Our final decision

Of course in all of this house hunting, we have to find a mortgage. Jason described his experience at the Credit Union as disappointing. She answered his questions but with a lack of interest in anything. The only way that they would offer us a mortgage for first time home buyers or teachers is with an adjustable rate. Have you read the news lately? Do you really think we want to get into that mess?

We were frustrated with the places that said they had first time home buyers plans, but still expected us to put 20% down or else pay mortgage insurance. One of the banks even said that we wouldn't qualify for a special loan like that using both of our incomes. If we used only one of our incomes, then we wouldn't qualify for the amount that we needed. Huh?

We have chosen Bank of America because their deal couldn't be beat. 5% down payment. around 1 point. 6.25% interest rate. No PMI. NO CLOSING COSTS. Yes, you read that correctly. They take care of the closing costs. We called to check because it seemed too good to be true. All we can say is SOLD: Bank of America mortgage.

Friday after Christmas we met with Sandy to discuss over lunch where we go from here (and also to tip her off about the gun house). It was quickly decided that our search was done and that we were going to make an offer on house #2. We tossed around numbers, what needs to be done, who contacts who, and decided to meet Monday to make an offer.

Monday morning (too early for Nancy who was still on break), we drove down to Newton to Sandy's office. She had some of the information already filled in and finished it up while we caught up with what had happened since our last meeting. We finished filling out and signing on the dotted line a little after noon. We figured with it being New Year's Eve, that we wouldn't hear anything until Wednesday. We headed off to the ABC store to get the ingredients for our traditional New Year's daiquiris.

About 4 hours later, Sandy called. Our offer was accepted!!

Ever since then, it seems like a blur. We have been showered with information and decisions to make: lawyers, insurance, dates, inspections, oh my. Here is what we know as of this very moment. (Yes, this is the blog actually being up to date.)

Saturday: Inspection of home with Sandy, inspector and us

January 30: Closing date (We get the keys!!)

February 2: The big move (If you are available, pencil us in...free Krispy Kreme donuts at both sites...bottled water...pizza dinner)

February 3-4: Clean up apartment and hand in keys (to the apartment, not house)

So upon hearing all of this good news, we turned to Harper and Fiona to tell them all about their new place and this is what we got.

Oh well. Might as well let them sleep peacefully now. They have a crazy few weeks ahead of them. We keep promising them that it is for the better. Maybe it is as much to console them as it is to keep us from going crazy.

A walk through of House #2 with the parents

Twas the Friday before Christmas and we got both sets of parents together to see House #2. Join us on a walk through.


This is the living room that you enter through the front door (to the right). There is a nice coat closet and to the left leads you to the kitchen. Note the wallpaper.

This is the kitchen (duh). To the left is the living room that you just saw, behind you are the stairs up to the bedrooms, and to the right are the stairs that lead to the den. The refrigerator and stove are fairly new; the dishwasher is not so fairly new. All appliances would stay.

This is the master bedroom. Note the wallpaper; you may not see it when you come visit. Yes, those are hardwood floors. There are two closets and the owner said the wife gets the bigger one.

This is the upstairs bathroom. It is connected to the master bedroom and the hallway. It is divided into two parts so that one person can be in the shower and the other can be in the other part (not pictured) brushing their teeth.




This is the smaller of the two bedrooms. It has only the one window. Once again, hardwood floors.
This is the other bedroom. It is a little bigger and has two windows. Both of these bedrooms have a closet.
This is the den. There is the one door pictured and there is another door behind you to the left about half way down the stairs from the kitchen (almost like a split entrance except in the back of the house). The floor is linoleum that has seen better days but is still usable. There is a large storage closet behind you to the right.

To the right of the den is a short hall, which leads to this "extra bedroom." The owner said it used to be an office.

This bathroom is also off of that hallway. It is where you find the laundry. The last room off of that hallway is the crawl space, which will be carefully guarded if we move here, lest we lose a cat.

Upon finishing our tour and dragging our mothers away from the sweet owner lady, we all headed out to Bob Evans for dinner and discussion. Here is a summary of the conversation.

Jason's mom: I love it!! How exciting!! I'll mow the lawn!

Jason's dad: Well, you need to change the fuse box to a circuit breaker. I mean, we used to stick a penny in there but you might not have a house. I think you'll be happier with circuits.

Nancy's dad: I didn't see anything that was a deal breaker. I'm not too thrilled about the dryer vent leading into the crawl space with no external outlet.

Nancy's mom: It's nice. I'm happy for you.

Eric: Did you notice how I got these forks to balance on the salt shaker with only two toothpicks?

With that, we left the fork trick for the waiter and bid the parents good bye. Ya' know, all those times as a teen when we didn't want their advice but they were just brimming with how life should be...that would have been really helpful right about now. I guess since we are grown ups now we have to make our own decisions.

Next time: Our final catch up post! Then after that you will get live up to the date information. That is until we find a place and have to pack and set up new utilities. Can't moving just happen by magic or a miracle or something??!!