History

Good Morning,

My good friend and previous work associate sent me a link to her blog. As I looked over it, I realized that this would be a good way to document the experience of purchasing a new home. A little history to date.



My father passed at the end of March, 2008. It had been his wish for me to purchase a home. To be perfectly honest, I was afraid to make the move. After Dad died, I thought that I needed to heed this advice and started the process of purchasing a home and to stop renting! So the journey begins.



I started by going to a few open houses to see what was out there and where the prices would be. I needed to determine if I would stay in Washington DC, move closer to work or make a major move to another city, line Minneapolis MN. If you know me, you should realize that this was a major thought process all by itself. Sleepless nights just to decide where to look. I looked at all the pros's and con's. I decided that since I have a good job, working for a good company, that I did not want to start over again at the grand old age of 50. So, that narrowed it down to DC and the surrounding area. With the cost of gas rising each moment and realizing that homes that were in my price range within the city would be in neighborhoods that were questionable, I started to look closer to work. I had found a Mortgage person at an open house in DC, Mike. He called me and did a workup over the phone and gave me a number that I would qualify for. I had to revise my original thoughts about monthly payment. Seems that my thoughts were a little under reality. Once I was over that hurdle, I called an agent whom I had sold products to at Allied. She had just had an operation and was not able to work with me in the time scale that I wanted, so Mike recommended that I give Sandy a call. I spoke to her over the phone and then scheduled a meeting to talk about my wants and needs. Jose joined me on this task and has been a great sounding board along the way. I decided to use her as my realtor and we began the process of finding a home, in my price range in a neighbor hood that I felt would serve me till retirement. I do worry about decisions a lot, but I make them fairly quickly. I found a house in Springfield. It is move in ready and much better than the ones that I looked at before. I thought that I would need to buy a bank owned or foreclosure property to be able to afford it, but Sandy coached me through the process of putting in an offer on this one. It was countered and I accepted the counter. With the back and forth process and the time delay due to the fact that the property owner is 91 living in Virginia Beach, I was a nervous wreck. Then, dealing with the mortgage company and their needs, back and forth. Both Sandy and Mike have been great in the process, but due to my nature, I have worried about every aspect. Since I had taken some time off in Feb and March to be with Dad, my income which is less in the winter due to the industry had not made a comeback till this month. I had to get Fred to write a letter to confirm this for Mike and his underwriter. I believe that all is now fine and closing is scheduled for Thursday, 05/29/08 at noon. Mike finally told me to go have a glass of wine and relax for the weekend. Sandy called me and told me the same thing, so I have relaxed a little.



I have spent every night and many evenings thinking about what I want to do to the house once we get moved in. A new kitchen, patio furniture, grill, TV room furniture with an LCD tv, new bed for my room, a washer and dryer......it keeps on going. Seems like a lot, but I live in an appartment. The only new furniture I have purchased since Darnell passed away 15 years ago, (my partner of 20 years), was a new dinning room table, buffet and living room tables. I must remember that I do not have an unlimited budget, but I want to be able to entertain again in my home. Living in "The Heights", now called Brookland Ridge for the past 5+ years has had it good points and its bad ones. Mostly, bad. Parking is bad, so I don't invite people over for fear that they might be towed away. I am looking forward to having "Path Encounters" group meetings again at my home. First event planned is for 07/26/08, the weekend before my birthday. A house blessing / birthday party. Bascially, all afternoon on Saturday and who ever is left over on Sunday, we will prepare brunch on my "new" range in my "new" kitchen. At least that is the plan. Lets see how it all works out.



For anyone who reads this, I understand that it may be a little random in my thought pattern, but I am looking at this blog as a daily diary. It is just my thoughts and what is going on in my life. You do not need to agree or disagree, but all opinions will be viewed as helpful hints along the way. Because I did not start the blog till many weeks after the process, I will have a few posts at the beginning just to bring things up to date.