House is sold, and under contract! we hope it goes through smoothly, now….

Hooray! the buyers accepted our counter offer, then they forwarded an amendment requesting a ‘replaced’ roof after the inspection found what he called “significant damage and wear and tear”. We called our insurance agent, and then called a roofer. Both of them, separately, reported that we had minimal wind damage from a recent thunderstorm but repairs should only cost about a few hundred dollars; nothing necessitating a completely new roof. We stuck to our guns and didn’t agree to the wording ‘replacement’ in the amendment, and they finally agreed today to ‘repair’ wording! We are supposed to close about the end of the month, around the 30th of May. We have tickets to fly out on June 1 so we may be staying in a hotel for a couple of days before flying out.

Since getting back from the cruise on Tuesday, we’ve sold: a hide-a-bed couch, a buffet with matching side table (all paid for and picked up!) and our extra fridge (will be picked up Monday). Our kids have come by and begun to clean us out, thankfully, of stuff that we need to do something with, and promise to get more this weekend.

Today, we went to the San Antonio police department to get our police reports. I had read recently that Ecuador may also be requesting an FBI report for the visa application, so, we decided to go ahead and get fingerprints and send them off to the FBI for their report. Once we obtained the local police letter, we read that it says “this letter was made without checking fingerprints, and may not be accurate in other cities and the state” or something to that effect. !!??? Well, I figured, if Ecuador Visa department read that, it would mean nothing. No wonder they also want an FBI report. So, we came home and made an appointment on Monday with a state agency which will give us a state criminal report on each of us, based on fingerprints, that will verify we have no record of criminal activity in Texas. Next, I mailed off the fingerprints and the FBI requests for criminal reports on us. Once we get both the FBI and the state reports, we’ll drive up to Austin and get them apostilled. Hope they docs make it to us in time. We still haven’t received hubby’s birth certificate apostilled from Arizona, yet, but we have received the marriage certificate from Washington state and my birth certificate from yet a 3rd state, both apostilled.

I seem to have caught a nasty virus/cold on the way home from our cruise. I can’t imagine how I could have caught anything, the cruise was relatively stress free and we ate wonderful, fresh, healthy food…well ok, a few chocolate desserts, and there was a lot of wine, but anyway.  Then there was Creme Brulet, 3 ways, creme, chocolate and cafe. I prefered the creme, but I ate them all.

Once I am feeling more up to snuff, the next plan is to take everything OUT of the closets and out of all the drawers and either throw it away, put it in the garage for the garage sale, or pack it. If it’s sitting on the floor staring at us, and we can’t put it away anywhere, it will go away. Permanently!

That’s going to happen next week.

Our house is put under contract….while going thru the Panama Canal!

The purchase contract came in, necessitating a bit of back and forth, on the day we were traversing the Canal. Safe to say that I will never forget the details of the Canal, nor the details of the sale of this house. We are still dikkering back and forth over little details, like the roof repairs (!!) that we didn’t know that we needed. 

Today, we are in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I am spending my time at a local Starbucks while Hubby, the athlete, goes off on a tour that is listed as ‘only for very active persons’. He was desperate to get away from the walkers and wheelchairs on the boat. We’ve done a few snorkelling adventures which takes a bit of energy, and there were no wheelchairs nor walkers, but I think he is missing that rise in heartrate he gets at home, on the bicycle. Even though he spends 3 hours every day, almost, at the ship’s gym. His tour includes a zip line and a hike up a mountainside, so I demurred. Today, I am also going to do a bit of shopping, which he hates, too. It’s a good tradeoff. I’m hoping to skype with our daughter at noon.

The house is slated to close on May 31, less than 4 weeks away. As soon as we get home, we will have to sell all, dump all, seriously this time. Hubby has more stuff to dump than I have, and I suspect he will fill the garbage cans numerous times. And make many trips to Goodwill. We will be home on Tuesday May 7, late, and are planning a garage sale (or estate sale, whichever will sell more stuff) on Saturday the 11th. We need to sell a couch, a kitchen island table, a fridge, a large older but very nice TV, a Mexican pine end table, used as a printer table, and 2 buffets: one an antique and one Mexican pine. Also need to do something with a round antique accent table with small wheels that my mother said was an antique 50 years ago. Everything else, except for my good Dansk china and silverplate flatware, including lots of kitchen and garage stuff, all has to go.  I  better put a few things on Craig’s list! Wish us luck and a few dollars to spend in EC.

