A Hard Day's Work

Yesterday was a beating, plain and simple. I'm still exhausted as I type this. Who would have thought that purchasing a house could be such a Herculean task?

The "fun" started Tuesday during our final walk-through of the vacant property. Make that, the not vacant but should be property. The homeowner answered the door and said, "The house is already sold."

We said, "We know. We're the buyers. We're doing the final walk-through."

Them: "Oh, no one told us."

As their agent had been notified the day before, this was not a good omen of things to come.

Wednesday's closing was scheduled for 10:30 am. By 9:30, we still didn't know how much money we were to take with us. Obviously, we were not closing at 10:30.

10:30, 11, noon...not a word, except from our realtor, who was as befuddled as we were.

Finally at 12:30 - a call!! The title company is in a panic; they've just discovered the Hayley's rate lock expires at the end of the day. Everything is now a rush, rush, rush. We have a number and a HUD.

We review the HUD. It's wrong. That changes the number.

As we leave for the bank with a new figure in hand, our realtor calls: the title company had another oversight. We have a new number.

As Lucy would say: Good grief, Charlie Brown!!!

After stopping at the bank for our cashier's check, we headed to the house for the final final walk-through at 2:30. And the homeowner is still there. And the house isn't empty. They're supposed to close at 3 - in an office near downtown (a 30+ minute drive away).

I said, "Are you giving us possession today or are you going to do a lease-back?"

They say, "We're not really sure how this all works. We thought we'd sign the papers and run back up here to finish packing."

My response? "Ummm...if you give us possession, then we get the keys and that's it. So I suppose you have to lease back."

The Bible tells us to be compassionate. I am not feeling very charitable to the sellers at this point. In a riff from The Christmas Story, I tell our realtor:

I want my $50!!!

Mature, I know.

We gave them a 30 minute head start, then headed downtown to sign our papers. As we turned onto the small side street that housed the title company, I looked at Kelly and said, "Does that van in front of us look familiar to you?"

Sure enough, it did. The sellers pulled into the parking lot just before us. They'd stopped for a bite to eat at Chick-Fil-A.

Our realtor pulled in next to us and said, "Did I just see what I thought I saw?"

I said, "Yes. I want my $50."

Much later than it should have been - 5 p.m., to be exact - we signed the last of our paperwork and headed to one of our favorite pubs, The Idle Rich, to celebrate home ownership.

Only for some reason, it wasn't much of a celebration. More like a therapy/recovery session after a very long day of trying to buy a house.

But it's done. We're home owners, and mortgage owers. I think I'll feel a bit more excited after we change the locks tonight!