My oath

Yesterday I finished getting everything out of the old house and cleaning.  I don't intend to walk back into that house again, other than to put the keys on the counter.  We still need to get a few things from the yard, and I'm kinda irked that Bill can't do it himself since I basically did 98% of the house all by myself, but whatever... I just want it done.  It's taken way too long to get it over with. 

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but I've never been the best housekeeper.  And 6 years of not being a very good housekeeper.... well, we'll say that after cleaning up the old house, I'm determined to be borderline OCD about the new house and cleanliness.  That's my oath.  I will keep this house clean and organized.  I'm going to go all Fly Lady and stuff.  I have already been driving the girls nuts with my constant barking at them to pick up their socks and put their dishes in the sink.  No eating on the couch.  Keep the doors shut.  All that jazz.

Next weekend is Olivia's birthday party (10 years old.  How can it be that she's hitting double digits already?) and we're having a little housewarming at the same time.  After that, I'm going to start working on painting.  Little by little.  I want the main living area done in time to decorate for Christmas, if possible.  We'll see.

I'm trying to get back into reading my blogs again.  I miss you people.  =)

I also have the first half-marathon of what I think of as "marathon season" in 4 weeks.  There are no marathons in the summer here, it's just too hot, so after April, there's about a 6 month break.  Which means I've been a total bum for almost 6 months.  I started my training weeks ago, but have let it lapse with all the moving business.  Now I need to get back on it.  I've trained for halves in less time, but this one is one of the toughest ones I've done.  And I've been having hip pain lately.... I'm hoping getting back into moving more and some yoga will take care of that.  Hips are pretty important for walking.  I don't want to go to the doctor, so I really do hope it sorts itself out. Next month I begin training for my double half marathons on New Year's Eve/Day, which means A LOT of walking through the end of the year.  I need new shoes.  =)

Speaking of new shoes, maybe that's contributing to the hip problems.  Definitely getting new shoes ASAP.

Pictures and Plans

I just thought I'd give you a small tour of our new home and let you in on some of the ideas and plans I have.

This is the front of the house.  I am thinking window boxes to bring some color to the front of the house.

The back. We have a large screened porch. That's where the hot tub lives until we sell it.  Then we have plans to make it nice and cozy.

Bill has a huge shop. 1500 Sq ft.  That's bigger than the house we're moving out of.

The other out building. It needs a bit of work. We're not sure what we'll do with it exactly. A playhouse for the girls, a chicken coop, and garden shed have been tossed around.

I have a fire place =).   I want to whitewash it and paint the brass black.

The living room and dining room are a huge open space. I am planning on painting ALL the paneling. I hate wood paneling, but at least is fairly light, so since I can't paint before moving in, it's not sucking my soul out of me. ;) The corner on the right is going to be my little crafty corner. My chair, my yarn, my new antique sewing table. I'll show you that later. 

We haven't had carpet in a long time, as you can see, Isabelle is enjoying that. Also, in my corner... that grayish outlet thing... that's a central vac outlet. How cool is that? 

Other things I'm excited about?  The huge French door fridge with ice maker. Dishwasher. Glass top stove. Tons of counter space. More cabinets than I can probably fill. So many cabinets, in fact, that Bill wants to take out the cabinets over the bar. Nice blinds in the windows. 

I'll admit it. Everyone said it would be worth the nightmare in the end. I doubted that. But they were right. I'm stoked. =)

Whew....

Did I really think we'd get through without any more bumps? 

Thursday came and the mortgage company couldn't get everything ready in time to close. So we scheduled for Friday. Then my agent called Thursday with yet another bombshell.... the sellers wanted to contest the appraisal. Their agent neglected to pass that information along until then.

I was livid.

They contacted the appraiser to see if he would check a few more houses as comps, he promised to give them an answer Friday morning. I gave the ultimatum that we had to know what was going on that day. Period. I did not want to go through the weekend in limbo.

The appraiser never called Friday. They asked us to be patient. I wanted to walk away. Bill said we'd wait. I was so upset. I felt like I looked like an idiot for setting an ultimatum that he wouldn't back me up on.

By Monday, I decided to just stuck it up and let whatever would happen happen.  The appraiser finally called and denied their request to reconsider his appraisal. So the sellers gave us two options... go forward with the lower price but we had to buy the hot tub and air compressor (with 2 years to pay on them), or they were going to request a formal review of the appraisal with the VA (which would take weeks possibly). 

We weren't particularly happy and my agent felt like we were being blackmailed.  We seriously considered walking away then. We did not want the hot tub. But, as we discussed it, the girls were screaming and fighting, and we decided we just couldn't stay in this cramped house.  So we agreed to buy the extras and finally... FINALLY... closed on the house Tuesday!

Now comes the oh, so fun part.... moving. I've been off work this week, so I've moved smaller things over.  We plan on doing the major moving on Sunday and I'll finish up the smaller junk and cleaning over the next week or two after work. I had hoped to paint before we move but we just want to get in there.

We're ready to go home.

September

I know it's still summer for a few more weeks, and being in the South, it will feel like summer even longer, but it's September and my brain doesn't associate September with summer. So I'm excited.

Ollie is settling in. He's getting more comfortable, so he's more puppy-ish.  We actually left him home alone for a few hours today without crating him and nothing was destroyed or pooped on, so he's getting the hang of things.

Our closing date was this past Monday, but the appraisal report hadn't been turned in, so we had to postpone. When it did arrive, we had a problem. A pretty significant problem. The house appraised $25k lower than the sale price.

I freaked out.  I was sure that was it, it was over.  Everyone told me to relax and see if the seller would come down on the price. Honestly, they had no choice.  VA and FHA appraisals "stick" to a house for 6 months, so it was come down on the price or not relist it for 6 months. But with all we had been through, it was hard for me to be even a little optimistic.

They did come down, though. Which is fantastic. Only they asked us to pay our own closing costs and they were not going to include the hot tub or the air compressor in the shop.  They have offered to sell them to us, and we are going to buy the air compressor, but we didn't really want the hot tub to begin with. Call me crazy, but there's just too much maintenance involved and I doubt it would be used enough to justify having it. I'm not sure how they'll get it out of the screened porch without tearing up the porch, though. I guess we'll find out.

Coming up with the money for all the closing costs worried me though. We weren't expecting that and we were not prepared. But it worked out. We've been able to scrounge it up.

We close on Thursday. I'm hoping for no more bumps. I'm going to be so irritating in the meantime,  making sure everyone has everything they need, making sure we have everything we need...  3 days and this will be OVER.  Please.