Buying things for something that is yet to be bought

Still no word that we actually have a home loan and we will be closing in 9 days... I'm freaking loosing it!!  The not knowing is driving me nuts... I've been working 11 hour days just so I don't have time to think about not having an official "yes" on our house.  The loan guy Nick, is all, "things are great, just a few more steps, it's all good, oopsie I need this form and that form and these records and so on..."  If Nick was closer I would probably have a been arrested for stalking and/or assault by now.  I don't understand how he is all calm and collected and keeps saying everything looks great but refuses to give us a 100% guarantee that everything thing is officially approved.  Chaz and I have been so anxious lately we needed a good stress relieving cure... Retail Therapy.

We have been checking online for all the great 4th of July sales since our new house didn't come with a Refrigerator.  We had narrowed it down to 2 fridges that we were very interested in.  Last night we decided that we would go look at them and see which store had the best price.  The first stop was HHGregg.  Now, let me give you a little back story about myself: I don't like to be bothered when I'm shopping.  If I want a sales person's opinion, help or conversation I will ask for it... if not, leave me to hell alone (please and thank you)!!  I tend to be able to repel sales people in under 3 seconds.  My husband on the other hand somehow always attracts the most obnoxious friendly sales people (the hubs is much nicer than I am btw).  He will chat with them and make them do their job (I guess he wants them to prove worthy of their commission).  He will ask questions to which he already knows the answer to, get their opinions on which item, is the best and have a nice polite conversation.  This shopping trip to HHGregg was just like all the others, we walked in the door, I eyed what we wanted and went straight for it, just to be intercepted half way to my idea purchase.  Sales Man "Hi, welcome to HHGregg, how can I help you?" Me:  "I'm fine thanks, If I need help..." Midway thought my sentence I've already started walking away from my husband & sales person who is now chatting about the newest 3D cell phone.  I went and look at what we had already pick out online, while the guys chit chat about this fridge and that fridge.  What seems like an eternity they finally make their way over to me.  Sales Guy, says the two that I'm looking at are great choices, no shit Sherlock, that's why I'm looking at them, I give a half annoyed smile. Chaz on the other hand starts asking his questions and Sales Guy points out that his moms (he literally said MOMS, with an "s" even though he's only speaking of his singular mother, Memphis is so ghetto).  Has one of the fridges, he being a great sales person wants to show me pictures of how much food it can hold.  He whips out his cell phone and was ohhh so proud of all the crap packed into the fridge (I'm repulsed because there wasn't a single fruit or veggie, but that's a story for another day).  But don't forget, the attached freezer has tons of space too... "look you can fit 7 frozen pizzas in the little trap door."  I really want this trip to be over, Chaz can see that I want to leave, so he says we have to think about it and we will come back tomorrow if this is the place we want to purchase from.  Sales Guy would not be defeated and said we had to meet a person before we left because this person would hook us up with a great deal (WTF, is a drug deal about to happen?!).  The person was his boss and the deal was an extra 50 dollars off since it was our first time in the store.  Also, they had some deal that if we found the fridge less expensive (within 30 days of purchase) they would match the price and then some.  I didn't know if I could take much more of their used car sales tactics, I prayed to the little voices in my head for this horribly annoying trip to just to end and finally it did when Chaz, said "Ok, go write it up."  I was saved!! I didn't even care that we weren't doing the responsible thing by shopping around.  It was over, we got the fridge that we wanted and I didn't have to be tortured by anymore sales people that night.  Also, my new fridge comes with it's very own Chardonnay holder.  Most people would call it a 2 liter pop holder but all I can see there is a big bottle of white wine! 

What the best or worst shopping trip you've ever been on?

Cheers, 

@ Noble 

 

Still waiting...

Ok, I haven't been blogging much because I feel like I'm just waiting to hear some more news on our house and I can't focus on anything else.  As far as I know, we have the house and we can give our notice to move out of the apartment on schedule... but they won't fricken tell me officially that we are approved.  I mean, I know we are, but then again I don't know that we are all set and ready to close on July 11th.  My pessimistic side is freaking me out... it's whispering screaming in my ear that something will go wrong, like the loan won't go through, or the builder won't fix something on our check list, or our closing date will have to be moved, or the house will burn down before we move it or something else crazy.  The positive side of me is like... just chill, show up on the closing date, sign some papers, get some keys and let the good times roll.  Then there is the realistic side of me still freaking the hell out!!! OMG OMG OMG we will be (hopefully) closing in 15 days and we haven't packed a single thing!  I wish Chaz was still in the Army, so we could have awesome movers come pack everything and safely move it, but he isn't, so we will be packing everything and moving most of it.  We've decided to hire somebody to do the heavy lifting and move all of our large furniture or at least that's the plan.  I first have to  find the company, get quotes and then figure out what our moving date actually will be.  I think I need a check list on how to move... BRB, I'm gonna google that.  Start playing the jeopardy theme song in your head now... Ok I'm back! 


This is what I found:



Two months before....

• Put together a 'moving book' to keep notes of what you need do, what you've done etc.

Oh Shit, I'm a month and a half behind.  Gotta go start making a "moving book cliff notes edition".  

