And then we found "it"--the house we'd been looking for. Mostly. My hubby and I had created a wish list of sorts when we first were approved for financing--square footage requirements, number of bedrooms and baths, and yard dimensions were all established. What we found met a few of those hope, but fell short in others. It has three bedrooms and two full baths--a minimal requirement since my stepdaughters do have a room dedicated for them in any house we own and as we DO need a guest room for the infrequent out-of-town guest. The front yard is "pretty" without being large and already has some landscaping done. The backyard, though not contained by a privacy fence (one of the checklist items), has a functional chain-link fence surrounding it...and the yard itself is large for the area. The house, though, was not "up" to checklist on its size. We had been hoping for 1800+ sq.ft....we fell in love with, according to its realty listing, 1358 sq.ft. of amazingly renovated 1950s charm (it appraises at 1500 sq.ft.).
Once we'd established that this house was "the" one, we began the paperwork. Now, paperwork in any house purchase is substantial and repetitive. This little charmer has a bit of a "catch" to it--it's owned by Fannie Mae and is a HUD listing. Nearly any of the documents one usually has to sign in a purchase or contract or financing or what-have-you, in this case, has a HUD or Fannie Mae addendum to it. That basically means a redundant form to the one previously signed that MUST be signed as well. Fun times!
Additionally, as the house is a HUD listing, the listing agency wants it off its books (understandable). What would traditioanlly take up to 60-90 days to complete is being fast-tracked to a 45-day closing. We signed a month + ago.....we are set to close (barring any last-minute issues) on the 27th of July.
Further, in this forward-moving time, the hubby started getting calls about positions being opened for interview. (*More on that later.)
And so the saga continues.
________________
*I'll go into more detail in a bit...but I'm rather superstitious and want to hear that we're out from the underwriting and firm on closing before I go further...y'all understand.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Daily Grind...and Then....
Our situation was as I've outlined from August 2009 'til April 2010. It felt, many times, as if we were living what Thoreau wrote of in Walden--"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." We WERE quietly surviving and desperate for anything resembling a normal existence. My hubby would go to the various sub jobs and witness what others did or did not do for the 'visitor' in terms of accomodation and preparatory materials. I would go to my campus, teach, observe office hours, and fumble through the 'new campus' learning process as I've done many times prior.
In early April 2010, our situation changed a bit. Our realtor in Georgia notified us that we had a buyer--A BUYER!!!--who would want to rent the property while in the mortgaging process. As we discovered that we could rent out the property and, by doing so, qualify for a new home in Texas, we agreed. The paperwork was duly executed in time for them to additionally qualify for the $8k tax credit, they moved into the house, and we signed up with a realtor in Texas and started scouting neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, in that same time period, the public school year was ending--and so, too, were the sub jobs. Times were about to 'feel' desperate all over again albeit we had reserves and we now had a steady source of income on the Georgia property to supplement the pre-existing mortgage. Our focus shifted from daily survival to future success. I volunteered to teach four summer classes--three of which successfully 'made' at the college--to supplement what we would lack from the loss of substitute teaching offerings. The applications (which had never really ended) were sent with renewed vigor. That my hubby had now made very positive contacts in the area ISDs through subbing was a major positive force...he had a pseudo-inside track into soon-to-be openings and availability. And they (the ISDs) now had name-recognition on his applications. (*As of today, his search is still going, but there are some strong contenders and initial calls ARE coming in finally.)
I took the 'lead' on the house search thus allowing my hubby to concentrate on the re-energized job search. We prequalified for a comfortable and sensible mortgage, started the paperwork (the last of which is still ongoing as of 15 July 2010), and I went looking with our realtor. There is an overabundance of properties in this area far below market value (thanks to the economy) on the foreclosure and short-sale market. We (our realtor and I) chose to focus our attentions there. Culling through the nasty bits was both fascinating and terrifying--there are some significantly irate people out there (understandably so) whose former homes are on those markets and who, before vacating their properties, assured through physical defacement that the properties would be virtually uninhabitable for the next owners. We saw walls punched in, torn wallpaper, missing light fixtures and outlets, broken attic ladders, missing kitchen appliances, and even one backfilled swimming pool (yes...the former occupants of one house completely filled their oval pool with dirt and planted a lawn in the pool).
