Well, that was productive...NOT!
Turns out, our friendly tax assessor deemed our house "not 100% complete" when he drove by on 1/1/07, so our house was "not 100% assessed in taxes."
That's governmentese for "you got a break last year on paying your taxes lady, and be lucky we can't retroactively go back and get more money from you!"
This year, on 1/1/08, the assessor deemed our house 100% complete, so we were "fully assessed" - which resulted in a 45% (or so) raise in our MAV (maximum assessed value). How did they work that magic? :) See, Oregon has a law that property taxes can only raise 3% per year - but there are "Property Event Exceptions" (read: loopholes) that allow counties to do stuff like what they did to us.
If it is any consolation, from this year on we'll only see 3% per year. Unfortunately, now our mortgage payment will change (read: go up).
Sigh. Can't win - and I feel extremely lucky that there is no legal way they can get what they consider "back taxes" for the year they assessed as not complete.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
I'm calling the county assessor's office this morning.
We received our property tax statement (a courtesy copy actually, since our mortgage company pays the property taxes) and about fainted!
I won't go into numbers, but this is what happened:
Land Value: value went down about 7-8%
Structure: value went up approximately 65% from previous year
Total RMV Value: went up approximately 30% from previous year
Assessed Value: went up approximately 45% from previous year
THEREFORE: Our taxes went up $1,000 from last year. Yes, you heard right. *thud*
We received our property tax statement (a courtesy copy actually, since our mortgage company pays the property taxes) and about fainted!
I won't go into numbers, but this is what happened:
Land Value: value went down about 7-8%
Structure: value went up approximately 65% from previous year
Total RMV Value: went up approximately 30% from previous year
Assessed Value: went up approximately 45% from previous year
THEREFORE: Our taxes went up $1,000 from last year. Yes, you heard right. *thud*
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Older Building #2 Pearl District
Another picture from the Pearl District. This is the top of the Chown Pella building. Amazing how cool it looks with a little post processing.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Roloff Farms - Waterwheel
Another photo from Roloff Farms. A waterwheel I saw just prior to getting to the old west town.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Roloff Farms Information Pumpkin
A message board scrapbooking friend of mine asked me to visit Roloff Farms, the pumpkin patch you've seen in "Little People, Big World" on the Discovery Channel. The Roloffs live approximately 20-25 minutes from me here in Oregon.
It was quite the experience. I've never seen lines like that, so on Saturday, we actually turned back out of the line. On Sunday morning, I got to the turnoff for the farms at 9:30, 30 minutes before they opened. There was a line, but I wasn't on the major road. I had a Starbucks drink and a book, and settled in to wait.
Once I got in, I bought a ticket for the Original Town Tour, which includes the old west town Matt Roloff built for his kids. I'll have more pictures up this week, I just wanted to get one photo up for now.
It was quite the experience. I've never seen lines like that, so on Saturday, we actually turned back out of the line. On Sunday morning, I got to the turnoff for the farms at 9:30, 30 minutes before they opened. There was a line, but I wasn't on the major road. I had a Starbucks drink and a book, and settled in to wait.
Once I got in, I bought a ticket for the Original Town Tour, which includes the old west town Matt Roloff built for his kids. I'll have more pictures up this week, I just wanted to get one photo up for now.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Pearl District Reflection - Tanner Springs Park
My husband and I went on a photowalk this morning in Portland, Oregon. We did a 1.8 mile 2 hour walk around the Pearl District, taking photos of cool things. I tend to focus on textures, reflections, and lines. And since there were no convenient puddles to do reflections in, this park's water did just fine.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Me
Here I am in Las Vegas on 10/9/2008. I have sunglasses on because the smoke was so bad my eyes were bloodshot.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
RacefortheCure_2008 (5 of 20)
Here I am this morning with my husband at the Race for the Cure. http://www.komenoregon.org/Race_for_the_Cure/
They told us at the start line this morning that the Portland race is the largest race on the West Coast. This year, instead of walking with the local radio station (K103), I walked with my friend Amy's "Adidas - Impossible is Nothing" team. Really cool shirts this year!
