Up the Hill

That's what we call it; the High Desert is "up the hill" from where I used to live. Of course, up the hill is really up and over a mountain range that doesn't go quite so far down on the other side. It's about a 50 mile drive from here to there. A lot of people make that drive, so I have expected that the morning commute would be something awful. However, we live far enough out and I start late enough in the morning that it's not been too bad.

We've been here a week... and what a week it's been, too. Here's how it all went down:

The appraiser required that a range and dishwasher were installed prior to close of escrow. This put us in a bit of a jam because we knew what we wanted, and planned to charge them at Home Depot to get the one-year-same-as-cash deal, but we couldn't buy them until after we closed or risk being kicked out of escrow. Dave said he probably had a range in storage. Tom and I bought a dishwasher with some of our make-the-house-our-own money. However, it couldn't be delivered until the end of this month. Home Depot actually lent us a dishwasher in the meantime (I love those guys!). Dave realized he did not have a range in storage, so he went to the Sears outlet and bought the cheapest one he could find. It turned out that they'd had a run on cheap ranges that weekend, so he spent a cool grand with the understanding that he could return it "if his wife didn't like it." Dave also borrowed his neighbor's truck and drove up the hill to install the range and put the dishwasher in place. A few days later he went up (again in the neighbor's truck) and pulled both pieces out.

Dave did get the seller to pay for the appliances, but getting them to sign that paper took so long that he requested an extension for close of escrow until yesterday, in which he stated that it was because of the delay in signing that form. They signed the extension within an hour!!! Ugh!

We freaked out at the extension because all of our moving plans were set for the end of last week. I was going to be off Thursday and we were both off Friday, and I'd arranged for three of my friends to help us get the first load of boxes moved on Friday. Saturday we had about a dozen people set to help us move, including my dad who was borrowing his old trailer from a friend. And about half the people who were signed up for last weekend would not be available this weekend.

Dave the realtor and Joe the lender had been positively haranguing the escrow company to get their stuff together. Dave and Joe are seemingly mild-mannered, however, I have a track to the inside story. Joanie, my coworker, is Dave's wife. So whenever things went haywire (which they did a lot at the end), Joanie would regale us with tales of Dave cursing loudly at his computer in the morning or late at night. And Joe, who I have learned is more tatted than I "could imagine" (and I'm the daughter of biker types, so this really makes me imagine, haha) told us that he was on the phone late one night with our underwriter.

"I think I might have... well, I'm pretty sure that I... uh... I might have used some four letter words. Yes, I'm pretty sure that I did. But I had a set of docs come back last Thursday for a loan that I had to put together with bubble gum and spit... and it went out after yours and yours should have sailed through!"

Wednesday of last week we finally got to sign loan docs (we were supposed to close the night before), but not the papers for escrow. Thursday brought the rest of the paperwork through. Tom was able to sign and fax these from work (no, I'm not sure why original signatures weren't required, but they weren't) and I dropped in (from work... no point in being off, right?) and signed them at the lender's office. As I was signing, the finance person noticed that the appliance money was listed as a credit, which is apparently not right. So I called Tom and caught him just before he wired the remainder of our down-payment. He increased the amount accordingly and sent it off.

We were told that night... and Friday... and Monday... and Tuesday... that we would be funding that day or first thing the next morning at the latest.

The next bit of drama was about those freaking appliances again. The seller was committed to paying us $750 for them, but they wouldn't just write out a check in our names for some reason. They wanted an invoice, so Dave sent over the receipt for the dishwasher, which was about $100 more than the check. No good. They wanted an unpaid invoice (what the hell is that?! we had to have the damn thing in before escrow could close, remember?!). So Dave went ahead and whited out the paid amounts and submitted that. Problem solved.

Tom's parents sent us a housewarming gift in the form of a check. A considerable part of that went to our new range.

In the meantime, Dave spoke with the seller's agent and pleaded our case. A deal was apparently struck that the other agent wouldn't come near the house over the weekend. Dave called that "agent speak for go ahead and move in, but I don't know anything." We are conservative adventurers, but this was a desperation moment. We went ahead and did it.

Later that weekend I spoke with Dave who told me about another client of his who had done the same thing over a month ago. Their original mortgage was sold right before it funded and everything got jacked up, so they were back in escrow with a new company. The upside... and to us it was miniscule... was that they were living in their house "rent free" for a couple of months. Dave said the wife only spoke to him in monotones. I'm pretty sure that information snagged about five hours of sleep from me that night.

Monday morning I was informed that escrow had also forgotten to include our first year of home insurance in the downpayment, so I had to run over and take care of that, too.

Mid-Tuesday we finally funded. Dave and Joe both said we were free to purchase the remaining appliances we needed, but we weren't taking any chances by charging even something small until it was all over.

Wednesday morning we recorded and it was finally done. That night we went to Home Depot and had a rather fun shopping spree. We bought a new dryer (just the gas version of our old one, which was a low-end GE), an over-the-range microwave/convection oven/warmer (ooh yeah), a bazillion blinds for the (21 freaking) windows that need them, paint, paint supplies, primer, a baby gate that we're hoping works at the top of the stairs (the railing is too low for most of 'em) and a new new front door lock (the first one was malfunctioning).

