I am finally a homeowner... assuming the funds were paid out of the escrow account to the seller this morning...
You have to love how mortgage lenders mess up your loan amount on the day of closing, don't provide the closing packet to the attorney until 2 hours before closing, and then leave work promptly at 5:30pm so you cannot close in totality until they approve some faxed documents when they decide to look at them in the morning. Especially when you weren't able to start the signing documents until 5:00pm. And then my name was mis-spelled, so we had to reprint about half the documents and sign them again. After reconciling the lender's inaccurate math.
And people wonder why this mortgage/housing crisis occurred.
We did actually get to go into our house last night (which should never have happened being that the seller did not receive his funds.) Reason being, we have a neighbor of epic proportions. I will from this point on call her Maryann. You see, Maryann strongly believes in the neighborhood sharing keys in case of an emergency. Being that it's a townhouse, we share an open space attic with 3 other houses before there is a firewall separating us from the next 4 houses. We also share a wall and apparently 5 years ago there was some kind of pipe burst and the whole place could have flooded had she not had a key to get in and turn it off. Despite the fact that there is a master shutoff valve for the street 2 houses down from us (she showed it to us yesterday... in addition to her alarm code and where her house water turnoff is.) We also were lectured for at least an hour on the benefits of living in the community and taking care of one another. There were almost tears... from her sentimentality and me losing my patience.
I decided the best course of action was to play super sweet young neighbor girl. (It's sickening how much I can turn it on when the need arises. It's a gift, what can I say.) We were also informed we are the first "normal" neighbors she's had in that house - she's lived there since the community was built in 1972. The first lady lived there with her [straight] son, the second lived there with her gay son and his boyfriend, and the last lady was deaf. I didn't quite know how to appropriately respond to her description of the previous neighbors, so I just kind of went "huha, okay?" And tried to move on to another subject as soon as possible to disguise my shock at what was just said to me (and suppress my anger.) We brought up how we are really excited about moving in and look forward to getting a puppy soon. She was like "Oh, please not one that barks all the time!" To which we responded, "Of course not, we don't hate ourselves." She was like "Great, then it can be our dog. I can take care of it while you're gone and let it outside during the day." Because she had tried adopting one, but when it needed to go outside at night during the cold winter she decided it was enough and sent it back... but there are 2 of us (and her!) so we should have no worries about our future dog. As long as it's quiet. And she can care for it during the day while we're at work.
This was during her tour of her house and our street. She reiterated at least 12 times in the last 20 minutes of the tour the need for us to share a key and how she would NEVER go into our house unless it was an emergency. In fact, Maryann asserts, she's been a Realtor for 25 years so going into other people's houses doesn't hold any interest for her. She left for about 20 minutes after which she returned to take the lock box (for realtors showing the house) off the door... and let herself right on in...
I was gone picking up the best pizza in the world while this happened, but my husband and couple of friends were there and witnessed the event. We decided we're probably going to need an extra dead bolt, a chain on the door, and a yappy dog to prevent the imminent intrusions of Maryann.
Our street should have one of those carved wood signs that say: Welcome to the Neighborhood! Surrender Your Privacy at the Door.
Lets just hope I don't have to get creative with ways to take that privacy back.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
RIP MJ
I never thought I would be so saddened by Michael Jackson's death. But I really am. Now, I was a fan of his music, but his questionable lifestyle certainly cast a large shadow on my personal opinion of him in the last years. Lets just call it massive skepticism. However, he was a pop icon and deserved the status for his talent even if his private behavior was suspect.
The thing I love about pop culture is... as sad as this may be... that it provides a unifying trend among our immensely disparate society. I genuinely feel sorry for the celebrities lives it eventually ruins, but pop culture and its icons play huge roles in our lives even if they are inadvertent. We all remember watching the Thriller video for the first time, or if you're like me, him singing at the end of the movie Free Willy. (Free Willy was one of my top 5 movies from growing up, so it's very sentimental to me.) And those memories strangely matter. Maybe it's because the common unifying institutions have begun to erode, but more likely it is because pop icons are far more democratic than any political election could hope to be. Granted, the music execs play a large role in deciding who gets a shot and who does not, but the public ultimately decides if that person/group will be a success. We listen to radio, buy concert tickets, and buy albums. And if we do not like the artist, we simply don't bother. It's a relatively simple process that is often unfair to those who go undiscovered and are truly talented. But that does not lessen the impact of those that are.