They told us at the start line this morning that the Portland race is the largest race on the West Coast. This year, instead of walking with the local radio station (K103), I walked with my friend Amy's "Adidas - Impossible is Nothing" team. Really cool shirts this year!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Moon Over Crane
This is one of my favorites from the photowalk. I love that you can still see the moon up in the left hand corner.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk
Yesterday, I had a great time participating in the (hopefully first annual) Scott Kelby/Photoshop User Photowalk. I walked the 1.2 mile route taking pictures of landmarks, architecture, and cool things. This is just one of my photos.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
This is my nephew Matthew, not cooperating with me as I try to get a cute shot of him looking like a little man. :)
I used Andrea Burns "Little Rascal" kit, which is available starting today at The Digi Chick. Andrea is having her annual birthday sale! 29% off everything till Sunday night! The sale goes from today through Sunday night. The discount will show up during check out.
I used Andrea Burns "Little Rascal" kit, which is available starting today at The Digi Chick. Andrea is having her annual birthday sale! 29% off everything till Sunday night! The sale goes from today through Sunday night. The discount will show up during check out.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Fly Free
My newest layout for the Week 2 Challenge at TallyScrappers.
This is for the Olympic challenge. I had to use monochromatic blues, overlays, and there had to be an element that looked like swim cap material/latex (the title).
I used the following supplies for the challenge:
"Watercolor Solids 1" by Andrea Burns
"Watercolor Solids 2" by Andrea Burns
"Watercolor Stripes" by Andrea Burns
"Glitter Brackets" by Andrea Burns
"Coconut Tree" by Amanda Heimann (the vinyl letters - which I then colored and used the Sponge filter on in Photoshop to look like swim cap material)
"Birthday Boy" by Andrea Burns (ribbon, stitching)
"Artistic: Journal 1" by Fee Jardine (brush to do paint journaling boxes)
"Shabby Mommy" by Shabby Princess (white sanded overlay)
"Garden Gems" by Andrea Burns (gem flower)
"Curled Flowers" by Andrea Burns
This is for the Olympic challenge. I had to use monochromatic blues, overlays, and there had to be an element that looked like swim cap material/latex (the title).
I used the following supplies for the challenge:
"Watercolor Solids 1" by Andrea Burns
"Watercolor Solids 2" by Andrea Burns
"Watercolor Stripes" by Andrea Burns
"Glitter Brackets" by Andrea Burns
"Coconut Tree" by Amanda Heimann (the vinyl letters - which I then colored and used the Sponge filter on in Photoshop to look like swim cap material)
"Birthday Boy" by Andrea Burns (ribbon, stitching)
"Artistic: Journal 1" by Fee Jardine (brush to do paint journaling boxes)
"Shabby Mommy" by Shabby Princess (white sanded overlay)
"Garden Gems" by Andrea Burns (gem flower)
"Curled Flowers" by Andrea Burns
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A layout I did with more pictures from this summer's birthday party for Miss K. This kit is perfect for bright and colorful summer photos! I used Andrea Burns' "Lulu" kit at The Digi Chick.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Here's my latest digital scrapbook layout. I did this for a challenge at a scrapbooking site, and used mostly supplies from Andrea Burns (Vintage Photo Frames, Color Pop Action, Golden Glory, Glitter Brackets, and Watercolor Solids), Glitter Flames from Susan Bartolini, and an alpha from Amanda Heimann (Coconut Tree).
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Well, it's been quite an eventful month or so.
The highlights:
On July 4th, my father-in-law passed away. He had congestive heart failure and Type 2 diabetes, as well as a few other things, but started having some gastrointestinal internal bleeding on July 3rd. I did not have a happy 4th - I spent most of it in the Providence Portland Medical ER or Cardiac unit. He passed away at 6:35 p.m. Pacific time. I pretty much stayed in my MIL's house for the next 5 days, finally getting "home" (across the Metro are) yesterday. Sleeping in your own bed is such a pleasure.
Today, I converted my Weight Watchers Online account to a WW Monthly Pass account, so I can attend meetings. I find myself needing the support group atmosphere, as well as the accountability (one of my coworkers is doing it with me).
The highlights:
On July 4th, my father-in-law passed away. He had congestive heart failure and Type 2 diabetes, as well as a few other things, but started having some gastrointestinal internal bleeding on July 3rd. I did not have a happy 4th - I spent most of it in the Providence Portland Medical ER or Cardiac unit. He passed away at 6:35 p.m. Pacific time. I pretty much stayed in my MIL's house for the next 5 days, finally getting "home" (across the Metro are) yesterday. Sleeping in your own bed is such a pleasure.
