CLOSING

So ... we closed on the house today. It was ... not what I expected. It was nice. It was a relief that we now OWN the house and those people have to pay us to stick around, but it was not what I expected.

There were a few bumps in the road, including the homeowners saying at the last second they weren't ready for us to do the walk-through and we then had to wait for them to get out and only had five minutes to run through the house before leaving to get to the closing on time. There was also the series of unfortunate events that began with me messing up my eyeliner and ending with lotion, concealer, and mascara stains on my shirt and tears in my eyes. 

I guess what disappointed me the most was that I had a short list of what I REALLY wanted to have happen today, and none of those things actually happened. I didn't think I was really asking all that much. What I wanted to do was:

1. Take pictures at the house during the final walk-through. Seriously, my mind has been going overtime trying to figure out exactly what needs to be done and what could actually be done in all the different best-case and worst-case scenarios based on when those people move and when this baby comes. Plus, I have a million questions a day about the proportions of things or the finish of woods, etc., etc. I just wanted some pictures. Alas, we had 35 seconds to go through and make sure there had been no major changes since we were last there.

2. Get a picture of me and Jeremy in front of the house and the SOLD sign. Not only was there NO sold sign, it still had a FOR SALE sign up. That was not how I imagined things. ALSO, I was so frazzled about getting to the mortgage office on time (it's not their fault the homeowners messed up our schedule), that I forgot until we were all in our cars and driving. Then I cried. (What?) 

Then, at the office, they had a big "Congratulations Dimick Family!" sign up and balloons and all that jazz, so I got out my camera to get a picture of Jeremy and I in front of it, but both our mortgage broker and real estate agent were like, "Oh, we've got it!" and took pictures of us on their phones. But ... how will we get copies of those? I'm unsure.

I then took an AWFUL picture of us at Jeremy's favorite Coney Island where we popped in for some celebration food. So this picture represents us becoming homeowners. 

Excellent. I think my neck is larger than Jeremy's WAIST in this picture. 

But, BUT, I guess I CAN say this: 

1. I couldn't stop yawning while I signed the 58,000 documents during the closing, and I kept thinking, Well that's good. I could be all hopped up on adrenaline because something went awry. Boring and predictable is SO GOOD right now.

2. Josephine had fun with her grandma while we were out signing papers.

3. We did it! We own that mother-effing house. We own the SHIT out of it. 

BOOM. Homeowners.

Small Victories (and Other Unrelated Things)

Some great updates regarding Baby X and her imminent arrival.

1. Josephine has mastered newborn care:

I got that baby out to have her get used to having a newborn around, and she holds it and kisses it and gives it knuckles and is generally adorable. Why I never bothered to put some clothes on the thing? Your guess is as good as mine. Even my cat is hanging his head in shame in the background. I figure if I post this picture and feel the shame, maybe I will open up the newborn clothes bin and give the kid some dignity. I'll let you know how that works out.

2. We have a place to camp out for the beginning of August that is only FORTY minutes from the hospital. Big improvement! We are going to stay at my parents' house since they will be out of state and needed a housesitter anyway. However, I DID have to promise my mom I wouldn't have the baby that week while she was far far away. So ... I guess it doesn't help being close to the hospital if you are contractually obligated to NOT use it. But hey, they also have central air and a pool, so, SCORE. If Baby X still hasn't arrived by then and we aren't in the house yet, we will figure it out then.

I still wish my news was we are getting into the house like, tomorrow, but this takes a load off my mind. I'll keep you abreast of all other important developments.

Also, this is unrelated to Baby X, but you'll thank me later. Here's this:

(my dad loves Star Trek and made us watch a lot of it growing up) :)

Happy Almost Friday!

There's really no way to use the word "bathroom" in a title without people assuming you're going to talk about *using* it, is there?

