I got an text message from my Realtor at 12:16 and it's officially ours! We're now the owners of record.
Wow, I've been looking at houses for over a year now, how the hell am I going to fill my time now, hah
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The Plans - The Garden
Oh, there are so many things to be done in the garden, it's hard to know where to start. Once we close escrow (updated expectations are this Tuesday), we'll attack the weeds and overgrown... everything. As we'll need to get a cashier's check and go into title to sign the papers on Tuesday, I'm planning on taking the day off and going to the house straight after to finally attack the weeds that I've just had to look at each time I've visited the house in these past three and a half months. As for the new design, I've already drawn probably a dozen overhead views trying to figure out what to do and have a pretty good idea for it but we won't really know how plausible it is until we start the work. But whatever the end layout ends up being I know the elements I'll want to put in. So what I'll do is tell you those and that will give you a good idea of what we're hoping for in the end.
1. Lots of Trees - I want proper shade in the end for our hot midsummer days. I hate flat expanses, with no chance for cover. I want to have one tree that will become very large with age for the middle, slightly rear area of the garden, probably where the lemon is now. Yes, the lemon will go. I like it very much but the tree is a very strange shape because it's been badly pruned numerous times - I'll take pictures of it some time later. For that big tree, I'm thinking a black oak right now.
Beautiful leaves and branching structure, Great fall color and a good source of food for all the little animals I'd like to attract. After the oak, I'd like some fruit trees - a new lemon, a cherry and a nectarine for Patrick. Then one or two beech trees for near the house. (And I won't go into shrubs and things smaller than that just now)
2. Dry Creek Bed - Running through the whole backyard from the upper right to the lower left. It'll help with drainage during the rainy season and also help the soil retain more of the run off as it changes the direction of the flow and slows it down (at least this is what I've heard - and it will look cool! hehe).
3. Pergola - In the rear left corner of the yard for our instant shade, draped in wisteria. Although I'm not sure how well that will work now that I've discovered grape vines coming over from the neighbors yard in that corner. I guess if they grab onto the pergola and intertwine with the wisteria that won't be a problem, it's probably more likely that the wisteria will get out of control I guess. I'll try planting it next to the farthest post from the grapes. I'll also want to hang a swinging wooden bench from the pergola, I've always liked the idea of having a nice wide and deep bench swing. We could even put in cushions.
4. Sitting Area around a Fire Pit - Just in front of the pergola I'm thinking. With flagstones or decomposed granite and Adirondack chairs and a round cauldron like fire pit.
5. Stone Retaining Wall - This will be our first construction project probably. A proper retaining wall just in front of the dinky one already there. We'll build it with cinder blocks and eventually, if not immediately, face it with stone veneer. Proper veneer though - not the slabs that are made to look like six small pieces of stone but individual pieces with no grout showing between them. Since the cinder block wall will be cheap and effective, we can build that and then add on the cosmetic facing later if it turns out to be expensive. We'll dig a small trench to start the wall and then regrade the sloping bottom half, dumping the excess behind the wall to build up the higher level. To get rid of the old one foot wall made of various bricks and cement (...yeah, I don't know why), we will get a jackhammer from the Oakland Tool Lending library and then bury the bits behind the new wall! hehe (I like the wall part of the picture below, not the steps)
6. Lawn - Well, we've got to have a small bit of turf, Patrick wants to have it besides it's traditional. On the lower level, we'll have a brick patio extending along the right side to the stairs in the retaining wall, then next to that the dry creek, and on the left a small circle of turf accessible by a flat wooden bridge we'll make ourselves.
