One Week Later

A week ago on Saturday we moved into our first house and I can already see a huge improvement in our lives.  Little One is sleeping better during the day because he's downstairs in his room and Baby Girl is upstairs doing her thing.  Mc is leaving the house earlier in the morning so he can miss the rush-hour traffic and so he's coming home earlier and spending more time with us.  Baby Girl has more room to run around and she badly needed it.

It was nice filling and organizing our pantry and the kids rooms, but the thing I've been most excited about is being able to unpack all of our books.  We've kept the books we have because we like them and we'll read them again, and it made me happy to see them all on display in our bookcase, ready to be read again.  I really miss reading.  But with two kids to tend to and a house that needs to be cleaned and organized I feel like I don't have the time.  I've tried to read while the kids were awake a couple of times, but Baby Girl comes up to me and points to the book and says, "Whatssat?" and she tries to take the book and look at it.  It's a losing battle.

I'm excited about our yard.  It's huge.  There's a lot of grass to mow but I'm so happy that we have so much space for the kids to run around and that I can plant a garden and fruit trees.  I took Baby Girl outside the other day while I watered the lawn:

 

She liked the sprinkler.

The house is suiting our family very well.  And once the weather drops below 90 degrees we can enjoy the backyard, too.  There is still quite a lot to do around here; we're about 85% unpacked and it's coming along slowly but we're getting there.  This doesn't mean our house is clean.  With two little kids that's impossible and rather impractical, but most everything is out of boxes and has its place and that is what I want.

Homeowners!

We have it!  We finally have the keys to our house!

It feels like it's taken a long time to get it, but really it's only been about 2 months.  That wasn't bad compared to what it would have been if this was a short sale or a foreclosure.

Both Mc and I are SO ready to be in a house.  Here is what our 2-bedroom apartment is like:
-- The living room is also a dining room, a kitchen, and Little One's room
-- Our bedroom is also our computer room and library.
-- Our walk-in closet is also our office and storage room.
-- Our laundry room also houses our stroller, our vacuum, and our bird when he's being loud and the kids are sleeping.

Really the only rooms that don't double as other rooms are the bathrooms and Baby Girl's room.  But in our house every room will have one purpose, and we can unpack everything!  No more boxes!  We've had things in boxes ever since we got married 4 1/2 years ago, but now there will be room for everything.

I'm very happy, not only for the extra space but also because it's OURS.  We can do what we want with it (within code and legality, of course).  We can paint it whatever color we want; we can plant gardens and buy patio furniture or other yard accessories; we can change light fixtures and ceiling fans; anything really to make it ours.  I think Mc probably thinks I'm a little nuts about this whole decorating thing, but it's something I really like and I get excited about it.  And I know he's excited about our house, too.

P.S. If you want our new address, give Mc or me a call and we can give it to you.  Our phone numbers are the same.

Still No House

I'm really ticked off.  We were supposed to close on our house YESTERDAY and get the keys, but yesterday has come and gone and we are still keyless.  Apparently the paperwork is in the underwriting stage or something like that where the application has to be reviewed and then approved.  As of Thursday there was a stack of paperwork on the lender's desk that "just needs one more signature"... and that's the last we've heard.  They didn't update us at all yesterday so now we're just waiting.  And waiting.

Really I think this gal just doesn't know what she's doing.  A few weeks ago Mc had sent her some files in a zip folder but apparently she can't receive zip folders... but she didn't tell him that.  Mc had to call her after not hearing from her for a whole weekend and that's when she told him the problem.  So that day he resent the documents in a few emails... and then a day or two later she contacted him and said she didn't receive a couple of things.  He thinks she just didn't scroll down far enough in her inbox, because he did send her everything she needed.  Today I asked him if he could complain to her superior about her, but he said he thinks she's the vice president of the company (it must be a very small company) and so complaining to the president probably won't do any good.  I swear we have to babysit this girl to make sure she gets things done.

This is TWICE now that we've had to push back our closing date.  Neither we nor the seller are happy about this.  I've been packing up our apartment and that's going well, but Mc and I are both feeling the stress and frustration of still not having the house.  We can't buy the appliances we'll need because we have no place to put them. I can't paint the walls and give the house time to air out before we move in, so the place will likely smell of paint fumes when we move in.  I can't give the Post Office notice of when to switch our address because I don't know when we'll actually be able to move in.  This is month-end for Mc at his job but he can't tell his boss when he'll have to take a half-day to sign all the paperwork for the house because we don't know when that will be.  But the main thing is that the lease for apartment ends on the 17th.  That's two Fridays from now before we HAVE to be out of here.  I think we'll be in the house by then, but we have things to do in the house before we move and I'm not sure we'll have time for that.

There's just a lot of crap to deal with on our end and not enough crap going on on the lender's end.  This slacker seriously needs to quit dragging her heels on this and get it done!