<p>Congrats Ema. Enjoy your new home!</p>
<p>Congrats on your first house!</p>
<p>Emaheevul, I’m thrilled to hear your closing went smoothly and you’re all moved in! Every house has “stuff” that you don’t notice until later. I really think you need to live in a place, crawl around on the floor, and climb a few ladders before you really know what’s going on.</p>
<p>As for us – just briefly, here is where we are:</p>
<p>We had neglected to get a certificate of occupancy for our deck and kitchen in 1999. (That’s another life ago and I don’t remember how we forgot. We really thought we did things By the Book.) So we called the Town Inspector to have him come and do what we thought would be a rubber stamp.</p>
<p>Nope. He didn’t like the way our upper deck was fastened to the house – not secure enough. (Upper deck on second floor; lower deck right under it on first floor.) So Town Inspector and our Handyman conferred and agreed on a fix. Handyman made fixes, which involved removing some boards from lower deck and positioning support posts where the boards had been. The plan was that the Town Inspector would come inspect how the posts were secured (in cement), then Handyman would replace the boards on the lower deck, carefully cutting around the new support posts.</p>
<p>While the boards were out, our buyers’ bank’s appraiser came by. (The bank had already appraised the house and determined the value was fine.) I really think this must have been the bank’s inspector, if banks have such things, but the buyers’ agent refers to this fellow as the appraiser. The appraiser said he had to see the boards back in position before the bank would give the OK to release the mortgage funds. Well, the boards were back in place on Wednesday, but as far as we know, the appraiser hasn’t been back.</p>
<p>Our plan was to have the movers load the trucks on Wednesday (which they did), close on the house we’re selling on Thursday (which didn’t happen because the appraiser didn’t come back, as far as we know), and – with the cash from selling on Thursday – to close on the house we’re buying on Friday and have the movers unload the trucks and move us in. </p>
<p>I realized around 1:00 PM on Thursday that we really were not going to sell the house that day, which meant we couldn’t buy on Friday and couldn’t move in on Friday. I did NOT want to go the weekend with all our goods on two trucks. I begged our agent to ask the seller’s agent if we could move in early. They were adamant that we could not access the house until we closed. </p>
<p>So there it was, Thursday afternoon, and I desperately wanted to move in on Friday.</p>
<p>So I took drastic measures: We liquidated the cash we needed from our IRAs. Now, before you all go wagging your fingers at me, be assured that if we replace the money within 60 days, it is not a taxable event; everything is back to where it was, and the IRS doesn’t care. And we are this close to selling our current house, so assuming our buyers don’t bail – which they won’t – we’ll have those funds in a day or two. </p>
<p>So Thursday afternoon I was on the phone with my investment guy and we determined what investments to sell. Friday first thing I had cash in my IRA and we moved it to my joint account with DH. </p>
<p>Here’s where the Killing the Lawyer part comes in.</p>
<p>I had told Lawyer what we were doing. I told her we desperately wanted to move in on Friday. She kept telling me she couldn’t guarantee what time the closing would be, because she couldn’t guarantee when the money would wire and so forth.</p>
<p>On Friday, at 9:00 AM, I could see on-line that the cash was sitting in my IRA. I called the investment guy and told him to move the money to our joint account. Then I called Lawyer to find out exactly how much and where to wire the funds. </p>
<p>I had to leave a message. And then another. She didn’t get in the office until 9:40 AM, at which time she told me she and the seller’s attorney had to discuss the exact amount owed, because of oil in the tank and pro rating the taxes and yada yada yada. At 10:58 AM, she sent me an email telling me the amount and where to wire – but she didn’t call me to tell me she sent me an email, so I didn’t see it for 15 minutes. I wired the funds around 11:20 AM and they showed up in our lawyer’s escrow account at 12:30 PM. THEN she went to get the bank check that the seller’s attorney required, and THEN we finally closed at 3:00 PM – way too late for the movers to move us in. </p>