Our room service waiter bringing tea the morning of the Canal traverse….this is the life:

I was surprised to realize that the Canal is really very low tech, but then it is almost 100 years old. Hydraulic doors open and close, water enters/leaves using gravity, the boat is pulled along by a group of 4 small but strong locomotives.

 

Leaving Panama City, I found my dreamboat:

Instead, we went down a river in Costa Rica, looking for crocodiles. We saw a few, lazing in the water, and a beautiful blue heron but I can’t find the picture of it,  so here’s a pic of one of the crocs we saw:

Later, coming into Huatulco, the next stop for snorkeling…

Getting closer to Move day

The countdown is getting smaller. Our house has been on the market now for about a month. We are on a 19 day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, through the Panama Canal, to San Diego and wouldn’t you just know it! we had an offer, a good one, on Saturday. It’s now Monday, we were too cheap to buy the incredibly expensive internet pacakge on board the ship, and we knew we’d get free WiFi at a Starbucks at our fist port of call, Curacao. I’t now about 10 a.m. and I’m trying to get our real estate agent to respond to email (since our fones don’t work here, we were also too cheap to buy another incredibly expensive international phone package). The boat is in the port until Midnight tonight, so if we have to sit here at Starbucks all day, we will! we didn’t really want to shop, anyway. 

We both brought 3 suitcases each, 2 small and 1 large, onto the ship and I have now a much clearer idea of what I will be able to cram into my 4 suitcases that I will be bringing to Ecuador. All that stuff I left behind, hanging in the closet, this trip, has got to go. It seems as if I didn’t even make a dent in my closet; too much stuff left in there! And it won’t all fit in just one large suitcase. Guess there will be more stuff left in the storage closet, to ship later. If I don’t throw it all out.

We succeeded in selling off (or giving away) most of our furniture, we sold our mid century Danish modern dresser on Wednesday before we left. Our bedroom looks really bare; nothing on the walls and only the bed and 2 bedside tables are there. Dan unloaded most of the tools and yard stuff in the garage; when we get back from this cruise, we will have a major garage sale to unload everything.

Before we left, we sent our documents off to the 3 different states to be aspostilled; we set up banking service – we will be able to wire money, no charge, from Chase bank; I sent of my Canadian certificate with pics to obtain my passport from Canada (dual citizenship); we paid off all our bills for the month of May, cleaned out the fridge except for the stuff our kids want; our daughter came to get the patio furniture, and we tried to farm out our precious pooch, Coco. Not sure yet where she will end up; our son was going to take her, but he has a dog and his roomie has a dog – they can only have 2 in their apartment. He agreed to take Coco for the time we are on our cruise but we are trying to find a permanent home for her. My poor Coco! I will miss her but we think it would be too difficult to try to bring her down with us. 

Easter Sunday….2 months left to go….

Easter Sunday today. Hubby is off on his long awaited bicycling trip on the Natchez Trace. He and our son are driving to Mississippi today, bicycling will start maybe tomorrow. I am home, but not really alone – I’ve got Coco and our son’s dog Lucky for company. I cleaned the bathrooms this morning….and next on the agenda is cleaning the floors. Dog hair dust bunnies are not too bad but since the house is on the market, I feel like we need to be squeeky clean. Or at least look like it! Here’s a link to our listing:  

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2006-Edgehill-Dr-San-Antonio-TX-78209/26299711_zpid/

Only 2 more weeks in the tax season, then I’ll shut down the office and we’re off on the cruise for 2 1/2 weeks. I’m beginning the panic mode…I know I still have too much stuff in the house that will have to go, it won’t all fit in the suitcases, but I’m just paralyzed with the knowledge that I really don’t know what to do with all the rest of this stuff. A garage sale? of course. But when? Donate? we have donated untold quantities of stuff and will continue to do so. I must admit, I’m kinda tired of the process at this point. I’d rather just pack my clothes and toilet articles and treasured things and just go! 

We need all of your prayers and positive thoughts that the house will sell, and soon. And for a good price. Please?

Happy Easter to all and God Bless!

 

Gave away our 1970′s era Cofan blowgun, now who would like to have my Masai spear?

