A little more shopping

We went furniture shopping again.  This time we only had time to visit one store as Sunday hours around these parts are 12-5.  It took awhile to convince anyone to head out today, but I was determined.

Like before- our purpose was to find beds for everyone.   My kids still want to share a room.  That's fine as they are still young enough that will work.  The other room will be designated as their playroom until they decided they need separate spaces.  Originally we searched for beds that had storage underneath but when the kids kept insisting on bunk beds we agreed on this:

This also comes with a desk. And since toys will not be in the room, we actually have space to add an additional student desk so each will have their own private space.

We included this in the write up

When it came to the master bedroom, my husband and I continue to butt heads.  I couldn't understand his need for a white bedroom.  When I bluntly asked him why- he said because he wants the room to still feel open and light.  That, I can understand.  It's the reason why I wanted those glazed hazelnut Rushmore cabinets so bad.  So I agreed to a distressed type white for our bedroom furniture.  I still can't come to terms with his instance on a queen size bed in the size of the master we have.  He feels that the queen bed is plenty of room and says that when he rolls over he never rolls over onto me.  LIES!  I sleep on the edge rather frequently and yes,an wayward arm or leg does smother me from time to time.  With all that, I didn't argue too much when we wrote the order up for this in a queen:

The distressed look for this brand is called "worn linen".  We also added two night stands but no dresser or chest of drawers.  We plan on customizing our walk in a little later to hold all of our clothes.  Guess I am going to have to down size so he can have space in the closet.  The things we do for the ones we love. *giggle   

Color:  Worn linen

While we were searching through the catalogs for just the right bed for the kids, we sat on this bench

It easily accommodated all of us and was quite comfortable to sit on (to my surprise).  So we added this to the order as well,  to add the extra seating to the morning room table.  

In case you were wondering- no charge cards were used on these shopping trips.  I am not giving that mortgage company any more reasons to hold us up.   This order was just written up- as these items have to be made since we customized them a little.  Once we have the keys- we are heading back to the store to put 50% down on this and to pay for our other little beauty.  

My next major course of action is the appliances and an area rug for the morning room. And lets not forget those darn temporary blinds.  

Our first purchase!

With our closing date fast approaching (finally) we felt comfortable enough to do a little furniture shopping.  We were only suppose to be window shopping but we absolutely fell in love with this:

This beauty and its leather chairs will find a new home in our morning room.  This table was something that instantly caught our eye.  Its durable and heavy weight, and comes with natural nicks and knots, so my boys can't really damage it.  They can only make it look better.  It can seat up to 8 people.

This next one is something my husband truly loves for the basement.  

This is totally customization and is actually a made to order piece.   We gave the design center our floor plan and will have them call us with a couple of layouts and prices.  This will take about 8-10 weeks for them to make from scratch but at least we know we have a totally unique piece for our home.  Here are couple more configurations for this sectional

Now I really can't wait to get my keys. 

Post Walk Through Fixes

I received a call from my PM yesterday requesting that I come sign off on repairs that were done as per our pre settlement and inspection requests.  Turns out that HVAC unit in the attic had a loose valve causing the leak.  Hard to believe that such a minor thing could have caused major damage and inconveniences.   I also have my concrete driveway apron in place and repairs have been made to the asphalt.  About that asphalt repair- looks crappy.  But I said nothing because I already know they rather do a patch job then re pour the whole driveway and actually make it look likes someone cares about the property.   Sigh.  What they didn't repair yet is my portico and concrete step to the porch, nor did they do the touch up paint job on the outside of the home.  Double Sigh.

There is hay down on my lot trying to soak some of the moisture.  Kind of useless since it rained pretty good making my whole lot a muddy mess.  Luckily, there was no grass seed laid yet because if that washed away, I am pretty sure we would have had a hard time getting them to come back and reseed the yard.  Besides- my lot will be regraded as soon as a "true" spring which for my PM consistent temps of 60 degrees or more.

He also admitted that the cleaning crew have not come out to clean the home yet.  He said he likes to wait until the day before or the day of closing to have the cleaning crew come in and make the home sparkle.  With as wet and muddy as the outside of my home has been I can appreciate that.

Last but not least my neighbor's home is on the fast track for completion.

Looking Good!  I finally was able to question the actually number of Courtland Gates in the neighborhood.  We have a grand total of 3 and none of them are built quite the same.  I like that.

PS- Calling the mortgage company tomorrow to make sure that we are still on track for 3/31 (we better be!)

One more step

Quick update for those of you who have been hanging on to cliffhanger of a saga we have going on with this mortgage company.  

We finally received our GFE and the breakdown of all the charges.  The money needed to close is approximately $3000 LESS than originally predicted.  I am still a little ticked that the mortgage company had the nerve to charge us  $950 application fee!  For that type of money I expected a lot more than the last minute shenanigans we had to go through.  

