Taming the Room

 I haven’t yet started on cleaning out my dungeon closets. My nephew Thomas came over yesterday and it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster that took some time to level out. I got no sleep Sunday night and ended up staying up until Monday night so I crashed hard and slept 12+ hours.

So I got up today a bit late and so far, just packed up some smaller boxes with the books under my computer desk. Why do books have to be a million different sizes and shapes? So it was like Tetris, but I got it done. My room looks like it’s been pillaged, but all that’s really left is to take out drawers, wrap them so the contents won’t tumble out when carried. The rest is stuff I use daily and will quick-pack when it’s time to finally move to the new house.

To be honest, my room still kinda looks full, but I’m visually tricking myself so I’m not lying in a barren wasteland in the meantime. Everything is staying up on my walls until the move too. It’s just a kind of mental thing, where I don’t feel like my ‘sanctuary’ doesn’t exist anymore. All easy stuff to pull down. On the ‘day of’, packing up the little stuff shouldn’t take more than an hour, if that.

It’s still about three weeks away, but the closets will take at least a week to go through since I’m picking through everything. After that, I’m going to help my nephew Dameon start getting his stuff together. A lot of what’s in his closet is already boxed up: LEGO sets, Nintendo Labo stuff, etc. mostly just gonna have to go through clothes and what’s on his shelves. He’s a video game kid so he’s never been that interested in collectibles.

My friend Joe is giving me some diaper boxes I can pack clothes in, so that has to wait too. I’m always finding new issues to solve, but nothing overwhelming. I’m being super mindful about trying to pack everything so it won’t break or be too heavy to carry.

I’ve also had some paperwork to help Dad with. Sometimes, new info comes up concerning the loan or home offer so I help him do that. My sister Erin does too. When we were still in house hunting mode, it was mostly Erin and Dad pulling up listings and Erin would plot our route through the GPS on her phone, so that was a pretty efficient process too.

I guess that’s one of the best things about working together as a family. We all play an important part and it makes big things a lot more manageable for all of us. We all have strengths (and weaknesses) and, luckily, very different interests and skills to help us through these situations. I’m the sort of secretary, Dad is the main source of income, Erin is the one who takes action. We’re a great team!

Happy Home!

 Just a quick update, but we’re not selling the old house. My nephew Thomas has always loved this house, so when my dad brought up keeping the house, my sister saw the opportunity to see if Dad wanted to rent it to him. My dad said as long as it covered the property tax, that’s all he needed, so... not only does my nephew (and possibly his mom, if she wants to move in too) have a new place, but he’ll have enough for utilities, rent and possibly even be able to save money!

I haven’t blogged much about this kid (26 years old though) but he’s always put others first, going so far as to take care of his chronically ill mother even before he was an adult. His mother Angie is a cool cat, but she’s been riddled with an illness that sometimes incapacitates her for days and that can make it hard to function, let alone have stable income. Somehow, he’s always held the fort, making sure rent was paid, but it’s left him with not much for himself; he’ll save for the occasional ComicCon or collectible.

To be able to do this for him, well, I have a terrific Dad, what can I say? I truly feel privileged to be my nephew’s confidant through his struggles and, really, I’d never deny him anything in my power to give. I can’t take credit for this, but I’ve been more than happy to talk to Dad about how we can help. I’m usually just an ear to bend; I say ‘just’ but truly it’s an honor to have a great relationship with my nephew.

Well, back to packing! I keep stopping for breaks since it’s a muggy day, but I’m way ahead of schedule. I’ll probably end up being done with my room by the end of the week, just from pure excitement.

The Move Continues!

 Great news to be had this week as the appraisal fell almost exactly on our offer! BOOM!

I’ve been packing up my room, a couple of boxes at a time, and it’s coming along. I do have a LOT of stuff, so getting it a little at a time is a lot less stressful. My cats know something is up and are not feeling it at all. Terrible hoomans and all their stupid change... I can’t say it’s not causing some anxiety but getting used to a new place isn’t something I adapt to quickly. I’ve lived in quite a few places, but haven’t done a huge move since I was like 7 years old. I’m leaving the stuff on my walls until everything else is moved. It’s weird enough seeing everything else clearing away so I’m trying not to live in a lifeless space as long as possible.

I know for sure I want to shop for a new bed frame and bookshelves for the new space, something to display my dolls on better. I’m giving my sister my current bed frame and wire bookshelf. Most of my furniture should be okay to fit, but we’ll see. My recliner could be too much, but I can put that downstairs if necessary. It’s a bigger room but I’d like more floor space than I’ve allowed myself in the ‘old house’.