1. Lots of Trees - I want proper shade in the end for our hot midsummer days. I hate flat expanses, with no chance for cover. I want to have one tree that will become very large with age for the middle, slightly rear area of the garden, probably where the lemon is now. Yes, the lemon will go. I like it very much but the tree is a very strange shape because it's been badly pruned numerous times - I'll take pictures of it some time later. For that big tree, I'm thinking a black oak right now.
 |  |
Beautiful leaves and branching structure, Great fall color and a good source of food for all the little animals I'd like to attract. After the oak, I'd like some fruit trees - a new lemon, a cherry and a nectarine for Patrick. Then one or two beech trees for near the house. (And I won't go into shrubs and things smaller than that just now)
 |  |
2. Dry Creek Bed - Running through the whole backyard from the upper right to the lower left. It'll help with drainage during the rainy season and also help the soil retain more of the run off as it changes the direction of the flow and slows it down (at least this is what I've heard - and it will look cool! hehe).
3. Pergola - In the rear left corner of the yard for our instant shade, draped in wisteria. Although I'm not sure how well that will work now that I've discovered grape vines coming over from the neighbors yard in that corner. I guess if they grab onto the pergola and intertwine with the wisteria that won't be a problem, it's probably more likely that the wisteria will get out of control I guess. I'll try planting it next to the farthest post from the grapes. I'll also want to hang a swinging wooden bench from the pergola, I've always liked the idea of having a nice wide and deep bench swing. We could even put in cushions.
4. Sitting Area around a Fire Pit - Just in front of the pergola I'm thinking. With flagstones or decomposed granite and Adirondack chairs and a round cauldron like fire pit.
5. Stone Retaining Wall - This will be our first construction project probably. A proper retaining wall just in front of the dinky one already there. We'll build it with cinder blocks and eventually, if not immediately, face it with stone veneer. Proper veneer though - not the slabs that are made to look like six small pieces of stone but individual pieces with no grout showing between them. Since the cinder block wall will be cheap and effective, we can build that and then add on the cosmetic facing later if it turns out to be expensive. We'll dig a small trench to start the wall and then regrade the sloping bottom half, dumping the excess behind the wall to build up the higher level. To get rid of the old one foot wall made of various bricks and cement (...yeah, I don't know why), we will get a jackhammer from the Oakland Tool Lending library and then bury the bits behind the new wall! hehe (I like the wall part of the picture below, not the steps)
6. Lawn - Well, we've got to have a small bit of turf, Patrick wants to have it besides it's traditional. On the lower level, we'll have a brick patio extending along the right side to the stairs in the retaining wall, then next to that the dry creek, and on the left a small circle of turf accessible by a flat wooden bridge we'll make ourselves.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Prospect Mortgage 2
Sorry to bring another escrow post but I was looking through the last one all night, trying to find reason in what has happened. Of course, I still don't see it anywhere but I did think this morning to look back a bit farther and find out when exactly XXXX received my file again... Now, XXXX wasn't actually the first man from Prospect that I worked with, I originally got my pre-approval from ZZZZ but then ZZZZ quit, suddenly, after a week of very strange communications with my Realtor and me. We were certainly getting frustrated with him as he wasn't responding to calls or e-mails and was pretty much giving us a good idea of things to come, although at the time, we thought this was just him...
So XXXX first received my file, according to the e-mail pass-off I received from ZZZZ on or slightly before May 7th Chyeah! (excuse the abnormal English but there is no other way to express it.) He received what was supposed to be a complete file from ZZZZ, except for appraisal information because that hadn't taken place yet, on May 7th. On that day came the first documentation update:
May 7 - They request a new copy of my bank statement and our latest paystubs. That makes sense, I last submitted them over a month ago so new ones should be available. I forward them the same day.
May 12 - They request the final signed contract from our contractor, we thought this was finished earlier with documents we submitted in April but XXXX told us that those weren't the correct forms. We got this finished within the day, even though it involved going back and forth with our contractor, and in the meantime found another document that needed signing and forwarded that to XXXX.
May 14 - Our appraisal inspection is scheduled for May 17th! Celebrating all round (as it's finally been done - yes, there were plenty of delays on that front too)
May 17 - Over the weekend, we received a big bundle of papers from prospect and weren't sure if we needed to send them back with our signatures or not - we hadn't received any notice or explanation at all. So I write to him Monday saying I think that these must be our copies but I'm not sure.
