a funny

So, we were in Sam's yesterday buying exciting things like kitchen trash bags and laundry detergent, and Dennis says, "think we should pick up some energy-efficient bulbs for the new house while we're here?" Um, no hon. Let's pick out light fixtures first. :)

(I almost hate to mock him, but it's so rare that he says something silly like that.)

We told the neighbors.

Well, Dennis told one of the neighbors, so then we had to tell all the neighbors so it wouldn't seem like we were hiding from them. I'd hate it if our fabulous neighbors learned the news from anyone but us.

So I guess that makes things that much more real. At least word is getting out that the house will be on the market - can never hurt to generate some interest early. We're half-hoping the neighbor's daughter and her husband will buy the house, so there's that possibility, too. If they're interested, that ball is rolling, at least.

In other news, Terry went out to the lot yesterday (with Dennis, and me, and Bud) to do a tentative layout of the house. It's a BIG house. We just came to realize how much of the lot is creek and woods - it's not like we're going to have a ton of yard by the time we're done putting the house, driveway, and car turn-around on the flat part of the lot. We're hoping the excavated dirt will help extend the "yard" a little bit more. And, of course, this layout is only tentative, pending the results of the test digs to make sure the land can hold the house. But it was still exciting to sortof see the spot that might one day be the front door and what our view might be like out of the living room or off of the back deck or whatever. (Naturally, I did not have my camera handy for this adventure.)

We also found out that test digs might start as soon as January 3 - sooner than the January 7 I was expecting. Actual basement excavation is slated for the week of January 7, weather permitting. Now THAT will be exciting.

We have a lot!

For real this time. Closed and everything. It's OURS! (Take THAT, loser who is keeping things tied up at the gas company!)

I can't believe I haven't posted since December 4! Clearly, a lot has happened. Since the appraisal came in so low, we had to use part of the existing home equity to make up the difference. Yep, two mortgages. So now we have our original mortgage on what we owe on our current house, a new mortgage/construction loan for the new house, and some other kind of mortgage over the home equity in the current house. (Not a home equity line of credit - I'm not even sure what it's called. That's awful. A grown woman should know what kind of mortgage she has - especially when she has three!)

ANYway, mortgaging our existing equity meant another appraisal, this time of the current house. Super-Busy-Appraiser-Man managed to get that done pretty quickly, and it came back within $2k of what we expected. No biggie.

Then we were able to go fill out new paperwork at the bank. Ron the Lender originally said we could close on 12/21, although this was admittedly because he wanted to fudge the date on some forms. Hey, I don't care, as long as we can start building our house. Well, turns out his quality control department wouldn't let him do that (I wasn't surprised) and that given the holiday we wouldn't be able to close until 12/27, but that he had everything he needed/wanted to do that.

We ended up signing our lives away on 12/22 and really truly did close on 12/27. After the closing, we went by the lot - er, OUR lot - and took our first legitimate, wholly-owned (well, except for that whole bank part) walk around. We each swung on the our rope swing. I'd say it was very exciting, except it was about thirty degrees and the thing was a muddy swamphole. And silly me - I wore lipstick instead of workboots to the closing.

Next up: Sign Terry's contract, make a few "decisions" (I use quotes because we're constantly changing our minds about something. And by "we" and "our" I mean "I" and "my") and hopefully start test digs on January 7!

That's barely more than a month later than we originally planned. Good grief.

Appraisal is back.

It's $30k less than we wanted/needed it to be.

Even if we manage to stay within our exact budget and not use the overage budget, it's still $5k less than we'd like. But you know we'd use the overage budget, although hopefully not the whole thing.

There are a few "wants" we can shave off - the wood trim, the granite countertops. The really expensive stuff, though, is not really negotiable. It's not like you can add better insulation later. Or pay less for utility service. And the lot costs what it costs.

So, we'll see. IF we sell the house quickly, we'll be able to come up with the $30k. If not, there are some other possibilities. I'd hate to lose the whole thing over $30k.

We spent $11k at the kitchen/bath store

Honestly, I thought it would have been much worse. Terry thought it was absurdly high. I'm glad he thought that, because it means we're getting all of this stuff for much less. Well, comparable stuff, anyway.

Yesterday was Dennis & Bud's combined birthday lunch. Before lunch, we took Ruby & Bud to the lot, mostly so Bud could see it and look for possible problems. Nothing noteworthy so far on that front, but Bud does want to look at it again. It was sortof drizzly and icky when we were there.

AFTER lunch, we took them to Terry's spec house - again, mostly so Bud could look at things and say "Gah! He hangs his doors off of thumbtacks!" or something similar. I told Ruby we really did want Bud's opinion (he usually doesn't share unless pressed) so we can look out for certain things if necessary. Again, so far, Bud was pretty pleased. He did say, "you find something wrong in every house" - so true. There are some cosmetic things that need tweaking in that house. But Bud seemed pleased with the quality of the construction. I warned Terry I'd be back with my own parents in a couple of weeks.

THEN Terry came over to go over "final" decisions so he could draw up a spec sheet & contract. We went with the heavy duty insulation, 9' ceilings throughout but with vaulted great room & kitchen, wood doors/doorframes/baseboards (I'm still iffy on that, but Dennis really seems to want it.) and various other stuff. We finally picked a master bath layout (with the tub in the corner), and he's getting back to us on a walk-in shower, which we were able to extend to 4x4 instead of 3x4. Hopefully that will be roomy enough. We even worked in a 30" linen closet! I also think we got our laundry room laid out like we want it, complete with a broom closet and room for what Dennis is calling my "soccer mom hutch" (asshole). Somehow, we ended up adding rough-ins for 5 more sinks (garage, laundry, workshop, dining room hutch, basement "bar") - a little over the top. 11 sinks in one house. Seriously.

I expect to hear something from Kenworth The Appraiser tomorrow. I'd say today, but Ron The Loan Guy doesn't work on Mondays. Dennis thinks we won't hear until Wednesday - that Kenworth won't even call Ron until Tuesday afternoon, and that Ron won't call us until Wednesday. I hope he's wrong and I'm right.

We spent some time today researching quartz vs. granite countertops - Terry isn't a quartz fan, but it sounds like the pros & cons of those 2 materials are pretty much even. So, we'll look for a pattern we like. If it's quartz, we get quartz. If it's granite, we get granite. If cost is a factor, we'll consider that accordingly.

I might die if this falls through. On the other hand, we just booked $3200 plane tickets to India, so it might not be so terrible to have some cash handy.