I haven't been on BYH much this year as I've had a lot of things going on.
For one, things have been snowballing one after the other.
In mid December, my boyfriend of 2.5 years had bought me a car, a 2010 Lincoln MKS AWD.
On Christmas Eve, he proposed and I said yes.
In mid January I found out I was pregnant and due Sept 14. The search for a house was on!
In March we had found a house and we were to close April 28. However the home inspection came back with a lot of issues, mainly a big Crack in the foundation and the A/C wasn't working properly...oh and the roof needed to be replaced. Plus plumbing leaks, electric issues, etc. This was a foreclosed home bought by a flipping company in Chicago who hired local contractors to repair and renovate the home. They didn't do a good job apparently and/or overlooked many, many issues. We backed out. The home ended up sold by Memorial day weekend.
So we continued to look at homes. My fiance loves the newer homes with modern kitchens and baths...and while I liked them too, they were in a suburb and I wouldn't be able to bring my critters with me. That just wouldn't work unless we could also buy a plot of land. Well there's no empty lots that aren't $25k or more per acre, so I was disappointed.
I got tired of the real estate agent showing us these homes so I did my own home search and found one I loved and I said show us this one!
It was perfect. A pool, 4 Bedrooms (there could easily be a 5th), 2 Bathrooms, Cape cod style home. On 7.2 acres! The largest lot size available in our budget of $300k. It was listed for $299k.
So we saw it, cute little country home. Kitchen and bathrooms need updating, but not a lot of work.
Surprisingly, he liked it too! (Only because it makes me happy, he says lol)
So we put a contract down on the home for $290k + closing costs. Home inspection came and went with no major issues, only minor ones like no caps on some electrical thing in the crawl space and one outlet not working.
Contract was continued and we were set to close Aug 15! We were going through SunTrust for a mortgage. Our loan officer apparently left without letting us know and so essentially we got delayed until Aug 30, when some other lady came and took over our loan. Appraisal took over a MONTH to come back. It came in at $282k. We didn't get the results until Aug 17, two days AFTER we were supposed to close initially. A couple days later, we were denied for the renegotiated price of $282k + closing. Our new loan officer said the previous guy used numbers that were too large and misrepresenting our income. I was like seriously? We provided our tax returns and our paychecks up to this point. What could be misrepresented about that? Oh I was livid. And then sad and crying. I was closing in on my due date and we didn't have a house. Oh and not to mention, they pulled our credit reports NINE times EACH between February when we got pre-approved and July. Some within 2 to 3 days of each other. My credit score dropped a few points as a result of too many inquiries.
Mad and irritated with their careless attitude and lack of communication as well as their inability to want to help us get the loan to work (including selling the car to get rid of the payment), we went to another loan company. We asked for our appraisal fee back while we sat with the loan officer in person and she said it would be possible, she would need her manager to take care of it. I have called countless times...she doesn't answer the phone, I leave a message, and I don't get a call back.
Anyway, we went to another loan company and we were approved and set to close Sept 21. This loan officer was surprised that they couldn't get the loan to work. It was initially going to be USDA with 0 down payment but we ended up FHA with a $10k down payment. So kitchen remodeling has to wait until I go back to work. That was another thing, SunTrust said earlier leaving work Aug 14 was bad because my debt would be counted not my income (one credit card with a $800 Balance out of my $4300 limit). I was like what about my income up to this point? What about my bank balances? Can't I just pay my credit card completely off and be okay? Nope. This other mortgage company didn't see a problem with my maternity leave.
And I went into labor on Labor Day, two days after my baby shower and 9 days before his due date. Ended up in labor from 6 pm Monday to finally start pushing around 8:40 pm Tuesday Sept 6. Took an hour to push the lil fella out, he weighed 8 lb 1 oz and was 21 inches long. His name is Jacob Anthony. His head was in the 97th percentile for size. His ended up being born on his cousins birthday (my fiance's brother's son), he turned 4. My fiance is from Bolivia, so my baby is tan with dark hair and he has my blue eyes (they started out a dark steel gray and have lightened to a blue gray when he was a week old and have stayed that color since)! He is such a handsome little baby.
So we closed Sept 21. Painted the house the first two weekends. We've been moved in for a week and a half. It is so hard to unpack stuff when I have a little 6 week old baby. I dont want to leave him by himself in a room and I can't carry him room to room with me when I'm carrying other stuff. So I wait for his dad to come home from work to unpack and then Jacob starts crying lol and then I have to take a 20 to 30 min break to feed him. Slowly but surely it's getting done. Our couches are being delivered next Tuesday so that's something to look forward to. My parents and his family come over on the weekends to hang out ride the go cart around the yard, and help clean and unpack. So that's nice.
So that's my life in a nutshell right now lol. Sheep and pigs are going to be moved here before winter. I'm trying to find someone to cut 4 acres into hay so I have food for my sheep since I'm not sure when we are going to fence in the property. The house came with a carport which the neighbors moved with their tractor to a more convenient location for us, so we will probably just build a pen around that and feed the sheep hay. My fiance wants to build a house for his pigs, he's pretty excited. Oh and turns out, our neighbors father was good friends with my grandfather's brother before he passed away. What a small world! Though of course we moved to an area where I'm only a few miles away from that entire side of the family...great aunts and uncles (my grandfather is one of 5 or 6 kids) plus their children and grandchildren. So maybe not that small lol.