Two posts in one day? Why yes! I happen to have a sponsored post over at my Review page, right this moment, that talks all about my (soon-to-be) new bathroom and how I'm going to spruce that sucker up and get it guest-ready. The first interior picture of the house? Can you handle your excitement?


I didn't think so. Head on over to read all about my plans.

Buying a House Can't Always Be Sunshine and Roses and Rainbows. SIGH.

We are reaching the end of the posts catching you up on The House Saga. If you need a refresher, we decided to move, went house hunting, made an offer, and here we are ... the wrinkle in our plan. (I'll warn you now -- this is the longest of the bunch.)


It all seemed to be working out. We put in an offer on a house at the very beginning of June and it was accepted the next day. We can DO this, right? If closing is in six weeks, we can get in that house before the baby arrives, even if she comes early like Josephine did! WE DID IT!


Except, no. I mentioned that the sellers wanted to have the option to stay in the house for 45 days after closing, since they had not closed on the house they were buying. Since the house had only been on the market for 12 days when we made the offer, we could see their position and put in our contract that they could stay up to 30 days if they paid us for every day they stayed. Our real estate agent assured us that generally motivated people to get out as quickly as they could. We didn't want to lose the house and start all over just because of that, even though it could put us all the way at AUGUST SIXTEENTH for a move-in day (Important reminder: Baby X is due August 27th, and Josephine came 3 weeks early).


This sounds kind of like no big deal, because, come on Veronica, you can do that. You can move a week before the baby's due (KILL ME NOW) OR move right after the baby comes if she comes early (KILL ME FASTER). It will be stressful, but you can do it!


HOWEVER, when Jeremy took the new job, he got new insurance, and this new insurance will not cover the OB/GYN I had in Lansing or to deliver in any Lansing hospitals.


SHIT.


In fact, the closest place I am covered is an hour from Lansing. My choices were basically: 
1) Stay in Lansing and pay for prenatal care and the delivery out of pocket (ha!)
2) Pick a random doctor and hospital based on proximity to my home and risk being more than an hour away, whether we ended up staying in Lansing or moving, OR
3) Pick a doctor back home and hope we get over there in time to have the baby there and not be still stuck in Lansing once I went into labor


I had a feeling that most OB/GYNs would not be all that willing to take on new patients who were, say, 37 weeks pregnant, so it's not like I could just wait it out and see where things took us. There was the option of going with choice #2 (picking a random doc an hour away), getting all transferred and having my check-ups covered, and then if we got a house back home I could find another new doctor and transfer all my paperwork again, but then I was definitely running the risk of not being able to find a doctor in the Bluewater area willing to take me so late in the game, and then we were in the exact same position of being far away from the hospital when I went into labor.


Supposedly most doctors don't have many qualms about taking a patient late unless she is high risk, but how the heck am I supposed to know what they consider high risk? When I tried to get in at my new doctor's office, they said I would have to release my files to them and the doctor would review them and decide if she would take me as a patient or not. I was under the impression (at that point, at least), that I was having a very healthy and normal pregnancy, but who knows what she might have considered a red flag and not worth it to take me on?


I did, in fact, get a doctor in the Bluewater area to take me as a patient (and then I started having problems! Ha! She never saw it coming!), but for months before that, I was so unbelievably stressed. I cried every day for MONTHS, and I have had hundreds of horrible dreams about every possible thing that could go wrong. I feel much better now about having a doctor, but ... there is still the small issue of us not knowing if we can get into the house before August 16th.


DUM DUM DUM.


This means if I go into labor before we move, I will need to drive TWO HOURS to get to my hospital. Since Josephine was three weeks early, there is a pretty good chance Baby X will be early as well (all three of my mom's kids were early -- healthy, but early). Plus there are all those people who keep telling me that their first labor was 30 hours and their second was like TEN MINUTES. And if I am delivering early, it could be all smooth sailing and NBD like Josephine was, or it could be an emergency situation. To say this has been stressing me out is the biggest understatement ever in the history of anything EVER. (EVER)


Then we got a glimmer of hope. Things were moving right along, and everything was coming up Dimick for once. We got an e-mail from our agent asking if we wanted to close on July 3rd! JULY THIRD! Which means they could only stay 30 days past then, and we would be in by August 3rd at the latest!


