"I had to go Godfather on him"

When T and I arrived home from work last night, we had a long talk about how upset we were about the lack of guidance from our lawyer and realtor and the constant issues we keep running into with the current seller's seemingly endless supply of open mortgages. It seemed to both of us that this process has been unnecessarily long and drawn out and T has had all of our paperwork and financing in place for over two months now. The P&S was signed at the end of June. Enough is enough.

T called our lawyer yesterday and told him all of our issues and concerns and the lawyer will be drawing up a letter addressing all of these concerns. T then called our realtor and laid it all on the line with her. Our stress and annoyance with all of the stall tactics. Our issues with the incompetence on the part of the title company and the seller's lawyer. The fact that we wil be homeless in two weeks.

This afternoon I received this email from T.

So - after long last...the closing date has arrived. Monday at noon
Good stuff here...we're getting there! Signing our life away. Good times! Talk to everyone later to give you the run down. Had to go to the Godfather method (as is often the case) to get this done. Love, T

No horse heads were actually used. But the result is great! Assuming that it actually happens that is...

In the meantime, we spent last weekend packing up as much of our stuff as we possible could. We've got 16 boxes ready to go and we have no dishes to use for dinner.

A completely different direction

In the time since I last updated this blog, T and I bought a house. A completely different house than the ones we previously looked at and were trying to decide between. We actually went through a period of complete frustration with the whole process and decided not to make offers on either of our two contenders. Instead we took a break from the whole process.

For me this break lasted 2 days. We then went through a condo phase, which ended when we fell in love with a house. This house is located on the same street as the house of the "death trap deck" fame. It was a perfect price and needed very little work. We made an offer that same day and it was accepted the next afternoon.

What followed was a complete whirlwind of inspections, radon tests, lawyers, and contracts. That was all completed eight weeks ago. Then the title search began. That has been the bane of our existence throughout these last two months. First there was the matter of the open mortgage that had apparently been paid off more than 16 years ago. The problem arose when the paperwork proving this was nowhere to be found. Then the title company turned up a second open mortgage in which the search for that paperwork dead ended with a now defunct company and an eight year old phone number.

T and I are not getting our hopes up at this point and are now figuring out our contingency plan if we are not able to close by the end of August. The front running plan right now involves a storage unit, our two week trip to Italy, and a Residence Inn if it isn't settled by the time we come back form the Eternal City. Our first home buying experience has certainly been an adventure!

We are currently surrounded by half packed boxes in our crappy, falling down around our ears, apartment. We have a leaky roof, a wrench to turn on our broken hot water knob in the shower, and a humid, stuffy atmosphere. We can't wait to go to Italy. The upside of saving these last few weekends for moving has been the fun things we plan last minute. A few weeks ago, we picked up my friend S, booked a Days Inn, and spent the weekend at the Jersey Shore. Last weekend, T and I went to Boston and spent time visiting family and friends. And yesterday, we went to the new Citi Field and watched the Giants beat the Mets. Despite the stress we've been under, we've managed to have a fantastic summer so far!

Time to review

Tim went and looked at house #1 on Friday and liked it as much as I did! He saw the same potential in it that I did so we took some time this weekend to discuss our options and our timeframe and to decide if this house fits in. We're not quite where we need to be for our down payment, but another 6 weeks should do it. Our goal is to put down 20% so we can avoid the PMI. We discussed the projects around the house that would need to be done, and ranked them in order of what is most important. We figured out which ones would need to be done before moving in and what could wait. Then we came home tonight and had an email from our realtor letting us know that there had been some interest in the house over the weekend. The sellers just dropped the price quite a bit. Unfortunately it's still more than we would be willing to pay for the house given the money that would need to go into it. I'm a little disappointed but we'll have to see what happens!

We've looked at 15 or so houses in the last few weeks and these are two contenders. There are big pros and big cons to both. Tim will be taking more pictures on Friday when he visits them again with our specific list. Enjoy what we have so far!

House # 1


The one and only bathroom...needs a lot of help! We would consider adding a 2nd bathroom upstairs since the plumbing is already there.

View from the side of the driveway. I didn't see the garage when I was there! This deck and yard is fantastic.

The room opposite the master. Obviously needs a lot of work! Could be a great room full of Red Sox memorabilia!

The master bedroom! Huge space, but needs some TLC.

Bedroom # 2 downstairs. We cn't get away from the paneling!

Bedroom # 1, downstairs

The front window in the living room. That would be our yard and driveway!

Living Room fireplace

The kitchen, complete with antique stove. We'd be knocking out a wall between the kitchen and adjacent dining room and replacing the appliances, countertops, and floors. A big, fun project!

House #2: The underside of the deck Sav called a "death trap."

Downstairs "Mud Room"

The view from the deck...that we would have to tear down and rebuild.

The full bathroom, downstairs.

Master bedroom closet- needs new doors!

The master bedroom

Laundry room