So, here's to you Michael Jackson. May your afterlife be much more peaceful than your earthly one. Thanks for your great contributions to music and our pop culture. They will not be forgotten.
The thing I love about pop culture is... as sad as this may be... that it provides a unifying trend among our immensely disparate society. I genuinely feel sorry for the celebrities lives it eventually ruins, but pop culture and its icons play huge roles in our lives even if they are inadvertent. We all remember watching the Thriller video for the first time, or if you're like me, him singing at the end of the movie Free Willy. (Free Willy was one of my top 5 movies from growing up, so it's very sentimental to me.) And those memories strangely matter. Maybe it's because the common unifying institutions have begun to erode, but more likely it is because pop icons are far more democratic than any political election could hope to be. Granted, the music execs play a large role in deciding who gets a shot and who does not, but the public ultimately decides if that person/group will be a success. We listen to radio, buy concert tickets, and buy albums. And if we do not like the artist, we simply don't bother. It's a relatively simple process that is often unfair to those who go undiscovered and are truly talented. But that does not lessen the impact of those that are.
So, here's to you Michael Jackson. May your afterlife be much more peaceful than your earthly one. Thanks for your great contributions to music and our pop culture. They will not be forgotten.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Out of Office Reply
Actually, make that an "in the office perpetually until I am too tired to drive home, then go home and work" reply.
Good news is that business is booming. I told my chiropractor that yesterday and she said that is the first time she's heard anyone have good news about work. I agreed that I, and my husband, are incredibly fortunate in that regard. However, the stress that accompanies it on top of a recent trip that included seeing family often overshadows it in my mind. And greatly contributed to my new back problems.
I'm glad I went to Wisconsin for the weekend and it was great to see my Grandma (and to see that she's doing far better than my mom said) and my friends. It was good to see other family members too, but talk about stress. And on top of it, I had perhaps the worst flight of my entire life. Getting delayed 3 hours on the red eye, waiting to rent a car for an additional 45 minutes that is not the brand/model you drive (although it was fun to test out the Prius first hand. Honda is just better), and having to drive through the incredibly foggy, dark countryside at 4am is not my idea of a good time. Especially when I still have not been able to catch up on anything resembling sleep. At least I brought home some good cheese to comfort my stressful self.
So, all this is to say that I am absolutely exhausted and my time is maxed out. Hopefully I'll be able to catch a break this weekend - I hope so considering it is our first anniversary! But, I'm not counting on it too much. I must say that I really am enjoying being busy for work though. If I had even a little bit more sleep I would be having a blast. Instead, for the first time, I understand why people do drugs to stay awake. After a while, caffeine does NOTHING. This has never happened to me before. Welcome to the real world! Yikes.
Good news is that business is booming. I told my chiropractor that yesterday and she said that is the first time she's heard anyone have good news about work. I agreed that I, and my husband, are incredibly fortunate in that regard. However, the stress that accompanies it on top of a recent trip that included seeing family often overshadows it in my mind. And greatly contributed to my new back problems.
I'm glad I went to Wisconsin for the weekend and it was great to see my Grandma (and to see that she's doing far better than my mom said) and my friends. It was good to see other family members too, but talk about stress. And on top of it, I had perhaps the worst flight of my entire life. Getting delayed 3 hours on the red eye, waiting to rent a car for an additional 45 minutes that is not the brand/model you drive (although it was fun to test out the Prius first hand. Honda is just better), and having to drive through the incredibly foggy, dark countryside at 4am is not my idea of a good time. Especially when I still have not been able to catch up on anything resembling sleep. At least I brought home some good cheese to comfort my stressful self.
So, all this is to say that I am absolutely exhausted and my time is maxed out. Hopefully I'll be able to catch a break this weekend - I hope so considering it is our first anniversary! But, I'm not counting on it too much. I must say that I really am enjoying being busy for work though. If I had even a little bit more sleep I would be having a blast. Instead, for the first time, I understand why people do drugs to stay awake. After a while, caffeine does NOTHING. This has never happened to me before. Welcome to the real world! Yikes.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Attention Worthless Generation: Give Me A Break
I haven't had a good blog rant in a while, so here it goes.