We rejoiced, we started packing with renewed vigor, we couldn't stop smiling and high-fiving each other.


Then, the next day, our agent informed us that the sellers were unwilling to sign on the 3rd, and since our contract stated we must close on or before the 16th of July, we couldn't legally "force" them to close before the 16th, even though we would lose our loan lock, which expired on the 5th, and would have to pay to get a new one.


Our agent said our only hope was to offer the sellers the option of staying until August 16th no matter what, as long as they closed before the 5th so we wouldn't incur any penalties. They declined that offer.


On top of all that, our agent told us they have not even gotten their appraisal back (!!!!), and the type of loan they are getting needs to be underwritten by the bank and THEN underwritten by the government, which can tack on WEEKS. PLUS, the the listing agent of the house they are buying said there is not much chance of the seller of the home they are moving into being ready to close before the first week of August, and then he has 15 days before he has to move out. So, it looks like the people who are selling us the house are going to need every last day and will be there until the 16th of August.


DEVASTATION.


Our agent said to put ourselves in their shoes -- parents with four kids and nowhere to go -- and I thought, LET THEIR AGENT STAND UP FOR THEM! YOU'RE ON OUR SIDE!!! WHAT OF MY BABY?!?!?!?!


It's a good thing we decided to do this whole thing when I wasn't at all hormonal and stressed.


I get it. It's not like they're doing it on purpose, and I'm sure they're also anxious to move out, but it doesn't feel like that. To get my hopes up for getting there early and getting time to settle in and not be worried every day for the remainder of my pregnancy and then have the opportunity ripped away was horrible.


Anyway, that's our frustration. I know you can't count on anything going according to plan when you are buying a home, especially when you are trying to do so on a timeline, but it makes it even worse that everything on our side of the equation moved quickly and efficiently.


We found out today that we will be closing on the 16th for sure, and then the sellers have those 30 days. At least we are set to close, right? And, I know It's still worth it in the end, because we are getting a home we really love, but ... tick tick tick ... I am pretty freaked out over here, what with this baby growing away and acting like she wants to get out early (Did I mention at my 33-week appointment yesterday I was measuring 34.5 weeks, just like with early-bird Josephine? HA HA HA! Hilarious!).


And yes, I am working on a plan in case this baby comes while in transit to the hospital. It involves ... catching? I DON'T KNOW! I'm working on it! 

The Offer

I realize, obviously, that this may be of no interest to you. I am doing this mostly for us, so we can look back and remember all the details. And if you happen to be a real estate junkie or are thinking of doing this thing for the first time, there's that too. Oh, and for all the people who love my stories. This is for you to read, too. Everyone else? Sorry. 


Okay, you know we found a house, you know how we found it, now The Offer:


Even though it was a Sunday morning, as soon as Jeremy said he was ready to put in an offer, I let our agent know, and wouldn't you know, that guy e-mailed me ten minutes later with all the paperwork for me to look over and okay so he could contact the seller's agent. We were shocked.


We decided on a VERY fair price, with them paying the closing costs. The only problem was they wanted to have 45 days after closing to be able to stay in the house, as a buffer, in case they couldn't get into their new house. After discussing it with our agent, we put in our offer that they could stay 30 days, if they paid us for every day they stayed. 


Then, fifteen minutes later, he contacted us again to tell us the sellers were meeting with their agent the next morning at 10 AM and would give us an answer by noon! Whooo!


Of course, I assumed since they needed to meet with their agent it meant that they were going to discuss a counter-offer, but the offer we made was generous, and I wasn't all that concerned, to be honest. I figured it would either be a little haggling over nonsense or they would act all crazy since the house just went on the market, but in that case, we could put in our final offer and tell them to take it or leave it, and if they were unwilling to be reasonable, it was their loss.


