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29 giugno WE GOT THE HOUSE!YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAYYAY YAY YAY YAY YAYYAYYAYYAY YAY YAYYAY YAYYAY
We got the house!!!
We got the house!!!
We got the house!!!
We got the house!!!
We got the house!!!
We got the house!!!
We got the house!!!
We got the house!!! waiting...Yesterday afternoon I turned in my application to the 2nd place house at about 2:45pm. By 4pm they called me and told me that I was approved, when would I like to meet to sign the contract and move in? Uh... So I said 1pm today to give myself some time and then I called the other place, the Dream House company. They are supposed to respond within 48 hours and that is up this morning. So I talked to the secretary person and she said that "Gloria" the lady who handles this, was with another client and call back in the morning because she needed to talk to me about it or something, I dunno.
So I am sitting here waiting and hoping and thinking about all the "what-ifs" and worrying. Worrying is mostly what I am doing. What do I do if we DON'T get this house and so we have to go with the 2nd house? I like that house, but what if HM does not? What if we get it and he hates it? He hasn't even seen the inside and there is really no way he will be able to until it's all done. This place is smaller but it's closer... And then, what are we going to do if/when we get this house? All of them are vacant and so technically we can move in as soon as we sign the lease... which could be like, oh, today? Besides that I haven't even STARTED to pack yet, we aren't even married yet and so hey, let's just get married? Okay, then the padres are going to be all mad that we didn't "let them know ahead of time" and all that, but hey, isn't that the whole nature of an elopement anyway??? So maybe we should wait to get married to give them some more time, okay, so what do we do with the house? Maybe I just move in? Well the whole big plus of this project, is to get HM and Dudey out of that overcrowded house, finally give D his own room, have our own place that isn't a circus and all that. So maybe they would just move in? But they don't even have any furniture, they don't have dishes or beds or food or anything! So they really couldn't move in without me unless I brought them stuff, but then what would I do? AH! Even if things go the way I want them to, and we get this cool house, there are still these weird situations and ah... it's almost funny. Mostly just crazy and weird and I wish my family was not so weird about this elopment and we could just get married and not worry about all this... the backyard would be a really pretty place for a small wedding or something... except all the grass is dead...hmm... :) lol... 28 giugno The 2nd place houseOkay, so remember we went and looked at another house before our little "dream house"? Well, the guy called me back today and I went and saw the inside. First off, I wish I would have contacted these people first because they are more like realtors than managers and not only did he show me that house, but then showed me two other ones! I was impressed actually. The guy was maybe like Palistinian or Arabian or something, don't know, but really nice.
It's been awhile since I have done this rental stuff and even longer since I have looked through multiple houses and here are a few things I have seen that I think are interesting.
1. In one of the "other" houses this guys showed me, you walked in the front door and to your left was a door. You would THINK this would be like a coat closet right? No, this opened up to the CLOSET of the Master bedroom! You could walk through the closet--which was more like a long tunnel with an overhead bar than anything else--can we say Underground Railroad? How funny is that? The guy said this used to be a model home like that should explain it... I didn't get why you would do that? Maybe to make the traffic flow easier? Don't know... either that or you need a REALLY big coat closet :)
2. In our dream house AND in the 2nd place house, which I will tell you about in a moment, one of the bedrooms had a wall or ceiling painted like the sky... who would have thought this was so popular? What percentage of Americans have a wall painted like this I wonder?
3. The third house I saw today was shown to me by some lady that the first guy (the arab guy) called me about and said she was going to show me. I thought she worked for them but maybe not... So she gave me directions... not very good ones... but whatever. I finally find it and I sit outside for a few minutes... and no lady. Finally, after a few minutes, this lady is spandez shorts and tank top walks out of the house and goes to her car, which is parked in the driveway. Could this be her? I thought, No, no person would come show a house dressed like that... would they? Oh yes... they would. I thought perhaps this was the tenant because they said the guys wasn't entirely moved out yet, so maybe this was the irate ex or something? Nope, that was the lady there to show me the house... lol....
Okay, so anyway, I now have a 2nd place house. If this other house does not work out, I could handle this place. It's not as big as the other place, but it does have a pool and hardwood floors, a cute dinner area, and a cute kitchen. It also has REALLY nice tiling through the whole place and it's just... pretty. Here's a tour so you can see: This is the living room that you would see as you walked in the front door (more or less)
Then you have the kitchen:
Note the nice tiling.... HMm will probably not like the cabinets.... they don't have the greatest paint jon on them at all but whatever. Okay, then you have the first bedroom:
The things on the walls are these Winnie the Pooh stencil/sticker things. Kinda cute... on the wall you can't see there are little shelves. Can we say Baby Room? Okay, then there's the sky room :)
This room is okay... the sky wall is interesting and the top border...hmmm... it makes it look slightly better but hey... whatever you like Then we have the Master bedroom:
Again, HM will hate the top border thing--The bathroom to the left has a similiar African theme with animals and such. :) Kinda interesting... the guy said that we can have it painted if we want, as long as it's nothing extreme and just make sure someone professional does it...hmmm, it's so nice to be marrying a painter! :) So I'm sure HM would want to do something with the African wallpaper but hey. Anyway, not as big as the other place, more normal I guess, but still nice. The floors just give it a really nice feel to it and the pool is nice and it has this little deck and some nice flowerbeds. So that's our back up, not bad. Still nothing on the Dream House but we'll see. They have until tomorrow morning! I just got a call from one of the other houses I liked--the one that HM hated--that said we were accepted and I thought it was the Dream House people so I was excited for a few minutes but then I thought, hm, wait, what did she say her name was? So I called back and asked for the address and ya, oops, not the right people... oh well, maybe they'll call soon....
