Week 20 – The House That Almost Wasn’t

These past 3 days have been eventful and jam packed with MANY errands.  Wednesday we closed on the house, though things were looking a little dicey for some time.  We met with the realtor at the house to do our final walk-through, before driving over to sign all the papers with the attorney/bank lender/etc.  Our closing was scheduled for noon but our walk-through was scheduled for 10:30am.  That seemed a little close to us, but after the realtor got held up in traffic and then after doing the walk-through we discovered an important repair hadn’t been done…well it definitely was a little too close.  During our home inspection some weeks back, we discovered a damp spot on the ceiling above the shower and it also showing the early signs of water damage.  We told the seller that needed to be fixed; water problems, especially in house that was foreclosed on, are sort of a deal-breaker.  They agreed to fix it, however, during the final walk-through the area was showing even worse signs of water damage.  I mentioned this was a foreclosed property, so most often the seller has never even been to the home.  They just hire contractors through government programs to fix whatever it needs to satisfy the safety & bank lender requirements.  Unfortunately, this means no one is actually going there to verify the repairs are being done, let alone done well.

Running behind at this point, we left the house to head over for the closing meeting.  On the way, our realtor was trying to get in touch with the seller to find out why this repair was reported as fixed when it’s currently leaking.  We arrived at the meeting and started filling out the preliminary paperwork.  By the way, there is a TON of paper work that has to not only be signed & initialed 500 times, but must also be read aloud & explained officially in the presence of the county recorder…full disclosure and all that jazz.  In between signing and explanations, the realtor was playing phone tag with the seller who was playing phone tag with the construction company & threatening them with not paying if they didn’t go out there right now and fix what they charged her for. 

After an hour or so of signing and going through paperwork, we hit a snag that almost caused this closing to finally fall apart.  The only documents left to sign were the ones that officially made the home ours.  The office was closing soon, this paperwork had to be filed before the official recorder left for the day, and the seller informed us it would be several hours, if not the next day, before the construction company could make it out there to repair the leak.  However, if we signed & officially closed on the house, it would technically be ours and government rules wouldn’t allow repairs to be made after the fact.  Yeah, just a little snag. 

Trevor and I were going back & forth between 1) accepting the house as is; hoping the repair wouldn’t be anything major or cost too much to fix ourselves and 2) pushing the closing back to next week when the official recorder could re-schedule; resulting in us having to move the following week by ourselves since our family wouldn’t be able to take off work on the weekdays.  Oh and our apartment lease is ending next Wednesday and if we don’t close before then, we’ll be homeless.

Luckily our realtor is a great people person and has many contacts that she was on good terms with.  She called a few home inspectors & roofing guys she’s previously worked with before finding a company who had roofer guys in the area…and better yet, they could meet us at the house with-in the hour.  Since we wouldn’t have had time to drive back to the meeting before the building closed, we had to sign all the papers as if we officially owned the home and the attorney would wait there for our call – giving the go-ahead to file them or discarding them & we’d have to do this all again next week.  Since this post is on the verge of rambling – the roofer guys arrived early and repaired what was a half-assed attempt to seal a roof stack (it was already cracked and currently leaking water into the attic space above the shower), we called the attorney and told him to file the paperwork, and the realtor told us congratulations and handed us the keys. :)

Putting in our offer

Closing and getting the keys!

To say that was a stressful 4 hours would be quite the understatement!  Since closing on Wednesday, we’ve been packing up loads of stuff, taking it over to the house, unpacking the loads, and bringing back the empty totes to repeat the process.  I’ve really worn myself out so far and we’re not even to the big Move-In day yet.  Trevor had to work yesterday & today so I’ve been packing, loading the car, and bringing things over to the house by myself.  I’ve also been researching a fridge to buy and updating the bills & everything else to our new address (can you believe that took HOURS?!).  Today my mom came by the apartment and together we filled both of our cars up & took the loads over.  Then I picked Trevor up from work and we went straight to the house and painted the living room.  Now, Trevor, one of his brothers, and I are back at the apartment packing up as much as we can, getting ready for everyone else that is arriving tomorrow.  It is past midnight and we’re still going.  I feel like I haven’t slept this entire week.  I very much look forward to next weekend when it’s just us in our new home…probably surrounded by boxes but at least we’ll be done moving things from the apartment to the house.

Bailey hiding in her crate during all the packing craziness

Trevor’s Note:  PHEW!  I have had no time to make any sustained comment, but my lifelong dream of owning my own home has been realized and I couldn’t be more excited about it.