There's no placce like home

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet. I have just been a little bit preoccupied trying to buy our first house. (Spoiler alert: Yes, we got the house!)

Here for your reading pleasure is the abridged version of the events surrounding our recent purchase:

On March 17th (yes, St. Patrick's Day), a cute house was on the daily email that I got of new home listings. It was a foreclosure and so it was also VERY reasonably priced. Like $30K less than the tax value reasonably priced. So we went and looked at it the next day and placed a bid. Then we waited to see if we had the winning bid. And as Tom Petty said "the waiting is the hardest part."

Our bid won and was accepted.

Then the real fun began.

I'll spare you to gory details (since this is the abriged version), but it took almost 2 months to get the financing taken care of and to get closed. After all of the horror stories we hear about spending all day signing papers it only took 20 minutes.

Since then we have still been living in our rental (it's so tiny!) and getting things ready to move in to our new home.

I'll tell you more about that later.

Magic Tricks

Who remembers the trick where the guy reaches behind your ear and pulls out a quarter?

Anybody?

OK, so I'm not a magician, but apparently my mortgage lender thinks that I am. I have to reach somewhere and pull out an extra $350 dollars this week to extend the closing deadline (not my fault, by the way, the title company wants the documents to sit at their office for 6 days before the closing day and the underwriter isn't done yet) and I don't think that much money will fit behind my ear.

So far, between all of the adjustments for higher insurable value and higher taxable value, we have had to come up with $4500 that we were not planning on having. Oh, and this is all within the span of a month. Lucky for me, we got our tax refund, I put money in savings EVERY paycheck, we had some cash reserved at home, and my wonderful parents are loaning us some. I hate to borrow from them, but this is a time crunch issue, not a "we can't possibly ever have this money as extra" issue. So just in case they are reading - you are the most wonderful parents in the world, I'm so luck you are mine, and I'll hit you back for it ASAP.

According to everyone that I've talked to, this is pretty much par for the course when it comes to buying a house.

And now you see why I'm seriously considering the possibility of living in this one for the rest of my life. I know that it will be worth it to own our own home, but I'll also be glad when it's all done.

Until then, please don't get mad at me if I run up to you and try to find loose change hanging out from behind your ear.

House: Update

I've been through things that were difficult and invasive before.

Getting the legal aspects lined up for the Professor and I to get married - a pain, but we got it done. Getting major dental work done as an emergency - difficult and very invasive, but no biggie.

Getting everything lined up to buy our first home - let's just say that this may be the house we live in until we both die.

We started looking for houses last year - casually before the wedding and more seriously after the big conversion to Mr. & Mrs. We put in offers, got our hopes up (OK, I got my hopes up) and then had them crushed. Several times, by the way. But then we finally found this house - 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a yard, a kitchen with more than 1 foot of counter space and it even has a dishwasher! After not having one, I can't even begin to tell you how happy that makes me.

And then the fun started. We put in our offer, it was accepted, and then the loan paperwork began. That was a month ago. I never knew that you could be expected to come up with the things that I have been asked for. And the best part is that they always need them right now. No matter what you are doing, you are expected to drop it and provide some obscure paper that the underwriter HAS to have. (What ever was wrong with me not having a copy of my lease with me at work!)

This is hands down the most invasive process that I have ever been through. So don't be surprised if I am moved from this house after my demise. It just seems easier that way.

Just Think About it

That's what I tell people when they ask how to spell my last name now. "Just think about it..." It makes me smile and makes them look at me like I have brain damage.


Hey, at least I think I'm funny.

In case you aren't getting the joke - last August 15th I became the new Mrs. Ponder. Get it yet? To ponder is to think...yes, that's the whole joke. The name couldn't be more fitting for my husband than if he had sat down, thought about it (giggle!) and picked one out all on his own. He is a brilliant man, but a little bit absent minded about the details of every day life - sort of like the Absent-Minded Professor. He even does this thing that we call Professor Ponder Mode when he really gets in to explaining things to people - it's cute...trust me.


Let me break it down for you SAT analogy style (yeah, by the way - I'm a geek too)



I am to my hubby as Pepper Potts is to Tony Stark.

Ok, now if I could just be skinny like her and I wouldn't complain if all of a sudden he got filthy ritch. But the arc reactor in the chest thing I can totally live without, not to mention that he's flying off all the time to fight evil and save the world as Iron Man.

Did I mention that I'm a geek too and didn't have to look any of that up?

The moral of my little story is that a lot has changed for me since we got married last August, and now this is becoming the most logical way to keep up with it all and make sure that everyone that wants to can keep up too.

Don't worry though - I'll try to think before I put anything here. I'll even take some time to Ponder it!