The next day, I had a playdate with my friend and her son, who I rarely see, and our agent called me when we were about a mile into our walk in the blazing sun while I pushed our umbrella stroller, which you cannot push with one hand, and, of course, I was a big old pregnant lady with decreased lung capacity, so I was pretty much huffing it through the next huge series of events.


Our agent called and said they weren't putting an "official" counter-offer, but wanted to gauge how we felt about a few things. Umm? Okay.


They wanted to ask for $5,000 more, not pay the closing costs, and wanted to keep the refrigerator and range. I love our agent, because he said he told them, without even asking us, that there was no way we would ever pay closing costs, and they could count that out of the equation, and the real issue was the appliances -- how big of a deal were they to us?


I told him I had an answer for myself, but I better call Jeremy. So I did. For a HALF AN HOUR, and dang him for being a Very Important and Busy Person who has important and museum-y things to do at work, because there are times he can't be reached, and I was freaking. 


But, as I kept calling him and getting his voicemail, I realized that we obviously had the upper hand. Why didn't they just make a counter-offer with those requirements? They were worried about scaring us off. 


So, since their deadline for responding was approaching, I called our agent and said if the appliances meant that much to them, they could keep them, but they shouldn't expect any more money from us and we would not pay any of the closing costs.


When I finally heard back from Jeremy, he said the exact same thing, so that was good to know, but in the meantime, since I was taking too long, apparently they got scared and just accepted our original offer! 


And we had done it. We made an offer and it was accepted! And that was it! I never expected it to happen like that, and I'll be honest, Jeremy sounded like he was going to throw up when I told him, but we got our fist house with the first offer we ever put in. 

Coming up Next ... The "wrinkle" in our best-laid plans. 

House Hunting: I Might Hate It Almost As Much As Regular Hunting.

And I REALLY hate hunting. (sorry, hunters.)


I realize, obviously, that this may be of no interest to you. I am doing this mostly for us, so we can look back and remember all the details. And if you happen to be a real estate junkie or are thinking of doing this thing for the first time, there's that too. Oh, and for all the people who love my stories. This is for you to read, too. Everyone else? Sorry. 


In case you missed it, we are buying a house (SQUEE!)


We started house hunting a LONG time ago. In fact, we started way back before Jeremy had his new job. We had gotten fed up with how unhappy we were in Lansing, but had decided that we couldn't fix the other most hated things on our list (living so far from family, having no support system, and only having a handful of friends in the city), so we decided to fix the other big problem -- STOP RENTING and find somewhere to live that we loved. We moved into our rental home thinking we would be here for a few months, tops. It's been three and a half years and counting.


Every time I wanted to do something, from getting a library card to planting anything in our yard to signing up Josephine for swim lessons, I always had that thought in the back of my head -- Well, we could leave ANY TIME. Why bother with that until we have our REAL home? When you keep doing that for three and a half years, it starts to get ridiculous really quickly.


Then there is this house. Now, we got a good deal on the rent in this house, and we like the person we rent from, but MY GOD. From the lack of living space to the scary basement to doors that don't fully close to the only bathroom being on the second floor to the oven that hasn't worked since February? That all gets old real quickly too. And don't even get me started on the paint colors. I really get what that prison in Arizona was going for when they painted everything pink to punish the prisoners. Having to stare at walls that make you want to puke, day after day, year after year? NOT PLEASANT.


Wow, I didn't mean to complain about this house that much, since that's not very nice of me, but I'm sorry, it's been a hard few years.