Yesterday, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal highlighting spring college commencement speakers' apologies to the Class of 2009 for causing this economic mess that they are inheriting. The speeches ranged in specific content, but most apologized for past slovenliness (my term) especially in regard to ruthless pursuit of greed and self-interest with no long-term regard of consequences. They then proceeded to essentially say, "Sorry graduates, but you're going to have to clean this mess up. That is the only avenue your ambitions can actually serve. Listen to what we say, not what we do. Maybe you can leave the world better for children, but your generation is pretty much screwed." Thanks guys, for those amazingly inspirational sentiments. I mean, it makes me want to go right out there, don my comrade uniform, and "get to work for the common good." Especially to bail out the idiots who got us here... oh wait, they don't actually want our opinion on that. No, again, they want us to listen to all their great wisdom as to how to get ourselves out of this mess.
Huh?
So, let me get this straight. The generation who is largely responsible for this idiocy now wants us to sit back and follow their orders on how to fix it? The reason being that they are now "sorry?"
I don't think so. Hell will freeze over before I listen to these buffoons. Or we'll turn into Idiocracy and I'll be executed for having an independent brain in my head. If you haven't seen the movie, you should. Poor Mike Judge has gotten so screwed over by Fox's "marketing efforts" that most people have not heard of it... but it's worth multiple viewings. (I have a tirade against Fox marketing that I will save for another day. Lets just say it is largely related to their handling of Firefly among other quality shows and movies that tank because their marketing director is one of the biggest of the aforementioned buffoons to have ever walked the entertainment planet.)
As far as I'm concerned, the Baby Boomers and Me Generation are complete wastes of space. They squandered their affluence, opportunities, and general peace in names of themselves. As a general rule, I am not at all opposed to market selfishness as I don't think there is a omniscient human (or group of humans) who can accurately dictate the actions of individuals. And even if there was, that is immoral in principle and should not be entered into by anyone who still has an iota of free conscience left in their heads. However, this generation takes selfishness to an entirely new level... to a degree that it needs its own definition to differentiate it from "good selfishness" espoused by those such as Adam Smith, F.A. Hayek, and even Tocqueville when you get down to it.
Lets call it, "Self aggrandizement at the expense of all reason, morals, or social consciousness?" That's probably a little too long... Or maybe, "Denial of reality." Getting closer. However, I think what truly captures these people is simply, "Asininity."
They don't want the freedom that their parents fought, and many died, for. Why? Because freedom takes work largely through choice. You have to actively employ your brain and reason to determine whether or not a good or activity actually is in your self interest instead of just doing what you want. At the end of the day, self-interest is not supposed to be hedonism. It's very existence depends on rational choice. Lest us not forget this is the generation that produced the Summer of Love, the irrational elevation of hippieness, and general apathy... except toward green living. That they love because it only affirms the theories of their youth!
I guess the critical flaw in the way Smith is taught is there is no emphasis on the extent to which people would become lazy. Smith did address it, but it's not the primary objective unless relating it to why the free market is necessary. It also does not receive as much explicit emphasis because back in the day, lazy people perished. There was no option. Unless you were an aristocrat, but they were few and there were no Cinderella stories regardless of what Disney tells us. (Although I finally saw Wall-E and it did a great job of illustrating what happens when you don't have to work or make choices. Props to Pixar for a great film. As was Up. Absolutely fantastic, but that's for another day too.)
Today, virtually everyone is an aristocrat of old even if they technically have a job. Technology has provided us with free time previously unfathomable and enabled us to conduct more cerebral work than every before. Thanks college! Both of these things are great when used well.
However, when one insists on living in one's head more than interacting with the world, bad things happen. You lose your connection to society, people, and general common sense. I'm not debasing a good education or modern living - I would not want to have been born at any other time in history and I am unfortunately addicted to learning at a rapid pace. However, higher education should not inversely correlate to common sense.
The interesting thing is that our generation - call us Gen Y or the Millennials or whatever other buzz word of choice - but in my experience most of our generation is at the very least hard working. This is in part due to elevated opportunities at younger ages, especially in education. While not all of us trained for Harvard beginning in infancy, most of us still realized that in order to succeed we needed to work hard and be decent people. Not that there aren't exceptions... there always are... but even though in many ways life has been easy for us due to technology (and the subsequent lack of scarcity) we realized that in order to maintain that ease or one day have the option of not working hard that we would indeed have to work our tails off when we are young. And competition is high since we've all been elevated. Being raised in this competitive jungle has contributed to our work ethic and knowledge only second to the advent of the Internet.
