Two days ago Mike and I went to the escrow office and signed approximately 187,000 pieces of paper. That’s only a slight exaggeration – on some of those pages I only had to write my initials. My signature went from this:
to this:
and my hand now looks like this:
The claw! I rather like it. It looks ominous, like, “don’t mess with the Heather or you’ll get THE CLAW!”
Yesterday we had the walk-through, where we checked to make sure everything the home inspector flagged was fixed. My dad went with me since Mike is still suffering from Man Cold. We met the seller’s agent at the house…and we couldn’t get in. The front door was broken. We TOTALLY didn’t look shady as the three of us tried to jimmy the door open. It finally took a locksmith drilling through two doors to get into the house! At least I know it’s a hard house to break into. And, I got all the locks changed on the place already! Bonus.
After the walk-through, I went to the bank to wire money to escrow. The banker that helped me was new, and had never done a wire transfer before…which made two of us. I jokingly said, “now that I’ve wired money, I should go send a telegram,” and she looked at me and said, “What’s a telegram?” I started laughing until I realized she was not joking. So I said, “um…it’s this old-fashioned way to send messages…sort of like wiring money…I don’t know, it all sounds like magic to me.” You guys, can you imagine how much more in the crapper the US economy would be if I ran banks?
Today we have to drop off one more bit of paperwork, and then we wait. Our loan is supposed to fund on Thursday, so if it all goes according to plan we should have the keys (that I have already doubly paid for) to the house on Friday. And somehow, even though I sent an ungodly amount of money via mystical wire transfer, this still doesn’t seem real.
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Ooooooh! Fingers toes and eyes crossed that everything continues to go as expected and you get this house! (I am still totally in love with the kitchen…)
Do they not teach what telegrams are any more? Singing telegrams should be brought back!
We had a singing telegram delivered a month or so ago to work, so they still exist in Iowa. Super fun!
Oooo, now I’m interested. I’m going to have to see if I can find them in my area.
This is so exciting! I’m hoping that everything goes smoothly!
exciting! congrats to you and mike. can someone now make copies of the keys you just had made? we always change locks as soon as we get the house. otherwise, if someone else has new keys security would already be breached. this is an exciting time in your life and it will be fun to see all the new pics you will be posting.
The only person with access to the keys is the sellers’ agent, and I trust her. I went to elementary school with her son! Small world.
OMG, the papers are ridiculous!! Back in the days of cheap re-fi when they gave away the milk for free (if you cover the banks I could totally cover Treasury Dept) we refinanced our loan for a better rate. As I recall, the transaction started by meeting a broker after work in a Best Buy parking lot. Anyway, that proceeded to the real loan office establishment. They gave us all of the paperwork to take home, review, sign, etc. and deliver the next day. I signed and dated my 187,000 pieces that night. The loan office called me at 4:00. Everything had to be dated the day of delivery at the loan office, not the night before. I had to get my 9 month preggo self from work to the loan office north of Dallas and sign/ date 187,000 new copies by 5:00. I’m probably in one of those “world’s craziest drivers!” movie clips now. By the time I got there I was beyond a crabby patty. But I got through it, and the new rate was awesome!!
Man, those housing bubble times were crazy!
Best wishes on the house! I loved the pictures. It looks awesome! Have you started purging/ packing yet?
um….not….exactly.
Ha! One time on vacation, we were getting some milk and stuff at the grocery store, and the lady at the checkout counter looked at my extremely blonde daughter, and then at me, with my almost black hair, and asked where she got her blonde hair from. I said the milkman, and she looked at me like I’d grown another head. Then asked what a milkman was. I felt really old.
Funny, I dreamt about you and this house last night. It was a nice dream but weird that I dreamt it. Then my mom butt dialed me and that was that. Thanks, mom.
OOOOOOH, I’M NERVOUS! You can stop being nervous now, I got it covered.
How exciting….and I can’t believe the girl didn’t know what a telegram was, how old is she eleven?
seriously! I felt really old.