27 giugno Hopes and DroolingWell, I must say, I am very grateful for HM. He really is such a sweetheart.
See, by the time I saw him yesterday, I was FED UP.
We've been looking for a place to live, right?
And so far: NO LUCK.
We were going to buy a house, found the PERFECT one and NO, didn't work out.
Then we decide to rent, we find a really cool house with a pool, little yard, really close, and we don't get it. Second strike.
We got so excited about both places and fantisized about them and all that and then we didn't get them. I feel like I've been dumped twice in the last month! :)
So I spent all yesterday looking for places and found a few prospects, went out to look at them and mostly: NO LUCK. I found one place that I thought MIGHT work but when I showed it to HM, he didn't like it at all. I found one other one that I liked but when I went back to my apartment and looked at the application I didn't even want to apply because the process was so extensive.
So there was one more place I hadn't seen that I needed a different map for so we went back, got the map and found one other place too and went out again. The one house I didn't go see, partly because of the map, but mostly because it sounded like it wouldn't be that great of a place.
I mean you gotta understand, at this point, I was near tears. I had looked all day, no luck, the one I liked HM hated, and there was NOTHING. HM said he wanted a pool and I was getting irritated because I was like, look, I don't think that's possible at all!!! There is NOTHING! And he kept saying, no we'll find something and don't worry and I thought, ya right, you do this crap then, i'm tired of it!!!
So we go to see the first place, the new one we found and it was okay. It had a pool, but kinda small but on a cul de sac, and good neighborhood. Not bad. HM really liked it but I really didn't. I was in a bad mood.
So we go to see this other place and it's further away from Dudey's school and his parents, but more by my school actually. It's got this nice double doors and looked okay and so we looked in the windows and went into the backyard....
OH MY FREAKING CRAP!!!
You should see this place!!!
It has a pool yes... with a WATERFALL!!!!
Okay, and there's more
Next to the pool, is a fire pit!
The only down side is the lawn is mostly dead. But there are grape vines with grapes already growing on them...and little flower beds and such:
 Okay. That was just the OUTSIDE. :)
Next we peaked through the windows but this morning I went and got to go inside where I took these pictures:
It's got this little breakfast nook with the windows all the way around:
 And then a nice tiled kitchen with an island:
 Then the whole place has vaulted ceilings which make the whole place look open and roomy. It already is, but still. The living room is separated by this archway partition thing that is just REALLY pretty and classy:
 This is looking towards the backyard, the kitchen is to your right.
THEN, yes, shudder to think there is more:
It has 3 bedrooms, one is tiled and has a ceiling painted like the sky:
 Interesting, but whatever. The other room is nothing too spectacular, but then we have the Master bedroom which has a few cool things like:
1. a VERY cool fan (HM will be tickled):
 and 2. the hugest walk-in closet I have ever seen. Honestly, it's basically as big as the 2nd bedroom next to it and this picture really doesn't do it justice:
 The Master bedroom opens to the pool through a sliding door and has its own nice huge bathroom.
And one last geeky thing that I like: it has a full set of shelves in the "laundry room" and also a bunch of shelves in the kitchen:
  This way we can start doing our food storage and all that like we have talked about doing :)
So I went and applied today, and cross your fingers! I am seriously drooling over this ho
use! Isn't it amazing!? The cynical part of me thinks that after all our bad luck and failures, we WON'T get it because it's my favorite and so amazing that there is no way we would ever get to live in such an amazing place... honestly! This would be like some weird fantasy come true for us to actually live at this place... So I am excited but then also trying really hard to not get my hopes up because it's so cool that you almost just don't want to face that disappointment again when you have fallen in love with a place.
