Here's the latest schedule in my home-buying adventure:
Today: Meet with insurance agent, sign and pay for policy; contact Credit Union and talk about what I need to do to get a Certified Check; get information on "how much" and "made out to whom" from lawyer's office
Memorial Day Weekend: Get addresses and phone numbers of all utilities from my aunt, who currently owns the house; buy sledgehammer, small hammer for use with stone chisel, chisel appropriate for trimming concrete, several bags of concrete mix, rural-style mailbox and mailbox post (for temporary future use); begin staging first wave of move-in items (kitchen table, chairs, several thousand pounds of books); contact Lee Valley / Veritas and request gardening catalog, woodworking catalog, and hardware catalog be sent to new address
Tuesday: Get Certified Check drawn from my life savings in Credit Union; call utilities and have them switched over (or do I have to wait until I officially own the house?); panic
Wednesday: Take day off from work; drive aunt to lawyer's office, meet with mortgage broker, sign papers, hand over check, close on house; place label with name on it on front porch mailbox (to avoid mail confusion); begin moving in non-critical first wave of move-in items
Within 30 days of purchase (required by insurance company): Repair or replace front porch (will need to temporarily relocate mailbox); paint front porch and steps; scrape and repaint wrought-iron fence; replace cracked kitchen window and broken garage window; paint garage; repair "retaining wall" (I assume they mean the base of the grapevine - this is what I need the sledgehammer and chisel for)); fix "holes in sidewalk" (I assume they mean the brick and concrete walkway along the grapevine; unaware of any holes, but I'll make it nice and purty)
Then: Paint, rewire, do minor interior repairs, refurnish, completely move in (I have the luxury of not needing to vacate my current residence immediately.)
Then: Lay out gardens, rebuild grapevine arbor (design it to last another 70 years), install clothespoles and clothesline
That "within 30 days" bit will be a trick. I hope we have a dry June. And I hope some of my friends will be available to lend a hand. I'm thinking of writing up a release form for my cousin's Summer Pre-School/Camp for an outdoor class/activity involving painting. Yes, the kids will be able to point to my wrought-iron fence for years to come and say "I did that!" What a great experience for them! What a sense of accomplishment!
The narcissistic primarily autobiographical blog of the pseudonymous d.b. echo
It seems like it is more complicated than it should be.
ReplyDeletei read an article where buying/selling a house falls right under losing a spouse/parent or getting divorced in the stress catagory. obviously this is true.
ReplyDeleteI'm willing good vibes and rushes of energy your way, amigo. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteCoop, thanks a heap! Always good to hear from a fellow Felbernaut!
ReplyDeleteGort, if it's overly-complicated, maybe I'm just making it that way. But maybe not. State Farm refused to even look at an older house (it's from 1910-1920, somewhere in there), and Anne from Almost Quintessence (who's a Real Estate broker) tells me that fewer and fewer insurance companies are willing to touch such properties. Also, the lawyer's office has complicated things slightly...I still don't know the "how much" and "to whom" bits. I have to get the check on Tuesday, so hopefully I'll know by then. So I swapped that item with the "panic" item from Tuesday, and have begun panicking now.
Betz, funny thing is, I don't feel particularly stressed right now.