The Door That Slammed....

You know that old saying that when a door closes another opens? One has.. but not a new one. Oh no! It is one that had been open before and then slammed with great earth shattering force. As you may know if you have been keeping up or catching up with our journey to become homeowners, we had for two months been going through all the steps of and jumping all the hurdles for a house we had fallen for, despite loads of work needing to be done on it, mostly cosmetic, and in a city that had not even been on our radar to live in as it feels like a city and not a smaller town like where we live now ( which is not all that small). We had gotten to the point of packing, giving notice to the complex we lived in and were on pins and needles as to when we would and could call the house our own. If you have been reading this whole time you know how that turned out. We ended up having a huge glitch with funding in the eleventh hour and ended up homeless, living in a hotel and luckily, but a very costly few days later moved into our current apartment of which I shared a bit of last week. It is a lovely apartment, smaller, and getting used to less space in the kitchen and one less bathroom has been, well interesting. The view however makes up for it! But back to that door that has RE opened. 

*Marion Davies 

Yesterday, after we had spent the morning bringing more boxes and plastic tubs from the storage unit, getting our son in law to help get the wine fridge up the stairs important thing to have)and took him and our daughter to lunch as thanks, ran some mindless errands and had just settled in to relax for the rest of the day, we received a phone call. The call was from the husband to the daughter of the previous owners of the house we had been trying to make our own ( did you follow that?) ... her uncle was the one that finally pulled the plug, though we were hopeless to stop it due to the snafu on our lenders part;someone dropped the ball, a few times and we were the ones to suffer. I was listening from the door way, and all I got was, " That's a very interesting proposition..." and  "I need to speak to my wife and daughter and I will get back to you." Of course I was baffled. I did not know who it was and I did not know what it was about until hubby spilled the beans. Then my jaw dropped. 

*Colleen Moore

The question posed to my husband was if we were still interested in the house. If there was a way to make it happen, would we wish to do so?  Apparently the family had been in talks and really wanted us to have the house and from what we were told, even the Uncle had as well, but had been frustrated with the whole thing surrounding the financial issues both on our part as well as the money he was loosing each day as the executor of the estate (the house had been his brothers), it was an email to his agent that prompted the call, the series of calls from what we understand. Of course I was hesitant, very much so. I did not want to go backwards or re-live the drama... have the dream dangled and then ripped away again. I was, we were still healing from all that had happened during the process of it all, from money loss to being homeless for a few days to the emotional damage it all did. Where we really wanting to possibly do this again, two weeks ago I put the end to it and make the move to walk away and move on. For our own good we had to.


So you see, the Uncle with his threats and then execution of the deal in the end had me doubt filled and even scared it could happen again...if not with this house, even another and had me even considering staying a renter...it is an easier life to be sure and no emotional drama linked to it for the most part ( well except if you have bad neighbors and ever raising rents *sigh*). Listening to my husband tell me what the discussion was did not help and as our one daughter stated "Isn't it a couple months too soon for Scrooge to have been visited by the three ghosts??" ... I agreed. We called them back and got a few more details and then went and spoke to our youngest daughter, she of course is signing her name to the papers as well and even planning on moving back in with us for a period of time. We jumped in the car and took the short drive to her place of employment to discuss it with her. Needless to say her face mimicked my own and my husbands when we filled her in. After a short chat, she was all in, despite her shared wariness and we decided, with great caution to say yes...it was not a decision that came as lightly as it sounds, believe me and each moment that the stress builds I have to wonder if we made the right one, but then if we said no, would we had wonder what could have been? I think so. 

I do not have all the details, except to say that the owners, and supposedly their agent are going to do all they can to make it happen.What that means I really do not know at this point. We have to do our part and go to their suggested lender or any other lender other than the current one that screwed up so badly (but we are going to go to theirs)and get RE pre-approved and see what dollar amount we are working with. We warned them that it was much lower than the previously offered and finally accepted amount we had agreed to pay for , and that there was not too much we could do about that. However, as mentioned there are some things they and their agent are willing to do to try to make it work, so we shall see how far they will go. I am not going to get my hopes up, and as I had already started the detachment to that house and  my acceptance to being an apartment dweller for sometime to come because of the new adjusted price point we had, so it is easier not to get my hopes up again... the burn we received from the whole experience still stings. There is so much to consider moving forward. 

As I sit here writing this, so many thoughts are rolling around in my head, jumbled with old fears and new. Should we, shouldn't we? My gut feelings before, were they wrong or caused by fear and the stress of the mess it had all become. Do I want us to put more cash out to make this happen? Having already had to pay to get out of our last lease early, now in a new one, we could have to do that again, that is an extra 3500.00 out of pocket, between deposits and breaking lease fees... would it be worth it? The house is still in need of windows and a water treatment system, and loads of yard work, never mind the kitchen and bathroom updates that eventually would need to be done... so much work. It is further away from our daughters, and it would be a different lifestyle, it is not as walkable for every day needs. Then there is the fact on the flip side that there is nothing on the market right now that even compares in our new price range and we could have very well missed our window for getting a home that would suit our needs in the long run. There are still other thoughts of being unsure if we even want to be home owners again, after all our days are our own and there is not much to take care of past simple chores and well the view here is wonderful and it is very quiet, the house would not be nearly as so due to location, and I can walk to whatever we need and see all my daughters on a regular basis without a drive.... it is all enough to make your head swim and it is overwhelming! Of course the HUGE elephant in the room is that this may not happen regardless of what we or the owners want as now we are back to getting RE pre-approved and that dollar amount could simply end all talks. Needless to say once again I feel like I am falling down the endless rabbit hole. Whatever end that fall comes to, of course I shall share it here.