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You’d think someone trying to sell a house might return their agent’s phone calls this close to closing. It’s just after 11:00 AM on Wednesday morning and I’m supposed to be in the lawyer’s office tomorrow at 1:00 PM. There has been no response to the concerns we levied after the walk through on Monday afternoon. It’s not like the water heater was a new issue. They’ve known about it for weeks. Why hasn’t the damn thing been addressed?

I’ve still got it together for the most part, but I’m furious right now at the thought of postponing tomorrow’s appointment because they can’t pick up a phone.

Twenty-six hours and counting.

Sort of like Mambo #5, but harder to dance to.

Paul and I were to meet at the house at 3:00 PM to do a walk through post seller’s tenants. If you’ve spoken to me over the last few days, you know I’ve been a bit concerned about what I’d find once the house was laid bare.

I grabbed my camera on my way out the door this morning thinking I’d take some pictures while I was there today, but I forgot a change of clothes. To quote Ginny paraphrasing Tom Robbins, “Richmond in July is like the inside of a napalmed watermelon.” So instead of leaving the office at 2:30, I left at a quarter of two so I could head home and change before going to the house.

Of course, today is the day I got lost. First off, instead of staying on Powhite, I got off on Chippenham, and then got off on 60. That would have been okay had I kept going on 60, but I doubted myself and thought maybe I had really meant to get off on 360. After returning to Chippenham and going up another exit or two, I got off on 360 and realized I still wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I had plenty of time, so I just stayed on 360 figuring if all else failed I’d hit 288 and then I’d know exactly where I was. Thankfully, Ginny and I had been in the general area yesterday, so after a couple miles I realized where I was, took a few detours, and still made it to the house with ten minutes to spare.

The house had clearly been vacated, so I pulled up right into the driveway. I whispered to my truck — because talking to my truck in a normally volumed voice would have been crazy — “Get used to this spot. This is our new home.”

I got out of the truck and grabbed my camera gear. I stepped out into the middle of the culdesac and took a few pictures of the SOLD placard affixed to the for sale sign. I walked round the house checking the condition of the yard and the exterior. Something had been done to the window sills. I don’t think they were replaced, but they had been fixed. The door to the crawlspace was unlocked, so I went inside to see what the story was under there.

This was the only real problem area. Trash was strewn about, an improved state from the inspection, but still not up to snuff. I made a mental note and went around to the back yard. The brush pile was still there. Another mental note. A few soda cans and bottles. More notes.

I made my way up on to the back deck to look in the sliding glass door. The bedroom was very bright and appeared much larger without the high school dropout and his Insane Clown Posse wall hangings. I walked down the steps from the deck and continued around the house to the side deck off the kitchen. The steps had been replaced as we requested. I looked into the kitchen, and again, I was surprised by how fresh everything looked; like a film of skanky light blue eye shadow had been rubbed off the whole place. The cabinets looked in good shape and the counter tops weren’t as ugly has I had remembered them. The linoleum floor tiles, however, were still gray, speckled, and horrid. The gray was like seagull shit, and the white specks only added to the impression..

Paul finally called right at 3:00 to say he was just a couple of minutes away. When he got there, we unlocked the door and went in.

My biggest worry had been about the carpets. I knew the place would need painting, but I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on carpet right away. I was happy to see that my worries were mostly unfounded and I think I can manage the carpet for a time. The walls had the usual dings and nicks. Nothing some putty and sand paper won’t fix. There’s a very small water spot on the ceiling in the living room I hadn’t noticed before that we’re going to ask about, but my guess is that it was prior to the new roof that had been put on recently.

After walking around the inside, I grabbed my flashlight and we went under the house to see the wall under the sliding glass door. No real signs of water or dampness, so that’s one less thing to worry about. I checked the water heater, and it hadn’t been replaced yet. Another note.

Paul and I finished walking around the house and stopped by my truck where we synced up our concerns and formulated our plan. He will call the agent and question the debris pile, the mess in the crawl space, the water heater, and proof of the service on the central air. I’ll do another walk through on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning before closing to ensure that these last few things have been dealt with.

