We have received the clear to close from the bank and are doing so this Thursday, the 24th, at 3pm. I hope it doesn’t take too long, because I also have an 8pm flight to Phoenix that day. Going to be a busy, but awesome, day.
Also, I just thought of another thing I am looking forward to in having my own house. Cupboard doors that stay closed.
It was actually worse than this when we first moved in. Mr. W went to a hardware store and purchased magnetic closures which he installed on five of the doors. These are just the ones that have broken while we have lived here.
Don’t know if you can tell in the picture, but the cupboard on the top right is pulling away from the ceiling. I’m worried it will come down entirely, so I have removed all breakable items from this cupboard. It is half-full of plastic lids and bowls.
In other fan-freaking-tastic news, Mr. W’s ex-Bossman has decided to up and move to New Mexico. And he’s giving all his clients to Mr. W. This is huge for us. We were making do when Mr. W had 20 clients and now he will have 60-70… are you kidding me?! So amazing. I am very excited for him because he has really needed a win lately.
This is a lot of good news to receive in one week’s time, and probably all I will have for the rest of the year in order to compensate. I am totally all right with that. 2012 has already proven itself to be a wonderful year. There isn’t anything more I could ask for at this point, other than not to lose it all now that we have it.
I get stressed when things are up in the air. We don’t definitely have the house yet, only have attained “conditional approval”. I don’t know how much the homeowner’s insurance payments will be. Things like this get me stressed and fantasizing about worst case scenarios (spoiler alert: I usually end up homeless with cancer. Or blood clots. Oh! Or a special, new sort of blood clot that is caused by cancer.)
I am very thankful to have a husband who recognizes when I need to explode a little and will hold me and tell me go ahead and cry. Which I do, in a most unladylike and blubbering fashion. But it always makes me feel better afterward, and that’s the important thing.
The house has passed its FHA inspection/appraisal thingamajig. I think at this point the only thing we are waiting on is homeowner’s insurance and finalizing all the underwriting crap. I can’t believe the process is as involved as it is. Several people have warned me about the massive amounts of paperwork that I will have to sign at closing…to the point where I am just imagining this towering stack of contracts wherein I will spend eight hours signing my soul away in exchange for this house. I wasn’t really using my soul anyway, so trading it in for my own home sounds like an acceptable deal.
On the good music side of things, I’ve been listening to the newest albums by Coldplay (“Mylo Xyloto”), The Cranberries (“Roses”), and The Shins (“Port of Morrow”) a lot. I would recommend all three.
This song isn’t on any of the aforementioned albums, but it’s another song I’ve been listening to a lot as well and helps combat the stress. Great song by Keane called “Stop for a Minute.”
Also, I haven’t mentioned this before, but Mr. W and I are seeing Coldplay in concert on my birthday! Happy birthday to me, indeed.
Lastly, I just had to share this article. Two teenage girls were struck by a car while sunbathing in the middle of the street. I am trying to have a little sympathy for them, but if your ass is sunbathing in the middle of the street you are kind of asking for it.
For those readers that may not have seen my Facebook or Twitter updates, we have found a house. We made an offer, the offer was accepted, we have had the home inspection (there is an electrical problem which the seller is in the process of fixing), and we will close on June 4th, assuming all goes as it should with our financing. We even got a lower rater than expected, 3.875%. Very exciting.
Even more exciting is the fact that this house has no wood paneling or creepy basements. No basement at all, actually, just a crawlspace. That is a-okay in my book.
Meet the house:
There are many things that I am looking forward to in moving into my own home, and I decided to share my top ten. In no particular order, except for the one that I came up with, they are:
10. No more needing quarters every week for laundry.
9. No more relying on the unreliable CTA.
8. Having two bathrooms. (It seems like whenever Mr. W goes to bathroom is the exact moment my bladder decides that IT MUST BE EMPTIED RIGHT! FREAKING! NOW!) 7. Better access to and utilization of the public library. 6. Having my own car again. 5. Gardening! (Who knew that this would ever be something I would be excited about? Not me.) Here is a shot of the backyard:
4. Not having annoying people live right above us who pace the creaky floors in the morning, vacuum late at night and either do a lot of jumping jacks or have disturbingly rhythmic sex.
[Not pictured and you're welcome.]
3. Not driving around in circles looking for parking at 2am on a Saturday night. 2. Setting up some kind of lounge chair in this room and reading while cats sit in the windows and watch the birds outside. 1. The Kevin Bacon marathon that I am apparently having. (It started as a joke, so I don’t know if we are actually having it, but it has reminded me that I have not seen Footloose. I like things related to dancing, so you would think that I would have seen this.)
Mr. W and I have looked at a fair number of houses — some not so good, some not so bad, and almost all containing at least one wood-paneled room. Seriously what is wrong with these wood-paneling people? I am not a middle-aged man from 1955 who smokes cigars and drinks cognac. I do not need wood-paneling on my walls, thank you.
Lest you think I am exaggerating, there is this…
And this…
And this…
In this picture I am studiously taking notes about something, most likely about the horrid throw pillow before me. They are the wood-paneled wall of throw pillows.
None of those houses are contenders. We have one more house to look at, hopefully this week, but have our sites on one house so far. It needs some updating, which I am not crazy about, but also has these weird intercoms from the seventies in every room. And I mean, every room. If I need to tell Mr. W that we are out of milk while he is showering in the random basement shower, there’s an intercom for that. He thinks it’s awesome, and I can admit I can see some great possibilities featuring a new speaker system and iPod docks, but as they are right now they really creep me out.
Mr. W didn’t get any pictures of the weird intercoms, but I Googled them and found the exact one that is in the kitchen (for those all-important out-of-milk updates):
It’s like something out of those cheesy B movies that they watch on Mystery Science Theater. “Increase the Flash Gorden noise and put more science stuff around!”
And then I’m throwing this last picture in here… it has nothing to do with houses, but we look cute even if my neck does look a little broken.
While Mr. W and I were checking out house listings online:
Me: “I will get a map and we can do drive-bys on Saturday.” Mr. W: “Well, that would definitely bring housing prices down.” Me: “I mean, we will drive by them…”