The other day we finally got the operating system and software reinstalled on our computer. Earlier this week our dishwasher finally arrived and so did the DirecTV man. Today we received the microwave and dryer, along with FIOS.

Tomorrow we'll get caught up on laundry, sand and prime some cabinets in the kitchen and hopefully get some of the blinds installed. The plan is to get all the blinds up and the cabinetry painted by the end of the weekend. Now, except for all the packed boxes and wide open views through our windows, this place is really beginning to feel like home.

Checking In

So the knickknack formerly known as our computer has no real chance of being saved and, from what I can figure out, I may have accidentally donated our operating system and program disks when I got rid of some other programs that we don't use. I could be wrong. Maybe we've both just missed them. My inability to find anything when it's staring me right in the face has been rubbing off on Tom, so I guess it's possible.

In other news, the busted water main is being repaired by the sellers. That's good news because all of our available cash and much of our credit will be going toward other things we need for the house.

Tom and I are anxious to get back up there and finish the inspection. Today we decided on the dishwashwer and range that we'd like to get. The range is about $700 more than our previous first choice (naturally) unless we buy it at the Sear's Outlet. Then it's the same price as the other one. Hopefully they'll still have some in stock when we are ready, about three weeks from now.

Madelyn has been walking for more than a month now. She has it all down, too. From getting up in the middle of the floor to walking on grass to walking on a grassy hill (up and down, thank you very much). And I'm guessing she will not be another ADD child based on this one simple difference between her and Corey when he was around this age: If Corey was doing something he shouldn't, I would just turn him around and he'd get interested in something else right away. For Madelyn, touching the TV is a game that she wants to play and play. She isn't supposed to have much of a long-term memory yet, but she walks over, puts her hand near the TV, stops to look at me and smile before touching it. She is 10 months old and has already been called by her full name about half a dozen times! God I love her!

Corey is doing alright. He's slowing down on his schoolwork again. I notice that this keeps happening whenever he's given a quantity of work and a timeline in which to complete it. Very frustrating, but I'm on to him now. I had him start doing some of the preliminary cleaning in his room today.

And in packing news, we're up to about 30 boxes, four folding chairs and two beach umbrellas at Mom's house, 7-8 more boxes ready to go (why did I leave them at home when I came here?!?) and a plan for what's next. Today I packed up most of the utensils that we don't use regularly and that felt good.

I guess that's about all for now. No word on when we'll be dealing with the computer. Tom's parents offered to buy a laptop because he needs computer access for a business he's trying to start up. Initially I said no because he and I have a deal: he can get a laptop when he's making progress on completing his thesis (or, as I call it, "The Damn Paper"). He's been a thesis away from his Master's degree for seven years now. But we may need to break the deal in order to be able to take care of what needs doing. Mom lets us come here (thanks Mom... and this time I mean it, lol), but her Internet is spotty lately. Plus we won't always be four miles apart. Argh!

**I don't have time to spell check this sucker, so if it's whacked out, I apologize.

Get Your Pens Handy

I took the day off yesterday mainly because I didn't get done what I needed to accomplish on Wednesday, what with all of the Corey stuff (I'd taken Wednesday afternoon off, too, naturally). What stuff didn't I get done? Well, work stuff, actually. Yes, I took the day off from work so that I could... work... for my job.



Okay, I understand how lame that is, especially since I essentially worked from 9:00 in the morning until 7:00 in the evening. But I didn't have to take any calls, go to any schools or see any employers. And I did it at my home in my PJ's and my mom's house in my slippers. Corey was at school most of the time. If I have one less "sick" day because of my weird choices, I don't really care.



We decided to let home choice number 1A fall by the wayside. If things don't work out with our first choice, it has occurred to us that there are other homes out there with new carpet and paint. Plus, the bank that is selling house number 1, which we now call the Gobi house (because of the street name, not because it spans two countries or anything... even if it is fricken huge!) has negotiated until we can't negotiate any further. We signed their last counter yesterday morning, and last night we signed the loan docs.



People keep calling us homeowners, but I really won't feel that way until we have the keys in our hands and they work in the locks!



Our lender, Joe, had told us when we first met that he will repeatedly call us for "one more thing"... to the point that we'll want to meet him in the parking lot after work! So before we left last night Tom asked what sorts of things we should keep handy. We are fairly compulsive about putting things in the shredding pile, although not as compulsive about actually shredding it, so nothing should get too far away if we need it. But it turns out we mainly need to turn in bank statements and paystubs as they come in. Hopefully that will be enough from us to keep things going smoothly.



Dave and Joe say that home buying isn't really stressful, it's just a matter of doing your job and of them doing their jobs. I wonder if I'll agree when this is over.