It's odd too, I mean, this is actually cheaper than other places we have looked at and they are also doing this special where you get 2 weeks free rent and the deposit is only $800. So we're talking total no more than $1500 to move into this place! That is almost a full $1000 cheaper than ALL of the places we have looked at so far! What is this? It makes me suspicious almost... why would this house still even be on the market? All you have to do is LOOK at this place and you'd be crazy not to take it! It is kinda far away I guess, my school is kinda almost as south as you can get in Bakersfield so it's not the best location unless you are teaching at GV... :) which I am :)
HM says we'll probably get this house because he has taught me how to lie well enough :) See, the reason we didn't get the last place was, well, because of him. Due to his... well, questionalbe past, his credit record is a MESS. That's one of the reasons we decided to just rent for the next little while because we want to try to pay off his stuff and then buy a house with BOTH our incomes, and hopefully get a better deal. But anyway, one of the things on this credit report is an item in collections to Karpe Realty from the house he had right before... well, anyway, ya, he didn't pay his last month's rent, just figured that they would take it out of his $1500 deposit... but apparently not. They kept the deposit and still charged him $1000. Nice of them I thought.
Anyway, so they were not going to approve him and since I had already said that I was going to marry him... well.... anyway, so with this house I have suddenly become a single woman :) Is that horrible? I did forget though and wore my engagement ring today while I was filling out the application but hopefully they didn't notice! HM calls this "not being so forthcoming with information" but whatever.
I hope we get it! Really relaxed...
Andre is such a funny dog. While we were away, he stayed with HM's friends/employees because they have a dog as well--a boxer named Cocoa--and he has a good time there.
It's funny though because he always comes home EXHAUSTED. His mouth, his uh... manly parts and his feet are all red and sore and his eyes are all droopy and sad. Even though he's a big dog, he's still a Bulldog, which means he is used to sleeping for LARGE portions of the day.
However, when he stays with Cocoa, I think that they just run around CONSTANTLY the whole time and he doesn't sleep like he would normally. He'll usually come home and sleep for a good 24 hours, no eating, no peeing, just sleep for a long time. That's what he did this time too and that night I realized I hadn't heard him for awhile so I got up from my computer to go find him and I came into the living room to find him like this:
SOUND ASLEEP ya, there's nothing attractive about those pictures... I told you they were red :)
A Trip HomeWell we are back and tired, but alive.
This last weekend we went home to Utah to visit my family and had a great time. We drove back last night and got in about 11:30pm and I was exhausted. He didn't seem as bad but I was ready to fall over. We read our book out loud the whole way there and we are about 20 pages from finishing it! Ah! We read with the light on the last half of the way here but still didn't finish it. So sad... just means that we'll have to spend some time tonight cuddled together to finish it... such a shame. :)
The actual drive went pretty well and pretty fast I thought. I showed HM a bunch of things on the way, we stopped to see my bro's house and talked as we went. We ate a whole bag of these ranch crisps things, garden spiced wheat thins, two packages of Rolos (all HM) and several drinks. It's weird I think that when you drive you don't realize so much that so much time has passed and as you eat your snacks you don't realize how starving you really are. By the time we got to HM's to drop off his stuff, I felt shakey from what I can only imagine was a weird sugar spike, either too much or lack of I'm not sure. We fixed ourselves from turkey and cheese sandwiches and felt a lot better!
HM's family was all waiting up for us when we got there for whatever reason. HM's sister told us that his mom had insisted that she and the dad wait up for us to come home. They were calling us all the time I swear, the whole trip to see how we were and where we were and when did we think we'd be home? (for the hundredth time) and we were kinda curious about that. We laughed that they were waiting up to see whether or not we just got married on the way through Vegas but I guess they were just being concerned. For whatever reason, they seemed to really miss us when we were gone. The whole family just crowded around to hear about our trip afterwards and it was really sweet.
HM really liked it there, especially the fact that there were so many animals. He loves animals and always is so good to his dogs, and to my dog, even though I don't want him to be at times. He has gotten Andre addicted to ice cream! Which is fine except when he gets it on my sofa... but that's beside the point. But anyway, HM helped with herd cows--in his flip flops :)--and did all kinds of stuff. He went several times to go help with the "man stuff" he said :) lol...
Um, what else? My card to my dad was a hit, well, at least if disgust and horror is a hit, because that was what it was supposed to illicit. :) It was a picture of a dirty older man looking over his shoulder at you and as you look more at the picture, you look down to notice that he is wearing these tight little shorts that show a good part of his hairy behind :) lol... The inside says something like "See, there are some things more frightening than getting older" lol... it was hysterical. However, as we were all sitting around there, they went from that card, to my mom retelling about this time that her and my sister were walking down the beach at Playa De Carmen (Cancun) and realized that all the women were topless!
It's amazing too, my mom said, that the people who are walking around naked are not the attractive sexy ones, it's the old ugly ones who have nothing to show off!
And I'm not sure how it got directed to her, but someone asked Grandma if she had ever worn a bikini?
