My computer is having some issues as of late, probably due to the move. It wouldn’t recognize the keyboard yesterday, so I’ve put in my old keyboard for now till I can figure out what’s going on with the USB ports.

As such, I still haven’t been able to download photos from my camera, but I hope to do so this weekend.
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Comcast turned off my internet two days early, the bastards. But they do have me on the schedule for new service on Thursday at the new house still. I can’t understand why customer services fails so bad with them. It literally honestly does. I’m on dial-up tonight, and probably won’t be on tomorrow at all since we’ll be sleeping at the new house.

Dad and I settled on the new house today. It was actually very painless, and the previous owners are super cool. I was fairly intimidated going into it, and I could sense tension in the room when they first walked in. But then they started talking about the history of the place and their family and things lightened up quite a bit. They seemed to take to my dad, since he’s an old farmer like them. I think they may even stop by now and again.

We immediately went to pick up a load of belongings to bring over and changed the locks. I actually took a nap on the floor after I was laying there staring at the horrible paint job on the ceiling. I took tons of photos, which I can’t upload now because of the current internet debacle. And I’ve taped up most of the living room for painting tomorrow. I do need to spackle and sand a few minor areas.

We took Bastian with us, but he’s not feeling very well.

Dad already started loading tools into the garage, I think he’s tickled pink at having one. I may post more details later, but dial-up seriously sucks. I remember these days, but it must be one of those repressed horrific memories.

Countdown: 1 day till settlement, 2 days till move-in.

My total closing fees will be $4830 which will leave a little over $2k for us to put into the house and start paying a few folks back. Payback will be faster when the car is paid off in February.

That is good news

They have also left some work-benches and grinders behind for my dad. So more free stuff.

Tomorrow’s schedule:
9:15am - Walk-through of the house to make sure everything is as it was described for settlement
10:15am - Meet with lawyer to go over paperwork for settlement
11am - Settlement appointment with attorneys and seller
Afterwards - Change locks to all 4 doors of the house (already purchased and keyed the same)

If it’s past 1pm by that time, I will not be going into work as it takes an hour to get to work and it’s not worth going in after 1pm.

In which case I will:
- Smudge entire house and garage with white sage
- Tape up the living room for painting.
- Examine for any holes, flaws, etc for painting.
- Roll around in the grass and on the floors and giggle like mad

Wednesday’s Schedule:
7am - Start painting living room (maybe bedroom first, depending on when my cousin-in-law wants to come over)
9am-10am - Grandfather drops off storage trailer
Afterwards - Alternate between painting and unloading trailer the rest of the day
12pm-3pm - Electric company is due to turn on electric
10pm - First night sleeping at new house (albeit without internetz)

Thursday’s Schedule:
8-12pm - Cable installation
Afterwards - More unloading and unpacking, which is pretty much my schedule until Sunday.

Several folks coming over Friday and Saturday to help unload and paint.

Saturday’s Schedule:
- Pick up furniture from bosse’s pad

I will be taking lots of before and after pictures. Expect picture spam.

Dad and I went and had breakfast at another old country restraurant called “The Country Kitchen” in Taneytown today. It was very small, much like the Book and Table we went to for his birthday. Service was faster and the food was good (though my cinnamon bun must have been heated up in the microwave because half of it was hard as a rock).

These country restaurants crack me up. I really do love them because you see all the old farmers sitting outside chatting and gossiping. One of them was talking to my dad for a bit about diabetes. I just want to sit with them all day and listen to stories.

Afterwards we went to Lowes to buy paint, where I also promptly forgot to use my coupon. I’m sure we’ll be going there again. I bought Olympic paint because it’s one of the more eco-friendly paints, and I have a caramel/beige color for the living room, and a dark chocolate brown for my bedroom. I also bought a can of primer for the bedroom since the walls are fairly light right now and I don’t want to have to put on tons of color.

