Home building is tiresome, trying and hardwork, and just as we thought we we’re about to move in….
We run into yet another glitch…
Our final inspection is schedule for tomorrow, I was so excited on Friday when they came and hooked up the electric just hours after I had called about it. Then at four o’clock on Friday, as I was getting my daughter off the bus, I got a call from our mortgage broker.
I always hate it when the first words out of someone’s mouth are “Now don’t panic yet…” But that’s what I heard from her. Through no fault of our own, the bank that had given us a loan commitment, upon the completion of our house can no longer fulfill that commitment. They’ve gone under, their investors will not give them another cent, and the owner was taken to the hospital with chest pains.
Isn’t that just our luck. Just three days before we should have gotten the OK to move in, things go bad. I have to admit, I cried. We’re living in my parents basement, all in one room. And now we’ll be here for who knows how long, until we secure another loan.
Anyone want to lend us about a hundred thousand? 
So now we pretty much have to start over. The mortgage broker send us an application by email, from a lender that has pre-approved us, but it looks questionable to me, so…. I also have an appointment at a local bank tomorrow morning with my parents to see what they can do to help, my dad has even offered to put his house up as collateral if needed (but we sure hope it doesn’t come to that.) So I guess we’ll see what comes up there. We’ve also spoken to our attorney about it and he’s assured us that because we’ve stuck to the terms of our contract, that they have to find us a lender because they can’t touch the property.
Either way, they don’t want us living there until we have secured a loan, one way or another. But we’re going to fight it. Hopefully, the loan officer, who is a friend of my father’s, at the local bank tomorrow will be able to answer a few questions for me, as our attorney does think that they can legally keep us off our of own property.
Let’s all keep our fingers crossed and hope that the situation is resolved quickly, as none of us can take being “basement dwellers” for much longer!
Hope everyone had a better weekend than we did!
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September 7th, 2008
Posted by
Leigh |
Building a Home, What A Crock |
no comments
We’ve been living with my parents for a while, while we wait to be able to move into our new home. My daughter hears me refer to my parents as mom and dad, but she doesn’t really understand it. She knows them only as Neenie and Poppy, her grandparents. She also spends a lot of time with my grandmother, her great-grandmother.
Lately she’s been asking me why I call my parents mom and dad, but she just can’t believe that they are my mom and dad. Apparently she thinks that “Tall People”, that’s what she calls adults, don’t have parents. Then it really blows her mind that Grammy Rinie (that’s what she calls my grandma) is actually Neenie’s mother. But Neenie is old, how can she have a mom? She asks me.
It just amuses me to no end, that she just can’t fathom the relationships of adults. Apparently anyone grown-up just hatched from an egg, at least in her mind. So I try to quiz her on it. I’ll ask her who her parents parents are and she gets that right, I’ll ask her who her brother’s parents are and she usually gets that one too, but sometimes gets confused because he’s actually her half-brother, as they have different fathers. But when I ask who who my parents are, she just looks at me like I’m crazy and tells me I’m too old to have parents.
Then I’ll try to explain it all again, and she still doesn’t believe me. I wonder if I should even mention that her two aunts are my sisters. That would probably confuse her even more.
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September 7th, 2008
Posted by
Leigh |
Kids, Parenting, families |
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Yeah! It happened sooner than I thought. We just got through our electrical inspection yesterday, so I called the electric company this morning around nine and the crew is here right now hooking it up! Finally, something is going right for us, I can’t believe it!
Now all we need is our final inspection, and that should give us our occpancy permit! Then it’s just paperwork with the bank and we should be able to move in!
I can’t wait, none of us can! We may actually be in our new house soon, we’ve only been working since March!
I think I’ll go call the inspectors now and see when they can come out! I think I’ll also call the bank and let them know so that they can, hopefully start the paperwork too…. Now they and the appraiser are the only things/people left that can hold us up! (Of course the appraiser, the witch that she is, took three weeks last time. Hopefully, she’ll actually have her head on straight and will get it done quickly this time. And of course if we’re really lucky she’ll even get it right the first time.)
I’m so happy I could actually do cartwheels, if I had a lawn and not a dust field!
Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! Maybe next weekend I’ll be sitting in my new home typing on my computer instead of this tiny little blackjack!
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September 5th, 2008
Posted by
Leigh |
Building a Home |
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The kids started school on Tuesday. We’re still not in our new house. And I’m bored out of my mind.