"I have NEVER worn a bikini in my life and never will!" (rather indignantly)
(yes, let's not start THAT up now of all times, I think that's officially off the list of desirable things to undertake)
"But you'll run around Topeka all winter naked though?" my dad teased her
(her and my grandpa spend the winters at a motorhome park type thing for older people and one of the "activities" is a hot spring that is supposed to be good for your health and so that's what my Grandma does... only they do it naked :))
"The water goes up to your neck!" she started to say
"Oh so you're saying the bikini thing is too restrictive?? That's what you're saying?"
Oh my gosh, I was crying I was laughing to hard.... In the end, my grandma just kinda smiled and everyone laughed.
It was fun. The got to see my new nephew for the first time, and saw all of Stef's kids, who are getting so big!!! Honestly it was weird to not have Katie and Jamie there, only one other sister and a bunch of boys... kinda odd.
19 giugno StuffWell, I feel like writing, but I don't, know how that goes? Things are still all up in the air, we think we found a house to rent, a really cool one, BUT they want to verify every adult living on the premises, and I already told them that HM and son would be there, so they want to verify HM too and run his credit and well... that might be a problem even though I am the main person anyway. Ay... it seems like whatever we do we run into roadblocks. The places we love we can't have and whatever we try there are reasons why it won't work. This is getting old.
Today is my LAST day for my workshop. Yesterday was meeting with departments and it went pretty well I guess. I actually made friends with people at what will be my NEW school next year. I still don't know where my classroom or anything will be,but whatever, I'll probably just get a portable but I really hope I get a real classroom. I miss my old classroom at BHS with the stable floors that didn't creak.
Anyway, I am supposed to bring some things todaythat I talked about in my meetings that people were interested in. Fun stuff. I just think that teacher meetings are funny. It's like some Kid's Club that meets in your neighbor's tree, telling each other our little secrets and what boys we like. Instead of boys though it's the lesson ideas, but it feels the same. When someone shares we all nod and smile and seem interested when in reality we really don't care, only rarely. And if we do, its because we want to steal the idea (like we are stealing your boyfriend?) and change it to fit our little classroom and situation. It makes me laugh and especially this one lady, so reminds me of this friend Sara I had when I first started at BHS, a friend I always feel bad about, and this new lady, she's just so.... I dunno, needy and clingy? Does that make sense? She's the kind of teacher who needs instruction on how to do EVERYTHING and is constantly begging for "help" when honestly, I am suspicious that it is just an act, or a show. She acts all needy but it's really not real, it's just her way of socializing and making friends. That's just what I get from her at least. She seems really smart and yet she's so... uncreative and you just think: do you REALLY not know what to do or are you just self-conscious about the ideas you have? This lady used to work for the local newspaper and seems very smart but yet she's so clingly and and "oh my gosh I don't have any ideas" kinda person. Weird.
This other friend Sara, I always feel bad about, just thinking about her. We were buddies when we first started teaching because we were both starting our first year (more or less) at this school and we both had been recruited from out of state, so we were always lost and didn't know anyone. I fell into the "trap" of her "I don't know what to do" thing and so we spent a lot of time talking about what we would do for our classes. Shortly after that though, I started dating this guy and dated him for the next 3 or 4 months so I stopped hanging out with her that much. Now Sara had a husband and he was from England and they seemed happy.
Anyway, at a department meeting one time Sara came with huge bruises and scrapes all over and I asked her, shocked, what had happened and she said she had been hit by a car on her bike! Ya, I felt like "wow I'm a horrible friend" because she had been out of school for a week, in the hospital, etc, and was just now getting back to work and I never knew. We would always stop and talk and "catch up" I guess and we were friends but later, when I broke up with this guy, I told her about it and said something about how I missed him because I didn't have any family here and it was lonely and she said, "well, we can be like your family...." and I thought, wow, she totally needed me to be there for HER and I wasn't.... She all thought that we would be good friends and I was a horrible friend and ran off with my boyfriend and ignored her.
So to make this worse, that year there was all kinds of drama with the Title I Director because well, he was a jerk to everyone and We all hated him because he was so horrible and would all talk about our recent horrible encounter with him. Well Sara, being that her personality was what it was, her "I need help" facet that she had ASKED the principal to "please come observe her classes more" and asked the Director to visit all the time and give her "pointers" and so she was their little "pet teacher" and while that's great, everyone else HATED the director and so at meetings everyone would look at her like "there's that traitor" and when she would offer ideas, no one would really listen to her because they felt like she was some spy. The Director would tell us all to "do it like this... the way Sara does" and we would be more upset with him and now with her for her irritating "perfection." That year she got "Rookie of the Year" and all the English teachers just rolled their eyes when they announced her name. She had worked for that, for sure, kissing up to all the right authorities and I felt bad for her because I don't know if she really understood why everyone didn't like her.
At the end of that year, she and her husband moved to England to work. He had spent that whole first year trying to get a work visa with not a lot of success and finally, he said, ya know, YOU (to sara) could get a work visa in England in a heartbeat, why don't we move to England where both of us can get work? Her mother wasn't too happy I'm sure, but it sounded like a better idea. So she left and most of the English teachers weren't too broken up about it. Isn't that horrible? Whenever I think of her, I regret being such a horrible friend to her.