No response for two days...
May 19 - XXXX emails us saying sign them and fax or email them back to him. Short email, just like that... Then I have to scramble to get those 50 pages signed and scanned. I'm able to get them to him on the next day.
By the way, at this point it's been a week since the appraisal took place and we've had no word about it, even though we specifically asked if it went well. Our emails were just ignored.
May 21 - Tom asks for a letter signed by Patrick and Me explaining our employment history for the past 2 years... Well, this wasn't a problem since I'd already made this for ZZZZ! I forward it to him, sadly, not until Monday (my one long response).
May 22 - Now here's a big one that may explain why I'm writing another entry about this. My Realtor had emailed XXXX asking about the timeline, if we'd be able to make it, etc. He wrote this back:
I expect this file will be out of underwriting by Friday of next week. Have a great weekend!
Best,
XXXX
Senior Loan Officer,
And OMG, I had a great weekend, planning my garden and all the gardening I would be doing on the weekend of May 29-30!!
Then as the weekend is approaching, we're not getting any emails....
May 28 - Then he responds to my email (again his words exactly):
Hi XXXX,
Just want to ask what the status of the loan is, will underwriting be finished today?
Thank you,
Jennifer
So XXXX first received my file, according to the e-mail pass-off I received from ZZZZ on or slightly before May 7th Chyeah! (excuse the abnormal English but there is no other way to express it.) He received what was supposed to be a complete file from ZZZZ, except for appraisal information because that hadn't taken place yet, on May 7th. On that day came the first documentation update:
May 7 - They request a new copy of my bank statement and our latest paystubs. That makes sense, I last submitted them over a month ago so new ones should be available. I forward them the same day.
May 12 - They request the final signed contract from our contractor, we thought this was finished earlier with documents we submitted in April but XXXX told us that those weren't the correct forms. We got this finished within the day, even though it involved going back and forth with our contractor, and in the meantime found another document that needed signing and forwarded that to XXXX.
May 14 - Our appraisal inspection is scheduled for May 17th! Celebrating all round (as it's finally been done - yes, there were plenty of delays on that front too)
May 17 - Over the weekend, we received a big bundle of papers from prospect and weren't sure if we needed to send them back with our signatures or not - we hadn't received any notice or explanation at all. So I write to him Monday saying I think that these must be our copies but I'm not sure.
No response for two days...
May 19 - XXXX emails us saying sign them and fax or email them back to him. Short email, just like that... Then I have to scramble to get those 50 pages signed and scanned. I'm able to get them to him on the next day.
By the way, at this point it's been a week since the appraisal took place and we've had no word about it, even though we specifically asked if it went well. Our emails were just ignored.
May 21 - Tom asks for a letter signed by Patrick and Me explaining our employment history for the past 2 years... Well, this wasn't a problem since I'd already made this for ZZZZ! I forward it to him, sadly, not until Monday (my one long response).
May 22 - Now here's a big one that may explain why I'm writing another entry about this. My Realtor had emailed XXXX asking about the timeline, if we'd be able to make it, etc. He wrote this back:
I expect this file will be out of underwriting by Friday of next week. Have a great weekend!
Best,
XXXX
Senior Loan Officer,
And OMG, I had a great weekend, planning my garden and all the gardening I would be doing on the weekend of May 29-30!!
Then as the weekend is approaching, we're not getting any emails....
May 28 - Then he responds to my email (again his words exactly):
Hi XXXX,
Just want to ask what the status of the loan is, will underwriting be finished today?
Thank you,
Jennifer
------------------------
Given end of month and holiday. Tuesday is the when expect to have your file back from underwriting.
Best,
XXXX
And after that, we were still cautiously optimistic, it's been nearly a month but hey, it's a house, and we do have difficult histories. However, as you know if you saw yesterday's post, our next communication is on June 1st and we were nowhere near finished. ::sigh::
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