Tales of Woe and Tales of Joy

Genki I am so sorry for all this agony! Just keep your eyes focused on the move. Will continue to pray for all of you!!

It is a major job moving.  Ideally, I would like a bigger place, but I don't want to pack everything up and move again.

Wishing you smooth(er) sailing from here on in, Genki.  

Gotta watch out for us little old ladies, genki, we're treacherous, lol.

Seriously though, the best of luck in your move, and may you close way sooner than scheduled.  Hope you get your much-deserved rest soon.

UPDATE!  Upon realizing that there is NO way we can possibly get moved over the weekend (even if we kill ourselves!), we've agreed to take our time over the next week, taking boxes and the lighter furniture, then renting a U-haul next weekend for the final move.

A bit less hectic, and perhaps I'll be able to find a little bit of gaming time in there :D

Genki, I was just coming over to find out if you'd had a better day today, and am so glad that you're approaching the move in a less hectic manner. Good luck over the next few weeks and Happy Move!!!

So here's what's been up with me since Friday:

There was a snafu with the phone company, and though we were assured that we'd have the phones turned on at both places through the weekend (by multiple agents,) we ended up with NO phone service until Monday, when a technician finally came by and fixed the problem.  It was just too confusing for the Century Link employees to have the service on at both places at once, apparently, and add in the fact that whomever lived here before us had THREE separate phone numbers, and there you have it.  I have been assured that those three days will be credited to my account... which is good, 'cause I would've pitched a fit, otherwise

Saturday was move-in day, and as some of you know, that didn't go all that well.  We got a really late start, and an even later end to the day, but we DID manage to get the girls' room all set up before sis brought them home (THANK GOD!)  My husband was just sure that the neighbors at the old place were watching and were going to swoop in and steal anything of value that got left behind, so he stayed out working until about after 11 PM... and that's WITH sis and her son (who was already past exhaustion) helping and keeping an eye on my hubby.  The both told me separately that hubby would have ended up with heat stroke if they hadn't gone back -- he was pushing so hard that his eyes were glazing over when they got back to him. :(  *siiigh*

Hubby got home at last, we got the girls to bed, and hubby HAD to have a shower before bed because he was just so incredibly sweaty and gross-feeling.  You know how a good show revitalizes!   The shower was great, but the water wouldn't turn off!  It was *blasting* and even both of us fiddling with it barely got it to ease up.  Have I mentioned that we have a 900-gallon septic tank?  What could we do but call the landlord?  ... who is in Alaska... and wasn't answering his phone.

We had no choice but to call my dad, who did his best to help us find a plumber who was in Dallas (remember: no internet here!)  It was after midnight, and after he gave me four numbers, I told him that was enough, thank you, and started calling.  All four of them were answering machines ^_^; so I had to wake up Dad... again (poor guy.)  He gave me more numbers, this time expanding the search to another town, and I tried again.  This time I got a person!  Yay!  ... except that their office was in NEWBERG (far away).  She said that they might have someone in the area, and would have someone call us.  GAH!  Fine. Bobby tried to turn off the water main, but it was just too hard to turn the handle. So we waited... for about five minutes, then went to bed.  I didn't get into a good sleep until about 3:30 AM, and then I finally got a phone call at about 7:30, from the woman that worked for the plumbers.  Did they ever call?  No?  Well sorry, but we're really busy, and can't get you in until Wednesday.  Told her to forget it, and since it was too early to call anyone to help, I just left everyone sleeping (and the water still running) and went to get another load of stuff from the old house.


Now, whilst I was away loading the truck, hubby got a hold of a plumber who said he could be by the house in about half an hour, so I finished up my load, hubby took my place, and I commenced to wait for the plumber from Jim's Plumbing to come.  He came.  He saw.  He turned off the water   Upon inspection, it turns out that that when Dave (the owner's boyfriend) fixed the tub, he reinstalled the knobs wrong.  The plumber's boss, Jim himself, showed up and explained that just replacing the hardware wouldn't be enough -- the valve needed to be replaced, which meant cutting a square out of the wall on the other side of the shower.  I told him to do it, and authorized new hardware, too -- of a kind that will not let anyone get scalded if someone, say, flushes a toilet whilst they are getting a shower. 

