D minus 72 hours Tuesday
It is really been crazy lately with our beautiful new house closing and running around getting the mortgage/finances sorted out and purchasing assorted big-item furnitures and arranging for their deliveries. Picking out paint colors for the accent walls in the different rooms and arguing with dad about FungShui. I took today off so we can attend our pre-closing orientation with Pulte at our homesite. This would be the very first time I’ve seen the house since its completion. We noticed that some of the neighbors of the same building phase had already moved in. We parked our car directly in front of the garage door (this is the first time) and it’s feeling like coming home already.
The construction manager Sam met us inside and introduced us to our house, showed us where the water and gas mains are, and how to shut off and turn on everything. We managed to put blue and green tapes everywhere we see needs fixing, so they can try to fix them all before the closing on Friday. Some of the kitchen drawers don’t close all the way and leave gaps; some of the cabinet doors are missing handles; paint spots on the hardwood floor; tape residue on all kinds of surfaces that need to be removed; two of the surround sound pre wires have not been pulled out from the wall; master bedroom window would not open; and recessed can lights not hanging properly etc. They only have less than 72 hours to fix everything in time for closing, or else, we would need to be present for them to fix it after we close.
Our super realtor Sue was there with us, and she provided immeasurable support and knowledge throughout the almost 2 hours orientation. She asked a lot of questions regarding insurance and general maintenance of the house that we would have never thought of. We are so fortunate to have found her!
Dad reminded me to take pictures of all the blue tapes since we will most likely not be able to remember all the places we put tapes at. He saw our foyer and told us this is not good FungShui because money will go from the front door directly out the window in the living room into the backyard. He drew a picture of a table with something tall enough to block half of the hallway into the living, we are still debating and negotiating to have something we all can live with. Having a giant thing of no practical use in the foyer is really not optimal.
D minus 48 hours Wednesday
Ri is one of those crazy squirrels who buries his precious nuts (money) in many many spots (banks), and because he was so busy with keeping up with the ever changing demands of the mortgage company to get our loan approved, he had forgotten to pool all the nuts together prior to handing it over as down payments. By the time we realized this, it was too late to initiate the wire transfers because it takes several business days. So he ended up going to lots of banks and got multiple cashier checks in preparation for tomorrow. Lots of tasks to complete before closing and we are all getting a little tense. Other than these banks visit, it is pretty much business as usual. This is the calm before the storm. Work as usual. No schedules on our calendars, that eerie feeling of “how can that be?” and “just let me double check one more time”.
D minus 24 hours Thursday
Regular work hours, I almost didn’t make the train home in time. Today is the day we met with Chicago Title signer/notary Kat to finalize all the paperworks in a Starbucks by our apartment. Sue offered to come as well, and boy, aren’t we glad she came! A lot of contracted signers can’t tell you what the papers you are signing are for, and this is where Sue comes in, she’s been every signing in her 20 years of career as a realtor and can tell you exactly what any given piece of paper put in front of you means and why you should sign it. Kat is pretty knowledgeable as well, but she seems to want to hurry us through everything and not letting us read through the words before getting to the “Please sign and date here” places. She is a Chicago Title employee, we met at 6pm, and she has already been to 9 signing since that morning, and she still has 2 more signings to go to after our appointment ended at 730pm. (!!!)
Kat walked out of Starbucks with all/most of our life saving, our pockets feel lighter, but our hearts are just a bit fuller because we get the keys to our brand new home tomorrow.
D minue 6 hours Friday morning
Today is the day! I took today off because I won’t be able to make it home even on the earliest train at 312pm from King Street Station. Kat told us yesterday that she is signing with the Pulte builder/Seller bright and early this morning, and we are all a go for getting our keys in the afternoon today! When we got to the house, there was a slight issue of the nice gentleman responsible to giving us our keys, Mark, has not heard from his people to give the ok due to the lack of recording or something. I threw a mini hissy fit, and Sue was right on it, she started calling Kat and people at Pulte and Chicago Title demanding she speaks to someone, then after waiting around for an hour (nearing 5pm now), Mark relinquished the keys to us after Chicago Title people sent the proof of recording out via email. After thought: I am sorry I lost my temper for a bit, but it really motivated people to get things done though. I feel bad for Mark though, we’ve never met him, and he was only subbing for Sam. I could tell he didn’t know what to say or do to an angry small woman when she heard she’s not getting the keys that day.
Today is also the day my dad is leaving after his brief visit of ~3 weeks. He has suffered and endured sleeping in the dining room of our small 1 bedroom apartment. Since both Ri and I were swamped with all these house related stuff, we were unable to take him on trips other than a few long walks around the area. We visited Cougar Mountain trails and Nisqually Wildlife Refuge near Olympia on separate weekends. He patiently waits for us to come home every weekday and on the occasion of us having house related appointments. (He is packing up with suitcase right now). And he took this photo of us holding the keys to our new home. :)
Thanks dad for being so patient and provided your wisdom. He drew us a diagram of what he thinks is the best way to do our backyard- with a deck half way out from the back sliding door with stairs that go down to the actual ground level. We are taking his suggestions very seriously but want to remain optimistically cautious until we get a quote for how much all those yard work + decking will cost.
It has been almost a year since we laid eyes on this house (well, the property and the potential for this house), and it has been quite a learning experience. I should have documented more, but I thought I should at least record the last few days prior to becoming home owners for my own sake. If any of this information were to help someone, even better. Thanks for reading, and finally a little selfie to end this enormous entry!