I still spend most of my days up at the new house with the dogs, because they can’t be kenneled all the time. But we’re getting close to being done, Just waiting on the final inspection, which can’t be done until the electric company comes and hooks us up… And in our experiences with them, it could be weeks. It took them six weeks to get my sister’s house hooked up when they built a few years back.
I’m tired of all this waiting! Come on already, the house has been finished for weeks now and we’re still not allowed to live in it. It’s bullsh*t!
Up until Tuesday I had my kids to keep me occupied. We took the dogs for long walks, and sat around on the floor in the living room just talking, or playing board games. Now I spend my days on the living room floor with a blanket and pillow and the boys, usually dosing off or playing some fetch, but they have a short attention span. They’d rather just devil amongst themselves than play with me. I can’t take much more of this in activity. I’m used to working twelve hour days, not sitting around.
It’s starting to feel like it’s never going to happen, I’m never going to get to live in my new place, I’m going to forever be stuck in my parents basement, sleeping on an air matress and working from a pool table. My dogs can’t take much more of it either, they hate being separated from their family and act up because of it.
Yes, I know, I’m wallowing in self pity… But I’m allowed! My whole life has been turned upside down these last few weeks, and I’ve tried to make the best of it… But hasn’t it been long enough already?
The good news is that it’s pretty much finished, our part at least. The house is complete, save a few little things that the home dealership has to do, like install my central air!
Plus, I have something that I never thought I’d have…. A level yard! Living on the top of the hill, I thought I’d always have a sloped lawn, but now that the remains of the old house have been done away with and the excavation done, I have about two hundred feet of (almost) level yard in front of the place. It looks amazing, and we’ve still got our awesome view, which you no longer have to step outside to see. Of course it will look even better once it actually has grass on it instead of just dirt.
Yesterday my uncle, our excavator, covered over the stone pit down by the garage. The place where we dug up all the stone for our new lane and to level a spot for the house. He dug up a bunch of big rocks that we used to line our driveway (two foot to five feet across, most of them) and he found two even bigger ones that he was actually able to move that he sat at the end of the lane, the biggest one standing on end so that we can get our names carved into it. It looks really cool.
Of course now that the excavation is done, it doesn’t even look like the same piece of property. I just can’t wait to get to live in it, although at the rate we’re going, I’ll have grass before I have an occupancy permit!
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September 5th, 2008
Posted by
Leigh |
Building a Home, Parenting, Pets |
no comments
I hate spam. I hate spammers. I hate the statistics I read on spam, where 33% of users have actually bought stuff from spam emails, because it only means that spamming is going to get worse.
All I can say, is how gullible can you get? How many people actually fall for some of this garbage emails that we receive? Do people really think that multi-millions of dollars are going to come to them through an emailer that doesn’t even know your first name (even when your name is your email)?
This last garbage mail that I received really jumped out at me though and gave me a good laugh.
It’s supposed to be from a bank manager, but it comes from a yahoo email address, under the account name of “Development Bank” (How cheesy), and has a long list of other people it was also mailed to attached. (Guess I can now spam all those other email addresses since he was so nice to give them to me.)
Guess it was meant for all those other people who abandoned millions of dollars in banks around the world!
African Development Bank
NO.97 Tudu Express way Accra,
Accra Ghana.
From the Desk of The Manager, African Development Bank
Attention Beneficiary,
This day, one Allen Jo Walker, came to my office to let us know that you are DEAD, and before your death, you instructed him to come for the claim of your funds in the tune of US$6.2Million that was long abandoned in your name with African Development Bank.
So here comes the big question:
i) Did you authorize Mr. Allen Jo Walker to come for your claim?
ii) Are you truly dead?
If (NO) you are hereby advice as a matter of urgency to reconfirm the details of this message withing 24hours, hence your funds shall be wired into her account without any more delay.
Lastly, you are advice to reconfirm the details of this message and get back immediately with these information’s below:
Full name………………………………
Direct telephone number……………….
address…………………………….
Age……………………….
Occupation………………………..
Bank name…………………………
Bank address…………………………
Bank account…………………………
Account type………………………….
Note: these information’s above must be provided for reconfirmation to enable us make payment to you, hence, your funds will be remit/wire into her account as already provide to this management.
We wait for your urgent response today.
Regards,
The Manager
African Development Bank.
Direct Contact: +233-240-216-473
=====================================
Not to mention all the other holes you can poke in their story:
First off they call you Beneficiary, then they tell me that I have a long abandoned account in my name at their bank. Would that be my real name, or is the account in the name of “Beneficiary” since they don’t really know my name? lol If I really had an account at their bank, wouldn’t they know my name?
