Recently Amelia inherited some furniture from my little sister’s old room…
Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category
Son of a Toyota
April 3, 2006I finally have a cool car. Perhaps car is the wrong description–think of it more as a stereo system on wheels. It’s a 2005 Scion xA, the closest I will ever get to owning a new car. It’s even under the original warranty. Features include spoiler, sunroof, a spedometer in the middle of the dash, and a cheesy red light inside the CD holder. It’s also a limited edition–#0951 of 1550–though we have yet to discover what is so limited about it.
As I understand, this is the sixth car my family has purchased from our personal car dealer, Tom. He buys cars at auctions for a couple of dealerships but saves the best deals for himself. Even my penny-pinching brother will be happy with the price we paid…er, will be paying for the next three years. According to the credit union, I got such a good deal that I could have borrowed $4000 more than I did. Thankfully a 2005 counts as a new car and we apparently have outstanding credit so we got a 4.49% interest rate.
Scion means “son of”. Toyota is the actual manufacturer and created the brand to appeal to teenagers whose main goal in life is to drive a cool car. I’m guessing they named it Scion to make it sound like a rebellious child. My name means son of my right hand–maybe I can use that as leverage when Jess suggests that she drive the car.
Auto Update
March 23, 2006It has been decided that there will be no second car, at least not for now, unless you’re willing to donate one?? The only place I really “need” to go during the day is to my ladies’ Bible study one morning a week, and a friend has been picking us up for that (her minivan has built-in car seats, the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!!). My piano students come to me, except for one, but Ben is now home early enough that he can pass off the car to me (not quite baton-style) just in time for me to get to that lesson. In theory, warm weather will soon be here, so Amelia and I can spend lots of time in the yard and going for walks, and won’t feel so trapped in the house during the day. We can survive with one car until September, when I will need one to take her to preschool, but it has been pointed out that if we don’t send her to preschool, not only will we not be taking on a car payment & increased auto insurance, but we will also save the cost of the preschool tuition!! Hmm…we have until June or July to back out of that one, I think…
What We’ve Been Up To (the past week or so)
March 8, 2006Amelia’s closet now has paint and border…
I painted the kitchen cupboards, walls, trim, and hung new curtains…
The Car Dilemma
March 7, 2006One of our 9-year old cars needs $1,000 of work to pass inspection. Do we have the work done, or start over with a new (used) car?? We currently have no car payment as one of our cars is paid for, and the other one (the one in question) was free. Getting a new (used) car would involve a loan for at least part of the cost. Opinions on this ever-popular dilemma are welcome (and earnestly solicited)!!