Dan & I happy to report that we have been finally successful in giving away our 1970′s era Ecuadorian Cofan blowgun and bamboo quiver, complete with darts and kapoc cotton-like wadding for the darts, to a good home.

I got the blowgun from a Peace Corps friend  who was living and working in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, up near the Colombian border, in 1977. I made a trip to Lago in late 1976 with a few other Peace Corps volunteers. At the time, Texaco flew a small jet out there once a day, and allowed Peace Corps Volunteers a free spot on the plane, if there was room on the jet. Arrive at the airport by 9, if there’s room, the plane leaves for Lago around 10. We went there to visit 2 PCV friends who had a job site working with cattle in the area. Luckily, we were able to travel there by jet both ways; if we’d had to take the bus, the trip took about 12 hours. Back then, there were no commercial flights. Our friends in Lago had a couple of very nice blowguns for which they had traded pots and pans  when the Cofan had come by their house, early in the morning one day, out of the blue. Lago, in those days, was a jungle outpost, no sewers, just a sewage rivulet running thru the town; one tiny general store/cafe/bar, a lot of shacks, a few newly built 3 room houses (housing either 3 Ecuadorian families or, in our situation, 2 male Peace Corps volunteers AKA gringos or Ricos), electricity only for a few hours every evening after dark and a very well built airstrip, courtesy of Chevron and Texaco.

When I asked my friends if they could ‘trade’ something for me for a blowgun, they told me that the next time an indigenous person came by to trade, they would ask for one for me. The blowgun they got for me actually had a chipped chunk out of the mouthpiece, but I was glad to have it. We all supposed that the blowgun owners, when they needed something that they couldn’t buy,  would trade a ‘substandard’ (to them!) blowgun to the crazy ‘rico gringos’ who would give away nice pots or pans for blowguns.  I have a hard time believing that, today, Lago Agrio boasts hotels and resorts, including a Crown Plaza.

But I digress. Back to the blowgun, which was made with 2 thin pieces of wood, about 6  feet long, rounded on the outside; each piece carved with one half of a long bore hole running the length of the wood, on each side. The two long pieces of wood fit together perfectly, with a single carved wood mouthpiece,  the 3 pieces held together with banana leaf strips wrapped around the wood, tightly, and then sealed with black beeswax (we were told).

Years ago, when we lived in Arizona, it hung on the wall with the Masai sword above our living room which had a 2 story ceiling. Way up high, we never realized that the rising dry heat was torching this thing, but it became horribly dry and began to crumble. When we moved from Arizona, we couldn’t bear to toss it; we tried to re-seal it with wax, unsuccessfully and very unsightly, so we then wrapped it in saran wrap for the trip to Texas just to preserve the black sealing parts that were flaking off. That was in 1991. Since then, it has languished in our garage. Again, now that we are divesting ourselves of most everything but the essentials, while we couldn’t bear to throw the thing in the trash, we had no idea what to do with it.

Then I read an article about someone whom I thought might want a very unusual piece of history.

San Antonio magazine recently featured a local UTSA professor, Michael Cepek, who has worked, lived and studied the Cofan indigenous people and their plight since the discovery of oil in Amazonia Ecuador:  http://www.sanantoniomag.com/SAM/November-2012/A-Future-for-Amazonia/ . The article mentioned that he had recently published a book about the Cofan people, and in particular, Randy Borman, a child of missionaries/linguists who had grown up with the Cofan but had returned after a U.S. university education to live again with the people of Amazonia and assist them in their fight against big business and pollution in their native lands:  http://www.amazon.com/Future-Amazonia-Borman-Environmental-Politics/dp/0292739508.

On a whim, I emailed Professor Cepek, and mentioned that we had a very old crumbly blowgun that I suspected was made by a Cofan, and would he like to have it? To my surprise, he responded and said, yes, he would like to have it!