Anyway, we decided if we could find a house in the area that we loved and were happy in, that would make life easier. So we started looking at houses in the Lansing area. We spent MONTHS looking online, making lists of houses that looked like possibilities, packing up the whole family and driving past all of them, crossing the ones off the list that were automatically nixed by sight, then sending the rest of the list to our realtor. Then we went to see houses TWICE A WEEK, EVERY WEEK, for MONTHS. It was terrible. I don't know how other people handle it -- the disappointment, the time, the energy, and having to pack up our one-and-a-half-year-old every time. DEAR GOD.


Josephine had also just reached that lovely point in her life where she would rather be laying face-down on a bed of hot coals than be strapped in her car seat and driven somewhere. No amount of toys or snacks or songs could keep her happy in the car. THEN, we would go into at LEAST three brand new exciting and novel places and tell her not to touch things and stay away from dangerous (fun) things and not play with all the toys in the kids' rooms. She was not a happy camper. Twice a week. For months.


I became an expert on real estate in our area. I could tell you if something was priced high for the area, priced to move, or just right. I knew the taxes in every little neighborhood and town in a thirty-mile radius. I had school districts permanently ranked in my mind, and we were only willing to look at houses in the top three. I knew of every house for sale in the greater-Lansing area. And we went to see a LOT of them.


And then ... we actually found a house. We went to see it three times. We were discussing putting in an offer. And that night, Jeremy got the job offer an hour away from Lansing.

I cannot even begin to explain how guilty we felt. If we had the money, we would have bought a house from our AMAZING real estate agent anyway, just to compensate her for her time. Unfortunately for her, we are poor, and also, that sounds like a terrible idea. But that's seriously how much we liked her.


We stopped house hunting for a while and were struggling with our options. Stay? Move? Where to move? Once we made the decision (a few months later) that we wanted to start over in the Bluewater area, I was over house hunting AND much more pregnant than before. Plus there was the whole issue with living two hours away from the houses we wanted to look at. Meaning every trip was a LONG trip for Josephine and at least a $75 hit at the gas station, and it had to be on a Saturday, meaning our whole weekend was basically shot because Sunday was just recovering from the chaos. 


Thankfully, it didn't take quite as many trips this time, because I was done dilly-dallying and spent a LOT of time using my new online real estate research skills before we bothered to set up an all-day house-viewing marathon. We had a few VERY depressing Saturdays, even though my policy was to keep my expectations super-low and assume we wouldn't find anything good, but we were determined to find something.


Finally, my "go in assuming the worst" strategy paid off. We had decided on a particular city in the Bluewater area, for a variety of reasons, but one week our new realtor sent us a listing for a house in a city nearby, which was also the city where Jeremy grew up and 98% of his extended family still lives. I had nothing against living in that city, but every house we had seen there in our price range had been a massive disappointment, and the taxes were higher. 


The house he sent us was a tiny green bungalow. "What the HELL?" I asked Jeremy. "Why would he send us this listing?" The first pictures we saw online were also a little off-putting, because as much as I hate to admit that those idiots on TV house hunting shows are right, it can be REALLY hard to see past horrible paint colors. After looking at all the pictures a few times, I realized the house was growing on me. I decided it was worth seeing in real life.


We pulled up in front of this little house on a street lined with MASSIVE old trees, and we sat there in silence for a little while. How could I have such warm and fuzzy feelings for this tiny little house? But I did. Then we walked in, and the house was far from perfect, but it felt like we were walking in the door to OUR HOUSE.


It was the first house we were scheduled to see that day, so we went to see a few more, including one I really liked and wanted to see a second time. We sat in that house I thought I liked so much, and I found myself asking "Do you think the owners will let us walk through that first house again?" Our realtor made it happen, and we walked through again. What happened every time I see a house a second time happened -- I noticed all the little "not-so-great" things much more clearly. But, BUT, this time I didn't think, Okay, never mind, this house isn't all that great after all. This time I thought, Let's make an offer!


