I just put an old lady's maxi pad through the wash and all I can think is this is my life...

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Added Holiday Stress

Ohhh the stress of trying to purchase a house. Now I remember why I've rented all these years. Being not a very patient person, the waiting is literally killing me. Okay, okay not literally but still. Gah!

It all started off innocently enough - doesn't it always? - with me casually perusing MLS listings. I saw a couple nice ones and one amazing one that was shocking priced reasonably. But still, I knew we were in our lease til the end of April 2012 so it was all just for fun. But then our bedroom closet sprung a leak. By bedroom closet, I really mean the bathroom of the aparment upstairs sprung a leak. I'm talking serious water damage and an increasingly alarming mould outbreak. Turkey Butt and I had to clear out the closet, move our clothes and bed into the (already crowded) nursery and close up the room. Our landlords solution? A few days later they stopped the leak but have yet to address the fact that the closet will have to be torn out and redone, the mould issue will have to be dealt with, and the carpet will have to be ripped up.

All of a sudden, Turkey Butt and I are thinking we should fast track our home buying plans. So we contacted sweet hubby's bank and a real estate agent to get the ball rolling. Cut to a week later. After looking at 4 houses, we had my father-in-law come up to inspect our top two picks. Pick number two ended up having structural damage to the tune of approx. $50, 000 so scratch that off the list! Pick number one (a.k.a. dream house) needed a new roof ($3,000 to $5,000) and my father in law had a few questions about the spray foam insulation in the basement.

So, we put an offer on our dream house last night. We offered $7,000 less than the asking price. We felt this was generous considering the house had been on the market for a year and was located within spitting distance to a busy street. They counter offerred at $2,000 below their asking price at about the same time we found out the insulation needs to be covered to meet building code regulations and insure it isn't a fire hazard. Father-in-law estimates this would cost another $2,000. Oye.

Here's my dilemma, I am not moving my family into a house that has unsafe, flammable materials in it. This is a given. But at the same time, do I really want to add another out of pocket expense onto an already expensive home? So far we're looking at a minimum of $5,000 of work and this doesn't even include the little things (like bannisters need to be built for both staircases). This is my dream house and it is magically, just barely, in my budget due to the poor location but there has to be some give. If the Seller's agree to fix the basement and install smoke detectors ( there are none in the house), then we will accept their counter offer. If not, we may up our offer by $1,000 but that will be our final offer.

Soooo much stress over the holidays. My patience is wearing thin. Oh, and did I mention that the bank was supposed to get back to us "by the end of the week" with the amount that they'll preapprove us to borrow for a mortgage? But look at that, the bank closed forty minutes ago and it's a Friday. Now we'll have to wait til Monday to find out if we'll even be approved for enough money to purchase this house. Sigh. This is my life.

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