One thing that has turned out to be even better than we'd planned is that our mortgage will be about $20 less than what we now pay for our cozy little apartment. And the house is roughly two and a half times the size of this place. People keep asking if we have enough furniture for such a place. Absolutely not. But we'll get there... over time. At first we'll be focusing on the necessities: Appliances and window coverings. Then I imagine it'll be a couple of hide-a-bed type couches or something like that for guests. Somewhere in there we'll need to landscape the backyard and get patio furniture. And put up a patio cover.



Oh, and we need to buy dishes. Not because it's a new place, but because I live with guys. What started as a service for eight is now three! dinner plates, five salad plates and seven mugs. I've never been a huge fan of Corelle, but even if I have to get those gawd-awful duck-bordered ones, that's what I'm getting. I need plates that last.



Tom's parents have the same dishes they bought 30 years ago. That's what I need. Not that I expect them to last that long for us, but 10 years would be awesome. Heck, I'd be happy with five years at this point.



Speaking of kitchen items, I have had my eye on a dining table for the past two years now. It seats six without the leaves and up to 12 with them. Depending on the wood, we can get it for $450-$1300. Since that doesn't include the chairs, we'd definitely be going with the $450 variety. It's the same wood as our current table (which seats four to six comfortably as long as you don't want to put any food on it).



Hmm... what else can I add to my shopping list? Probably a lot, but I think I'll stop now. Shopping's tiring!

Fear

We are at a crossroads. We went out with Dave on Saturday and looked at 18 more houses. We had 26 on the list, but many of the ones we didn't see were short sales (which are anything but short when all is said and done). A few others had offers going and one (that I really wanted to see) has been recently thrashed. So with "only" 18 homes to check out, we had a little extra time to spend (ha!). Sort of. I taught that morning, so we didn't get up the hill until after 11:30.


We reviewed Dave's rules, but still ended up spending more time than we should have at the first house. I think it just had to do with it being the first house of the day. Oh, and there was a man and his teenaged daughter walking their dog. They stopped to speak with us, and I think they made the house more appealing than it really was. Once we got out of there, the next 10-12 houses were a bust. We never made it up the stairs in any of them. In some, just walking in and seeing that the "backyard slope" was really a wall of dirt taller than the eight foot high sliders was enough to send us right back out. As Dave said, "Why would you buy that house? Who the hell bought it to begin with? What were they thinking?"


Another house was too ornate inside. It reminded me of the homes I've visited of people I've met who are from Pakistan and Egypt; lovely, but certainly not my sensibility. Plus, there were two massive "sheds" built out back that were not complete, and based on the workmanship, proximity to the house and the fact that they blocked access to the air conditioning unit, not likely permitted either.


We did check out a couple of one-storey homes. They weren't bad. One would have definitely been in the running if it really had the four advertised bedrooms. The other was equally awesome, but up against a drainage ditch. In California these are cemented, so I'm not worried about erosion and sliding as much as that Corey would explore the length of it. And Mad has her own independent, somewhat feisty little spirit, too. We can't be sure she wouldn't scale that fence as soon as possible. She's just nine and a half months old and has already been taking her first unassisted steps for nearly a week. So a house with a drainage ditch? Out of the question.


Somewhere around three-quarters of the way through Saturday's agenda we finally started to find some decent homes. We had a run of good, better, best and hey, this wouldn't be too bad either! Once it was all over... around 4:00... we stopped for what turned out to be breakfast, lunch and dinner. We rehashed the possibilities, laid out a plan and went back to check out the two we were most interested in considering. They have been ranked as our number 1 and 1A choices. Number 1 is clearly better (brand new paint and carpet, but missing all appliances), but number 1A really only needs paint downstairs (why do so many people think that salmon is an appropriate color for a house? and what the hell is up with three shades of progressively worse/more neon salmon?) and to have a fence repaired. Plus it has a covered patio. We decided to put offers down on both of them and see what might stick.


Dave ran the comps and decided that we should offer about $6000 less than the asking price on each home. We heard from 1A this morning. They countered with a higher price, but said they'd pay closing costs. We have to decide by noon tomorrow.


Dave then caught up with the agent for house number one. They had an all cash offer, but it was lower than ours. He could let us know soon, possibly by Wednesday.


If you're going to have a worst case scenario, this is not a bad one to have. Say we take 1A while waiting one 1, are we then obligated to stick with our second choice if the first choice accepts our offer?


As we were debating the issue over Madelyn's playtime this evening, Dave called again. House 1 had countered... still well below asking, but they'd only pay 3% toward closing costs. It means putting about $3000 more out at the onset than we were expecting. It's not impossible to gather the money together, but we still have to buy a new stove, oven, dishwasher and window coverings. Ack! We want this house, but what are we willing to give up to get it?


A little, but not much, is the answer. My brilliant husband has countered their counter, saying we'll pay an additional $2000 if they'll pay another percent toward closing (which should just about cover it). We'll submit the offer en la manana and should hopefully find out mas rapido. The bank wants a shorter escrow of 30 days, but we're also asking for 36 days to give our broker enough time to get everything done on our end.


Please keep your fingers crossed, put good thoughts in your hearts and wish us the best. We might actually be able to do this.