It’s seriously like you’re signing your life away! For me, the claw started forming at the same time all the pages started blurring together. At that point you don’t read each page like you should – then you sign the last page and you’re left wondering what you actually signed. Haha
SO excited for you guys!!! Keeping my fingers (and toes, eyes, etc.) all crossed that everything goes according to plan. I’ll tell you one thing, though – there’s nothing like stepping foot into your new home once it’s all yours. It’s an amazing feeling. Just be prepared to lose Mike and Annie in the house often – my husband and I went from a small 1 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom, 2-floor colonial and for the first few weeks we’d lose each other. He’d be calling for me and it would take me 10 minutes to find him. We were so used to the small space we had before, that we had no clue how to handle a big house!
OMG at one point I turned to Mike and said, “I hope you know what we’re signing, because I lost my ability to read 50 pages ago.”
Awww, happy almost-Congratulations Spohr family! Hope your claw uncramps in time for the maniac packing that is soon to come.
So exciting!! You guys deserve this beautiful house after all you went through with the last one….and I have to say I think the other one fell through for a reason. The reason being that THIS is your house! That kitchen is AMAZING and I know you guys are going to create so many happy memories together there.
I’ll be thinking about you guys because I can’t imagine how hard it will be to leave your current place with all of the memories that it also holds, but I know they will stay forever in your heart.
Congratulations Spohr family!!
I hope everything goes smoothly until Friday! My husband and I just closed on our first house yesterday. I was able to pick up the keys a few hours later and I was so relieved that everything went through and we actually owned a home that I started crying in the title company’s office. I would recommend that if you are going to cry to wait until you get to your car. Anyway, congratulations!
I am SO excited for you!!!!!!!
So exciting! Almost done! Funny that when all the loan paperwork is done, you have another box, full of those house documents, that you have to move along with the rest of your stuff.
I’m so happy for you- your new place looks wonderful.
Yay!!! So exciting. Fingers crossed that all goes to plan.
Congratulations!! YAY!!!
Sending you a telegram that I am hoping all goes according to the plan. Take care.
Congrats!!!
Did you not have to sign your middle name? My lawyer failed to mention that and I had to go back and fill it in because damn if I was signing all those effing papers a second time!
NO. thank goodness. I asked because my middle name is long and that would have REALLY sucked.
Congrats!! Oh and I really like your ring! Where did you get it??
Mike got it for me for my birthday! I’ll ask him where he got it.
Congrats!! I can’t wait to see pictures of the entire house. The kitchen looked AMAZING (and I don’t cook)
hope the move goes well!
Congratulations, how exciting, you’re almost there! Waiting is the most annoying part! I’m buying a house too and it’s supposed to close next week and I have to say… my paitence is about gone. I can’t wait to move in and change the locks. No takesie backsies!!
Yay!! So excited for you! Also, can’t wait to come and christen the guest room!
Congrats to you guys. I can’t wait to come over and watch some SC football there in the future. We close escrow on the 19th so I know what you are going through. Hope to see you next time I’m home. xoxo
I’ll have a partay for you and the brood! Colin and I can get wasted.
So excited for yall!! Praying everything goes smoothly!!
smooth sailing through the end of this week….and congrats to you and mike!!!
It will seem real to you the first night you sleep in it and don’t hear the typical noise you get in apartments/condos. The first night I spent in my first house, I was scared to death. I was the first house on my street – in a new development outside of town – and had NO alarm, no phone. Yikes!
When my husband and I bought our house last year, I put him in charge of reading everything and I just signed my 187,000 pieces of paper. We had sold my house the day before and also signed 187,000 documents. I was tired!
Enjoy your new home. I’m inspired to cook in your kitchen – it’s gorgeous.
So happy for you guys!! I remember the day we signed all of those papers to our first home, and my handwriting going from neat and tidy to a scribble one could barely read! But as soon as those keys were in our hands, it was all worth it!
Congratulations! The home buying experience is grueling but walking in the door for the first time is awesome.
Do we know yet about the pool table? Priorities people!
The home buying process in CA must be so different than in VA…My closing consisted of showing up at an office (the title office? It was so not a big deal I can’t even remember where I had to go), signing a billion papers, handing off my certified check for my down payment and walking away with the keys. There was no multiday process to contend with. I wonder why things are handled so differently state to state?
You’ll appreciate it even more when Friday comes after everything you’ve gone through to make it yours. It’s beautiful! I’m jealous!
How exciting! I’ve got my fingers crossed for you that everything else goes well and you have your extra set of keys in your hands soon.
Hope it goes smoothly!