510 e-mails (I’m Serious; I just Counted) and I Didn’t Keep Track of the Number of Faxes (Although It Was Slightly Fewer) Later…
Funny turns of events the last few days. On Wednesday, after I put up the thing about the roof not quite being done and everything on the way but still a little in the air, etc., I got a message from the escrow people at about 10:30 (side note: I’d be lying if I said that I really understood what escrow is even now, after signing my life away to it, or them, or whatever you would call it [or them, or whatever you would call it, or...]). They wanted to set up a signing appointment, which I figured would be for today, our closing date. I called back, and the lady said they wanted to set one up for that afternoon. Turned out, I was thinking, that it was just to sign a few things to get everything lined up for today. We got there in the afternoon, and they brought out a gargantuan stack of paper* for us to start slogging through. Kirsten and I were both thinking it, but about ten pages in, she finally brought it up: “So… after we’re done with these, what else is there for us to sign, or take care of, or what have you?” The lady with all the papers gave us a sort of funny look and said, “No, this is everything. We just have to process it all, and you’re done.”
Oh. Turns out we were basically closing. Sort of anticlimatic, actually. No flashbulbs, no ticker tape. Oh well. No worries.
As we came to find out, in Washington, the actual closing happens on the day that the purchase and all the legal whatsit is filed with the county, and since that day is today, they needed all the whatsit in time to make that happen. As it all ended up, the roof was done in time for the appraiser to see it and get his documentation in, we paid the rest of what we needed to, and unless some of the documentation was prepared incorrectly and the problem comes out in the next couple of hours (unlikely; I got an update this morning that it was all looking great), we’ll meet our agent, Mike, at 4 PM today to get the key and start doing all the stuff to get ready to move our things in and actually live there!
There will be a lot of this…
and possibly some of this as well:
When I got home yesterday, Kirsten had gotten a bunch of cleaning supplies, including these
which we were excited to use before moving anything in since it means that we can start out all de-pested and also that we can set them off without having to cover anything, move anything out of the way, etc. If we set them off after getting the key today, though, it would mean leaving them all through the evening and not being able to start working until tomorrow. Which, duh. We needed a plan. Fortunately, I was able to arrange another “showing” with our realtor last night, and we set bombs off in a house that wasn’t ours and then ran away. That means today, we get right to work.
First target: the upstairs carpet and the pet urine therein. Have to get rid of the funky smell. Expect pictures as we go!
* The escrow person said—and keep in mind that she’s a professional who does this all the time—that she’s never seen anyone fill out as much paperwork. We were very proud.