For children of the waste-of-spacers, we either realized how damn lucky our parents were to grow up in an age of affluence or how unlucky if they didn't get a piece of the pie (to what degree luck plays a role is certainly up for debate. See The Black Swan and Fooled By Randomness for a deep discussion of the issue.) People's reactions vary, but the two most common in my experience are either adopting the work ethic of rightfully successful parents (or other role models) or working against the ways of the parents because there's no way they can sustain that lifestyle - whether it be good or bad. Think of it in a SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) diagram (pictured below.)
And, for the stupid members of my generation, they are mostly getting a huge dose of big bad reality since the parents footing their obscene bills have lost their shirts in the stock market or are losing their houses. It would be sad if it wasn't deserved. (Not to say that everyone who gets in over their head is a complete idiot... there are plenty of victims, but most of them in my experience deserve it 100% for making ridiculous choices. As tragic as it may seem at the time.) Their kids will now have to jump on the hard working bandwagon too, or lose their former affluence. Either scenario will be a significant improvement to their current lives and probably the most successful action to prevent a crisis of this magnitude from happening again.
So, in conclusion, I am sick of the Worthless Generation continuously criticizing my generation and expecting us to do what they say hook, line, and sinker. This is me saying, "No, I will not follow your directives. I will find my own. Ones that are thoughtful, decent, and self-interested to the core." And, "Quit criticizing us before we've even had a chance to prove ourselves. You had your shot and blew it. We've not yet even begun to show our potential and I'm sick of hearing what a failure I am before even beginning. You are the failures, not us, so get out of the way."
I've been in the business of being successful for 20 years. So I will ask the Worthless Generation: What have you done in the last 20 years that warrants my respect since ruining our economic, political, and numerous societal institutions doesn't quite cut it?
I'm sure there are individuals with good answers and those are the people I respect. Yet, they just appear to be ordinary citizens. Imagine that.
I'm considering revising this to be an open letter, but don't have the time to re-write at the moment. Soon though. Soon.
Yesterday, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal highlighting spring college commencement speakers' apologies to the Class of 2009 for causing this economic mess that they are inheriting. The speeches ranged in specific content, but most apologized for past slovenliness (my term) especially in regard to ruthless pursuit of greed and self-interest with no long-term regard of consequences. They then proceeded to essentially say, "Sorry graduates, but you're going to have to clean this mess up. That is the only avenue your ambitions can actually serve. Listen to what we say, not what we do. Maybe you can leave the world better for children, but your generation is pretty much screwed." Thanks guys, for those amazingly inspirational sentiments. I mean, it makes me want to go right out there, don my comrade uniform, and "get to work for the common good." Especially to bail out the idiots who got us here... oh wait, they don't actually want our opinion on that. No, again, they want us to listen to all their great wisdom as to how to get ourselves out of this mess.
Huh?
So, let me get this straight. The generation who is largely responsible for this idiocy now wants us to sit back and follow their orders on how to fix it? The reason being that they are now "sorry?"
I don't think so. Hell will freeze over before I listen to these buffoons. Or we'll turn into Idiocracy and I'll be executed for having an independent brain in my head. If you haven't seen the movie, you should. Poor Mike Judge has gotten so screwed over by Fox's "marketing efforts" that most people have not heard of it... but it's worth multiple viewings. (I have a tirade against Fox marketing that I will save for another day. Lets just say it is largely related to their handling of Firefly among other quality shows and movies that tank because their marketing director is one of the biggest of the aforementioned buffoons to have ever walked the entertainment planet.)
As far as I'm concerned, the Baby Boomers and Me Generation are complete wastes of space. They squandered their affluence, opportunities, and general peace in names of themselves. As a general rule, I am not at all opposed to market selfishness as I don't think there is a omniscient human (or group of humans) who can accurately dictate the actions of individuals. And even if there was, that is immoral in principle and should not be entered into by anyone who still has an iota of free conscience left in their heads. However, this generation takes selfishness to an entirely new level... to a degree that it needs its own definition to differentiate it from "good selfishness" espoused by those such as Adam Smith, F.A. Hayek, and even Tocqueville when you get down to it.
Lets call it, "Self aggrandizement at the expense of all reason, morals, or social consciousness?" That's probably a little too long... Or maybe, "Denial of reality." Getting closer. However, I think what truly captures these people is simply, "Asininity."
