Keeping up with the Joneses
Unlike us to let a week go by without some kind of post. Maybe all the thought, hyperbole and lyrical madness that went into the desert island discs took it out of us? Let's get caught up real quick. In the last 7 days Kim and I have:
The short of it all is it's been such an intense and crazy 7 days I've not had time to think let alone try and document everything that's been going on in my life. Today was the first day I managed to get caught up on work and scoot out early to give my head a rest. It really would have helped the entire process if work had been nice and relaxed, but that's never the case any more. Always fires, hotfixes, patches, customer escalations to deal with. I feel like I'm finally on top of it all though which is great. Oh, and I don't care what you say, UNIX blows. Any computer worth tens of thousands of dollars that breaks hardware when the power goes out, sucks. End of story.
Back to the house - Fairfax in Virginia is an extremely competitive housing area, as one would expect from all the high-tech, government, and other abundance of jobs in the area. This puts a massive premium on the price but also on how fast these fucking places sell. I have a friend who went to look at 1 house in the morning, a couple more in the afternoon, then decided to put an offer on the first one. Sorry bucko, too late, already under contract. Say what?
It was with all that in mind that Kim and I were trying to be prepared, keep an open mind and expect the worst when we began looking for houses. It was hard to stay calm though when we fell in love with this one place which was so perfect for us. Light, airy, lots of space, a cool finished basement for my gaming pit, double garage for winterised motorbikes for Dallas/Phyxie, lovely hardwood floors on the main area for her, stunning spacious kitchen for both of us. It was pretty much at the top of our price range but we were so smitten we decided to go for it. The trouble was there was an open house there the next day which almost guarunteed the price would be bid up out of our range. What we ended up doing, as suggested by our realtor was putting a tasty offer out that expired the next day. Honestly, I really didn't think that we'd get the place but she called us back at 10pm that night as we were on the way to 18th Street Lounge saying that we had ourselves a house! Much screaming, champagne and long island iced teas followed. Mega fun night - coincidentally also Sapnasty's leaving do before she heads up to New York and 1 day after Kim's birthday. MEGA event :) Hangover the next day sucked though.
Since then, it's all been about trying to hustle up my documents in time to get the full loan approval 7 days after the ratified contract. This proved to be the most stressful part, as the lenders I had lined up could no way in hell meet the deadline, especially with the long weekend. Monday was spent frantically calling around places trying to find someone, anyone that could meet the deadline and persuade them that really, I did want to get a mortgage with them and their committment letter, even though I had full intention of switching to the companies Adam hooked me up with for much lower fees directly afterwards. Shitty, maybe, but you do what ya need to do. In the end only Bank of America could meet the deadline (same day committment, nice one) but I did have to pay for the privilige - it's so fucking stupid that I had to pay the application fee just to get a committment letter but to me it was worth it for peace of mind in meeting the deadline and not having any further worries with the deal. Besides, I'd make that money back in closing easily with the great deal Adam hooked me up with.
So that's where I am. It's all very interesting isn't it? I got home tonight and had to get it all out though. Maybe those reading this remember going through the process their first time wondering what the fuck PMI, HOA, HELOC were and how much there was to understand in a short amount of time. It's been nice to sit here with my chips and salsa / sam adams light and bash it all out. I think I understand why people keep diaries now - although blogging is a lot easier and faster! Like Randy said "You gotta have a place to get it all out man", and how right he is. I feel better than James Brown. Or maybe it's just the Sam kicking in.
Thursday tomorrow, wonder what we'll be writing about? Had Brandon and I got our act together we'd have a killer topic all ready and lined up. This is why we don't do online 'zines. That, and the fact the pay's abysmal.
- Gone looking for houses
- Seen 8 houses in person
- Fallen in love with 1 house
- Got pre-approved for a mortgage
- Put an offer on a house
- Had our offer accepted
- Got a full mortgage committment from a bank
- Faxed, emailed, called, written more documents than I care to remember
The short of it all is it's been such an intense and crazy 7 days I've not had time to think let alone try and document everything that's been going on in my life. Today was the first day I managed to get caught up on work and scoot out early to give my head a rest. It really would have helped the entire process if work had been nice and relaxed, but that's never the case any more. Always fires, hotfixes, patches, customer escalations to deal with. I feel like I'm finally on top of it all though which is great. Oh, and I don't care what you say, UNIX blows. Any computer worth tens of thousands of dollars that breaks hardware when the power goes out, sucks. End of story.
Back to the house - Fairfax in Virginia is an extremely competitive housing area, as one would expect from all the high-tech, government, and other abundance of jobs in the area. This puts a massive premium on the price but also on how fast these fucking places sell. I have a friend who went to look at 1 house in the morning, a couple more in the afternoon, then decided to put an offer on the first one. Sorry bucko, too late, already under contract. Say what?
It was with all that in mind that Kim and I were trying to be prepared, keep an open mind and expect the worst when we began looking for houses. It was hard to stay calm though when we fell in love with this one place which was so perfect for us. Light, airy, lots of space, a cool finished basement for my gaming pit, double garage for winterised motorbikes for Dallas/Phyxie, lovely hardwood floors on the main area for her, stunning spacious kitchen for both of us. It was pretty much at the top of our price range but we were so smitten we decided to go for it. The trouble was there was an open house there the next day which almost guarunteed the price would be bid up out of our range. What we ended up doing, as suggested by our realtor was putting a tasty offer out that expired the next day. Honestly, I really didn't think that we'd get the place but she called us back at 10pm that night as we were on the way to 18th Street Lounge saying that we had ourselves a house! Much screaming, champagne and long island iced teas followed. Mega fun night - coincidentally also Sapnasty's leaving do before she heads up to New York and 1 day after Kim's birthday. MEGA event :) Hangover the next day sucked though.
Since then, it's all been about trying to hustle up my documents in time to get the full loan approval 7 days after the ratified contract. This proved to be the most stressful part, as the lenders I had lined up could no way in hell meet the deadline, especially with the long weekend. Monday was spent frantically calling around places trying to find someone, anyone that could meet the deadline and persuade them that really, I did want to get a mortgage with them and their committment letter, even though I had full intention of switching to the companies Adam hooked me up with for much lower fees directly afterwards. Shitty, maybe, but you do what ya need to do. In the end only Bank of America could meet the deadline (same day committment, nice one) but I did have to pay for the privilige - it's so fucking stupid that I had to pay the application fee just to get a committment letter but to me it was worth it for peace of mind in meeting the deadline and not having any further worries with the deal. Besides, I'd make that money back in closing easily with the great deal Adam hooked me up with.
So that's where I am. It's all very interesting isn't it? I got home tonight and had to get it all out though. Maybe those reading this remember going through the process their first time wondering what the fuck PMI, HOA, HELOC were and how much there was to understand in a short amount of time. It's been nice to sit here with my chips and salsa / sam adams light and bash it all out. I think I understand why people keep diaries now - although blogging is a lot easier and faster! Like Randy said "You gotta have a place to get it all out man", and how right he is. I feel better than James Brown. Or maybe it's just the Sam kicking in.
Thursday tomorrow, wonder what we'll be writing about? Had Brandon and I got our act together we'd have a killer topic all ready and lined up. This is why we don't do online 'zines. That, and the fact the pay's abysmal.
posted by CatSpit at
4:12 PM