But I spent today dismantling a craft cubby unit and wrapping up the canvas boxes, packing up some of the miscellaneous bits that floated around. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to pack up my TV console stuff, games and desk bits. That will mostly take care of the ‘main’ part of my room before I start sorting through the closets. I have quite a bit that’s either getting thrown out or given away. The most challenging bits to decide about are my electronics: graphics tablets, TV, computer, consoles, printer, etc. There’s no way I’m trusting them being jostled about on a moving truck! Those will definitely be a regular vehicle haul...

It’s not terribly exciting stuff, I know, but after hearing the great news about the appraisal landing right in the ballpark of our offer and knowing we can be comfortable getting what we need for the new house, I feel like a bit of rambling in thought is in order! I look forward to building a new sanctuary and reorganizing my goals. It’s a nice and quiet little town, chock full of visual inspiration. I’m hoping once regular school is back in session, my nephews get to benefit from a new school too.

The pandemic makes me feel restless and tense so this at least had become the perfect opportunity for us to make such a big decision, without worrying about work schedules and all that.

What I’m really hoping for, after all this work to settle into a new home, is that my motivation kicks back in and I can focus up on my passion projects again. There are books to write, dolls to design, yarn waiting to be crocheted and a muse to wrangle! First things first...

Moving on!

Appraisal Week!

 So we’ve bumped into our first fight concerning the new house; Dad and Erin got a little heated about whether or not the gap by the stairs was going to be a safety issue. Dad swore there wasn’t one before my sister could show him the pictures. Dad got loud, Erin got loud back. They both said things they didn’t really mean, but I intervened and explained it to Dad calmly that I was the one that noticed the issue. He ended up apologizing because he was wrong and that he was confusing how the stairs were set up with the way the stairs were in the Manchester house. In any case, things have been defused and we’re back on track.

I imagine this isn’t the last petty argument that will erupt in the stress of a big change, but I’m prepared to step in and mediate more in the future. It’s kinda my thing and I’m damn good at it.

Even though I was hesitant to start doing any packing before it is set in stone, I went ahead and packed my dolls, some decor, what was on my bookshelf, stuff in the window box and most of my collectibles. None of these things are what I might need to use prior to moving and they were kinda just clutter for the time being, so I went ahead and knocked that out. My dad did some more research on what the house would appraise to and he is quite confident it will be where we want it to land anyway.

I’ll be happy to hear the results and lock in all costs and financial concerns regardless.

Closing may not be until October 5th so we’re not in a great rush, but packing a little at a time will certainly be less stressful. We’re getting the cats spayed on the 23th of September, but we won’t be moving them until we’ve got most of our stuff moved and the house cat-proofed, so they’ll have plenty of time to heal. Changes are always stressful to cats, so we definitely have them in mind as well. They did very well at their exam and getting their shots but all that excitement had them sleeping most of that day. Making sure they are healed and happy is just as important to the whole process.

I’m sure there will be minor snipes about things like who is getting what room and where everything goes, etc. but I’m quite prepared to defuse those bombs too. If nothing else, I’m a planner and a problem solver so I’ll be ready to counter frustrations. It’s very likely that because I live with near-constant anxiety, I’m simply not as short-fused as my family tends to be. I guess when you’re always wary of what could go wrong, it takes an awful lot to be completely caught off-guard or forced into an immediate emotional response. I was just as hair-trigger as they are when I was younger, but over time, I’ve developed patience, if not more tolerance, for stressful situations. Even if my thoughts are turbulent, much of my anxiety is invented so I only have emotional outbursts in the face of very strong threats.

I’ll leave this on a good note; I’m very hopeful. I think this will be an immensely favorable step and, once we’re settled in, it will do wonders for our peace of mind. I truly believe this will be a home we can focus more of our potential with.

House Hunting Saga Continues!

 Despite reservations to the contrary, it turns out our offer for the house was accepted! 

So what’s next? Appraisal week commences...

This week, we will find out what the appraisal prices the house at. In case you’re not familiar with this process, we are hoping the appraisal comes as close to our bid as possible. A home loan will only cover up to the cost of the appraisal so we would have to pay out the overage upfront. The baseline estimate for this one lies around $165K and our offer falls at $175K. If the appraisal is at $165K, we have to cover $10K upfront. Keep in mind, they also ask for a down payment (which, I believe, is about 3.8% of the total purchase price and also closing costs).