So anyway, today we might go to the beach and go fishing but it depends on if HM can finish all his stuff in time. If he can finish it all today, then we'll take off tonight and come back tomorrow, just go for the day really. The rest of his family is going ALL WEEK--like until next Saturday but D has summer school so we can't do that. Also, we are leaving Friday to go visit my family for June Birthdays and looks like we will have to leave Sunday to be back Monday. That'll be good but it's not that long of a time, but hopefully it'll be good. Maybe we can go again later in the summer? Anyway, so I better go get dressed and start on my stuff and all that. :) 15 giugno If you were my daughter...So this loan guy I went and saw, his name was Tom and he was a soccer ref with the Irish clan for like 20 years. He finally quit and now he's just doing whatever, being a loan agent, and ya.
He was going over my stuff and he goes, you know where you can really make some money? Administration!
I smiled because when he was entering how many years of schooling I had, I tried to tell him about my Masters but he wasn't really listening. I had told him before but he just forgot and he wouldn't listen when I tried to correct him.
So I just answered, very sweetly and innocently: Oh really? You mean like get my Masters?
Ya, he said, do you realize you can make almost $100,000 doing that?
Wow I said, that's amazing. (flutter eyes appropriately) So you mean get my Masters in Adminstration? ....Like I just did?
That's what your Masters is in?!?
Ya... :)
Oh, he says, and looks me over again, Well... I'm very impressed. Wow, that's just... I'm very impressed....
From there I think he started in on how lucky HM was and what a smart lady he had found and it diverted from there. He gave me a hug when I left and honestly, he reminded me of my dad. He told me that it was up to me, that whatever I wanted to do, he would get me a the best deal he could get.
He chastised me one more time about moving into adminstration and when I told him how I was concerned about how young I was, he said, whatever, it's all how you present yourself and besides, all those old codgers needed to be replaced anyways. :) lol... You've got a good head on your shoulders and you understand what is going on around you. Most women sit there in that chair and don't have a clue what I am talking about and you did. I wouldn't worry about that at all. You'd make more money and you wouldn't have to deal with a bunch of kids all day while you are trying to start a family and all that.
Good point I guess. I just feel so intimidated but HM tells me the same thing: "I don't want to hear any of this crap about you being intimidated about this, because you have no business thinking that at all" he told me last time :) He's the cutest.
Anyway, enough venting, I should go get some things done. HM and I keep telling each other and ourselves over and over: It'll all work out, It'll all work out and I sure hope it does... :) NIGHTMARESYikes, what a horrible stressful week.
We finally heard back from the people about the house, and they accepted our offer, but about an hour after I got the call about that, I get a call from my loan agent lady with a "did you know....?" conversation and I was very easily and quickly talked out of going any further. She thought it sounded funny and so she called the realtor who is over the house--not our realtor, however that works--and the house has all kinds of drama going on. It's got a mechanical lein on it, the tenant won't leave (which we already knew) but what we didn't is that they haven't even served him with eviction papers yet, which means if they still have to do that, plus go to court to get him out, it's at least three months before we could even move in and probably more like four or five at least. I wouldn't touch that not in a million years the loan lady says to me... ay.... So no more house... Oh, and the loan lady tells me, did she tell you that they refused to pay ANY of the closing costs??? You got $7500? Cuz that's how much it'll be.... How many more stop signs can there be???
What the crap was my realtor thinking??? And what are those people thinking even putting it on the market????!!!!
So the loan lady still is pressuring me: you have to close on a house by the 22nd or you'll lose this loan amount and ya ya... and I just felt like, what is this??? Why is this such a rush and what is going on here? I feel like we're being jerked around.
So HM gave me the number of this loan agent that is a family friend from way back and I went to talk to him today. We talked for two hours and ya, there is nothing closing the end of the month, there shouldn't be any big problem but this loan sounds fishy he tells me. He calls the manager there at that lending place, who is a friend of his, and asks him and he says, no, nothing is "dying" and if it did, well, we would just go find someone else to do it!
The only thing is that she is basing it off the wrong credit score--see you have three usually, who knew? and they usually base it off the middle score. She apparently based it off the high score which means that most likely they will just make it a 95% loan automatically and make us put up 5% up front... anyone got about $10,000? We don't.
And if that's the case, he tells me, there are other programs--specifically like an FHA where you would only have you put 3% down which would be a lot better if that's what we need to do but my credit score has to be higher which he gave me some advice and we should be able to get it up in a couple months and we could do an FHA.
He says he has no idea how she ever came up with us paying $1700 a month... he says it would be more like $2100... yikes....
The main problem though is that even in a couple of months we would still not be able to be approved for anything over what we have now but our monthly payment would be better. Still $1700 but hopefully for real this time, not just saying that.