The local town here, Fairfield, is having their annual Pippinfest festival this weekend. We may be walking through there tomorrow, I don’t know yet. But apparently it’s like a huge flea market and is a big deal around here. I saw some furniture I wouldn’t mind looking at.

My uncle has also invited us over for breakfast tomorrow morning, but I’m still deciding whether or not to drive down to the Grove or start packing things up here for the move on Wednesday.

The water test came back with a minor amount of bacteria. They said verbally that they would be treating the water and then retesting.

The lawyer called me yesterday to let me know the title search was complete, or rather they were finishing it up. There are no liens or anything on the property (they search back 60 years), but there are two right-a-ways. One of which I knew about, the driveway to the left of the property. Apparently a right-a-way for that driveway was created initially as a 20 foot right-a-way in April 1986, and then another 30 feet were added in July 1986. So in total, there’s a 50 foot right-a-way, most likely starting in the center of the driveway with 25 feet on either side.

That’s a pretty big right-a-way, and was probably initially done for a development. However this was in 1986, and dad thinks that they probably couldn’t develop the woods behind us because of the two rivers there making it wetlands.

Still, it’s a shared right-a-way, so it shouldn’t interfere with our garden. However I am still going to research what our rights would be with the right-a-way, and if there’s any way we can get the amount reduced. I mean it -is- our property so I imagine we have to have -some- rights.

The other right-a-way is for the electrical company Med-Ed, which I assume just means there is some sort of electrical line on the property somewhere. The lawyer said those are usually only 10 feet or so, but that I can call that number where you have people come out and mark utility lines on the property for you and that should give me an idea of where it is.

Edit: Found this How to Amend Existing Property Easements. Should be fun *sarcasm*. I also emailed the lawyer to find out what my rights are with the land, or rather what -they- could do with the land potentially.

“Hi Crystal, Just wanted you to know that I was able to improve your rate today, a full half point to 5.50% based on the same costs. See the attached, I can do this on occasion for clients when the market warrants. It was a rare day yesterday, seeing the market improve in such a manner. I hope it helps! Have a great day, Joe”

” Hi Crystal, Your appraisal came in fine at $165,000 and there are no repairs or additional inspection requests. Thanks! Joe”

That was the last big hurdle I was worrying about before settlement. As far as I know all that is left is the results from the water test and the actual settlement date. I’m slightly paranoid about the settlement meeting on the 30th, like someone is going to pull some mysterious fee out of a hat or something.

I’m going to put my foot down if that happens though. I’m fully prepared to walk away from this house and walk out on the settlement meeting if someone does something I don’t like.

I signed up for homeowner’s insurance with USAA this morning. The originally quote they gave me of $628/year was for a $500 deductible. I decided that since my father and I have had renter’s insurance for years and never used it, and we can do most repairs ourselves, I’d opt for the higher deductible. If I didn’t have a healthy emergency savings, then I wouldn’t have done this. Fortunately since I do, I can handle the higher deductible.

At $1000 deductible it brings the yearly premium to $546.44, so a slightly lower monthly payment and about $80 less a year. USAA even offered to set up the transfer of my account to my new address and the cancellation of my renter’s insurance automatically on October 1st.

This was the last step that I needed to do myself, since I got copies of my 401k and Roth IRA statements this morning as well. Now it’s all in the hands of the settlement lawyers and lender. Though I do still need to get a certified check for the remaining balance of the down payment, but I am still waiting to hear from the lawyer about that.

As far as the closing process goes, #1, #3, and #4 are complete. Now it looks like the lawyers need to complete their title search, the lender needs to have the property appraised (and I assume some sort of FHA inspection), the lender needs to approve the loan, settlement lawyer needs to demand pay-off of the original mortgage (I kinda doubt there is one), and I need to get a cashier’s check for the lawyer, then we have our settlement appointment on September 30th and I get my damn keys!

Reminder: Buy new locks.

In the mean time I will be looking at paint colors and setting up appointments for electric hook-up, etc.