Thursday, April 9, 2009

Holmes in the House

Things have been quiet around the blog lately so I thought I would give an update on my life. We moved into our new home and have been trying to get out of boxes ever since. The whole process has been quite the fiasco--but it's great to be in our new home. After we gave notice to our landlord we found out that the underwriter for our mortgage didn't like the appraisal on the home due to lack of comparable sales and our loan went *poof*. Meanwhile the well well water was not passing county inspection for bacteria. After the sellers bleached the well twice and it still came back with bacteria they hired a contractor who found a dead snake decomposing in the well. They removed the snake and re-bleached. We moved in as renters while the water situation was still up in the air. Fortunately, the water came back clean on our fourth day in the house. We also heard that day that our other loan application through rural development had been approved (apparently the USDA backs home loans in rural areas).

We had decided to move in and rent, against the advice of our realtor because the water and loan questions were still up in the air, because we had both received an impression that it was the right thing to do. (We had the same feeling at the same moment while we were in different rooms in our house. I went in to tell Taliatha what I thought we should do--I was sure she wouldn't like the idea of moving into a house with bad water--and was surprised to find she had just come to the same conclusion.) We're still waiting for the final stamp of approval on the loan, but we should be able to close some time next week.

6 comments:

  1. Dead snake in the well, huh? I can totally relate. The exact same thing happened to me last....

    ...no wait, that's fantastically weird. I don't have anything else to say about it.

    I will add that home ownership is a financial nightmare. In the last year alone we've spent over $3500 just getting our freaking trees trimmed. Maybe next year we'll have saved up enough to replace the main drainage pipe from the house that is currently clogged with tree roots.

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  2. Good job Holmes! I applaud you and yours for listening to the spirit even when the experts tell you something different. It's absolutely the right thing to do.

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  3. When you and your science department (or whatever department you're in, all sciences sort of blend together for me) buddies form a band, after you have tenure of course, you should call that band either 'snake in the well' or 'decaying snake'.

    "Along with our year end awards and a pleasant dinner, our annual science department banquet will be delighted to hear from 'snake in the well' with Dr. Holmes on glockenspiel." You guys will be huge.

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  4. Aaron--Exactly. Hopefully people have finally learned that your home is not an "investment." I just hope any improvements on our property break even after property taxes and maintenance. I don't plan on the value of our home increasing like I do stock investments.

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  5. Wow, I'm truly happy that I can't relate to the whole snake in the well, though I like Tony's ideas for future band names. I hope that everything works out and that the water's clean and you can move forward into that financial nightmare of home ownership. I have to admit that I'm hoping to finally enter it myself.

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  6. Update: we closed yesterday so everything is officially settled.

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