Today, I converted my Weight Watchers Online account to a WW Monthly Pass account, so I can attend meetings. I find myself needing the support group atmosphere, as well as the accountability (one of my coworkers is doing it with me).
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Ah! I survived my trip across the country, which took FOREVER. I got dropped off at noon at the Philadelphia airport because I was worried about long security lines (you should have seen them when I landed in Philadephia on 5/30/08), and waited patiently for my flight to....JFK airport in NY. You know how long a flight that is? 26 minutes! So, 2 hours and 45 minutes of sitting (mostly), for a 26 minute flight. I did talk with a nice Irish man sitting next to me, who was headed back to Ireland. (And yes, for those who have seen me, he said I would fit right in when visiting Ireland with my hair (red), skin (pale), and freckles.)
Cue sitting around the JFK airport for 3.5 hours. Wifi access did not work. :( Not a lot of restaurants, and the ones that existed were packed. Starbucks was there in a couple locations though.
They board the airplane, pull away from the gate, and then we sit there FOR AN HOUR while waiting for takeoff. Hmmm, who scheduled a domestic flight to take off at the same time as all the other international flights that have takeoff priority? Sigh.
Here's where the real fun part comes in. Yet once again, I get to sit next to drunk, intoxicated seatmates (this also happened after the 2004 STC conference). But this time it's a young couple, and not just the person next to me....and they are both reeking and have slurred talking. Yikes.
As you can guess it, after we got to cruising altitude at 36,000 feet, the young lady next to me states a preference for puking, and sends all of the people within a 5 foot radius looking for a puke bag (most of us didn't have one in the back pocket seat). Once two are found, I hurriedly head to the back of the plane, book and ipod in hand, so she can do whatever puking she needs to. I certainly don't want to be puked on...and I tell the flight attendants, who promptly go up there with some ginger ale and a huge "Delta" plastic bag for barfing. Those poor flight attendants...they had a lot to deal with.
Somewhere near Nebraska, we take a 30 minute detour around a lightning storm (remember, this is a 5 1/2 hour flight, that is not inconsequential). Around this time, when i'm forced to sit down because the "seat belt sign" is on due to the turbulence, I realize I can sit no longer. I'm squirming in my seat, I am dog tired, I can't fall asleep, and I can't move.
At some point after the storm, one of the passengers has a medical issue. I'm not sure what, but apparently we got priority landing in Portland and a pair of EMTs to escort the patient off the plane. Most of us were happy to wait until the EMTs were off the plane, but there are always those folks who believe the rules don't apply....
I'm safely back, majorly jet lagged, and happy to be home!
Cue sitting around the JFK airport for 3.5 hours. Wifi access did not work. :( Not a lot of restaurants, and the ones that existed were packed. Starbucks was there in a couple locations though.
They board the airplane, pull away from the gate, and then we sit there FOR AN HOUR while waiting for takeoff. Hmmm, who scheduled a domestic flight to take off at the same time as all the other international flights that have takeoff priority? Sigh.
Here's where the real fun part comes in. Yet once again, I get to sit next to drunk, intoxicated seatmates (this also happened after the 2004 STC conference). But this time it's a young couple, and not just the person next to me....and they are both reeking and have slurred talking. Yikes.
As you can guess it, after we got to cruising altitude at 36,000 feet, the young lady next to me states a preference for puking, and sends all of the people within a 5 foot radius looking for a puke bag (most of us didn't have one in the back pocket seat). Once two are found, I hurriedly head to the back of the plane, book and ipod in hand, so she can do whatever puking she needs to. I certainly don't want to be puked on...and I tell the flight attendants, who promptly go up there with some ginger ale and a huge "Delta" plastic bag for barfing. Those poor flight attendants...they had a lot to deal with.
Somewhere near Nebraska, we take a 30 minute detour around a lightning storm (remember, this is a 5 1/2 hour flight, that is not inconsequential). Around this time, when i'm forced to sit down because the "seat belt sign" is on due to the turbulence, I realize I can sit no longer. I'm squirming in my seat, I am dog tired, I can't fall asleep, and I can't move.
At some point after the storm, one of the passengers has a medical issue. I'm not sure what, but apparently we got priority landing in Portland and a pair of EMTs to escort the patient off the plane. Most of us were happy to wait until the EMTs were off the plane, but there are always those folks who believe the rules don't apply....
I'm safely back, majorly jet lagged, and happy to be home!
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