Happy Birthday Eleanor. (:

So.. I kind of owe you an apology. We closed on our house yesterday. (: We love our new house and can't wait to paint it and move in!!

Today was Eleanor's 2nd birthday, so we had the pleasure of throwing her a big ol' party at OUR HOUSE. That was nice. She had a great time. She got cranky a couple of times, but moments later she was always running gleefully around with her cousins or doing something terribly fun. She got fat lootz. She actually blew out one of her own candles. Her uncle Zack said, "She's cool. Other two year olds aren't like that." I was so proud. Here's some birthday funtime pics.






But, really I have to tell you the present that really was the show stopper. Nathan and I didn't have time to wrap it, but we wanted it to be a surprise for everyone, so we just hid it in the laundry room. It was very exciting. Wanna see?

That's what I get for wanting this to be over..

So.. It the make believe world where everything runs smoothly, and we get to keep out 5% interest rate, today would have been closing day. *Sigh*

Here's what happened: In the process of our appraisal it was discovered that the house was purchased at a Sheriff's sale about 10ish days before we put an offer on it. We actually saw it a few days before, so the current owner didn't own it for an entire week before putting it on the market for a flip. Really, is that such a big deal? As far as our still wanting the house, no. We had the inspection, and we're comfortable with the results. The house isn't any different than before we had that information. However, it makes a great deal of difference to our bank. We've been applying for an FHA loan, and with an FHA loan the previous owner had to have owned the house 90 days before the beginning of the contract, to prevent flipping. Grr! So, okay, no FHA loan, what about a conventional loan? We have the 5% required to put down on it now. No? No conventional loan either, because you have to have had the 5% for at least 2 months prior to applying for the loan, which we did not. GRR! Okay, what's left to us? Rural Development loan? Well, it's a lesser known loan that allows 100% financing. There is a maximum income requirement, which we meet, and the house has to be "rural." Well, the house qualifies, and in this case "rural" means "about 1/4 a mile outside the city limit." Or something. So it's good, right? Well, it's not that simple. Since the Rural Development loan is run by the USDA it has to be approved by some government authority. That process lately has been taking about two and a half weeks. Oh, and it requires a second appraisal. GRRR!!! We'll deal with the waiting, we're relatively sure it will be approved. We'll deal with the appraisal, that falls under "closing costs, which the seller agreed to pay up to $5,000 of anyway. But we're waiting on the approval before getting the appraisal, since there's no point in an appraisal if it's not approved. Also, unlike the FHA loan, there's no mortgage insurance, which helps keep it affordable for us, even at a higher interest rate.

So we are relatively certain we're still getting the house and that it will be totally affordable. I don't want to be relatively certain we're getting the house, I want the keys! But really, if we're just patient, we will get those keys. Someday. *sigh*