamina, something we just could not handle. One word of advice, make sure you know your Texas laws in regards to rental property. Ours was a giant headache to us as Cathy mentions, it also stresses the marriage, and in our case, bad feelings towards people. Now we know why when you go to rent an apartment they have such ironclad rental contracts and will throw someone’s butt out in a heartbeat, for they have been burned so many times and the burning is financial.
Sorry, hate to be such a “Debbie downer”.
thanks for your comment, you’re not a downer. I’ve been a landlord for a long time, and at times it has been tough but I think it’s my life’s calling because I’m ok dealing with it. hopefully this one will be ok because they are on our property.
Hi Adam, I wanted to reply, and a little late, but you are so very right, attitude is everything and belief that being a landlord is right for you. I always felt like a fish out of water with that. I am a teacher and photographer and I agree many times with what your wife says, such as in the Crappy post, and I have no patience for landlord stuff! Attitude and aptitude!
I almost missed this comment – i’m so glad I found it! I’m constantly amazed at how our personalities and preferences color what we do. Emily will be glad to find someone reading here who agrees with her, since so many analytical, numbers types hang out on this blog. thanks for reading and thanks for the encouragement!
So sorry for the well issues. Water is one of those things you never think about or appreciate much until you don’t have it! We’re also on a well and while we thankfully haven’t run dry or low, we’ve had our share of problems! And it’s VERY expensive to call for any help too. We looked into getting hooked up to county water, but it’s $8,000 – no thanks. As Ashley stated above, it is nice to see bloggers having set backs, because that’s real life! I also couldn’t relate to Clare. Hope you guys get the well figured out soon, and hopefully no drilling.
hopefully not! they are coming out tomorrow to see if they can lower it. i’m glad you can appreciate our setback. 🙂 this has been a tough week.
I never thought digging up a new well or getting it fixed would be so expensive. It’s shocking. Why don’t you guys go with a tube-well for your next home? Would that not be less expensive? I just started reading your blog so maybe this suggestion offers little or no value, but could you not get water directly from the water company?
hi Tammy, thanks for reading! There is no water company where we live that I can find. I did some calling around yesterday. I’m not familiar with a tube well, I will look into that.
Check into getting connected to the local public water system if it’s available. The water is tested regularly and over time it will cost you less and be much safer than drilling a new well.
connie, thanks for the suggestion. I called the utility companies yesterday and so far I haven’t found a water company that serves our address. I don’t think there is one.
Oh man! That is so frustrating for you. I thought you guys were just on a roll.
I feel like you’re dealing with this really positively and factually though, so I hope you don’t take it as anything more than a setback.
we were on a roll! oh well…it’s a setback. praying for rain and good news.
Wrt to emergency fund vs. debt paydown – maybe you could do a compromise? IIRC your debt repayment is aggressive. Maybe you could reduce the total debt repayment amount and divert some of that to the emergency fund? You could still pay more than the minimum on the loans, but be building an emergency fund at the same time.
The well situation totally stinks. I grew up using a well. We never ran out of water but we did have issues with the pump. And because we lost power whenever there was a bad storm we always had to fill the bathtub with water so we’d have water. Now I live in a community that’s on municipal water from a regional source. The only time I had water problems was when a water station failed somewhere and we had to switch to the reservoir. We were under a boil water directive. We could still shower – we just had to boil water if we wanted to consume it. (And, OMG, people FREAKED OUT about that! They started buying bottled water like it was doomsday. Like, seriously? Just boil a large pot like you were making pasta…)
You can really spot the people who don’t travel, or camp, can’t you? People, water still comes out of a tap *in your house*, lots of it! Stop whining and get on with your life.
Wishing you a tropical storm or two for the season. I think it’s your only hope! I will also do a rain dance for you because, well, any excuse to dance.
I have an unrelated question. Thinking of buying a used Lexus to bridge us for a year or two after our current car dies and wondering what model you have?
A 2002 RX 300. It is AWESOME. Apparently lots of those made during that time frame had transmission problems but I think we are in the clear.
Fit and finish is wonderful, and at 180,000 miles, it still drives like new. Love it.
And this from a Midwest guy who is a American made car fan through and through.
Bad gas mileage, though.