They don't want the freedom that their parents fought, and many died, for. Why? Because freedom takes work largely through choice. You have to actively employ your brain and reason to determine whether or not a good or activity actually is in your self interest instead of just doing what you want. At the end of the day, self-interest is not supposed to be hedonism. It's very existence depends on rational choice. Lest us not forget this is the generation that produced the Summer of Love, the irrational elevation of hippieness, and general apathy... except toward green living. That they love because it only affirms the theories of their youth!
I guess the critical flaw in the way Smith is taught is there is no emphasis on the extent to which people would become lazy. Smith did address it, but it's not the primary objective unless relating it to why the free market is necessary. It also does not receive as much explicit emphasis because back in the day, lazy people perished. There was no option. Unless you were an aristocrat, but they were few and there were no Cinderella stories regardless of what Disney tells us. (Although I finally saw Wall-E and it did a great job of illustrating what happens when you don't have to work or make choices. Props to Pixar for a great film. As was Up. Absolutely fantastic, but that's for another day too.)
Today, virtually everyone is an aristocrat of old even if they technically have a job. Technology has provided us with free time previously unfathomable and enabled us to conduct more cerebral work than every before. Thanks college! Both of these things are great when used well.
However, when one insists on living in one's head more than interacting with the world, bad things happen. You lose your connection to society, people, and general common sense. I'm not debasing a good education or modern living - I would not want to have been born at any other time in history and I am unfortunately addicted to learning at a rapid pace. However, higher education should not inversely correlate to common sense.
The interesting thing is that our generation - call us Gen Y or the Millennials or whatever other buzz word of choice - but in my experience most of our generation is at the very least hard working. This is in part due to elevated opportunities at younger ages, especially in education. While not all of us trained for Harvard beginning in infancy, most of us still realized that in order to succeed we needed to work hard and be decent people. Not that there aren't exceptions... there always are... but even though in many ways life has been easy for us due to technology (and the subsequent lack of scarcity) we realized that in order to maintain that ease or one day have the option of not working hard that we would indeed have to work our tails off when we are young. And competition is high since we've all been elevated. Being raised in this competitive jungle has contributed to our work ethic and knowledge only second to the advent of the Internet.
For children of the waste-of-spacers, we either realized how damn lucky our parents were to grow up in an age of affluence or how unlucky if they didn't get a piece of the pie (to what degree luck plays a role is certainly up for debate. See The Black Swan and Fooled By Randomness for a deep discussion of the issue.) People's reactions vary, but the two most common in my experience are either adopting the work ethic of rightfully successful parents (or other role models) or working against the ways of the parents because there's no way they can sustain that lifestyle - whether it be good or bad. Think of it in a SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) diagram (pictured below.)
And, for the stupid members of my generation, they are mostly getting a huge dose of big bad reality since the parents footing their obscene bills have lost their shirts in the stock market or are losing their houses. It would be sad if it wasn't deserved. (Not to say that everyone who gets in over their head is a complete idiot... there are plenty of victims, but most of them in my experience deserve it 100% for making ridiculous choices. As tragic as it may seem at the time.) Their kids will now have to jump on the hard working bandwagon too, or lose their former affluence. Either scenario will be a significant improvement to their current lives and probably the most successful action to prevent a crisis of this magnitude from happening again.
So, in conclusion, I am sick of the Worthless Generation continuously criticizing my generation and expecting us to do what they say hook, line, and sinker. This is me saying, "No, I will not follow your directives. I will find my own. Ones that are thoughtful, decent, and self-interested to the core." And, "Quit criticizing us before we've even had a chance to prove ourselves. You had your shot and blew it. We've not yet even begun to show our potential and I'm sick of hearing what a failure I am before even beginning. You are the failures, not us, so get out of the way."
I've been in the business of being successful for 20 years. So I will ask the Worthless Generation: What have you done in the last 20 years that warrants my respect since ruining our economic, political, and numerous societal institutions doesn't quite cut it?
I'm sure there are individuals with good answers and those are the people I respect. Yet, they just appear to be ordinary citizens. Imagine that.
I'm considering revising this to be an open letter, but don't have the time to re-write at the moment. Soon though. Soon.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
When Clumsiness and Paranoia Combine
Two consecutive mornings this week resulted in injuries to my right thumb:
Tuesday morning
Randomly scraped a patch of skin off of my knuckle after depositing my bags into my back seat (before they and their contents hurtled themselves onto the floor of my backseat.) It is red and swollen today. I always fear gangrene when doing stupid things like that. I know there's an incredibly minute change of that ever happening... it does cross my mind though and makes me paranoid for about a week.