In early April 2010, our situation changed a bit. Our realtor in Georgia notified us that we had a buyer--A BUYER!!!--who would want to rent the property while in the mortgaging process. As we discovered that we could rent out the property and, by doing so, qualify for a new home in Texas, we agreed. The paperwork was duly executed in time for them to additionally qualify for the $8k tax credit, they moved into the house, and we signed up with a realtor in Texas and started scouting neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, in that same time period, the public school year was ending--and so, too, were the sub jobs. Times were about to 'feel' desperate all over again albeit we had reserves and we now had a steady source of income on the Georgia property to supplement the pre-existing mortgage. Our focus shifted from daily survival to future success. I volunteered to teach four summer classes--three of which successfully 'made' at the college--to supplement what we would lack from the loss of substitute teaching offerings. The applications (which had never really ended) were sent with renewed vigor. That my hubby had now made very positive contacts in the area ISDs through subbing was a major positive force...he had a pseudo-inside track into soon-to-be openings and availability. And they (the ISDs) now had name-recognition on his applications. (*As of today, his search is still going, but there are some strong contenders and initial calls ARE coming in finally.)
I took the 'lead' on the house search thus allowing my hubby to concentrate on the re-energized job search. We prequalified for a comfortable and sensible mortgage, started the paperwork (the last of which is still ongoing as of 15 July 2010), and I went looking with our realtor. There is an overabundance of properties in this area far below market value (thanks to the economy) on the foreclosure and short-sale market. We (our realtor and I) chose to focus our attentions there. Culling through the nasty bits was both fascinating and terrifying--there are some significantly irate people out there (understandably so) whose former homes are on those markets and who, before vacating their properties, assured through physical defacement that the properties would be virtually uninhabitable for the next owners. We saw walls punched in, torn wallpaper, missing light fixtures and outlets, broken attic ladders, missing kitchen appliances, and even one backfilled swimming pool (yes...the former occupants of one house completely filled their oval pool with dirt and planted a lawn in the pool).
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
And So We "Set Up Camp" in Texas
Once we arrived in Texas and settled in, the organizing began. We planned out what we ABSOLUTELY needed for basic and professional "survival" in our new situation--the clothes, the paperwork, the accoutrements of a "life" basically in suspended animation. From a three-bed, two-bath house inhabited by the two of us, three dogs, two cats, and four turtles, we had "downsized" to one bedroom, one shared closet, one bathroom...and no pets. For those of you who have "fur-babies," you know how the removal of your pets adds to or increases your stress level. (We maintained a strict and constant visitation schedule at the kennel throughout our time of separation so that the dogs and cats never 'lost' the imprint they had to us...they, I believe, are the least affected by this past year--they are more socialized, more loving to us, and more bonded to each other than ever they were in Georgia!)
Everything that was not 100% essential to our new lives was placed in storage with the rest of our belongings. It was an awkward time--from being able to "spread out," we were nearly completely intertwined at all times. My shoe "collection" became a point of contention between us... His laptop became my nemesis. We were forced to communicate and open up to each other in ways we had not before imagined necessary--vocally-silent 'chats' online when there was no possibility of privacy, cell phone texting to keep each other grounded in our darkest moments, Skype calls when we traveled independent of the other, whispered conversations at night or in the mornings.
Talking to each other became a lifeline to "normalcy" for us. There were times my hubby would "shut down" and just not talk--those were the times the situation we had fallen into would be hitting him hardest. I quietly cried when the fear of not seeing a way to extract ourselves overtook me. We both turned WAY more serious than we had been previously.
Cooking, which was a connecting point for us, was put figuratively on the "back burner." We were welcomed to share our friend's kitchen (at the house we were invited into when we moved) and did take advantage of the offer, but there was an awkwardness to using someone else's cooking equipment. Further, with money tight, we regressed to our former "collegiate" diet plans from decades past--eggs, spaghetti, chicken-chicken-chicken, and cereal. Oh...and beer and wine.
Life revolved around getting up each morning and checking the sub-finder site online (it's a "lottery" system here--whoever gets to the posted sub job online first 'grabs' it...until you build up a 'following' within the individual schools) and doing the same each evening, interspersed with constantly trolling the ISD job openings and endlessly applying. For me, classes and trainings at the new college took up the "worrying time"--early morning and night classes left me little time to fret about what tomorrow would hold. We became automatons...and clung tighter to each other to keep ourselves feeling.
It was, to paraphrase Dickens, the not-so-great of times.