Professor Cepek came bearing his own gift, his book, “A Future for Amazonia, Randy Borman and Cofan Environmental Politics” (UT Press), and seemed delighted at the size of our blowgun. He told us that today, most of them are shorter, around 5 feet in length, and they won’t let bigger ones out of the country anymore. Black tar, in place of the black beeswax, is used to seal the strips of banana leaves that are wrapped around the 2 pieces of wood that make the gun. We described to him how, in the first 10 years that we had the gun, it actually worked, easily. You wrapped a bit of the kapok cotton (held in a small gourd attached to the bamboo quiver) around the middle of the dart, stuck the dart in the far end of the gun, and blew through the mouthpiece end. That sucker really flew! Even I could blow it, although it was quite heavy and I never really could aim it well. Once the sealing material dried up, the blowgun lost its tightness and also its party novelty, when we would blow a dart through a paper lantern that we once had over our dining room table.  Today, I’m told that most of the indigenous people have graduated to real guns with bullets, to my dismay. Guns are easier, I suppose, to get and use. I would imagine it took a person many hours and days of hard, but delicate and exacting, labor, to manufacture a blowgun, which was then used to hunt food for survival.

Anyway, I’m glad it found a home. Even if the good professor can’t ‘fix’ it, at least someone else will be the one to throw out this artifact, if he feels the need to do so. Just glad it’s not me. Today, I regret that we never took a photograph of the blowgun nor of the handmade quiver and darts.

Now, onto the story of the Masai spear. It has 3 distinct pieces, a sharp metal  tip and a metal bottom, for balance, but with a wooden shaft between the 2 metal pieces. Each piece is about 2 1/2 feet long, and the 3 pieces come apart for packing, shipping. My father brought it back from a trip to Kenya in the late 70′s, about the same time I obtained the blowgun.  After my regret about no pictures of the blowgun, here’s a few pictures of the spear.

Any professors studying the Masai people out there who might need a talking piece? I also have 2 bookends made from baby alligators, made in Cuba, around 1945 that need a good home: 

New Healthcare Requirement, Tax Penalties and Exceptions

Tax (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)

 

In 2009, the new HealthCare law was passed (Obamacare) and more recently the law and the tax penalties were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. All U.S. citizens and residents, starting Jan 1, 2014, will be required to have qualifying health care. Many people will satisfy this requirement with Medicare, Medicaid, and employer paid or sponsored coverage.

 

 

Others without one of these types of health insurance plans will be required to purchase their own health care insurance, unless they qualify for an exemption. The health care tax penalty, which will be reported on tax returns filed in 2015 for the tax year 2014, may be avoided if the citizen or resident qualifies for an exemption.  Persons who are incarcerated, persons who are Native Americans and covered under the Indian Health Care Service, and persons who belong to a religious organization that shares health care costs within their organization (i.e., Amish, and must satisfy specific requirements) may be able to avoid the penalty by not being subject to the law.

 

 

A special rule applies to U.S. citizens and residents who reside outside of the U.S. and may allow these taxpayers to avoid the penalty. These individuals are subject to the mandate as citizens, but are deemed to be in compliance with it as foreign residents, if the residency requirements are met. The special rule applies only to taxpayers who meet the requirements to exclude foreign earned income (the bona fide presence test or the physical presence test of foreign residence of at least 330 days – continuous or non continuous – in any 365 day continuous period – where the 365 day period may overlap tax years and may not be entirely made up of days in the reporting tax year) or who are bona fide residents of a U. S. possession. Note that the individual need not actually exclude any foreign earned income on an IRS form 2555 but must qualify to do so in order to avoid the penalty.

 

 

Also, some individuals would not pay a penalty for not having qualifying health insurance even though they are subject to the mandate. For instance, an individual whose income is below the filing threshold for his filing status (having no tax liability for the year) would still be subject to the mandate. However, the individual would not pay a penalty due to not having qualifying insurance because of low income levels.

 

 

As I see it, the keys for U.S. citizens living abroad to avoid the Health Care tax penalty are either: stay away from the U.S. for a minimum of 330 days during any 365 day period, OR make sure that you have no taxable income in the tax reporting year.

 

 

Remember:The IRS will not impose any penalties against a taxpayer if the taxpayer owes no tax to the IRS and neglects to file in any given tax year. Penalties and interest are only imposed when a taxpayer either underestimates tax owed, OR neglects to file and the IRS determines that the taxpayer does, in fact, owe tax.

 

 

The IRS can and often does overestimate tax liability at any time, even many years after a tax year, which may force a taxpayer to file a prior year tax return, depending on the tax situation, in order to prove or disprove tax liability to the IRS. The IRS also does not look benevolently at taxpayers who file tax returns sporadically, even if your income is sporadic. If you don’t believe you owe any tax, it’s still a good rule of thumb to always file your return just to document your tax status every year with the IRS.