Wednesday morning
While picking up my computer bag before leaving the house (while running late of course) I managed to bend my thumb back to a degree that is no thumb is meant to go. Of course, I spend 8-10 hours a day on a computer where avoiding thumb use if virtually impossible. So it goes... I hope it's just sprained and not broken. This is the second time in the last 2 months I have done this. The last time I didn't notice the cause. Apparently pressing the space bar too hard.
All this to say, I had better not plan on chopping vegetables or fruit for at least another week or my poor thumb will be in severe danger of dismemberment.
*Update* I also managed to beat myself up yesterday... I got home from Dinner A'Fare (a store that designs a monthly menu and provides instructions and ingredients. You just come in for 1-2 hours and prepare the meals and throw them in the freezer to eat for the rest of the month. This service has been the most beneficial thing to my marriage thus far. I can only imagine what a monthly cleaning service will do!) and was exhausted. I begrudgingly began cooking some dinner since I was famished and knew that cereal or a bowl of soup wasn't going to cut it. Well, we have a "galley style" kitchen which is ridiculously small. I placed the cooler with my newly assembled meals by the door and proceeded to open the freezer door (directly perpendicular to the doorway.) I managed to roll the cooler into my leg (really hard somehow...) and when I stood up in pain smashed my spine on the freezer door. I think I then, again, sliced my hand open. It probably doesn't sound funny... rather stupid, but it resembled rehearsed slapstick comedy at its best if you had been an ant on the wall. And I have the bruises to prove it.
Tuesday morning
Randomly scraped a patch of skin off of my knuckle after depositing my bags into my back seat (before they and their contents hurtled themselves onto the floor of my backseat.) It is red and swollen today. I always fear gangrene when doing stupid things like that. I know there's an incredibly minute change of that ever happening... it does cross my mind though and makes me paranoid for about a week.
Wednesday morning
While picking up my computer bag before leaving the house (while running late of course) I managed to bend my thumb back to a degree that is no thumb is meant to go. Of course, I spend 8-10 hours a day on a computer where avoiding thumb use if virtually impossible. So it goes... I hope it's just sprained and not broken. This is the second time in the last 2 months I have done this. The last time I didn't notice the cause. Apparently pressing the space bar too hard.
All this to say, I had better not plan on chopping vegetables or fruit for at least another week or my poor thumb will be in severe danger of dismemberment.
*Update* I also managed to beat myself up yesterday... I got home from Dinner A'Fare (a store that designs a monthly menu and provides instructions and ingredients. You just come in for 1-2 hours and prepare the meals and throw them in the freezer to eat for the rest of the month. This service has been the most beneficial thing to my marriage thus far. I can only imagine what a monthly cleaning service will do!) and was exhausted. I begrudgingly began cooking some dinner since I was famished and knew that cereal or a bowl of soup wasn't going to cut it. Well, we have a "galley style" kitchen which is ridiculously small. I placed the cooler with my newly assembled meals by the door and proceeded to open the freezer door (directly perpendicular to the doorway.) I managed to roll the cooler into my leg (really hard somehow...) and when I stood up in pain smashed my spine on the freezer door. I think I then, again, sliced my hand open. It probably doesn't sound funny... rather stupid, but it resembled rehearsed slapstick comedy at its best if you had been an ant on the wall. And I have the bruises to prove it.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Buying A House Sure Is Fun!
Actually, not at all. Unless you love mounds paperwork that make you feel like you're signing away your soul to Freddie Mac (ie. the devil). And unattainable deadlines that you have no control over and may actually void your contract. When I found that out, my head almost exploded for 3 days straight.
On the bright side, assuming all goes well, I will actually get to live in my new (to me) townhouse by the end of the summer. And we got a deal on the place... it was owned by an old lady who either passed away or moved to another place (I assume to receive better care), so despite being old with minimal upgrades the house is in great shape. I honestly can't even believe it. It's moments like these where I pause, and think, "How the hell did I get HERE?" I mean, I'm 25 years old. Neither of my parents own a house... my husband's parents have a beautiful house, but they can't afford it... so how on earth did we decide at 25 and 26 respectively to make such a purchase?