A lot happened after that, but the important thing is that when he opened up the wall, he found damage.  Recent damage.  It turns out that Dave had put the hardware back on wrong, and it was causing damage inside the wall.  Argh!  That made the job much bigger, and the poor man was here for hours and hours trying to get everything working properly.  When he was finally, finally done, I asked him to look at a few more things that were possible issues, and no big deal, but the last thing I asked him to do was crawl under the house and make sure that Dave properly repaired where the tub was leaking under the house.  Well, Dave messed up the plumbing in the bathroom, so I think I had a good reason to ask, and since it would only take a few minutes to look, under the house the guy went!

Poor, poor man.  He'd already been working in a stuffy bathroom for over five hours, then belly-crawling under the house in this horrible heat we've been having... and he's not a little guy!  Tall and buffed out, I'm sure it was a tight fit!  When he came out he was sweating profusely and nearly hyperventilating! :(  So what's the news?  Did Dave do a good job?  It turns out that...

... no.  He didn't.  As a matter of fact, it's leaking in TWO places under there!  AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!   Well, I wasn't about to ask that poor man to stay and fix it.  It was after five, and he was clearly exhausted, and besides... I feel like I need to give Dave the opportunity to address this since it's not an emergency.  He WILL take care of it properly this time, though -- it was in the contract that he would repair it (or have it repaired) so he HAS to address it.

In the meantime, youngest (non-verbal autistic) desperately wanted to go out (but couldn't since I couldn't leave the house) and the phone company showed up to finally fix the phone lines (which I already mentioned,) really adding to the chaos here!

When the day was done, I had to give the plumber $768, which I know I'm going to have to fight the current owner over, but her boyfriend CAUSED the problem, AND didn't fix the problem under the house like he said he would!

Speaking of owning houses, the bank e-mailed me yesterday to let me know that the USDA has JUST gotten to the files submitted on July 1st... and ours was submitted on July 17th!    Lord I hope they move quickly over there at USDA -- It's costing me $187 a week to keep my 4% interest rate, not to mention the fact that the rent here at the new place will jump up another hundred dollars if we go past the 26th of the month... and they don't want to prorate it, meaning they want over a thousand dollars in rent money, even if the deal closes a week after we pay them  

There IS good news in all of this, though!  We love the new place, and our non-verbal is doing VERY well with the transition.  That part's EXTRA good news!    

Genki, I'm exhausted reading all that.  What a stress filled couple of days.  I hope everything gets fixed easy and the loan quickly comes through.  I hope things are smooth sailing for this point on.

I am also totally exhausted for you! I am glad you like the place and especially glad about your nonverbal DD liking it.  I am glad also that you are staying on top of everything so well.  Just hang in there.....this will all be really funny later on!!   

Just a little update:  The house has STILL not closed, and if it doesn't do so by Tuesday (the 26th,) we'll have to pay another $372.30 to keep our 4% interest rate    ... AND the owners are going to want over a thousand dollars for rent (more than our mortgage will be)! :(

Stresssssss~!!

Good Grief.....I am exhausted just sitting here reading this!!

I'll be honest....I really thought the plumber's bill would be higher.       You'd better get your
money back.....  

I just had a thought.    This Dave person...seeing he screwed up the plumbing...couldn't that
come out of the  $1,000 rent?   They will have to pay you back anyway,   right?

I hope this is all settled soon.  We are stressing out with you.    Wish we could give you
some of esme's  muffin's.

Ack, I really feel for you Genki.    

Really hope it gets done by Tueday  

I e-mailed our banker this morning, and she said that she doubts it will be done by Tuesday

On the plus side, our youngest has been much calmer since we moved to the new place, with fewer behavior problems.

luvtoread wrote:I just had a thought.    This Dave person...seeing he screwed up the plumbing...couldn't that
come out of the  $1,000 rent?   They will have to pay you back anyway,   right?

Sorry luv, I didn't see this 'til now!  I paid the plumber with closing cost money, and the owner has signed an agreement to pay that portion of our closing costs.

Wow, Genki! So sorry you've had to deal with this but my understanding is that most house move-in's are fraught with delays, tension (aka STRESS) and those ever-popular unexpected extra costs.  

Here's wishing you no more of the above! What a blessing that your girls are taking the move well!!

Did you mention your closing date? I may have missed it.

