Perks and delays

We had our dry wall meeting yesterday with the contractor. All went well, they are supposed to replace the shower base today, so that is good news. We found another problem. In our living room, the electrician put in a phone outlet instead of a cable. So that has to be done before they hang the dry wall. Ughhh! I am hoping they get that done this morning so they can start on the dry wall later today. I went by this morning after taking Logan to school and they have put up the insulation. YAY! The plumbing inspector, and city inspector will go by today...so we are on our way, I guess. Some other things we noticed...when we were doing our upgrades we decided not to pay to have the garage door pre-wired. It was $220 and JR said he could do it himself for much cheaper, so we used the money elsewhere. However, they already pre-wired the garage! Ha! yay! so we got that for free! Also along the same lines...it was going to cost $75 for each ceiling fan to be pre-wired. We went back and forth on this, because I wanted a fan in the living room and the master at the very least. I would like to put a fan in each room, but once again - we used the money elsewhere because JR said that it wasn't a difficult thing to do and wouln't cost anywhere near $75 and we could use that money to buy the fan. But, guess what...yup, they prewired the living room and the master for fans! HAHAHA. Love it! Apparently the fans and the garage pre-wire is standard for all Heritage Collection homes in our neighborhood, and our house backs up to the Heritage Collection area, so I guess the electricians were just in a rythym of doing it and accidentally did it for our house as well, but hey - I'm not complaining! LOL Thanks for the $370 that you out in my house without me having to pay for it!

Now for the delays...When we first started this process it seemed like perfect timing because our lease is up Feb. 29 and we figured even if we weren't able to close until early March, we could always pro-rate a week or two here. Last Monday, however; we learned that when the bank gave us the commitment letter for our loan, that wasn't exactly final. We were asked for several more things to finalize the loan. I, of course; was like..."what do you mean FINALIZE, they are already building the damn thing, I thought that was pretty final!" Apparently, after getting the approval from the local bank, the loan is then sent to an underwriter at the national branch to be approved. From there, it has to go the the underwriter for the USDA to be approved! WHAT?? Ughh. So, we have already recieved approval from the national bank(or whatever you call it), but before it can go to the USDA, the house has to be appraised, and before the house can be appraised - it has to be finished! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? So, basically, once the house is complete (which as of now, the completion date is set for March 8), we have to get it appraised and sent to the USDA underwriter and then it will take 15-21 days to get the approval before we can close. Which leads to another problem...we have until March 25 to close on the house, because that is the "expiration" on the loan committment...if we don't close by then, we have to re-submit everything and start the loan process over! As you can imagine, this is driving me crazy. My hope is that they finish before March 8. The contractor told us yesterday, that it usually takes 45 days to complete a house once the dry wall starts..if so, they should finish the last week of Feb. if everything goes as planned and there isn't any terrible weather. So keep your fingers crossed, because I dont think JR can handle the stress of doing the paper work again.

JR has also asked if I would talk to my parents about staying with them instead of pro-rating the house we are in now. It shouldn't be more that 3.5 weeks...but I just dont know if I can handle staying there that long. Of course, I will just have to stick it out - but my goodness - I may not make it out alive. It will be much CHEAPER than paying for another month of rent here, but I hate the idea of having to move everything into storage, and then move it again into the house...it just seems like so much work - although JR did say that maybe we can use the money we save in rent for movers! I like that idea! Another cool perk...We told the contractor that before we move in we would be putting in wood flooring downstairs and painting the house, he gave JR some tips on the floor, and then said he had miles of extra quarter round trim that he would give JR so that saves us a little money. When I mentioned what a bitch painting the stair way was going to be he told me how to position the ladder and said he would provide a plank for us and even set it up to make it easier, then he said..or, when you are ready to paint, just give me a call and I can give you a number to the painter we use...and he can do it for cheap, and finish it in a day...the whole freaking house?? Really. Apparently the painter can take side jobs, but the contractor can't...but he said he would give us the guys number and since he doesn't speak a lot of English he would try to bring him over and explain it to him! Awesome...If I can get out of painting the whole house I am so for it! LOL

Really quick, because this is already long...a few months ago, I gave up one of my bad habits (dont worry, I still have plenty more). I stopped biting my nails. I have been really proud of myself...but while I was at my Nanny's, my thumbnails snagged on somthing and broke, so now it is driving me crazy because it doesn't match the length of the rest of my fingers. Then last night my ring finger on the opposite side broke (the nail, not the finger) so now it doesn't match. It is taking everything I have not to just clip all the other nails to match, but I have worked so hard to get them as long as they are, so I am going to try to keep them the length they are now and wait for the thumb and ring finger to catch up! Ughhh. It just look so strange right now!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!