Well, first of all, we need to get out of our apartment. Actually, we needed to move out last June, but couldn't because the timing and moving expenses conflicted with our wedding. So, over the last year, our apartment has exuded wear and tear. It doesn't matter how much we clean it... the spots refuse to come out of the carpet, there's a lingering odd smell that we can't locate, and we live in perpetual fear that either the ceiling above or floor below is going to collapse. And, now there are bugs. Centipedes and ants and (hopefully) a lone black jumping spider. I'm also afraid I saw a cockroach scurrying about the other night. ICK!!!! I hate bugs more than anything. They make me want to simultaneously throw up, scream, and blindly run away. Our complex has always had issues with insects, but previously they had not gotten to us because they're pretty good about exterminating when needed. Apparently they got the memo that we're moving out, so they're throwing us a big farewell insect bash instead.
Also, did I mention the yellow (peeling) wallpaper? That's right... like in the famous story. I can speak from experience - it does indeed drive you mad.
In February we began looking for a new apartment and found out that we would be paying just as much for something to rent than we would to own, which tipped the scale to buying. Then gloriously Congress passed ARRA... granting us $8,000 just for purchasing a house. I think this is incredibly asinine, but if the Government insists on making such decisions at least I'll get back some of my taxes to pay off our car debt and own a house where we can write off the interest payments and acquire equity to use in the future since we don't plan on living in this house for more than 5 years.
We also ironed out some miscommunication and issues with our contractor... so all appears to be well there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all does indeed go well. Granted, it would pretty much take a meteor striking the new house for me to actually be surprised about a potential roadblock, so lets hope any other problems will be less than that.
In the meantime, I have to pick out cabinets, granite colors, and hardwood stain colors. Who ever thought that would be the intimidating part about buying a house? I regularly panic over choosing the wrong shade of stain that will cause our entire house to either look like a cave or a giant sunshine capture that blinds us upon entry. Or worse, God forbid, my kitchen table clashes with the floor or cabinets. This would be a catastrophe I'm not sure I could handle. Wish me luck, I meet with the cabinet designer this afternoon!
On the bright side, assuming all goes well, I will actually get to live in my new (to me) townhouse by the end of the summer. And we got a deal on the place... it was owned by an old lady who either passed away or moved to another place (I assume to receive better care), so despite being old with minimal upgrades the house is in great shape. I honestly can't even believe it. It's moments like these where I pause, and think, "How the hell did I get HERE?" I mean, I'm 25 years old. Neither of my parents own a house... my husband's parents have a beautiful house, but they can't afford it... so how on earth did we decide at 25 and 26 respectively to make such a purchase?
Well, first of all, we need to get out of our apartment. Actually, we needed to move out last June, but couldn't because the timing and moving expenses conflicted with our wedding. So, over the last year, our apartment has exuded wear and tear. It doesn't matter how much we clean it... the spots refuse to come out of the carpet, there's a lingering odd smell that we can't locate, and we live in perpetual fear that either the ceiling above or floor below is going to collapse. And, now there are bugs. Centipedes and ants and (hopefully) a lone black jumping spider. I'm also afraid I saw a cockroach scurrying about the other night. ICK!!!! I hate bugs more than anything. They make me want to simultaneously throw up, scream, and blindly run away. Our complex has always had issues with insects, but previously they had not gotten to us because they're pretty good about exterminating when needed. Apparently they got the memo that we're moving out, so they're throwing us a big farewell insect bash instead.
Also, did I mention the yellow (peeling) wallpaper? That's right... like in the famous story. I can speak from experience - it does indeed drive you mad.
In February we began looking for a new apartment and found out that we would be paying just as much for something to rent than we would to own, which tipped the scale to buying. Then gloriously Congress passed ARRA... granting us $8,000 just for purchasing a house. I think this is incredibly asinine, but if the Government insists on making such decisions at least I'll get back some of my taxes to pay off our car debt and own a house where we can write off the interest payments and acquire equity to use in the future since we don't plan on living in this house for more than 5 years.
We also ironed out some miscommunication and issues with our contractor... so all appears to be well there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all does indeed go well. Granted, it would pretty much take a meteor striking the new house for me to actually be surprised about a potential roadblock, so lets hope any other problems will be less than that.
In the meantime, I have to pick out cabinets, granite colors, and hardwood stain colors. Who ever thought that would be the intimidating part about buying a house? I regularly panic over choosing the wrong shade of stain that will cause our entire house to either look like a cave or a giant sunshine capture that blinds us upon entry. Or worse, God forbid, my kitchen table clashes with the floor or cabinets. This would be a catastrophe I'm not sure I could handle. Wish me luck, I meet with the cabinet designer this afternoon!
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