<p>Our lawyer had the audacity to say that she “can’t guarantee when the wired funds will hit” – which is true. But if we had been able to wire them by 10:00 AM, not by 11:20, that might have made the difference between moving in that day and not.</p>
<p>But wait – there’s more!!</p>
<p>So here we are, owning two houses, but with no place to sleep because we have no furniture! I called a close friend who said Of course we could stay, yes, even the two dogs. Our friends would be out for the evening, but here’s where the key is, etc.</p>
<p>We arrived at their house around 7:15 PM on Friday. Around 7:30, I noticed some dog poop on the floor. Then i noticed more . . . and more . . . Then DH noticed poop on the sheets of the bed where the dog had jumped up. Long story short, one of our dogs was very sick and it was obvious we couldn’t stay at our friend’s house with a dog in that condition!</p>
<p>Now it’s 8:30 PM on Friday night – two houses, no furniture, and a dog with terrible diarrhea. So we wound up going back to our “old” house, because the dogs are comfortable there and there’s wall-to-wall carpeting upstairs. We spread out a mattress pad and a flannel sheet, and slept on the floor. </p>
<p>On Friday night. On Saturday night. And tonight.</p>
<p>Cleaned up a lot of poop during the days. Did you know that Shout gets stains out of carpets? [Necessity is the mother of invention.]</p>
<p>Luckily our good friends who offered us their house had us over for dinner last night (sans canines), and tonight another friend has graciously invited us. DH is watching football at the house of another friend. We’ve spent the weekend moving the little junk from House A to House B that the movers overlooked, and getting a tiny bit organized in the new house. </p>
<p>The movers will deliver everything to the new house tomorrow, so we’ll be able to sleep there tomorrow night. And we should close on selling our “old” house either Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on when Mr. Appraiser Man wanders over to see that the boards are back on the downstairs deck.</p>
<p>This buying-and-selling stuff is not for sissies.</p>
<p>VH…I’ll come and help with the killing the lawyer in effigy ceremony. </p>
<p>Hope this week is better than last…and that the pooch is feeling better.</p>
<p>
VH, * sooo true!!
- I admire your tenacity. I would have probably spent Friday night in the police lockup - for attempted murder of the attorney. :)</p>
<p>Oh wow, VH! When we got to the house with the movers BF realized he forgot the keys to the house… we had to drive 45 minutes each way to go back and get them while the movers just hung out in our driveway. BF was beside himself, and I just kept telling him there is always SOME kind of a disaster, big or small, when you move. I think the deck snafu was yours and you should be off the hook now for the rest of the way. :)</p>
<p>VeryHappy, so sorry it hasn’t been smooth sailing. Aggravating that the building department didn’t like the deck attachment. There have been various changes in the code and there are things I do now that I didn’t even do three years ago in terms of attachment to the house or how the railing posts are detailed. Anyway, I am wishing the best for you next week, and good health to the dog too!</p>
<p>VH: OH…MY…GOD. Do me a favor and send me a PM letting me know who your lawyer is. I want to make sure my mother doesn’t use her (she does have a female atty).</p>
<p>Ema–mazal tov! Enjoy your new home.</p>
<p>That is the reason 5 days ago, I took a lower cash offer instead of a higher offer that requires bank loans. I just do not want any thing to do with CO issues.</p>
<p>ema, congratulations on the new house.</p>
<p>Consolation,</p>
<p>What’s worse is that we went with an attorney DH and I have known and used for years. She, unfortunately, sloughed us off to her junior partner, and it’s the junior partner who’s working at glacial speed. </p>
<p>Thumper: Who said anything about killing the attorney in effigy??</p>
<p>Thank you all for your good wishes. I should have internet in my house by tomorrow night.</p>
<p>And now I must excuse myself and go let the movers in to our new house!!!</p>
<p>VH, what a tale! You are a creative soul to find your way through these myriad details. Wishing you peace, a calm move in and a healthy dog. How IS the dog doing?</p>
<p>VH - when we make a movie (comedy) of this event, who are we going to cast as you?</p>