All is good and I’m very happy I trusted myself to see beyond the people renting the house. I can’t wait to begin this next step of my life… and I’m glad you all have been able to enjoy this process with me.

Two and a half days and counting.

Home buying

Today is the day that my house is supposed to be empty. We’ll see. I’m going to drive over this afternoon when I leave the office and see what the story is. I called Paul this morning to find out about the walk through. As of our last conversation it’ll probably be first thing tomorrow morning. I’m not going to worry with trying to get the home inspector back out again. It’d be too much of a hassle at the last minute. I can see well enough if there’s water or dampness where he found it last time. We had some pretty nasty storms Wednesday night, so if the space is dry, then I guess they were right. If it is wet, then I want some cash concession or they can fix it. That’s it. I’d prefer the cash since I plan to pull the sliding glass doors out eventually anyway in favor of French doors.

The packing continues. I have boxes stacked all about my living room right now. My apartment looks like a bomb went off in it. I’m sort of glad I’ll be moving by myself next Friday as I’d be a bit embarrassed for anyone to see the state of things right now. I expect I’ll get the lion’s share of everything taken care of myself short of the furniture.

Emily has maintained her westerly course and the weather forecast for next week looks clear, even if it will be miserably hot. I’ll attempt to get as much done in the mornings as I can to avoid the heat.

Overall, this week hasn’t gone as slow as I expected it would. I’ve managed to keep busy at home which has been a big help, but the hours at work are torturous. I can’t get focused well enough to start any major projects, which means my days tend to be pretty boring as I limp along doing the regular stuff that normally takes little effort. It’s a vicious circle of me not having anything to do because I couldn’t get it done if I tried.

Now all I do is wait for the lawyer’s office to call to finalize my closing amount so I can get the cashier’s check cut.

Six days and counting

Rather than wait until the last minute for the mortgage company to call me saying they need six hundred sheets of paper from me to finalize my loan, I emailed my closing consultant to see where we are on the subject. I mean, to this point everything has gone swimmingly… which only means that the warnings from everyone that the world will collapse into fire and brimstone Wednesday afternoon are more than likely founded in reality.

She (the consultant) emailed me back much quicker than I expected. I really wasn’t going to be surprised if I didn’t hear back until Thursday or Friday, but she emailed back right away to say that as soon as she finished the file she was currently working on she’d take a look at my to stave off any fire drills.

Meanwhile, I spent some time at Costco this morning and found a nice vanity light bar/sconce that I think I’ll buy for the upstairs bathroom. The fixture has three frosted glass shades that hang down from a satin chrome bar. As wide as the vanity is I’ll need two fixtures to cover the space, but at $20 a piece, I can’t go wrong. It’s of essentially the same style as the fixture I was looking at from Lowe’s, but much less expensive. I’ll probably go pick them up this weekend in case Dad feels up to helping me install them when he’s here on Saturday for the move. If not, I’m sure I can wrangle David into helping or I’ll have my little brother hook them up whenever I get him up to Richmond to see the house (he’s a licensed electrician).

I packed the majority of the bathroom last night, and I’ll work on more kitchen stuff tonight. I don’t expect to have any dinner parties between now and when I move so I think can safely stow most of my cookware.

I may run away to Mom & Dad’s this weekend. I’m not sure yet, but I was thinking that if I’m caught up with not much to do, it might be good to get down there one last time before I’m in the house. Once I’m in I know that homeownerly type stuff will occupy most of my weekends and I won’t want to leave anyway.

I swear, this waiting stuff is for the birds. I’m at a point where there’s nothing else I can do. I can’t pack anymore because I need to use the stuff that’s left to pack. The mortgage company stuff is done–though I’m sure at 4:30 on Wednesday before my Thursday afternoon closing they’ll find a whole shitload of stuff that they need from me. There’s not much point in doing any real cleaning here at the apartment because it’ll just get fouled up in the move.

So I sit, wait, and count the days.