Finally!!

Today at 3:15 Paul-John called to tell me that we will be closing at 10am on Friday! Yay!!!

House not-buying

The closing date we set back in early April when we first applied for the mortgage was last Friday.  Our mortgage broker initially said that since we were approved for a mortgage and the house was unoccupied there was no reason why we wouldn't be able to close by the end of April (ha!)  Last Tuesday we found out that the seller's deceased husband's name was on the title and that she would have to go through probate to get that straightened out.  Friday came, our lawyer called at 8am to say that it wouldn't be happening that day, so we said either Wednesday or Friday this week would work.  Wednesday came and went, no closing.  Today our lawyer said we won't be closing tomorrow either.  

The awesome rate we have for the mortgage expires next Friday.  Our lawyer has no idea what the hold up is - she has been calling the seller's lawyer and has not gotten any returned calls.  Today she said that if she needs to call them every half hour in order to get someone to talk to her, she is going to call them every half hour.  She also said that if they are purposefully trying to delay this, she is getting ready to sue.  

We really just want to buy this house.  

Lots to write about today!  As far as the house is concerned, we had the inspection and it went alright.  There are a few major things that need to be replaced: water heater, furnace and refrigerator along with a couple more minor things.  We submitted a re-offer to the seller this week and should hear back next week.  Initially I wanted the seller to do the major replacing for us, because it would be less expensive, and Paul-John just wanted money off the price of the house and to do the work ourselves which is what we decided to go with.  Although that doesn't really put cash in our pockets (about $200 off the down payment...) we will be getting the first time home buyer tax credit, and we want to be in control of what gets picked.  We have a tiny water heater now, and it stinks.  I am really not sure what to expect from the seller - whether or not she'll go for our re-offer.  She seems really unwilling to negotiate and was considering renting the house instead of selling it.  But, these are all things she would need to replace if she rents it, so hopefully we will continue to move forward with this.  

I started the hexagon afghan on Tuesday.  If (and this is a big if) I can do between 3 and 4 motifs a day, the afghan will be finished by our 1st anniversary.  I am using this pattern.  I thought about using all the colors I had in a similarly random fashion because it would be the most economical, but I really wanted a pattern that would pop.  So I am doing a sort of sunburst-y type pattern using at least 7 of the colors I have.  

Wednesday Paul-John and I went to the PLanet Earth movie with a colleague and his wife.  It was alright.  About 99% of the movie were scenes from the series.  It was narrated by James Earl Jones and was definitely aimed at kids - the animals were more anthropomorphized, some of the background music was hipper, and bizarrely as Paul-John noted, it rarely stated where exactly the current scene had been filmed.  All that aside, it was pretty great getting to see it in the theater.  

Yes, please

When thinking about all the major and expensive things we will have to do when we buy a house I really enjoy looking up decorating ideas online and I now really want a hidden door.  

Pretty cool, huh?  

The house business is finally starting to move along at a pretty good pace.  About three weeks ago we made an offer.  The next day, the seller counter-offered and we accepted and then... nothing.  We did not hear from the seller at all for just over a week.  Our agent talked to the selling agent, who hadn't heard from the seller - wasn't returning phone calls, had cancelled showings and was apparently suddenly having second thoughts about selling.  Finally we heard back and things are now moving forward.

Tonight we did all the mortgage paperwork which was really exciting.  In two days, we have the inspection.   We are trying to get the closing date for May 16th!  

Today we signed the papers officially ending our contract on the condo.  We found out that contrary to what our mortgage broker told us, the property would be FHA approved even with all the roofing issues.  Also, the sellers did offer to put some money in an escrow account for us, but only a third of what the estimated assessment would be.  

We've seen all three of the houses we were interested in.  The latest one was quite interesting: everything in the house was bought between 1960 and 1975.  The living room and dining room had olive green shag carpeting, three dimensional wallpaper, a mural, and ashtray stands.  In the attic there was an original easy bake oven.  In one closet there was a program from a NBHS football game from the 70s.  It was almost more fun looking at all the stuff than the house.  It was my first time inside a bungalow - over 1,600 square feet on one floor.  