So what do we do in the meantime? Try to find a rental.
So where do you find a place for two newlyweds, a 15-year-old boy, and an 80-lb dog? That's a good question.
Also, where do you find something like that where you don't have to sign a 6-month or 1 year lease? How do you find something good that is month to month? YOU DON'T. :)
We looked at some rental places, and I liked one, but they don't allow dogs, but then, they don't really allow dogs where I am living now... :) Well, they do: little ones that are no more than 20 lbs full grown... ya... Anyway, the place I like is about $1050 a month... but most places are about $1400 or higher for a house... which is only 300 dollars more to buy a house... hmmmm.....
HM's sister Bess and her daughter are here visiting for summer break and she was sitting there looking at places with us on the computer while we were looking at the place I liked and when we came to the dog problem, she said, "just bring Gilligan (their little rat dog) and tell them that's your dog" :) I laughed, ya that'll work until the neighbors hear Andre bark his deep "get away" bark...lol.... Wow, what a big terrier! :) lol...
It could work I guess.... there are just so many "ifs" that IF they work, then this will work, which means this will work which will make this work but IF the first IF doesn't work, then nothing does.
We could buy a house and our payment wouldn't be that but IF we find a place that will increase in value i.e. someplace that needs to be fixed up and the owners are selling it for below market value... IF.
We could buy a house in a nice neighborhood IF we find one that is run down and somehow buy it, make it look nice and again, sell it for more than it's worth. IF.
Or, we could wait another couple months, get a better credit score, get a better rate, get a better loan, but still be in the same situation we are right now where we can't really get anything nice, only in ghetto neighborhoods and fixerupper houses...
So I don't know. Feels like we need to just wait I guess, even for awhile and just see... We know we'll be here in Btown for another 3 years so I mean, maybe we should just save during these years and just plan on buying a nice place at the end of that three years.... I don't know.
I don't know where we will live. I don't know how it will all work. It's all stressful and unknown and I don't know any answers. I feel like my life has been under a magnifying glass and every part of my history picked apart and everyone asking questions about every part of everything...How much do you make? Why haven't you done this? Why haven't you done that? Why were you late on that one payment on that one thing five years ago? What is your credit score? How much do you make in a month? Why is this different? Why haven't you done this yet? Why isn't this more? I DON'T KNOW!!! STOP ASKING! I feel like we're being jerked around and lied to and that I don't quite understand things but I should somehow and I don't know even how to ask the right questions. It's all frustrating with one person saying one thing and trying to come up with this plan and then that plan and trying to figure out where in the world we are supposed to look or be or try to be or do when we have no idea what will actually work or what won't. We thought that this house would work and everything was going great, and then it all fell apart! And now I don't know where to look or where to go to feel like that's where we should be or that's what we should do. Right now everyone is giving us their little bit of advice for what to do and no one has any straight answers to anything, it's just IFs and philosophies about what COULD happen someday somehow if this every reacts to have this happen someday over the rainbow.
And amid all this frustration with the house, I was telling HM about all the drama with the Stupid house and D pipes up and tells us: "You know what you should do? Pray about it. That's what I do. I pray about every little thing." I could have cried right then. Little punk D who ditches out of church all the time, who says he doesn't know if he believes in anything, who acts like a brat one minute and then a little miniature darling HM the next, told us to pray about it. :) 08 giugno AlreadyNormally I figure this is supposed to take awhile... Finding a house should take some calculated time... right?
Well not for us apparently.
We found a house!!!
  The second house we looked at.
We looked around the outside,
at the huge backyard,
the fenced in side that would be perfect for Andre,
the other side of the house where HM could park his painting van and maybe even build a little shop there someday,
and at the nice blinds,
the bay windows upstairs (behind the trees)
and HM talked about how he would change the paint job on the outside...(no blue, paint it black instead)
We didn't see the inside but it's the biggest of all the prospects that day, two stories, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths....hmmm... and also one of the cheapest, just in our price range.....hmmm....
So we called the realtor to ask if we could get an appointment to see the inside. She laughed and asked which one it was and then laughed again because she said: "I knew you would like this one!!! I don't even know your personality and when I saw this one I thought, 'This is the One!'" Ya, I said, it's really nice, we are really interested. Alright she said, I'll call them, let me call you back.
So we waited and a minute later she called us back:
Sorry, she said, somebody already made an offer on it. :(
What??? When????
Yesterday. (she sent me these listings yesterday afternoon)
So I guess we'll keep looking huh?
We were burnt about it and went home to get some lunch and to complain to the family for our loss... we were bummed out.
But then it WAS only the 2nd house we looked at but STILL. We loved that house. SIGH and SIGH again... we hadn't even seen the inside but grr...
So we talked a little bit more but HM was like, man, call her back and ask her if they have officially accepted the offer and if not, ask her to offer them more and see if we can get it.
