Today's word "Issues"

Sooooo... The house has some mold issues, some drainage issues, an air conditioning issue, and a sprinkler issue. 1. MOLD. It appears that in the laundry room the water damage we saw was actually caused by what appears at the moment to be a slow leak some where. There is mold all around the back side of the laundry, into the hall, the pantry and in the master bath by the shower. It will require tearing out the lower two foot of wall and plastic-ing that part of the house off while it gets sprayed down with bleach and dried out properly. Then the wall that's been torn out will have to be replaced and repainted. 2. DRAINAGE. The back yard kind of drains into the house- or rather the skirting in the house. Not a big deal it will just require some dirt/drainage work to be some this summer some time. 3. AIR CONDITIONING. The house is listed as having "central air" and it should- but it doesn't. At least it doesn't any more. The previous owner or some other person removed the a/c unit. Thanks a lot dickweed! I am calling to get estimates on how much it is to replace the unit- but my guess is some where between $1000 and $1800. Can we say OUCH! Well it does have the house listed as having it so we may not be responsible to replace it. 4. SPRINKLER. There is an automatic sprinkler system- yay! The system on the back side of the house is put WAY to close the house. I mean they point into the yard, but the sprinklers are seriously less than 3 inches from the house. That will cost about $200 to have fixed professionally. I took some pictures today to take you on a full photo tour of the house via facebook. We will have to decide now if we want to go ahead with the sale of the house or if its going to cost to much out of pocket to fix. Yet an other issue is money- its limited! So tonight when James gets home we will talk about if we want to move forward or scrap it and start over. I HATE ISSUES!!!!

Hurry up and Wait

That is the order of the house buying day. When you make a bid thats accepted on a HUD house you have 72 hours from the acceptance email to send in all these addendums and paper work things plus your earnest money. Its a very frantic process. Then once its in and they have it they send the agent a one line email "Information recieved on ________. Thank you." That's it! No word of if it was accepted if its in review or how long it will take to get the green light for all the other things. So I called them and was told that it take about 2 weeks after they get the paper work for them to process and review and then send on the (by fax) the one page document that lets us start the loan process and the inspection. Ugg!! Really?! Well then that means that at some point this week we should know if they accepted everything and it was properly filled out.

And now something to brighten you day a bit...

*Sigh* been waiting for this for like a year....

The Darkest Secret by Gena Showalter

My favorite series by my favorite author who is releasing the newest book next week. YAY!!

House part 4: boxes

Spurred by the thought of being out of our house in 2 to 3 weeks, I went box hunting this afternoon. Now some people just go to u-haul or home depot or some other moving company to get 'moving boxes'. But not us, we are broke in redneck fashion! I went dumpster diving to find boxes today. Most people in the US are like us and find boxes in this particular method. I am going to tell you where, on a Sunday afternoon, I had the best luck finding boxes. I hit the mother load in two places:


1. My Obgyn's office- doctors offices are good because most restock on Friday night or Saturday.


2. The Dollar Store- They put out the majority of their inventory on Sunday when its slower than the rest of the week. I found an entire city dumpster filled to the top with nothing but collapsed boxes at the dollar store today.



Other good places to look are liquor store (good strong boxes- also makes your new neighbors wonder if you are alcoholics!), grocery stores and fast food or restaurants.



Happy hunting!

House Hunting Part 3: Paperwork

Oye-vey!! Lots and lots of paper work goes into buying a house. We went in on thursday evening to sign initial paperwork to get the ball rolling on buying the house a stack of paper about a 1/4 to a half inch of paper work! Then we gave them money- $1000 for ernest money in the form of a cashiers check which my bank so kindly charged me a $7 fee to print! Now that its been shipped I have been gathering all the paper work for the loan for the bank. Let me tell you what- more paper!! Two inches of paper at least for this part. 3 years worth of tax returns and full W-2's for the past 3 years, 2 months worth of bank statements for EVERY account you have, copies of driver's licenses and ss cards. The names addresses and phone numbers of evey employer for the past 3 years, the names phone and address of your landlords for the past 3 years and your address for the past 3 years. (Luckily for us we have lived in the same house under the same landlord for the past 6 years). Paycheck stubs and all other proof of income for the past 30 days.

And now the fun really begins. We will get word Monday morning that everything arrived safely to TX and when we do hear from them that starts our clock. We will have 15 days to get a home inspection, get the approval for the loan, and set a closing date. Which equals more money. $150 to HUD for the re-winterization (rediculous!) the water has to be turned back on for the inspection, and then in less then 2 weeks we will be moved in, but HUD is going to come back in after the inspection and re-winterize the piping. The inspectors will be about $200. All these fees add up in a hurry! But as soon as closing is done (with in 2-3 weeks from now) we will pick the first weekend and send our kids off with thier grandpa and start cleaning!! All of this means that technically we could be out of here by the first weekend in April!

The House

Front of house

Front livingroom

Master bathroom

kids' bathroom

Kitchen

House Hunting part 2- Acceptance

Well they did not accept our bid of $85K, but rather came back with a counter offer of $91K and they will pay up to 3% at closing for closing costs. After some discussion we decided to accept their counter offer.
SOO...tomorrow I will be speaking with our loan person to have a letter of pre-approval sent over to the Realtor and I will be going to the bank and getting a cashiers check for $1000 for the earnest money payment.
I am freaking terrified. That's a lot of money and a BIG commitment! But a 5 bedroom 2 bath 2006 house on a 1/4 acre lot that's got the back yard completely fence with 6 foot privacy fence for $91K and only minor blemishes- how can we pass it up?! It will be an amazing adventure for us.
Luckily for you- I will be chronicling the adventure on here so everyone can join in!