@ Noble 

The waiting game

My mother will tell you that I defiantly took after my father when it comes to having patience, meaning, I have none, nodda, zilch, zero very little.  I've never been good at waiting for anything, but I'm not to be confused with the "instant satisfaction generation" because that generation is just annoying!  When I was little if a tooth felt some what loose, I was yanking that sucker out even if it was no where near ready to come out.  In the days leading up to Christmas my brother and I would sneak under the Christmas tree, cut the tape on our presents, unwrap them, (sometime play with them), wrap them back up and then measure the exact amount of tape to make sure there was no trace evidence of us tampering with them.  Don't even get me started on my road rage if somebody doesn't immediately start moving when the stop light turns green.  My point being... buying a house is extra stressful since I don't like wait. 

Most people I've talked with are amazed at how quickly things have been moving for us, I on the other hand say it's been torturously slow.  In one week today, we managed to find our dream home, look at our dream home a 2nd time, get pre-approved for a mortgage, submit and offer, accept a counter offer, set a closing date of July 11th, sign the purchase agreement and submit all of our home loan applications to the under writer... and now we wait!  I literally have no idea how long this process is going to take but I'm sure it will feel like For-ev-er... For-ev-er (+10 points for anybody who got just the Sandlot reference).  Does anybody know how long it will take?  Is it hours?  Days? Weeks?  Do any of you know how to do hypnosis and will you put me in a daze until we get the keys to our home?  

A photo that warms my heart, our new mailbox!!! 

@ Noble

Pre-Approval Pending

Many books, bloggers, websites, friends and family have told me when it come to buying a house "Take your time".  You all will be happy to know I did the exact opposite of that (just kidding sort of).  Chaz and I have been looking at homes and places to live for about a year now.  We haven't narrowed anything down because we haven't really found what we have been looking for.  We have toured a few homes, did some drive-by shopping but over all, we just haven't been impressed with any places until this last weekend.  I figure now that we like a place we better get moving.

Yesterday we were getting pay check stubs, tax returns and a bunch of other boring important information together so we could submit it for our pre-approval.  Nick, our mortgage expert, gave us a bunch of mortgage scenarios, none of which actually make sense to me but thats another story.

And now for the most important part of this post....

Everything has been submitted, Nick looked it all over and said we are good to go, now we are to the part WHERE WE WAIT!!  I know it has been less than 48 hours but it comes back to the "taking your time" aspect of buying a house, clearly I'm listening... I'm listening for my phone to ring or my email to chime to let me know it's time for the next step :-)

@ Noble

Home sweet home?

Let me start off by saying it's all HGTV's fault.  Every time I watch one of their shows I end up on realtor.com looking at houses and every day I'm more and more sure that we are ready for a house.  I had been bugging the hubs for quite some time to just drive around and look for houses with me, finally he gave in and off we went.  I had my eye on house in particular and we were approaching the drive I was getting excited but then my dreams were crushed when the For Sale sign was replaced by a big fat red SOLD sign (ouch, dagger straight to the heart, internet you lied to me!).  So from there we just drove around and we came across this house and I was in love.  (side note: I grew up surrounded by 40 acres of woods and want a house out in the country!)

This house come with 5 acres of woods and lost of bonuses 

I saw the trees, the front porch, 2 stories and I was sold... then I googled it and saw the price tag of OMG almost a half a million dollars!!!  Sadly a police officer doesn't get paid good enough to live in the "dream home". 

So our search continued.  I thought Chaz was just driving in the most obscure places to piss me off.  We kept coming across houses like these:  

really? 

It was 800sqft our apt. is 1200!

Ok, Now I know I sound like a brat but our apartment is newer construction and I'm used to certain things, like central air condition, no bars on the windows or doors, no drug raids going on next door.  I really don't ask for that much.  Then after we got out of the ghetto (thats the funny thing about memphis, you will be driving around seeing half million dollar homes and then a block later you are in the slums, no joke), we followed the signs to a neighborhood that was mostly all new construction.  I perked up and felt safe enough to unlocked the doors and then I saw my dream home.  

Yup that's my SVU in the drive and it looks good! 

It's a simple 3 bedroom 2 bath home.  It has a great kitchen, living space, bonus room upstairs, 2 car garage.  The master bath has a jetted whirlpool soaking tub that is huge, double vanities, separate shower and large walk in closet!  I'm totally in love... now only if we knew how to buy a house. Chaz and I have ZERO debt, so to choose to go into debt for 30 years freaks me out, ALOT!!  Also, I have no clue as to what I'm doing.  I got online and googled "how to buy our pretty dream home" there were many helpful website but I'm afraid we aren't going to get a pre-approval for a mortgage in time and this gem is going to be sold and we will never find a house as perfect as this one.  The realtor said the builder was very motivated to sell (which translates to me OMG HURRY UP, cuz it's going to be gone soon!!).  I just want to send an email to the builder and let him know it's our dream home and for him to wait for us to figure out how in the hell to get a mortgage so we can buy his pretty home.  Think that will work?  Do any of you have any tips on how to buy a house?  How to find a mortgage?  How to re-build a broke heart if this house gets sold to somebody rather than us?  

@ Noble