I called to ask her about another property she said was down the street and then asked her if we couldn't make an offer as well. She said "they" had only verbally accepted the offer so far, and ya, I guess we could make an offer as well for a higher amount. So the house was listed at $210,000 so we said, well, offer them $215,000?
So she said okay and said she would call us back.
So we went and looked at the other houses on the list she gave us. We brought ST and Darren back to show them the house we loved and they thought it was really cool and found a place we could peek through the blinds a little better :)
We looked at the one down the street and it was okay. Not as big as Ours and it had a big American flag painted into the driveway :) haha... The backyard was small and we were like, nah, this is only okay....
Then we looked at another one down the road a bit and it was HORRIBLE. The house had been stripped--no carpet, no fixtures, the door frames were gone, about half the windows were broken, the wood fence had fallen down and was sitting on the ground and the neighbors didn't really seem to mind I guess. The yard was weeds and dead trees and what used to be a porch had been sawed off.... weird.... It made more sense now why the only available picture was this fuzzy far away pic:
 We had to meet one of HM's clients on the East side of town so we drove by one more...a small little house with weird green trim. The only redeeming quality was it had a big fenced yard. We didn't even get out of the car. Whoever took this picture was very smart. Talk about accentuating the positive aspects. It makes it look a lot better than it is:
 So after being kinda depressed at what WOULD be our options for other houses, we went to go meet HM's client to show him these two jobs and talk to him and on the way, we got another call from our Realtor:
They accepted your offer. :)
During this time, my realtor had already called my loan officer and she had faxed over our Letter for our loan and ya ya ya... I swear they must work right next door to each other! Course they've been doing this a lot more than I have but man, they were quick.
Anyway, the only holdup with this, and this is actually good in a way, anyway, the only thing is there is someone renting it right now and they are having trouble getting him OUT. I guess he refuses to leave and has filed all kinds of things in court trying to stay and that was all she could tell me. SO, we have to be in Escrow (sp?) for 60 days while they try and get this guy out of there. Strange huh?
Otherwise we would be able to just move in and that would be interesting... who moves in? Just me probably, and Andre... but it's already into June so I don't even have time to put in a 30 day notice... yikes, it was quick. So this is better, we can plan a bit better too and not be so rushed into moving in like three weeks all of a sudden. haha... My mom was asking me: so, would you just move in? or would you just get married sooner and you all move in? All good questions... and I don't know! :) haha... so this kinda solves it even though it is kinda weird. So more or less, if all this works out, we'll be moving in around the first week of August.
Last night, man you should have seen HM and I. We were both a little wired from it all... thinking about "that guy in OUR house" over there and wanting to go drive by it again... wondering what qualifies as "stalking" a house, etc. We drove D by to see it and there was a car in the driveway and two other nice little sports cars parked out front so we couldn't really show him that much. There is a sign on the door that says
"This is a leased property. NO TRESPASSING"
Not that we paid much attention to that :) haha..., but still, ODD.
HM said he thought the guy might start getting a few bomb threats... from someone... :) haha...
Darren suggested that we just go over there, go in, sit down with the guy and say, So, when are you getting your butt out of here already? :) He used some more colorful words, but you get the idea. :)
So anyway, I have to go in today to officially sign the Offer and hopefully ask her some more questions about it and maybe get to SEE THE INSIDE!!! which we haven't even seen yet and I am worried about but HM just says to me: Don't worry about it, the inside is nice, I can tell. :) haha... So I hope he's right!
07 giugno Home Sweet HomeYikes, interesting things happening around here! HM and I have wanted to buy a house and have been talking about it but his credit is trashed and mine is... okay. Not fantastic but not horrible. So we've been trying to get a home loan but not having a ton of luck. Normally my credit would be okay to get a decent house but houses here are so expensive that you need about a $300,000 loan to get a nice house. So my credit is okay, but heavens, not $300,000 dollars of good, that's for sure.
So about a month ago, I get a call from this realtor who had been sending me emails of different houses and she called, basically so say: what's the deal??? She assumed I already had a loan and when I told her no, actually we weren't she referred me to this lady she knew who said "helped people out" with stuff like that. Honestly, at the time I was like, whatever! I wrote down the number she gave me but I didn't call her.
So yesterday I was in this "get things done" mood, you know how you get into those? I dunno, where I was like doing all kinds of things I had been putting off and I called her. She asked me a few questions and then pulled my credit report and then called me back later to say: okay, you're pre-approved for $220,000 and I just need you to turn in these papers to me and I'll get you your letter and you can start looking for a house... Hold up? Ha, what did you just say? I was excited.
The only bad thing is that 220,000 around here doesn't buy much. That's like, here, we got some nice double-wides that would just be lovely... seriously. So HM was a bit skeptical that that would work but I guess we'll see. The realtor called us back and now that we know our "price range" she started sending us some listings and we are going to start looking today.
