Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

[Lily left the valley]

As expected, trying to get what needs doing done while spouse is swept up in the Xmas Postal Season has been less than easy. I didn't check his e-mail enough yesterday because I was doing other things that needed doing, and missed the opportunity to reply "Nope, and I've already explained I don't have any days off let alone week days off right now." to one person we've been awaiting word from to say, "Didn't you get the e-mail about an appointment last week? When is the best day to do that?" The heavy work load is really taking a toll on him, so I have to be extra nice even when I want to strangle him because he forgot to do something I can't do without him.

Spouse is supposed to have today off, but one of the regular carriers has something going on and hasn't worked at all yet this week and may call out today as well. If so, that means it will be a second (third? losing track...) seven day week for him, which is making a lot of things difficult because everyone we're dealing with now except our realtor are M-F 9-5 kind of folks, who don't understand that he doesn't get a day off, no, not even Sunday because that's Amazon deliveries too.

Time will tell if we can manage to eck out some progress today where he has be involved directly, or if he's finally going to have to turn to his PM and say, "Look, I know it's Christmas and we're short handed by two subs as it is, but I have got to take a week day off." His PM has been great about this in the past when we were starting this out, but now the timing is exactly as I feared, and it's slowing all the wrong things down.

One good thing that came out of yesterday, I finally came up with a name for the comic I've been talking about doing..."Historical Bits". Sketched out a new one based on a thread here, in fact. No idea when I'll have time to polish it, but I've already realized that everything that's not about closing the house on time or moving prep is going to wait until at least mid January.

[Don M]

Just take one thing at a time & take some time for yourself. Stress doesn't help. Everything will eventually get done one way or another!

[Lily left the valley]

Thankies for the support.

We've been doing little things like snuggle time, and I try to let him be when he does his daily League of Legends run, and he does the same when I'm watching kdramas or playing a hobbit online.

One thing I've been wondering, especially after the uh-oh with the taxes, is if we should just ask for the closing push back. I'm going to check our P&S one more time to see if I can find any mention of a penalty for such. I'm also going to discuss the notion with him tonight when he gets off of work. Yep, work. He got called in to cover, and not for the person we thought he would, but someone else called out. (To her defense, she's still recovering from a bad bite on her hand from a dog while on her route.)

I came to think it might just be better mentally if nothing else after I finally managed to get the one lass on the phone that he has to meet with for the first time home buyer program. I managed to book his closing interview appointment for a time he should be able to make, and I thanked her for the time adjustment profusely since I suspect she'll be staying after hours to help us out. Hopefully he'll be able to make it, and that will be one less thing out of a growing shorter list.

I think today might be a good day to have some candied orange slices waiting on his desk for him too...

[Don M]

Sounds nice

[Lily left the valley]

Today's lesson I did not know needed to be learned: homestead declarations. Apparently there's more to that then I thought. I have to find out if we can declare ourselves for less than the settlement lawyers want to charge. That's my homework for tomorrow.

Good news is our neighbor downstairs is hiring me to watch their kitties when they are away for the holidays. Every bit helps right now.

I've been trying to find pick up work like this so we stop having heart palpitations when we think about the possible closing costs. Little things like the declaration cost keep building up the total. I love how we are promised we'll get a finalized closing cost statement three days prior to closing--that sounds great on paper, but what if our calculations have been way off? Plus, the fees for all the folks who insist on bank checks alone is now nearing $100 (past and future) just for fees on the per check issuance.

It's a good thing I had already nailed down what we'd need for appliances, and some of that is already spent. I originally had hoped we'd be able to install at least one layer of Roxul in the attic in January, but now I'm having doubts, and realizing how close we are cutting this. I knew closing could sneak up on buyers, but we're getting that nickle & dimed feel as the numbers roll in.

[Oh, and I recently got a bill from my optomotrist. When I went back a week after my initial for the follow up glaucoma test, they insisted on doing ANOTHER full check up even when I pointed out I'd been there a week prior. Guess whose insurance wouldn't cover the second check up because it was too close to the first? Yeah.... *sighs*]

[Mick_VT]

Did you ask for a "good faith estimate" Lily?

[Lily left the valley]

One spot of good news, we called our realtor today for a check in, and he mentioned he knew the appraisal has been done already, though he hadn't heard what the value came in at. I told him our mortgage guy didn't see why it would be an issue from what he could see from the listing photos, so I'm hoping he just hasn't told us yet because he has to do it in an official way.

I was quite surprised by this news, since our mortgage guy was worried that the taxes would hold that up, and hadn't gotten back to us to say otherwise. I guess he found a work around, or got the tax info and just hasn't told us.

Did you ask for a "good faith estimate" Lily?

They sent us some paperwork that has a general breakdown of expected closing costs, so I'm not sure if that's a good faith or not. I'll go back and take a look at the wording of it. EDIT: They call it a "Loan Estimate", as in "Save this Loan Estimate to compare with your Closing Disclosure."

But with that break down, some things, I'm realizing, are generalized, so I'm not sure if the $100 the firm wanted to charge for handling the Declaration was included with the estimated cost for them as the closing agency, or if it would have been on top of that.

Most of what they have listed in the closing has been pretty spot on so far from my comparisons and research. It does seem that on top of the application fee, we will be charge a $550 origination fee from the bank, and there's no mention of the rate lock, so I don't know if that's included in that or not. I did find out today that if we file our own Declaration of Homestead that it will more than halve what the law firm wants to charge. ($35 for filing, plus Notary fee).

Those are the kinds of things that have me nervous, and I've made a short list of questions I'll be sending for clarity to our mortgage guy this weekend. Again, I'm sure part of this is based on me remembering the family tale of my cousin, and although we're definitely more informed than he, I really want that Roxul in before spring! Rather spend the money on that than another delivery or so of oil. I'm pretty sure if we only put down, say, 1/2 the attic's floor worth, it would kind of be pointless, if my memory of how science works is worth anything.

[Lily left the valley]

Not for the first time, I was feeling a bit envious while reading the "What I did at my house today" thread. I turn to spouse, and this ensues:

Me: "Geez, I can't wait to be able to contribute something meaningful to the what I did to my house thread."

Spouse: "Don't forget we're only doing essentials that can't wait the first year. You promised you'd try that."

Me:

Spouse: "What ever happened to letting the house tell you what it wanted?"

My response: "You're right, you're right. But don't come crying to me if I go insane trying to live with off white walls for a year when it's OUR house."

Spouse:

[Don M]

All things come to those who wait!

[Lily left the valley]

Spouse got his certificate last night for the course he had to take for our loan program. He could have had it a week ago if we could have managed the appointment sooner.

I have a lot of need to get around to it now stuff to do today, which will eat up a lot of the day.

I realized a few moments ago that the cap on the bottom stairwell post going up may need to be looked at before we think about moving things up there, since it had nothing holding it down (I moved the cap itself to the kitchen counter because twice someone almost fell from bracing themselves on it), but my brain thinks something is sticking out of it too.

That led me to think that despite what spouse ideals, if we do more than change locks, make sure everything is still where it should be, and poke about in the garage a bit after Closing, I don't honestly think we'll get much more done that day. I know I need to clean at least one bathroom short term, but the rest of the cleaning I've decided to wait on until we get moved out of the apartment. It's not so bad that it would cause issues, just a home that's sat for a few months with minimal attention paid.

So a new list got started today as well. Thank goodness for bulletin boards.