We saw the second house we had looked at a second time and we've decided to move forward. 

Slightly related:  because of all this house business, we have been trying to be a little more careful with our money.  So when the screen on my phone broke, I didn't mind because the phone still worked.  A few months later when the all the keys stopped working it still wasn't a big deal because Paul-John had an old phone that I started using.  But this morning, when I dropped that phone into the toilet and it also stopped working, I realized that I might actually have to buy a new phone.  

We saw another house today and we're both feeling really good about it.  I think an important difference between this house and the condo is that the house better reflects both of our personalities; the condo was way more Liz than Paul-John.  We may still go and see two more houses, but we are going to mull it over for at least a day.

Last night the other Mike came back from California for spring break AND tomorrow Tess moves back to CT.  It's going to be a good week.

Back at square one

We pulled our offer on the condo.  We are currently investigating some things, and may possibly still reoffer, but it doesn't look promising so far.  We found out that in the next couple years there will be an enormous special assessment.  Today we looked at one house and have three more we want to check out; possibly one tomorrow.    

I don't normally use all caps...

OUR OFFER GOT ACCEPTED!!

Here we go again

We have decided to make an offer on the condo we saw last week!  I'm feeling really good about this - I actually tried to get Paul-John to look at a different condo in this building more than six months ago.  I have always been pro-condo: for our first owning experience, there is a lot less responsibility.  And yardwork.  Of course, that changed when I saw dream house incarnate, and now I'm back to condo.

I have been really picky when looking for houses because I have this need for personality.  The house has to have the right vibe.  These condos definitely have a vibe.  Old converted brick schoolhouse with clocktower?  14 foot ceilings and enormous windows?  Yup.  It also has the practical things we want - a dishwasher, a bath and a half, and lots of closets.  I like that it has a large living room and no formal dining room.  Right now the dining room is the largest room in our apartment, and we never use it.  

This was the first place we've looked at that has been lived in, so that makes it slightly harder to really picture our stuff inside.  This isn't a bad thing, because I'm nervous about get too excited about it.  But that hasn't stopped me from looking for things we might need if we move.  I saw the coolest coat rack on etsy, except it was $3,000.    

Things that have happened today

1.  We found out that there is probably extensive freeze damage in dream house - yesterday we found out it had some, today it turned out to be much more than we thought.

2.  We found out that even if our offer got accepted, the type of loan we got pre-qualified for probably wouldn't let us buy a house with that much damage

3.  We found out the bank officially accepted the other offer.  This didn't bum us out too much, considering #1 and 2.

4.  We looked at two other houses... meh

5.  Around 10pm, we found out that all the water from the load of laundry I did at 9 ended up on our basement floor.  

oh yeah, awesome day.

And the plot thickens

Yesterday Paul-John and I put in an offer on a house.  Today, we found out that we were not the only people who did so.  This means that we had until the end of business today to submit our "best offer" and they had the same.   (Because both parties submitted offers at the same time, we don't know what they offered, if it was more or less than we offered.)  So, now we wait... fun.  

Freaking Out

I am currently incredibly anxious.  First thing tomorrow morning, Paul-John and I are making an offer on a house.  This is HUGE.  Crazy.  Unbelievable.  Overwhelming, et cetera.  My anxieties about this are:

1.  Our offer isn't accepted or someone outbids us.  

2.  Our offer is accepted, but when we do the house inspection we find a really big problem.

3.  We buy the house and regret it - even if nothing huge comes up in the inspection, we know that this house needs more work than we were initially looking for, but just everything else about this house is right.  But I am nervous that we will be overwhelmed.  

That being said, this is also very exciting.  Not only is this pretty much my dream house, it's an affordable house right in the middle of a great and expensive neighborhood.  Seems way too good to be true.  

This is also happening faster than I expected.  We have been looking online for about six months and nothing has really struck us.  I saw this house on Thursday night, the same day it was listed.  I loved everything about it instantly.  Within ten minutes, we set up a viewing for Saturday.  And tomorrow, our offer gets submitted.

We might not know for up to a week if our offer gets accepted or not, but I am hoping we find out ASAP.