Our little party is just beginning

The big day finally arrived. Closing was painless and practically effortless. The entire process only took 41 minutes, by Rob’s calculations. Our loan officer and realtor were there as well, naturally. And, while their roles were limited, they had the mutual satisfaction of "high-fiveing" each other in congratulations for the speedy closing. It took a record-breaking 23 days from start to finish. I gathered that, in real estate terms, that was like parting the Red Sea.

As this was my first closing, it was quite the eye-opening experience. We signed a lot of very, VERY important papers. Papers that said that we didn’t live in a flood zone, followed by another form that said, but if we did, we’d buy flood insurance. Another important paper that we signed said what we signed was indeed our signature!

If that wasn’t funny enough, I thought I was going to die when our loan officer’s cell phone went off, and her ring was the tune, "You Work Hard For Your Money." The Appraiser’s Report was both interesting and enlightening. I found some satisfaction in discovering that even HE didn’t know what style to classify the house. He ended up referring to it as "Bungalow, Colonial, Victorian." Now, there are some interesting combinations for you! I took umbrage at how he referred to the house as "average" this and "average" that, as if it were a slow child. He did end up appraising the house for more than what we paid for it, so I can’t be entirely disappointed with his otherwise less-than-glowing comments. (Keep in mind, this was the same guy that said the kitchen had been "updated.")

We did shake the cobwebs around a couple of the contractors, the other day. Both returned our calls within 30 minutes of each other, and both had pretty much the same story: the reason we don’t have an estimate yet is that they’re still waiting to get prices from some of their suppliers. We did get a figure as far as the electrician’s part of the job. Rewiring the downstairs, converting the two breaker boxes back to one, adding 3-way sockets in all the rooms, installing light switches, all comes in to the tune of 5 grand. That’s some tune! Actually, this was pretty close to what Rob had originally estimated, so there wasn’t an "Oh, My God!" moment, as you might think.

As you can see by the picture above, we tore out the upper kitchen cabinets, last night. We estimated their weight at approximately one ton each. As you can see, there is an interesting color palate behind them. I’m not sure what to do with the window frames. I took off those nasty, black shelves; and the middle board between the two windows is virtually chewed up with nail holes, screw holes, etc.

Well, that’s about it for now. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode when we hear Rob say: "I just swept up a cat poopy underneath the vinyl in the kitchen that was 4-inches long! It looked like a TOOTSIE ROLL!!"