Is It Hot In Here Or Is It Just My Temper?

I cannot wait until the whole house-buying process is over. Not that it's been bad, mind ya, it's just that we can't do anything with the computer until we take care of the house. Truly, the process has been reasonably stress-free, all things considered.

Had one house sold before we put in an offer because it was too freaking awesome to wait for us.
Found an equally awesome home and got it.
Found a busted water main.
Seller fixed it (god I love our real estate agent!!).
Appraiser is requiring a stove and dishwasher be installed prior to the loan funding.
Sister has offered to loan us her dishwasher. It leaks, so we'll rent one if we have to instead.
Realtor is loaning us a range he happens to have in storage and he got us $700 toward appliances from the seller.

Dave says that for every problem there is a solution. We just have to find it. As he also says, home buying isn't stressful if everybody does their jobs. Did you hear that, TOM?!

Argh!!

We all have our jobs. One of Tom's is to deal with money from our investments. We've known for a month that we'll be signing all the docs about a week before closing. We knew a week ago that we'd have to have a cashier's check with the rest of our down payment. We knew by Wednesday that we should be ready early- to mid-next week. So please explain to me (anyone? anyone? do I hear crickets?!?) why he waited until yesterday morning to request the transfer?

So yesterday morning when I was making sure his check had hit our bank account, I was thrilled beyond belief to see that it was several thousand dollars more than he makes. I was even more thrilled to discover that our tax refund (thank you Madelyn and Corey) had come in a week sooner than we'd anticipated.

This meant that we wouldn't have to borrow a range or rent a dishwasher, we were going to buy our appliances this weekend. No worrying about credit card purchases throwing us out of escrow. Blam. Done. Resolved. Next?

What's that, Tom? As I was on the phone telling you the good news, you were on the computer transferring money? It's not going to be there until Wednesday or Thursday of next week? Even though transferring money from these accounts has always taken 3-4 business days, you thought it would be quicker this time?!? WHAT?!?

*deep breath* Ohmm.

So I got off the phone extremely quickly, cursed him with some very foul language, apologized to Nance (who was laughing... she knows the deal) and spent the next ten minutes reminding myself that it was all going to work out. Does my face seem red to you?

And while I'm on a (hopefully rare) Tom rant, I have to say one more thing. He's got a cold. Certain people should just have to go to a cabin or motel or something in times of illness to get away from those they love and who love them. It's a freaking cold, you didn't lose a limb! No fever, so all of your brain cells are in tact! So blow your freaking nose, would ya?! If you'd do that, you'd speed the healing process by ridding your body of the germy yuck and also you'd COUGH LESS. Plus, I don't want to eat with you while you're sniffle-cough-cough-sniffling. And no, I don't want you to make dinner.

*sigh* Ohmm.

Taking My Proud Moments Where I Can Get 'Em

Corey's 15 and in need of something to fill his time while we wrap up the independent study program. Let's face it, the kid needs to be supervised, but there are no babysitters for people his age who aren't immobile or ill. So he needs a job. At his age, the best bet is volunteer work. His availability is awesome, he could develop some outside relationships and *trumpeting fanfare* he could learn something.


My job, for the better part of the past decade and a half has been related to pre-employment and basic job skills. So I'd be the ideal teacher of this information for you. Or your spouse. Or your kid. Or that crazy lady down the street. But not for my son.


I asked my coworker, Jill, if she would work with him and she agreed. They met, oh, about two months ago and laid out a plan of action. Of course, very little of it has occurred since then. Jill sent out a reminder email the other day, which Corey just got to read. He was then compelled (ahem... by his mother) to finish up some of the tasks. One of the "easy" ones is getting references.


He made a list of people to ask. I nixed the teacher he had from third to fifth grade as too long ago to be relevant. Then I made him actually dial the numbers and talk to people. The first one didn't go well at all. He called his instructor and apparently started off with, "My mom said I should call...," which resulted in Derek asking if he could speak with me. So I had to explain it all to him. Then Corey and I role-played asking the next person. Twice. Corey was pretty nervous, but he called her and got her to agree to a letter of recommendation.


Too bad he'd forgotten to get her contact information to use her as a reference. So he spent nearly 10 minutes trying to get out of calling her back, but eventually he did do it. As if it wouldn't be embarrassing enough to forget that in the first place, the person he was calling works at my mom's church. As does Mom. Grammy answers the phones there, in fact, so he had to go through her twice, too.


But *more trumpeting fanfare* he did it! Woohoo! I couldn't hear the whole thing, but what I could make out sounded great, even the second time around. I'm pretty pleased.


In other news, the house hunt is taking up nearly all of my free time. We went out last week on Monday and saw 22 houses, three of them twice. Why so many? The area we're hoping to buy in is about 45 minutes away. So we try to get our realtor for the day and knock 'em out like crazy. I love our realtor, Dave. He has three rules:

• If we pull up and you don't like it, we leave.
• If we go in and you don't like it, we leave.
• This is a cursory inspection, so we're not opening every cupboard and drawer.

Well, there's really a fourth rule, too. He has veto power. If he doesn't like the area or there are too many things wrong with the place, he vetoes it. Why does that work? He knows our taste and sensibilities pretty darned well.


Last week we found the house. Fricken huge, new paint and carpet, two years old, great neighborhood, views of mountains, desert and even some "city" lights. Bedrooms and bathrooms for all the people we now have and all the people we hope to have (including company). Ginormous backyard. Dual a/c. Ahh, yes. Love, love, love. We knew immediately where we'd put the Christmas tree.

But we wanted to check out the neighborhood in the evening when residents would be in residence. That couldn't happen again until Thursday night. We submitted our offer first thing Friday morning. That afternoon we learned we'd been beat to the punch.


We probably could have increased our bid or something, but it was at the top of the amount we want to spend, and there some 4000 homes in the region to consider. We hope the new owners are as happy there as we would have been. We hope we find something just as wonderful and happy-making when we go out on Saturday after my classes.


Tom and I compiled a list of 26 homes we're hoping to see. Since we're starting later in the day, we might not be able to get to them all. Homes are rather difficult to check out in the dark. Wish us luck!