In any case- we seem to be back on track (2 weeks after we derailed).  

 

Almost there.........

Our loan papers have finally been resubmitted to the underwriters.  We now have a closing date of 3/31/15 that can be moved up if the underwriters clear everything.  Even with that, the loan processor just threw a small snag into the works- figures right?  We have completed our 2014 taxes and owe a few hundred dollars.  My husband and I are use to this by now because we now fall into a tax bracket were a lot of the credits we use to be able to claim- we can no longer claim.  So at the end of the year, even with us claiming no dependents through out the year, they want a little bit more.  Normally we write a check, and be done with it until next year.  This year- every dollar counts and so simply writing a check RIGHT at this point we can not do.   So the plan was to click the send button on April 15th.  Nope- they want confirmation that the taxes were completely filed including payment.  Our loan processor says she will check with underwriting to see if this absolutely necessary.  I warned her we could file but we would ask for a short term payment plan (something like 2-3 months).  Somehow the last week of pulling together assets escaped her and she now thinks, no big deal just write the check.

Now you ask- what's the big deal?  When we decided to make the purchase of the new home non contingent, we did not know that the mortgage company would then ask for 6 months of reserves to cover for BOTH mortgages.  So the assets we had, was still short of what they wanted.  Thus a mad scramble to come up with the rest of the cash.  Now this is not so bad as we feel we can sell our current home relatively quickly but again- that will take another 6 weeks compared to the urgency of now.   We came up with the cash but it has put us in a "Don't touch anything!" mode.   And now you know why we have been a little jumpy.   Okay that and the fact we had to kill a whole tree to prove that our income was a lot more than what they said.  Geez- I knew our DTI wasn't as high as they claimed!

Inspection is complete!

I had my pre settlement inspection yesterday and things are looking good!  There is one major problem that needs to be fixed.  One that we would have never known about until it was blazing hot outside.  Our inspector did his due diligence and climbed into the attic and discovered that HVAC unit was collecting water from some unknown source.  The problem with this is that once the water level hits 1/2 deep, the unit shuts off.  Can you imagine a record breaking temp of 101 and service can't come out until 2 days later because its not an emergency?   They do not demonstrate the AC during the winter which this problem could have had the potential to brew and cause some major issues- including a leak in the ceiling!
Next major issue:  our step to the front porch.  It was leaning a bit and can pose a potential slip and fall risk.  Other than that paint this, nail that was the rest of the report.  All in all, my inspector reported it as a well built house.

While we were in the basement, I again questioned installing a wet bar using the 3 piece rough in we were told was needed to finish the task on our own.    It was confirmed that it was truly not needed for the wet bar- only to install a bathroom later.    I was told we could tap directly into the sump line, using a special sink with a pump.  BUT he also said, that it still may be useful for resale value as a lot of people look for an extra bathroom in a finished basement.   At this point, I really just want to move I am not thinking about selling.

NEWS FLASH: If you are like me than you haunt your community's website on Ryan Homes.  They reduce the number of models to be built down to 5- removing the Courtland Gate as a choice!  When choosing our lot there was not that many lots left that could accommodate the size of a CG with a morning room- something that they started including in the base price.  Not jealous at all.  Checking the math against what they will save vs what we saved- we would have ended up spending the same amount of money.  I am, however,  little jealous of the closing costs offer they are currently running, grrr.  Lastly- we are down to 10 lots!  Ten lots are left before we get into the swing of spring selling season.  Looks like we may be a completed community by the end of this year.

UPDATE:  If you have been following my mortgage saga- its getting closer to the end.  I was told by the loan officer that if everything cuts the mustard  we can feasibly look at closing next week.  To that end I have reset my count down clock.  I am still looking to hear back from Ryan on how this all fell apart so fast.  Our loan officer did take some of the blame and quickly moved in to help us figure out a plan BUT we still had to do the leg work.  I don't think I can rest until I have those keys in my hand.

Pre Settlement

 We finally had our walk through today.  There is so much to remember to maintain a home.  I will admit that we are probably a little nervous about this one because this is something that we chose everything that went in to the home.  And with little swatches and cut outs its hard to see the big picture.  That is until pre settlement.  So here are a few pics from today.

My Juliette- they still have to repair the portico- which I have in writing

The door really looks brown today- thinking about a paint change

I love my back splash

Bedroom #2 

If I get any more pics tomorrow, I will add them later.

As far as the mortgage mess, it got a little messier.  I will not report any more here, but I am still holding out hope that it will work out soon.  Just make sure, you get EVERYTHING in writing.  I think my only saving grace is that the mortgage company admitted there was a mis communication  which makes them more willingly to work with us to get this resolved.  So whatever they say ask for it in letter form.