Today is a Thursday, so I'm busy at home packing, packing and more packing! It's crazy - we've got another 10 days before we have to turn over the keys, and we still have SO much to do! While I feel like we've gotten so much accomplished, I take a look around the house and still see so much more. Yuck. Will we ever be out of here?! 

The property-line people came out today to make sure everything is on our property. I'm sure that they'll be reporting the same thing that our fence is technically on our neighbors yard by 2 inches. Whatever.

I have a car full of "stuff" to take to both the storage unit and our new residence, but decided to take a lunch break to re-fuel my energy! 

I'm thinking this is the second last night of staying here in this house...okay, time to eat and then to get things done!

My second "job"

Hopefully today will be a very productive day. It's a Thursday - so I'm at home all day, but of course still have the "work" of taking care of a baby, doing laundry, cleaning the house, packing, dropping stuff off at our storage unit and my in-laws, and grocery shopping. I honestly think that going to my job is easier at times!
My plan of action is to start the laundry, clean the kitchen and the bathrooms, swap the laundry, make the bed, start packing, fold the laundry, swap the laundry, (this is all provided an easy day with Brooklyn), then start packing up the car to drop stuff off, and then go grocery shopping. Wowza...i've got quite the day planned!
Next Friday Scott and I get to meet with Nicole, the designer with Drees homes, to pick out all of our finishes and colors of everything in our home. I'm really looking forward to that, especially since we'll get to see the blueprints of our house! Woo Hoo!

Why can't I just do everything?!

Life would be much easier if I could just do everything myself and not have to count on people.
Over the weekend I came up with a few questions for our lender, since we are technically going to be borrowing money from Scott's parents - even though it is only a short-term loan. So this morning I called the lender and asked her a series of questions, one of them being "so, when will our rate be locked in?" I was expecting something along the lines of "oh, you are already locked in, so you have nothing to worry about." Instead I got this answer, "well, whenever Drees sends over the signed contract." WHAT?! It isn't signed by Drees yet?? Scott and I had to sign it before March 1st, so we rushed around and got everything done, and now it is March 7th and it still isn't signed?
The lender then stated that the rates have increased from 5% to 5.25% over the weekend, so we would be stuck with an extra quarter of a percent. When I sounded a little irritated she just said "well, it is only a quarter of a percent." Ummm...really? Really? REALLY? I wanted to say, "well, since it's only a quarter of a percent, you can pay it. For thiry years." I didn't though...I just remained as calm as I could.
Truth be told there really is no reason to get worked up over this again, I did get everything resolved, and we are locked in at 5%, but I just thought I'd record this in the journey.
I am already ready for my weekend...and it's days like this that I'm so glad I only work 2.5 days a week! I am ready to start working the other 2.5 days from home though....GRR!!!

Today we started moving our belongings into our storage unit. It felt strange putting my Christmas decorations and boxes of towels and linens in a cold and small storage space -  I just kept thinking "oh my gosh, we're really doing this!"
For the first time in several weeks I wasn't thinking about numbers, and that felt so liberating. It was great to focus on boxing our stuff up and daydreaming of our new house. On the way home from the storage place Scott asked me what I'm looking forward to the most. To be honest, there are so many things I am excited about that I couldn't just pick one. The thing I am looking forward to the most is the open floorplan. Our kitchen is gorgeous, and the fact that it just flows into the breakfast room and then the family room is just awesome. I can't wait to host parties with our friends and not have to be stuck in the kitchen while everyone else is having fun in the "entertaining" area.
Another thing that I am really looking forward to is our master suite. I haven't been able to take a bath in years without the water draining by itself before I got out of the tub, and never in my life have I ever had an actual garden bath tub. I absolutely can not wait to go up the stairs, light some candles,run the hot water and pour bubble bath in there, pour myself a nice glass of wine, and open the window to let the fresh air in.
I am also very excited to have an attached garage, a first floor laundry room, a real walk-in closet, a big bedroom, a two story foyer, and oddly enough, a half bath. How weird is that last one?!

Wild about Whirlpool!

I have removed the emotion from my outlook on selling our home. Nothing about the process of selling has been pleasant, but at least it is almost over. Hopefully the process of buying will be a more exciting experience. 

Today we heard back from the appraisal review, and low and behold they stuck with the $119K price-tag. I initially felt another sting of pain, but just knew that we had to take this step in order to get where we wanted to be. The only positive that came of this mess is that the buyer is allowing us to take our washer and dryer with us. At this point, that made me happy. 

Tomorrow, Scott and I are moving all the stuff in our attics to the storage unit. To be honest, I can't get out of this house soon enough. Sure, it'll be sad closing the door for the last time, knowing that never again will it be acceptable to go back into the house, but I am ready to forget the financial mistake this has been - and start watching my house being built.

There are so many ways to look at every situation - and although I still feel sad and bitter that we lost so much money on our home, I am thankful and blessed for having a wonderful and supportive family that is helping us reach our goal of living in our brand new home.

Nothing else to write, but tonight I will breathe a sigh of relief, and Scott and I will cheers to moving on to a new chapter :)

Things are looking better

I guess the title sums it up pretty well, although there are still quite a few hurdles to get through before we are out of the woods.