 

 

However, a taxpayer can only file no more than 3 years after the tax filing deadline for a given year in order to request a refund of tax from the IRS. After that 3 year date goes by, you cannot request any refunds, even if you were entitled to them.

 

 

Meaning: file your taxes every year, no later than the filing deadline (usually April 15) in order to avoid those dreaded nastygrams (CP2000 tax owed IRS notice letters) sent out by the Internal Revenue Service requesting either that you file or that you pay tax that may or may not, in actuality, owe.

 

It’s official! We’ve got the tickets!

It’s official now – Hubby got the airplane tickets for us to make our retirement move to Ecuador. Leaving here Saturday, June 1, 2013. Hubby has now been retired since January 3rd, but I’ve started the tax season with a woosh. He’s made a great househubby.

It’s crazy busy already, even though the IRS won’t accept returns until January 30th. I’ve had customers in the office with IRS letters looking for more money going back to 2007, just in the past week. We’ve begun work on actual returns, but the IRS is looking for “money” everywhere that they can try to find $$. Most of the time, the IRS overstates the tax due, but that’s when I really enjoy the problems – especially when I can point out the IRS errors.

We are seriously purging the household goods now, and have made umpteen trips to Goodwill with trunk-fulls of various things. A local children’s home came and picked up some old furniture in the garage after our garage sale – taking the things that no one wanted. I can’t believe we thought we needed all that stuff. Still have a lot more to get rid of!

We’ve received the certified copies of our birth certificates and that of our marriage license that I ordered online before Christmas, all from different states. Next month, we’ll send them off to their respective states for “apostilling”. We have plans to drive to Houston to apply for a 6 month visa; we’ll get the police reports just before leaving. I need to get my driver’s license renewed in the next month or so; it’s not due for a year or 2, but they last 6 years, so I’ll just do it now and then it will be good for a longer period.

Question to my readers: Do we submit the original apostilled documents for the residency visa? Or, do we get the original apostilled documents notarized in Ecuador and submit those notarized copies, and keep the originals? Or some other process? This has been sticking in my head, that I need to keep the originals; but I’ve been told that once you apply for the residency, Ecuador doesn’t return to you your documents. If someone knows, please chime in, it will be much appreciated!

I’ve continued to sort items: things I can’t bear to part with but that my children don’t want; things I will definitely pack to bring with me June 1, and things I can get rid of. Things I can’t bear to part with go in a box (or 2 or 3) that we will have shipped to us after we settle in and obtain residency; things I will definitely pack to bring with me go in a special dresser with drawers that allow me to estimate how much I can fit in my suitcases; everything else is either in a box to be donated (we fill up 2 or 3 boxes each week) or thrown out. Today I broke a pyrex dish, I dropped it, just slipped out of my hands. Darn those hard tile floors. Hubby said, well, one less thing we need to cart to Goodwill or get rid of! I was more upset about the dessert that I had baked (and smashed on the floor) than the dish, which is really not like me. I guess I’m getting into this “purging” thing, finally.

Luckily, hubby has enough points to have been able to get us first class tickets all the way. United Continental states that with this ticket, we can each check 3 bags, carry on 1. That’s 8 bags total! If we need one or 2 more, we’ll have to pay. Yippee! I can fill up 4 or 5 bags in no time. Of course, one of these will have to be hubby’s bicycle, which will be an odd size so don’t know if that will count as one checked bag or if we will have to pay for that.

Of course, the ‘return’ tickets will be coach. Not enough miles for 1st class both ways. I read somewhere that in order to obtain the 6 month tourist visa in Ecuador, obtained here in the US at the EC consulate, a return ticket is required for 6 months out, and that the 6 months’ time period starts when you obtain the visa. Anyone know this to be true? I went onto the Ecuadorian website for “foreigners” explaining all the different visas and rules and applications, but could not find anything about a 6 month visa. Nada. ?? We’ve already used up 2 and 3 weeks of our allotted 90 days allowed on a regular visa the last time we were in Cuenca in September; we thought it might be prudent to get this 6 month visa to give us a bit more time to get the residency visa. Just in case. Let me know if anyone is certain about this, ok?

only 4 more months to go!