We stood in the backyard and talked about the pros and cons. We talked about the only two options we had in our price range -- buying a house that had much more space but needed work (and money out of pocket) to make it livable, or a smaller place that was practically move-in ready. Our realtor wanted to be sure we knew the pros and cons of each and we were on the same page. We were. We are not in the point in our lives where we can buy a bigger space and hope for the best when all the remodeling starts. We are also not in a place where months and months of (possibly very costly) remodeling is something we can handle. We loved this place, and we wanted it.


Jeremy had to sleep on it that night, but when we woke up the next morning, he said "Let's put in an offer."

TO BE CONTINUED ...

I've Been Keeping a Big Secret (NO, IT'S NOT TWINS)

I've been hinting like a cryptic ass about "big decisions" and "issues" and whatnot for months and months now. Sorry about that. We had to keep secrets for a variety of reasons, and I still can't tell you all the reasons it was so complicated for us, but I can tell you the biggest things.

It all began when Jeremy got his new job. I mentioned it very briefly back then, but to say it put a few wrinkles in our life as we knew it was an understatement of epic proportions. Old job was a few miles from our house in Lansing, and new job is an hour away. However, it is also one hour closer to back home than we are now -- essentially, his new job is exactly in between where we currently live and where we want to live. This was actually one of the big factors in us deciding he should take the job; it meant that one day we might be able to move back home, something we have been dreaming of. 

Now that Jeremy doesn't work five minutes from our house, I still need to commute to work, none of our medical needs can be met (did I ever mention new insurance doesn't cover any doctors in Lansing? Yeah, HILARIOUS, right?), we live in a rental home that I HATE, and we only have FOUR friends in this whole city, so we really didn't see many reasons to stay living here. However, that left us with a few options that all had pros and cons: 

1. We could move to the city where he works. No, no, a thousand times, NO. There are a lot of cities in Michigan I can think of that I wouldn't be excited to move to, but this is the only one to which I would NEVER move. And no, it's not Detroit, so don't be mean. 

2. We could move to some random city on the outskirts of the city where Jeremy works that is still kind of close to work, and also closer to back home. We considered this one for a long time, but it definitely didn't seem right. The only upside would be a shorter commute, and the downsides would be we know no one there, we know nothing about the area, I would have the same (45 minute) commute to work, and we would still be far enough away from family that we probably wouldn't see them any more than we already do. Plus, with all these downsides, it would make it really hard for us to want to buy a house there, and we are NOT renting anymore. NO.

3. Try to move home or close to it. With this scenario, we would be within spitting distance of both of our families, plus Jeremy's extended family, in an area we really love and feel comfortable buying a home, BUT Jeremy would still be commuting as much as he is now. I would not be able to keep my job, but would likely be able to work in the branch of the college in the area.

There were actually a whole lot more issues all tied up in this, many of which it would not be wise to discuss on the ol' blog here, but our main issue was deciding where we wanted to be in the long run and if all the other factors in our life could match up with that. 

I think you know where this is going. We decided to move home. And we ARE.

WE ARE BUYING A HOUSE! It took me a long time to be able to say it, and I still feel like I am going to jinx something, because it's not done until we close, and that is FREAKING ME OUT, but we are supposedly closing in about a week.

I KNOW, right? 

When we put the offer on the house, I wanted to tell everyone. When the offer got accepted, I wanted to tell everyone. When we went and signed all the paperwork with the mortgage company, when we had the home inspection, when the appraisal came back --  I wanted to tell everyone. Since we are now so close to closing, I decided to stop being so superstitious and finally tell everyone! 

Here it is. It's a tiny little bungalow that has strangely been painted Christmas colors, but it has better layout of living space, a better yard, a better neighborhood, better schools, and closer proximity to family than where we are now. We're a short drive from the beach and close to all the places we loved growing up. And it's going to be OURS.

I have a lot to say about it (lucky you). Coming up: house hunting, making an offer, the "wrinkle" in our best-laid plans, and the details of what makes this house great and what we plan to change. 

We're so excited to finally be homeowners.