Meh >_<  No closing date yet, but our banker said (a couple of days ago) that the USDA is just now looking at requests submitted on July 11th... and ours was sent in on the 18th, so we should be getting close, just not close enough to close by the 26th! :(

Here's an update:

I got an e-mail from our banker yesterday saying that the USDA had just gotten to the loan application that she's sent the day before mine, so she's confident that they'll get to our file this week (um... tomorrow is the last day of the week!)  Please, please, please!

Since we didn't close by the 26th, we have to pay another $376 out-of-pocket to extend our 4% rate lock.  The rates aren't much higher than that right now, but if we change anything having to do with the loan, we lose our place at USDA and have to start over!

The landlord wants our rent check, and if we don't close by the 5th, he WON'T prorate it!!  What the hell?  I consider that theft, but there's nothing I can do about it -- we're already living at the house, and we want to be there  

So the stress continues; same old, same old.  I hope to god that our banker is right and that we'll close by next week!!

Really hope it all gets sorted out soon for you 

On the plus side, the sink in the second bathroom started leaking today... but since we don't own the house yet, it's the landlord's responsibility to come and fix it

Tomorrow I should have a big update -- we're supposed to go sign the final papers tomorrow

FINALLY!!!!     

Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you, Genki. Here's to a smooth closing!

Today we were supposed to go in and sign the papers to transfer the title to our names.  Notice I said "supposed to".  

Let me backtrack a little and explain a bit of what's been going on.  Although we were going to get the paperwork done today, I had requested that the house not actually fund (payment go through) until Monday, the 15th.  We have been renting the house since July 26th (and living in it since August 1st), and when we made our August 26th payment, the owner said they would not prorate the rent if we did not close by September 5th.  That means that they want to keep over $600 in rent on a place that we OWN!   That is just NOT right.  Truly, I consider it theft.  I told them that since they refuse to prorate the rent, we will not sign the papers until Monday, as that is the (amended) date we agreed to close by.  Every day that passes is another $35 we're paying them, so I wanted to wait until Monday to save me that $175!  I told the title place this when I made the appointment yesterday.

We got a phone call this morning saying that the lenders said, "Not today," and to cancel our appointment.  

Came to work, emailed the bank, got one response back saying (basically) "No idea!" and waited...  At 11:30-ish I called my loan officer and found out that there were conflicting dates, but it's all been resolved, and we MUST close by tomorrow.  Period.

OK, I can deal with that.  I hate being stolen from, but we do what we must do!  Called the Title company.  The conversation went something like this:

Her:  "It's pretty much crunch time... Could you possibly come in before work tomorrow?"

Me:   "YES!  That is MUCH better for me!  I can come in right after I drop the kids off at school."

Her:  "Great!  Tomorrow morning, then!  Did (loan officer) tell you how much it would be?  I hope you won't be too surprised..."

Me: *gulp* "No she didn't... how much?"

Her: (lists off number that must be paid tomorrow)

Me:   "That's significantly less than (loan officer) told me it would be..."

Her:  "Isn't that good news?  That's what the loan officer approved, so let's go with that!"

Oh my gosh!  Some good news, finally!   You don't know (actually, you probably do) how much I needed some good news for a change!  I can pay the bills (was afraid I wouldn't have enough to close if I paid them,) buy groceries, buy the supplies to weather-proof the house, fix the (donated to us) riding lawn mower so that we don't have to hurt ourselves whilst mowing...!!

There has been so much going on lately that I'm still having trouble depressurizing!  It's slowly, slowly trickling away, like an overly-inflated balloon with a miniscule hole, but anything helps at this point!

It's been a long and anxiety-provoking journey, but we're almost at the finish line!  Thank you for supporting me through this, whether by thoughts or by deed.  Thank you.      

OMG genki...what an exhausting road it has been for you.  So glad you gave me the link to your update, and all along I thought everything was settled.  Geez, what an ordeal and sooo much stress.  You sure did get some rotten breaks, so about time something good happened.  The behavior of those people is unforgiveable...I have an SG553 rifle in one of my inventories, if you'd like to borrow it !!   

Sending tons of Hugs...      

Genki, I just can't wait to hear you are a homeowner.   I was reading about Job in the Bible yesterday and how much he had to cope with and thought of you!  You definitely have the patience of Job!  I am so happy this long ordeal is almost over.