The Sun.

Today is spectacular. Chilly, yes, but the light is so bright, and the colours so vibrant it's hard to stay indoors. It was really foggy driving in. The heather in the little water-wise garden outside our office is already blooming. It's so nice to see something bloom in January. I love Oregon for that. Things stay green and vibrant. Even the twigs seem full of life for some reason.

It's hard to believe it was snowing so hard only two weeks ago. There's still snow up where I live, but down in Portland, there's hardly any evidence that the 40-year-record snow had ever happened at all.

Hubby and I have been trying to refinance our home, and our loan was approved today with surprisingly little muss or fuss. I'm wondering why that is, considering how everyone is panicking about being able to secure a new loan in this economy. My sister, whose credit is pristine, had to jump through some serious hoops to get funding. I'm thinking that perhaps it's because her houses are about 2 to 3 times as expensive as our tiny little cottage. A small loan like hours is probably no huge worry to a mortgage company, whose clients are defaulting on $500,000+ loans. We are not perfect, (our credit scores are proof of that), but we managed to scrape through with payments on time, so that made a big difference). I don't know. I'm just glad it turned out okay, and that we have a nice 30-year fixed to ease my worries.

The house appraised for $50,000 more than what we owe. That's a good feeling, considering the current state of the the real-estate market. Where we live there isn't as much 'depression' in property values, but it's been a concern. At one point, on Zillow 'valued' our house at double the amount we paid for it; after only 2 years? Laughable. It seems almost ridiculous to me that anyone could expect that kind of return on a sale, and even worse, that someone would be able to secure a loan on that kind of inflated value. If we'd sold our house for that zillow price, whoever bought it at that price then would be hurting today if they were trying to refinance. It's odd.

I suppose we did okay. Despite the sulfur and the sandy soil, our house has proven to be a good investment, both for peace of mind and also as a savings account of sorts. Maybe that's why it seems so much 'sunnier' today. The weight of the mortgage has been eased, the house still has value, we bought smart and we love our home; and yeah, the sky is blue, and even though it's mid-January... it's like Spring out there.