Yesterday Gail called the buyers agent, and I guess that they are still interested in the house. Basically they just said that Gail can rebut the appraisal and we can try and increase the amount of the loan. To me that sounds like they really want the house. Now, I'm not hoping for a super miracle or anything, but now the best case scenario is that the lender comes back and says $122K, and then we say to the buyer "$122, and we keep our washer/dryer." To me that sounds like a very good deal to the buyer, and then we get to keep the washer and dryer.

As far as the money goes, Scott asked his parents for a short term loan last night. They were more than willing to, no questions asked, they said "whatever you need, we have it." I really appreciate them saying that instead of "well, don't you think if you don't have the money you shouldn't be moving?" We DO have the money, but let's face it - tax returns are our biggest means of "savings money," and we haven't gotten ours back yet.

Anyway, I'm starting to feel a lot better about things, but today will be the day that things either work out, or fall apart. Gail said we will be hearing back from the lender by COB today, and hopefully we will also have the washer/dryer issue worked out as well. In my opinion, getting this house for $122 and only needing to buy a washer/dryer is a heck of a deal.

Now on to the design center appointment I had yesterday. I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but with so many things on my mind it was very difficult to. Yesterdays' only purpose was to see what all the selections were, and then in a couple weeks Scott and I will be going back to pick everything (and I mean everything) out. The color of siding/brick/roofing/paint/cabinets/granite/flooring - the whole bit needs to be picked out in two weeks! This weekend we will probably go look at some of the homes in the Drees development to see if we like any of the color combinations better than others. While Scott is better than I am at picking color combinations out, we still need the help of a professional!

Just talking about our new home makes me so happy and excited....it's just such a needed step in our lives right now. The past four years have been great, and our home has served its' purpose, but we need more space - both inside and outside. Sometimes when I take the money part out of the equation I really do feel like this house was a great learning experience. We learned what we did and did not want in our "long-term" home, and we learned what is more important (having a bigger house rather than all the bells and whistles). Although, our new house will have both the space and more bells/whistles.

I'm hoping for a better day today - and I'm going to do my best to keep my chin up and actually get things done around the house. I can't even remember the last time I vacuumed, and my family room has zero walking space with all the baby stuff/t.v. tables/boxes in the room. That is one thing I am probably looking forward to the most - not having to eat off of t.v. trays for every meal. While we do have a table in our kitchen right now, it's very dysfunctional. First off, the kitchen is colder than any other room in the house. Second, the table is smashed into a corner since our kitchen is so dinky, and third, since we have zero counter space it ends up being used to store crap. Ugh... I need this house to be a done deal already - even if it means we'll be losing money. It's just a sunk cost at this point.

Cheers!

Feeling blue

I am at home on a Thursday with my sweet baby girl, and instead of being happy and excited to be home, I am sitting here feel so depressed it's actually making me feel bad for myself. How pathetic. I did throw a load of laundry in the wash, but I haven't gone back downstairs to put it in the dryer. Mostly because I am feeling lazy and don't want to have to fold the stuff that is in the dryer.

Gail called at 11-ish, and basically after talking for half and hour we concluded that the ball is in the buyers court at this point, not ours. I am willing to let this jerk buy my house for the $119K, but I'll be damned if he gets the washer/dryer. Actually, I will probably let him still have them if it's the deal breaker. How freaking awful of a situation. I wish I could cry, but I'm too mad over the situation to do so.

So now I'm just waiting to hear what the buyer wants to do. Is he still interested in the house? Do we even have the chance to move at this point? Or build our dream house in Brunswick? All the questions and absolutely no answers. How awful.

The worst of it, is that I still have to meet Jessica and Gail at the design center. This is really miserable. I just wish I knew if it was even worth it. That would be just my luck - i'd get all excited about designing my new house and then I'd have to give up that dream. This is making me feel just awful :(

The perfect time to buy was not 2007...

I feel sick. Our home has appraised for over eight thousand dollars less than what we just sold it for. How on earth does a house go from being appraised at $134K to $119K in just under four years? I keep asking myself that question over and over again, but I have no idea what I could possibly be expecting as an answer. I'm sitting here in the family room of my house that just appraised for pot. I wasn't asking for it to appraise for $134,000, but come on, $119,000? This house is nice! Sure, it may not be what my husband (Scott), and I want anymore, but that doesn't mean it isn't a nice house.

What are the options? Do we even have the money? Could we borrow the money from the in-laws? All of these questions are bouncing around in my head, but I have no answers. Instead I am just sitting here wondering how this even happened. How did we make such a poor decision? How did the market get this bad? Why are we the ones that got screwed?

Today I am going to the design center to pick out $500 worth of "extra's" for our new house we are (supposedly) building, just for fun (it's a free $500). I am still looking forward to it, but it will be a bit bittersweet for me since I know that I can't just buy everything I see. Even so, I am very thankful for what I do have, and what I can afford - so I am not going to complain about the things I don't have.

Wishing myself luck for today, and praying that something good happens - because I could really use something positive with this situation!