and now we wait

Today was supposed to be our close date for our house but based on the evidence of a large pile of boxes consuming our kitchen floor in our apartment, it is pretty obvious that it didn't happen. This whole process has been a whirl wind of emotions for me and I can definitely say, I am now much more emotionally prepared if I ever have to do it all over again someday.

I began the house hunting process excited and hopeful that we would find the place where we would start our family. When we did find our perfect home I was elated! In fact, I don't think I slept a wink that whole first night. Then when we sat down to write the offer I felt bummed that we had to give at least 4 weeks for the builder to finish the house and the bank to process our loan. 4 weeks until I can move into this beautiful house?! Meh. But, I understood and we picked August 13th as our closing date.

I have been anxiously anticipating this day. Early last week I began packing boxes and preparing to move. We were scheduled to leave town Friday to Monday for a family reunion in Seattle so I wanted to make sure everything would be packed and ready to be moved stress-free {or mostly anyway} by Thursday before we left. We waited and waited for the builder to give us the go-ahead that the house was complete and it could be appraised. All the while, Nic and I have been driving over there to see their progress every few days. That right there was a rookie mistake!! We'd leave disappointed each time because they hadn't made any progress since the last time we were there. When last week finally came, week 3, we were feeling very discouraged. They had 3 weeks and all they had done was added carpet and put on the doors for each room. Those TWO things in a whole 3 weeks, AH! But we were pleasantly surprised when we got a call from our realtor saying the house would be "finished" and ready for appraisal by Tuesday afternoon. Back came the excitement.

Wednesday we had an inspection scheduled for the afternoon. We anxiously drove over to the house to meet with our inspector and have a walk through. SOOO many things weren't done. A list of 21 items to be exact. Ugh. This was not looking good considering we were supposed to be closing in less than a week. BUT, my hopes were still hanging in there. Then Thursday came and everything seemed to be falling apart. We were supposed to leave for Seattle the very next morning but we couldn't find anyone to watch Rue, we still had to meet with our Realtor and write up an inspection contingency and sign it, and Nic had a bunch of changes at work where he no longer could take Friday off. It was a mess! So, as disappointing as it was, we made the hard decision and decided it wasn't the right time to be leaving town. On Friday, things only seemed to get worse. That day I got a call from the bank saying that, because they had just barely received the appraisal, our loan wouldn't be processed in time to close today and that it would be pushed out until Friday. Boo!! :( I was a mess of tears and struggling to see anything positive in the situation because it felt like everything that could go wrong, was.

When today came I expected to be feel as disappointed as I did when I got the news on Friday but I wasn't. In fact, I was so busy today that I didn't spend much time thinking about it all until I got a call from our Realtor this afternoon. She said that our house was finished today and that we could do our final walk through this evening. I tried not to get my hopes up in fear that they would just get shut down again. When we were pulling up to the house, I grabbed Nic's arm and pointed, "Look! The third light is up by the garage now!" Followed by, "Ooo! And they covered the exposed wood around the garage!" And then, "Oh my goodness, look, it has house numbers!" I had a good feeling and that feeling stayed with me as we toured the house inside and out. Everything on our list had been finished. There were only a few new things that needed to be addressed but they were SO miner compared to the unpainted baseboards, no third garage door opener, no door stops, etc. that we had seen and made note of just last Wednesday. It was a miracle! See what I mean about the whirl wind of emotions?!

And so here we are tonight. Now it is just a waiting game for the day that our loan will be processed and ready. Fingers crossed that it is sometime this week but I suppose I can survive if it is the beginning of next. :) After all, it seems soo much closer now.