Then they are emailing me to find out if I’m dead? Wouldn’t a telephone call be easier? Why can’t they just let me rest in peace! What a crock!
Now what about the horrible English. If this was really coming from a bank manager, it would have his name on it not “The Manager”. And if it was a bank that dealt with Americans much at all, he would also speak perfect English, or at least have a translator that does.
I would love to see statistics on the number of people that fell for this type of email, is there really someone out there that gullible? If so, I’ve got a multi-million dollar deal for them!
Yeah, I’m bored. If I step foot outside, I fear that they’ll have me in a trench some where fishing in the mud for a hammer that was dropped, or something worse, like digging up septic lines again. It’s not always a benefit coming from a construction oriented family. It’s also a dirty job, (But Someone’s Got To Do It! - That’s what i would hear if I spoke up around my family!)
Have a great Labor Day Weekend!
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August 29th, 2008
Posted by
Leigh |
Funnies, What A Crock |
one comment
First off, I’ve got to say: This is my hundredth blog post, that I’ve actually kept on the site…. Yea!
Next, Thank you to Jim!
Yes, I’m stressed, frazzled and getting bent out of shape…. Can you tell? The construction is getting to me! Every morning the guys sit down and come up with a new time line… Every afternoon that time line goes out the window. Lately it seems nothing is going right. We’ve been waiting four days to hear from the electric company on how far the pole can be from the road…. and they just finally got back to us this morning.
The drywaller that the modular home dealership sent out made such a mess that I almost blew my top when I saw it, and he’s disappeared with the job less than half finished.
I have been hearing nothing good about the dealership in general lately. I can’t say how many people have called to complain to me about how this particular dealer has screwed them over, and all I can wonder is why didn’t they call me before I had my house ordered through them? Why wait until it’s almost time to move in?
But on another note, we really haven’t had any problems with them yet. They call and try to change something on me, and I just flat out tell them no. I want what I want and when I want it. If they don’t carry it, then why did they sell it to me?
My plumbing hardware is all wrong, but I accepted that. I’m not changing anything else. I wanted all Delta, I got all peerless. I wanted two handles every where, but got the one handled ones that are so hard to adjust. I complained, they knocked a few hundred bucks off of our house for it.
They broke the lights I had specially ordered, they replaced them and sent me five extras at no charge (just in case more get broke).
The caulking on my kitchen counters looks like my five year old did it, and I flat out told the guy my son could have done a better job, they sent someone out to fix it immediately.
So although we’ve had problems, they’ve taken pretty good care of us. But is it because of who we are? Is it because we’re not the average customer?
My cousin “Uncle Terry” is the man who owns the construction company that sets all of their houses. Do they fear that if they make me unhappy he’ll quit working for them? And as there are only a few companies in the area that do this, they might be screwed. None of their other customers could have gotten that crew to set on such short notice, but we did because we’re family.
Do they fear that because my Dad is a prominent construction company owner that if they piss us off that we’ll spread the word and they’ll lose business because of it? Or my Uncle Denny who owns a prominent excavating company?
Either way, I don’t like what I’m hearing about the dealership, but again they haven’t really irritated me that much yet.
But I am stressed out! We all are! It’s killing me to be a basement dweller because of utility companies. I have a brand new house, just about finished and I’m living in a cold damp one room basement apartment with my husband and two kids. My dogs aren’t allowed in and it’s driving them and me crazy.
I’m at the end of my rope, but just keep telling myself that it’s almost over…. I hope! (The latest time line has us moving in around the 11th of September. and that still almost two weeks away.)
My kids start school on Tuesday, each of them starting a new school. So that’s more stress on top of the house stress. My baby boy starts junior high, my baby girl starts kindergarten…. Yes, they still seem like babies to me!
My business is going flat because I’m turning down more and more work due to being displaced, and having to hover over a pool table desk with a dang dial-up connection. Yet more stress!
And every time I start to write a blog post, I find myself rambling without a point… lol…
So please, dear readers, don’t let me scare you off…. Forgive me for my craziness! I promise soon I will be back to myself… Just as soon as I’m living comfortably in my new home, of course for the first week I’m in it, I’ll be in my huge garden bath tub, trying to soak off weeks worth of mud, and my three dogs will probably be in it with me
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August 29th, 2008
Posted by
Leigh |
Building a Home, Inside My Head |
2 comments
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