Addendum to below
Well I just spoke with my realtor and the loan officer again, and things have taken a turn for my favor! It turns out that the orignial amount they had quoted me to bring to the closing today had not taken the earnest money into account. Considering that the earnest money was $500, that’s substantial! So that means I can immediately sign the check over to The Gill, and pay him back right away, and it also means I’ll have more money in my account to use towards appliances, paint, drywall, and whatever else we need.
I also feel a bit better about the whole paranoia thing — if they were trying to bilk me, they could have very easily not said anything about this and I may not have been the wiser (I was going to ask where the earnest money was listed on the closing statement though). So I feel a bit more confident in the people working for me now.
We’re painting and ripping up carpet tonight if anyone can make it! Call my cell phone for details!

Earlier Today…
This day began frustrating. Between Wordpress’s Retarded WYSIWYG editor messing up on me ([strong] tags proliferating like bunnies), my mouse not working correctly, having tired eyes, and the fact that I’m occasionally just a grumpy morning person, I have had one hell of a morning so far. I’m really hoping that this doesn’t continue throughout the rest of the day, because today we close on the house!

I feel nervous as hell. I barely ate anything yesterday evening, and had only a piece of banana bread for breakfast this morning. This afternoon, at 4:00pm, the sun will be at an angle, casting shadows that always look great in photographs, some people will be getting off work, and the area formerly known as the Promenade will probably be bustling with people trying to get last minute business in. And there I’ll be, at Freedom Title, signing my John Hancock on scores of pages. Every page that passes under my hand is like taking another baby step off of the plank, as I’m prodded and pushed by the Pirates of the Title & Abstract seas.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel confident this is the right thing to do. My anxiety is more or less irrational, mostly because I (a) have never done this before, and (b) because I’m taking on a very sizable debt. Nevertheless, irrational anxiety eats away at your insides just like rational anxiety does, if there is such a thing. My nervousness is akin to stage fright — it’s not exactly performance anxiety, as I am sure I will be able to sign my chicken-scratch name just fine, but it’s that “I know that this is exactly where I am supposed to be, but I’m still nervous as hell because this is drastically different than my day-to-day affairs.”
Then of course, there’s the whole paranoia issue. It’s so hard to tell in the business world whether people are on the up-and-up or whether they’re just really good salesmen. A really good salesman can make it seem as though he’s doing an Eskimo a favor by selling them an Icechest Refrigerator. I’m usually pretty astute at guessing people’s intentions, but if someone makes it their life’s work to be deceptive long enough to get you to sign off on it — I wouldn’t consider it impossible for them to sneak by me. I think the paranoia is largely because it’s quite obvious that all of the people involved on the selling end have their hand in the honeypot — it’s in all of their financial best interests to make this sale, so it’s hard to say how much more important THEIR interests are compared to mine. The real estate market has been really slow lately, so I imagine they’re all hungry for a closing. I’m standing in a corner, holding a milkbone in hand, with three ravenous drooling dogs slowly approaching me — they glance briefly at the bone but decide that the meat that’s holding the bone looks more appetizing. Hopefully, and this is what I’m banking on, everyone has been on the up-and-up.

Still no official word about the progress on that new position opening up doing IT for Police & Fire. I know the pay will be substantially more than I make now, and I’ll get benefits to boot, but I’m waiting on them to put out the official word that the job is available. Everyone here has said that I’m a shoe-in for it if I want it; and I do. But I’ll feel a lot more at ease about that once I get my first paycheck and see the bigger number.

Categories: This New House