Wedding and Reality

I suppose I should write about the wedding on the 26th, but I don't really feel like it. Everything went well and the ceremony was short and simple. Paul stood in for Cheryl who was busy with my new niece (yay!) Isabelle who is going through a phase where only Mommy can hold her. She is the stinking cutest thing ever and everyone just fell in love with her and Cheryl too. I could not ask for a better sister-in-law! So since Cheryl was busy with the baby, Paul got to be my "man of honor," which meant he also got to hold my flowers, which was hilarious, especially with the look on his face! It cut the emotion of the day. Dad wore Grandpa Harvey's shirt and I wore Nana's ring, so it was like they were there. Everyone cried at some point on my side of the family and Nick teared up a little bit too. We had dinner at Mama Stortini's and my cousin Katie did our photos, which turned out great. We spent the night at the Salish Lodge and then drove down to Hood River for 5 days for a simple honeymoon. Now back to reality.

And the real thing I wanted to post about: the house. For those of you who don't know, it's been one giant headache for a long time now. We had verbal approval at the end of August and expected written approval soon after, but we have just started that conversation with the bank that owns the house. Not that big of a deal in a short sale situation, which can often take months to approve. A short sale is simply when a house is listed for less than is owned on it, which is why it is so hard to get approval. But the bank had already approved the price we offered when we offered it. So to make a long story short, I think we are going to walk away from this house. Here's the list of reasons why:

1. Horrible communication from the listing agent

2. A crazy seller who called me to tell me what assholes the bank people are AND he called me Wendy, the name of our crazy old neighbor who threatened my entire family, including Jake. Bad juju.

3. Wells Fargo (the bank who owns the loan on the house) is being awful. Changing our offer before approving it (it had us paying $14,000 out of pocket on top of the 3.5% we'd pay for the loan) and then trying to rush us into signing by threatening a fine of $100 a day we go past October 14th for the closing date.

4. The house is in an area where it's one of the highest priced homes, which means we aren't going to be seeing a lot of equity in terms of raising the value of the home. Plus, the neighbors behind us have made me a little nervous from day one: loud, barking dogs, and a yucky house.

5. Wells Fargo approved their "version" of our offer on Thursday, which our agent, Mike informed them was bull and they had to approve what we actually offered. He expected to hear back from them by Friday or yesterday, but we've heard nothing. More crappy communication.

Fortunately, we are able to back out of this mess at any time. If only a couple of these things were going on, I wouldn't be so hesitant, but when you add it all together, it's screaming at you to get out now! The nice thing is that we already have a neighborhood we've been looking at with new construction that we've fallen in love with. It's called Panorama Heights and it overlooks the valley. The house we want is 2400 square feet on a third of an acre and it starts at a lower price than the other house. We can add whatever we want to the place, like granite countertops, coffered ceilings, and upgraded fixtures and we can choose our floor plan. Another good thing about new construction is that it will take 5 months to build. This means more time to save money. Nick will be getting a raise in January and one again in May, which will also make things easier and I can sub a lot to earn that extra money we'd need for furniture. 5 months would also give Jacob more time to get used to the idea of us moving out. It also means not dealing with a house closing on or around our second wedding date. Therefore, I think we're done with house #1.

And speaking of the second wedding . . . the due date for the response cards is on the 15th of October. I have only half in and most of them are from Nick's family. Way to be on top of things Pritchetts! Now I have to light a fire under my family and our friends. I am going to use the cards to figure out the seating charts, so I really need them from everyone, even if I've gotten a verbal response. Phone calls start tomorrow . . .