So here's where the craziness comes in: Things here in Btown, or maybe in CA overall I dunno, are changing as far as home loans are concerned. At the end of June, you will no longer be able to do 80/20 loans, only 100% loans and that's it. This is how I understand it so far: when I get the loan, I will basically already have a second mortgage. One mortgage will be 80% of the cost and then the second will be 20% of it. The 2nd mortgage is higher, but you can write off all the interest from it on your taxes and that system makes it so you don't have to pay lender's mortgage insurance, which is good I guess. But with this new system, you couldn't do that and so your interest rate would be at 11% or 12% for the whole thing and you would have to pay insurance and all kinds of stuff.
Also, because of this, the amount you qualify for overall would also change. So if HM and I do not close on our house by... oh, the end of this month (ya, basically two weeks from now) our pre-approved loan amount goes from $220,000 to $140,000. Yikes... When I talked to her today she said that she actually used my situation as an example at a meeting yesterday where they were going over the details of all this. So basically, we have to find a house, make an offer and all that, then sign all the papers and submit them by the 29th of June... ah! So we'll see what happens.... wish us luck! 02 giugno I caught an InjuryThis last weekend, ST, Darren, HM and I went fishing. We went up to his Uncle Ron's "cabin" and stayed in the little guest houses there. It was very nice and cozy. We BBQed every night, sat around the campfire and had smores and just relaxed. We left early Saturday morning and came back Monday afternoon. So we fished all day Saturday, Sunday and some of Monday.
There were only two bad things about this trip
1. HM and I did not catch ANYTHING at all. It was frustrating. The first day ST caught one fish. The next day she caught four more and Darren caught two. HM and I did everything they did but the fish didn't like us I guess. So we fished for almost two straight days and NOTHING. We have decided that perhaps we are Ocean fishermen instead :) To our credit, or our redemption I guess, no one else was really catching anything either. All the people we passed were empty-handed as well so I guess Darren and ST were just lucky.
2. I got hurt about every other second: by the end of the day Sunday, it was becoming more of joke that if there was any possibility that someone would fall down, I would. The first day I kicked the chair in our cabin and jammed my toes, and then later I fell into the river and lost a whole jar of bait as I did so, and scrapped my knee and then later raked my back on a tree limb, which took my breath away and left a huge scrape down my back. The next day, I slipped and put my foot into a hole as I fell on my rear onto the rock. I thought for sure I had broken my leg and sat there for a minute afraid to look at my leg because I was sure I would see bones sticking out... but it was fine, just bruised. It scared me though and when HM hugged me, I cried.
Then we decided to go to a differen spot so we hiked over some hills and there was this shale type stuff with little rocks all over it and I lost my footing and slid down the mountain. I thought I was going to die :) But it was okay, I only kinda twisted my leg a little. At that point, I decided I wanted to spend my remaining moments with HM :) so I went back to be with him, and sat by him and put my feet in the water. We got up to go and I put my shoes back on, and HM went up to grab our stuff. He watched as I took one step and slipped so fast I couldn'e even catch myself. The jar of bait in my hand shattered on the rock and HM thought he would find glass shards in my arms, but luckily we didn't. I hit the side of my face, and my knee and shin on the rock. It gave me a headache, and a little scrape on my face and a big ole' scrap and bruise on the same knee and a bump on my shin. I started to cry again and HM was like "you want to call it a day?" :) haha... ya, I was about done, so we went over to another place where HM made me promise I would be more careful and not get hurt again. I was sore and shaky all over and man, I just felt like sitting there and crying! :) honestly!
Darren and ST came to find us a short time later and said that ST had gotten hurt too. Hers was a funny story I thought. I guess she was trying to jump to a rock and it was kind of a long way so she leaped for it but about half way through decided she wasn't going to make it so she Supermaned it and landed halfway on the rock, hit her thigh real hard and her chest and then finally her feet made it. Darren said she looked hysterical and he had a time not laughing as he helped her up. She ended up with a huge bruise and was very sore as well. So HM and Darren took their injured women :) back to camp and we had dinner. I was so sore the next morning!
We fished for a few hours the next morning but to no avail. We packed up and went home and we were all exhausted. I was asleep that night as soon as I laid down. It was real nice up there though, I loved it and I could have stayed there forever, without the injuries of course! :) 01 giugno WowSchool is over!!!
This is a hallmark year because for the first time ever, I had all my grades done and entered by the end of the last day of school. I also had my entire room packed up, and had everything in my truck, tied down, and my keys turned in by 1:30pm the day school ended. That's pretty good!
I usually come in on Friday and finish things up, cleaning and all that. However, I got an email that said they needed everything turned in this week because they were using my room (and the rest of my wing) for summer school starting Monday....ah...ya... so no time to procrastinate thihs year.
I really need to stop moving schools though. Packing up your whole classroom and taking down all your crap gets old really fast... |
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