For one, things have been snowballing one after the other.
In mid December, my boyfriend of 2.5 years had bought me a car, a 2010 Lincoln MKS AWD.
On Christmas Eve, he proposed and I said yes.
In mid January I found out I was pregnant and due Sept 14. The search for a house was on!
In March we had found a house and we were to close April 28. However the home inspection came back with a lot of issues, mainly a big Crack in the foundation and the A/C wasn't working properly...oh and the roof needed to be replaced. Plus plumbing leaks, electric issues, etc. This was a foreclosed home bought by a flipping company in Chicago who hired local contractors to repair and renovate the home. They didn't do a good job apparently and/or overlooked many, many issues. We backed out. The home ended up sold by Memorial day weekend.
So we continued to look at homes. My fiance loves the newer homes with modern kitchens and baths...and while I liked them too, they were in a suburb and I wouldn't be able to bring my critters with me. That just wouldn't work unless we could also buy a plot of land. Well there's no empty lots that aren't $25k or more per acre, so I was disappointed.
I got tired of the real estate agent showing us these homes so I did my own home search and found one I loved and I said show us this one!
It was perfect. A pool, 4 Bedrooms (there could easily be a 5th), 2 Bathrooms, Cape cod style home. On 7.2 acres! The largest lot size available in our budget of $300k. It was listed for $299k.
So we saw it, cute little country home. Kitchen and bathrooms need updating, but not a lot of work.
Surprisingly, he liked it too! (Only because it makes me happy, he says lol)
So we put a contract down on the home for $290k + closing costs. Home inspection came and went with no major issues, only minor ones like no caps on some electrical thing in the crawl space and one outlet not working.
Contract was continued and we were set to close Aug 15! We were going through SunTrust for a mortgage. Our loan officer apparently left without letting us know and so essentially we got delayed until Aug 30, when some other lady came and took over our loan. Appraisal took over a MONTH to come back. It came in at $282k. We didn't get the results until Aug 17, two days AFTER we were supposed to close initially. A couple days later, we were denied for the renegotiated price of $282k + closing. Our new loan officer said the previous guy used numbers that were too large and misrepresenting our income. I was like seriously? We provided our tax returns and our paychecks up to this point. What could be misrepresented about that? Oh I was livid. And then sad and crying. I was closing in on my due date and we didn't have a house. Oh and not to mention, they pulled our credit reports NINE times EACH between February when we got pre-approved and July. Some within 2 to 3 days of each other. My credit score dropped a few points as a result of too many inquiries.
Mad and irritated with their careless attitude and lack of communication as well as their inability to want to help us get the loan to work (including selling the car to get rid of the payment), we went to another loan company. We asked for our appraisal fee back while we sat with the loan officer in person and she said it would be possible, she would need her manager to take care of it. I have called countless times...she doesn't answer the phone, I leave a message, and I don't get a call back.
Anyway, we went to another loan company and we were approved and set to close Sept 21. This loan officer was surprised that they couldn't get the loan to work. It was initially going to be USDA with 0 down payment but we ended up FHA with a $10k down payment. So kitchen remodeling has to wait until I go back to work. That was another thing, SunTrust said earlier leaving work Aug 14 was bad because my debt would be counted not my income (one credit card with a $800 Balance out of my $4300 limit). I was like what about my income up to this point? What about my bank balances? Can't I just pay my credit card completely off and be okay? Nope. This other mortgage company didn't see a problem with my maternity leave.
And I went into labor on Labor Day, two days after my baby shower and 9 days before his due date. Ended up in labor from 6 pm Monday to finally start pushing around 8:40 pm Tuesday Sept 6. Took an hour to push the lil fella out, he weighed 8 lb 1 oz and was 21 inches long. His name is Jacob Anthony. His head was in the 97th percentile for size. His ended up being born on his cousins birthday (my fiance's brother's son), he turned 4. My fiance is from Bolivia, so my baby is tan with dark hair and he has my blue eyes (they started out a dark steel gray and have lightened to a blue gray when he was a week old and have stayed that color since)! He is such a handsome little baby.
So we closed Sept 21. Painted the house the first two weekends. We've been moved in for a week and a half. It is so hard to unpack stuff when I have a little 6 week old baby. I dont want to leave him by himself in a room and I can't carry him room to room with me when I'm carrying other stuff. So I wait for his dad to come home from work to unpack and then Jacob starts crying lol and then I have to take a 20 to 30 min break to feed him. Slowly but surely it's getting done. Our couches are being delivered next Tuesday so that's something to look forward to. My parents and his family come over on the weekends to hang out ride the go cart around the yard, and help clean and unpack. So that's nice.
So that's my life in a nutshell right now lol. Sheep and pigs are going to be moved here before winter. I'm trying to find someone to cut 4 acres into hay so I have food for my sheep since I'm not sure when we are going to fence in the property. The house came with a carport which the neighbors moved with their tractor to a more convenient location for us, so we will probably just build a pen around that and feed the sheep hay. My fiance wants to build a house for his pigs, he's pretty excited. Oh and turns out, our neighbors father was good friends with my grandfather's brother before he passed away. What a small world! Though of course we moved to an area where I'm only a few miles away from that entire side of the family...great aunts and uncles (my grandfather is one of 5 or 6 kids) plus their children and grandchildren. So maybe not that small lol.