Step 472 of 1000

Well, it appears we have a house. All the offer papers on our side have been signed along with the addendum the trustee required. There have been a few hoops to jump though, as they required us to talk to a loan officer at their bank as well before authorizing the repair to the roof. It seems they are reluctant to pay for the repair until they have a firm buyer. As of yet, I don't think they have submitted their completed contracts with signatures, but those should be in this week.

There is one tiny little hitch, but I assume it will be easily ironed out. The seller/trustee requested a close date within 21 days, which we agreed to. However, when I spoke to our mortgage broker, he thinks that will be difficult to complete, especially since we won't be having the house appraised immediately (waiting for the roof to be repaired). I can't imagine the sellers opting out of the sale over a few unavoidable days, plus that pushes closing firmly back into June (where we want it, so we aren't making payments on both the leased house and the purchased house at the same time). Also in good news, our interest rate is locked in at a nice low fixed rate that may put our mortgage payment close to or below our rent.

[As a side note, when we got home from the real estate agent's office on Monday, Justin asked what we were having for dinner to celebrate.

Having not made it to the grocery yet for the week, I offered tuna--the only thing we had that I could have ready in the 20 minutes until dinner time. He wrinkled his nose and said, "We just bought a house. I'm not eating tuna to celebrate."

Totally deadpan from the back Kate answers, "You could have peanut butter instead!"

FYI, he picked up a pizza, with a coupon, for dinner because we go for expensive celebratory food around here. And the tuna was quite good last night.]

All that is left is the official paperwork from the bank for final approval and the inspections before closing (I think). Then, it is signing a lot of papers and of course the move (the packing, turning utilities on and off, forwarding our mail, changing our address, the purchasing new things that fill the gaps, the unpacking, the decorating...). I've never done a cross town move with little ones, so that might be interesting, all the back and forth trips rather than the one big haul. We should have plenty of time to do it in, which will be helpful.

I may have pictures after this weekend, as we plan to make a visit to measure for window treatments, so I can have valances and curtains ready to hang right away.