When starting a contract for an accepted offer, they ask that you pay earnest money, which is $500 in our case. This actually counts towards the purchase price, not an additional cost. This money is held as a sort of guarantee that you won’t back out of the contract without an acceptable reason. In most cases, if the seller hasn’t disclosed all of the issues that turn up during inspection or appraisal, you can chose to terminate and have the earnest money returned or renegotiate to ask them to lower the price or fix the issue prior to closing the sale. If you break out of the contract for softer reasons, like you found another house you want instead, then the realtor keeps the earnest money, a sort of penalty for wasting their time. I would assume there will be a delay in being able to repost the house to market as well as more costs to them to repost. Totally understandable to incentivize serious offers only.

So to avoid too many upfront costs, it is actually ideal for the appraisal to land as close to your offer as possible. In this case, the lowest possible appraisal estimate isn’t a huge leap that we can’t afford to meet. Although a higher appraisal price does mean higher payments, the difference in monthly costs is almost negligible in a $10K margin. We’d much rather pay a little more monthly than have to put out the larger amount right away. I might have said before, but this house is so well-kept, needing almost no work to accommodate our needs, so it is very likely the appraisal will indeed land closer to our offer.

At this point, I am not 100% on how closing costs are calculated since the realtor typically walks us through this once the appraisal is complete. We opted out of paying $400 for the inspection since my dad already knows what the inspection looks for and did so himself when we toured the house. The appraisal will be out of pocket (costs about the same as the inspection) but is a step that can’t be skipped in order to be fair to both the seller and buyer. An appraiser does the same sweep through as an inspector. Why would you need an inspection? Well, if the house needs questionable amounts of work, it is better to know what you’re getting into prior to proceeding with a contract.

So once I learn more, I’ll explain those as well. For now, we are very hopeful that we will be able to meet any possible obstacles and still have enough to fund any additional home improvement costs. We’d like to purchase a shed for outdoor storage, Put a deck on the back porch, hang a door on one room to make it a bedroom, and turn a rather large walk-in into a storage room, for starters. I know Dad wants to put a lot of work into the yard with more plants and such too. 

I look forward to writing more updates!

More on House Hunting

 I was sulking the better part of the day when my sister told me that there were several more offers on the house in Milan, Indiana. I like to be hopeful, but I think I let myself get TOO hopeful and suddenly I was cynical that we would be outbid. I thought for sure this would be a long sleepless night where I would both be desperately hopeful and quickly depressed that it would go badly.

Well, we got the news that our offer was accepted!

Whoa, whoa, not so fast... it was a sudden rush but I reined it in again. The next step is appraisal. I’ve mentioned before that an appraisal determines the current value of the house and, again, the loan will only cover the appraisal cost. While I certainly think the house is worth every penny of our bid, if there is too big of a difference between these costs, we won’t be able to afford to make up that difference and would have to dissolve the sale still.

So, I’m standing on the center of a seesaw, trying to find the balance once more. The appraisal will be yet another nerve wracking, nail biting day, where I try to manage hopes and disappointment before the verdict is in and we see if this can be truly ours.

Before we began this journey, I wasn’t quite initiated into how much of a roller coaster this part was. I was mentally preparing myself for the idea of packing and moving, which I’ve always seen as the most daunting part. So this is certainly a crash course in the reality of how huge a life change this really is.

So I’ve taken a sleep aid to quiet my mind tonight because I’ll need sleep before I tackle the next steps with all of my strength. I want to believe that this is the one... but I must accept the fact that that’s not assured.

I see a lot of tears ahead for the next part, whether happy or disappointed. Not for long though; either I’m about to prepare for a big move or another bout of finding the right house.

Either way, I am still hopeful that I will settle into a new house in the future. And open myself to the new challenges of all that entails, foreseeable or not!

Hunting for Homes

 So, the Manchester, Ohio home fell through. We began to have our doubts after inspection that it was too highly priced and would need a lot of work so we dissolved the contract. Not to be defeated, we decided to look at homes in Indiana: Connersville, Rushville, Greensburg and Milan.

Milan was our last stop, one where we actually made an appointment to see the inside. Pictures just didn't do it justice and we loved the outside... even more so, the inside! It has the perfect amount of room and is SO well-kept...

So we put a bid on it.

Unfortunately, our Ohio realtor Amy Broermann doesn't operate in Indiana, but we met up with Minnie Rector, who is just as fantastic. I have high hopes that this is 'the one', with none of the creeping doubts the Manchester home was bringing up.

So the waiting game begins again. We'll see what the seller counters with and negotiate from there. Really crossing my fingers that it will all go smoothly and I'll have a new home to share with you all!