Everything that was not 100% essential to our new lives was placed in storage with the rest of our belongings. It was an awkward time--from being able to "spread out," we were nearly completely intertwined at all times. My shoe "collection" became a point of contention between us... His laptop became my nemesis. We were forced to communicate and open up to each other in ways we had not before imagined necessary--vocally-silent 'chats' online when there was no possibility of privacy, cell phone texting to keep each other grounded in our darkest moments, Skype calls when we traveled independent of the other, whispered conversations at night or in the mornings.
Talking to each other became a lifeline to "normalcy" for us. There were times my hubby would "shut down" and just not talk--those were the times the situation we had fallen into would be hitting him hardest. I quietly cried when the fear of not seeing a way to extract ourselves overtook me. We both turned WAY more serious than we had been previously.
Cooking, which was a connecting point for us, was put figuratively on the "back burner." We were welcomed to share our friend's kitchen (at the house we were invited into when we moved) and did take advantage of the offer, but there was an awkwardness to using someone else's cooking equipment. Further, with money tight, we regressed to our former "collegiate" diet plans from decades past--eggs, spaghetti, chicken-chicken-chicken, and cereal. Oh...and beer and wine.
Life revolved around getting up each morning and checking the sub-finder site online (it's a "lottery" system here--whoever gets to the posted sub job online first 'grabs' it...until you build up a 'following' within the individual schools) and doing the same each evening, interspersed with constantly trolling the ISD job openings and endlessly applying. For me, classes and trainings at the new college took up the "worrying time"--early morning and night classes left me little time to fret about what tomorrow would hold. We became automatons...and clung tighter to each other to keep ourselves feeling.
It was, to paraphrase Dickens, the not-so-great of times.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Our History--or "Why This Blog Exists"
In 2009, my husband and I "read" the proverbial "writing on the wall" in the state of Georgia--massive budget cuts with the first cuts coming from education (we're both educators), companies and factories closing or downsizing in our region of the state, and the real estate market "tanking." It was stay and face furloughs or worse OR join the out-migration from the rural deep South and create a new life elsewhere. We chose the latter option. Applications went out online, interviews were scheduled and duly attended, preliminary offers or interest was given, and we started packing.
The house was listed on the market in May of '09...it's a pretty, 2000-sq. ft. property on around a 1/4 acre of land in a small Southern town surrounded by cotton fields and pecan groves. And it sat...and sat...and sat. No one wants to move to a "small Southern town" in the middle of one of the largest recessions in recent American history. (We've a buyer now...and are soon to finish up that little bit.)
We moved in the first week of July 2009--packed up the house, the pets, the offices and classrooms--and found ourselved in north Texas. Since the house was on the market, we didn't have lodging, so our friends took us in. Our pets went into boarding at the local vet (and are still there), we put the "house" into two storage sheds, and started our year of "houselessness"--not homelessness, for we had each other and we had the kindness of our friends.
I found a position as a professor at the local community college. My husband, who we both thought was offered a position at a local high school, was passed over at the last moment in favor of someone else. He started substitute teaching in three separate school systems in the area--and changed his mindset toward teaching and the use of subs due to the experience.
And so, one year later and INFINITELY wiser, I find myself blogging about both the experience of this past year and where we're headed now. For the good or ill, I hope you read with open mind.
The house was listed on the market in May of '09...it's a pretty, 2000-sq. ft. property on around a 1/4 acre of land in a small Southern town surrounded by cotton fields and pecan groves. And it sat...and sat...and sat. No one wants to move to a "small Southern town" in the middle of one of the largest recessions in recent American history. (We've a buyer now...and are soon to finish up that little bit.)
We moved in the first week of July 2009--packed up the house, the pets, the offices and classrooms--and found ourselved in north Texas. Since the house was on the market, we didn't have lodging, so our friends took us in. Our pets went into boarding at the local vet (and are still there), we put the "house" into two storage sheds, and started our year of "houselessness"--not homelessness, for we had each other and we had the kindness of our friends.
I found a position as a professor at the local community college. My husband, who we both thought was offered a position at a local high school, was passed over at the last moment in favor of someone else. He started substitute teaching in three separate school systems in the area--and changed his mindset toward teaching and the use of subs due to the experience.
And so, one year later and INFINITELY wiser, I find myself blogging about both the experience of this past year and where we're headed now. For the good or ill, I hope you read with open mind.
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