Shoot Me Now

If I ever say I'm moving again, just shoot me. I mean it. My next move will be to a retirement home. No other move in the history of moves (and I've moved so many times I've literally lost count) has kicked my butt as hard as this one. Of course, that could be because before I even got the joy of moving, I spent a solid week scraping wallpaper (over 30 hours of that alone), painting (I'm STILL painting!), building a fence, building a closet (still working on that one), cleaning, packing....oh, bother. I have been nonstop busy since we signed those papers and I am worn out, frazzled and really ready for a vacation. Tomorrow I get to clean out the rental unit (can't wait, rah) and Friday we do the final things like mowing the lawn. I cannot WAIT to be finished with that place and I am so over moving. Seriously. If I even joke about it, have me committed. The nearest looney bin is two hours north in my hometown. I'm sure they'll leave a light on for me.

Seven things....

So I've been tagged....twice! Still, I'm stopping at seven. That's difficult enough, even when I'm not sleep deprived and worn out.

These are the rules.... each player starts with 7 random facts about themselves on their Blog. People who are tagged need to blog 7 facts about themselves and post the rules as well. At the end of their blog list 7 people you are tagging. Let them know that they are tagged by leaving them a comment. So, time for my 7 random facts:

1. Since everyone else is talking about their spelling bee champ status, I might as well come clean and declare that I was the third grade spelling bee champion. I won with the word "encyclopedia," and I'm still proud of that fact, so nyah.

2. I love to be outside, but it doesn't like me. I burn very easily, I'm allergic to so many plants that I'm paranoid about touching anything I can't identify (and that isn't much...thank goodness my hubby is a science teacher), and I am allergic to many bees and wasps. So....I stay indoors and gaze longingly out the window. I can take a hint. I know where I'm not wanted.

3. I want another tattoo, but since I doubt I'll ever decide what I want, I probably won't get one.

4. I have had two moments in my life when I truly thought I was dying, and I was disappointed both times when my life didn't flash before my eyes. Maybe when it does, I'll actually be dying and won't be disappointed...but then I won't be able to tell anyone.

5. I know from experience that if you die in your dreams, you do NOT die in real life. Just thought you'd want to know that. ;) And that is totally unrelated to number four.

6. Anytime you work on a house, it always takes longer than you think it will. Always!

7. Today is the anniversary of the day I met my husband (June 16th). It was 17 years ago and I still mark it on my calendar. Does that make me a romantic? :)

I'll have to tag people later. I'm worn out tonight. See number six.

And so it begins

The house is bought and the fence posts are sunk. They will spend a couple of days curing in the concrete before we string the rest of the fence. It'll be so nice for Bailey to have a real yard again. I have to admit, none of it seems real and it hasn't sunk in yet that we are homeowners once again. I guess having the keys and access to the house will help that! If they get out early, we could get it next Friday, but the official date is the 18th. When we moved the closing up, we couldn't change the possession date, but it wasn't a big deal since we just wanted the extra time to build the fence. Now to pack what we will before carrying it over. No pictures so far, we've been too busy.

The Last Great Housing Snag (I HOPE)

Well, I knew it couldn't end so easily. I knew there would have to be one final, ugly snag since the VA was involved in this. The final step in our loan process was having a VA certified "expert" (and considering the person we dealt with, I use that term very loosely) appraise the home. With a VA loan, you can ONLY borrow what the house is worth, period, and the house is worth whatever they say it is. That's pretty well true with any house, it's only worth what you can sell it for, but the VA is a whole other beast. They notoriously lowball everything compared with local agents who know the area better. They did it last time we bought a property, and this time they came up with a figure all of $300 short of the actual sale price. Since we can only borrow the value of the house, that meant either we dropped the sale, renegotiated with the sellers or coughed up the $300 ourselves. Now $300 isn't a horrible amount of money, but come on....$300? That's just nitpicking. We looked through the paperwork and there were several things she didn't even take into consideration, namely that there's a refrigerator and a three car parking pad in front of the house. Surely those things merit the other $300 so everyone's happy. DH called her today. Ha. What a total witch, and that's ironic considering her report ended with "and if you have any problems or questions at all, please feel free to contact me!" The woman was like talking with a brick wall and was extremely rude. It was obvious there was no working this out on her end. We could fight it, but after some of the stories she told us about other cases she's currently trying to fight, it isn't worth it for a measley $300 and probably the six months it would take to be rejected.
On to plan B, which our realtor suggested, which was ask for a price reduction from the sellers. We were hesitant since they had already dropped the price by nearly $20,000 a month ago and I can't blame them for not wanting to do it. I sure wouldn't and so we figured we'd just put off building the fence for our dog for a few months and just pay the $300. We were shocked when our realtor called tonight to say the seller's realtor had offered to split the $300 from his commission and hers, which means we get to keep our cash. I'm so relieved and I told her we would only let her do that if we can invite her over for a few steak dinners down the road as repayment. She laughed but agreed. I do have to say she's the best real estate agent we've ever dealt with and she has gone to bat for us multiple times the last six months. She's a great advisor in the whole real estate arena. We moved our closing up to Friday so that we can build the fence this weekend and hopefully the weather will cooperate. Soon we will be homeowners again and all the headaches that brings with it.