<p>Could we have Sally Field lighten her hair? And you could always use the inimitable Meryl Streep. Of course in the movie version you DO kill the attorney and have your handyman (let’s get someone hunky to play him or we could go with someone earthier like Jeff Bridges) bury the body near the posts for the deck. </p>
<p>I was really feeling so sorry for you until I got to the part about the dog, and irreverent soul that I am, started laughing so hard. I apologize - but truly - who could imagine?</p>
<p>Congrats to all of you on your moves. I am starting not to feel so bad about being stuck in my little townhouse condo with a hubby who will NEVER move. But that’s a story for the get it off your chest thread!</p>
<p>WNP,</p>
<p>Yes, Sally Field as me. Bernadette, from The Big Bang Theory, as our attorney. Little girl-ish, squeeky voice, but with incompetence and condescension added to her persona. And for ur realtor – let’s see. Who was the flibbertigibbet old lady on the TV show Bewitched? Gladys Kravitz!!!</p>
<p>I love the idea of the handyman burying the attorney in the cement blocks under the deck!!!</p>
<p>Great lakes mom: Unfortunately the dog is not yet better! I stopped feeding her her full allotment a few days ago, because we knew where that was going to wind up, but she’s still not well. This morning I started her on plain rice, which should bind her up nicely. I hope. (Please recall that we were staying in Old House, with no dishes, no pots, no silverware. Necessity being the mother of invention, I went to the grocery at 6:30 this morning and found Minute Rice that you make in its own little container in the microwave. Which, in our old house, is built in.)</p>
<p>My attorney just emailed me that our buyer’s bank has given the OK to close on our old house. Closing scheduled for this Thursday. Then we slip all that money back into our IRAs and the IRS is none the wiser. </p>
<p>Hopefully the market will tank this week and we can get back in when it’s low!</p>
<p>VH…it was I who suggested killing the attorney in effegy.</p>
<p>But I do like the movie idea better. Is there a wood chipper in the area :)</p>
<p>Thumper,</p>
<p>I know it was you who suggested killing the lawyer in effigy; what I was trying to suggest in my joke (feeble though it was) was that I wanted to kill her for real.</p>
<p>We spent the first night in the house. I like it.</p>
<p>The movers put their hand through one of the panes in my MIL’s very elaborate breakfront. Ouch to the poor man, but even more ouch to the breakfront. </p>
<p>And the moral of the story: You can’t seriously downsize your stuff until you get into the new house and realize that nothing from the old house is going to fit the new house. Right now I have a lovely kitchen table and six chairs in the basement and a whole garage-full of very good furniture. This is going to take a while to straighten out!!</p>
<p>Edited to add: For those of you interested in the doggie saga, she is much better. I’ve only been feeding her plain white rice, with maybe 20 little kibble bits, since yesterday morning, and she is much improved. I won’t go into the graphic details, but she is much improved!</p>
<p>Thank heavens for garages. When we moved here, we put the essentials into the house and the rest in the garage (that means the movers moved the big heavy stuff). We then took our time rearranging things and making decisions and getting rid of things.</p>
<p>So glad the you like that house! And happy the pooch is on the mend.</p>
<p>We really do like the house, very much. But every room in the house is smaller than the corresponding room in the old house. This is going to take some time to figure out. </p>
<p>I unpacked 11 boxes in the kitchen last night and can now see – from a distance – the dishwasher. Maybe I’ll be able to use it tomorrow night. </p>
<p>Today, DH unpacked the bulk of the wardrobe boxes, so now we can get to our closets, and we have a path between the bed and the hallway.</p>
<p>And tonight, we organized the room we’re calling the “office.” DH’s big rolltop desk on one wall, my Workbench oak-y thing on the other wall. </p>
<p>Internet, phone and TV are working. I’m sitting at my desk, back on CC from home, not work. Feeling much better. Of course, I took a nap after work and went to the gym – both things that make me feel much improved.</p>
<p>Closing on the old house is now scheduled for Friday, because the buyers’ attorney is too busy to do it on Thursday. Wait a minute – doesn’t he work for the buyers, who are desperate to move in???</p>