Things are about to shake up at the ol' shack.
After almost 12 months of slow progress, pinching pennies and shaking our fists at this darned recession, we finally got approved for a loan yesterday to finish the bulk of the house.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I mean seriously....
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been whistling happy tunes all day. And last night, I almost didn't mind shaking out the sheets before I went to bed to make sure no sneaky spiders had snuggled in.
Soon, house. Soon we'll be putting all of this behind us.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! This IS huge!
ReplyDeleteI am curious...did you use this blog as part of your loan app? Because you have kept up with the blog through all the physical labor, planning, plotting, designing and trying to have a life, the blog gives testimony to your dedication. I haven't thought of a blog in such a way before, so I'm thinking out loud, but when my husband and I were buying our first house (we were self-employed), we had to come up with all sorts of "proof" that we were responsible (this was 1988). How helpful it would have been if I would have had a blog to document our efforts to purchase (but then again this was in the days that compuserve was our only choice, and it was pretty much dos-navigated...I fondly remember our amazement when a brick of extra sharp white vermont cheddar arrived at our door 2 days after entering the order online...) Anyway, I digress, and you are doing a great job with the house. I really can't wait to see what happens after this new development. -Anna
ReplyDeleteAnna: That is a really interesting question. I never thought of using a blog for that purpose, but it's a great idea. We were hoping to get a loan similar to what you described, but it just wasn't possible. We found that because of the credit crisis, many banks weren't offering their usual range of loans.
ReplyDeleteFor most of the available loans, we would've had to basically get the house "finished" before we could borrow. In other words, they would only lend us money to pay for work we already did - not for future projects. This would've involved constant inspections and getting approvals on every little expenditure... not optimum or convenient in the least.
We eventually ended up getting a home equity loan. No appraisals, inspections or crazy contractor approvals needed. It was so much easier than anything else we looked at! We were almost shocked that we hadn't found this route sooner.
Thanks for following our project -- hopefully things will really start coming together really soon now that our loan is coming through!