My wife and I have been living in two places since June of last year. She in Massachusetts, and me in the suburban city of Yonkers. While we were together on holidays and weekends, we were apart more than we were together.
Over the last month we've been riding this roller coaster, the ups and downs of selling a house, packing up the old house, dealing with the movers, finding a new house, negotiating with the sellers of the new house, dealing with the bank (perhaps a post in itself), two closings, three address changes, living in a one-bedroom apartment with two dogs, and finally one new address where we can both be together.
There's probably nothing worse than when you've sold your home, and are still waiting for the mortgage commitment for your new home. Our bank made us jump through more than a few flaming hoops in the process. We were 48 hours before the closing date with no commitment and they wanted just "a few more documents" that we had provided, but they had misplaced (and later found). One can only hope that there is a special place in heaven or hell for bank bureaucrats whose paperwork gets "misplaced" when they're slated to enter the pearly gates and they find themselves in a much warmer climate.
Usually this would not be a problem, except that the movers packed away some key backup documents and a checkbook that was locked up in a warehouse on the Massachusetts North Shore.
The tension and stress that led up to last Friday's closing was incredible. Finally as we closed at 2 p.m. this past Friday, the wave of emotions swept over us and finally receeded.
With all the stress of the past few weeks behind us, we have both been incredibly productive. As we spent three out of the four weekend days working on the house or preparing for the move next month, both of us commented on now the Roller Coaster has stopped, we can get on with out lives...together at last.
After a very activity filled weekend, my wife remarked, "It doesn't seem like we closed on Friday, just four days ago. It seems a lot longer than that. Nothing like putting all that stress behind you.
Nothing like being together everyday and every night, too. Only 4 weeks to go before we move into our new home. It seems like a long time, but it will happen really quickly.
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"Our bank made us jump through more than a few flaming hoops in the process. " The last time I went through this I broke into hives and had to get benadryl by IV at the hospital. Warmer climate indeed for those underwriters. Bastards. Their job I think is to see if you will crumple under pressure and commit a violent crime or set the trash can at the bank on fire, therefore making you a bad risk.
Good for you for getting through their hoops and for reaching the end of your rocky ride Doggie!
Beth -- Thanks, good luck with your naming convention issues.
Stim -- At the closure, my attorney provided a litany of closing horror stories. Fortunately, we had no issues.
AHP -- We are enjoying each other's company now. Which is probably why I'm posting less than before.
Surly -- I'm sure you'll have the appropriate recipe card.
Tia -- thanks.
Lea -- Thanks you've done the closing thing recently as well as the moving thing.
Chuck -- Now that we bought a house in Connecticut, we're practically neighbors.
Malusinka -- Come back in two weeks. Glad she found what you needed.
Deborah -- Connecticut. In Fairfield county bordering the sound.
I feel your pain. R
You know you're just a stone's throw away from the Jai Alai fronton now, right? :-D
Congrats, Andy. Best of luck to you and the S.O. in your new home.
trilogy -- strong and resilient.
John -- Wow you must really like to live on the edge. I bet looking abck on the housing meltdown, you must feel like you dodged a couple of bullets.
Bill -- Massachusetts and Yonkers to Connecticut. The prices in the City too high, the taxes in Westchester, Putnam and Jersey out of sight, Connecticut was the last option, and I'm at least an hour and ten minute commute to Manhattan. However, I can sail on the Sound and my wife can run her business there and have a large garden too.
Glad yours has come to an end. Nice to see you back. xoxo
Drywalling had been done downstairs in an area that had been unimproved until very recently. They had failed to install access panels for areas that contained plumbing when they installed the dry wall. They had not installed doors either, but that didn't apparently bother anyone. We bought the house 'as is' with great confidence. Dan is an architect and both of us are do-it-yourselfers. It took about eight phone calls and all the call-waiting you can imagine, and a drive out to the house by our RE agent just to get someone in a supervisory role to understand that it would not be an expensive job, and that we preferred to do this ourselves because we knew the quality would be better if done to an architect's specifications. Since Dan had already given notice at his job, we had hired a moving truck and some local young men to pack the truck, we were between a rock and a hard place. We had signed and couriered all documents and had written the biggest check either of us has ever written with our own personal money. We had the nagging feeling that our mortgage broker had fudged some details. Our stuff was mostly packed and waiting for the few days until the truck would come. By the time we got to our new house in Bellingham, Washington after that ordeal, the roller coaster feeling was replaced by deep exhaustion. We stayed with friends the first night. After our new bed was delivered the next day we slept under the skylights and the near silence of living outside of town broken only by star shine began fixing us up after that ordeal.
So I can't imagine how you'd feel any different.
PS - Most of that drywall was taken down and replaced when Dan remodelled the downstairs to put in electrical, lighting and all kind of things that were not there that didn't bother the loan company at all. Thus, our experience of arbitrary crap throwing by people who had no idea what was inside the walls or how their emptyheadedness plague the people who have to deal with them.
Hooray for your new home and for getting into the same place with your beloved!
Glad the worst of it is behind you now!
:-)
Gwendolyn -- It was starting to get very old. Each of us wanted to be with each other every night instead of every weekend. We can move forward now.
Douglas -- I am lucky that only a 4 hour drive separated us. being over 15 hundred miles apart must be excrutiating. I'm sorry that is the life you have to live right now, but better to be employed than not employed.
Susanne -- Fortunately we weren't moving thousands of miles, but letting a bureucrat control your life is one of the worst feelings in the world. Your previous posts about where you live have always sounded idyllic. So glad you have the space that you want with the person you want to spend it with. The closing department at the bank need a $3,000 deposit justified. It was just one of those eleventh hour details that was hanging over our heads. It's all in the past now, and we're looking forward, not back.
My wife would be envious about being married to an architect. My DIY skills are limited. She wanted to marry somone who was handy but only got 80% of what she was hoping for.
o/e -- We should have purchased a home when the bank's only requirement was to fog a mirror and sign the loan documents.
spotted mind -- Ugh what a challenging job. Yeah it's all in the past, thankfully.
Brenda -- It was more like the last straw.
Eva T. -- Thanks.
nurseliz -- We are kindred spirits.
Teddy -- It is in the past so we harbor no grudges. It sucked when it was going on but we've moved on. We''re in Connecticut now!
Cindy -- Appreciate the well wishes. We're happy to be together again.
Stupid banks.
Rated.