Hi, All!
Your responses have been overwhelming - kind, sweet, encouraging, and quite lovely. Thank you so very much for sharing this special time with me. I haven't had a lot of spare time to answer everyone, so I'll try to do that now.
Ssnova: On March 23rd, I began to entertain the idea of buying this year. Until then, I'd planned on waiting until next year. However, circumstances - including the tax credit - made the decision to push it up a year easy. On the 26th, I contacted my absolutely wonderful realtor. She was a dream - and even though we've closed and she's been paid, she's still watching my back and making sure everything is being taken care of. On the 27th, I contacted the first of three loan officers that I considered. On 4/1, I received my preapproval - and it was actually from the LO that I ended up choosing. On 4/24, I began negotiations on the house that I had decided on, and on Saturday the 25th of April, we came to a mutual agreement. Had my GFEs on the 28th, made the decision which LO to go with and had all my disclosures and paperwork to sign on May 1st. The inspection was completed on May 4th. May 5th, the LO received my check for the appraisal, which she set up immediately. Less than a week later, the appraisal was complete and we had the results. From there on, it was just a matter of waiting. I'm with the public school system, so I wanted to get through exams, graduation, post-planning, and the end of school before worrying about moving, so part of my negotiations was putting closing off to June 1st. We could have done it sooner - all parties were ready - but *I* needed it postponed until the first of June. The end of May was full with the end of school, father's 80th birthday and our family celebration, and even a short family vacation (our dad's birthday present!).
Trishco: thank you for your kind words!
DJSpeer: I hope and pray your experience will be as absolutely wonderful as mine has been.
Cympty89: Wow, it's almost the 8th!!!!! If you're like me, you'll be getting very little sleep between now and Monday. I basically slept on the couch and just watched TV (HGTV, of course) most of Sunday night. Dozed a little bit, but I was just too excited to go to bed. I'll be thinking about you on Monday and waiting to hear your report. Congratulations!
Bungalowmo: Thanks! I hope that like you as each day goes past this place will be more and more dear to me. Got a cool surprise today. In the back yard, there is this pit area that we couldn't figure out what was going on with it. It was a pretty cool oval shape so I thought I'd turn it into a small water feature or koi pond. Well, wonder of wonder, got to investigating it today, and it WAS a pond already. Most of the flagstone is already there, and even the old liner is still there. So a lot of the foundational work has already been completed. We'll have to clean it out, replace the liner, and then fix it up some - but the groundwork has already been completed! Cool, huh? Thanks for sharing your experience.
Mkdata1: July 31st will be here before you know it. Yes, I have already sent in my amended taxes. Since I did my taxes using TurboTax, I just went to their Web site to amend my return. It couldn't have been easier. I signed in to my account, they go through a series of questions, fill out the forms for you (both of them), and then I just printed and signed. I also sent in the formal change of address form at the same time. I guess for those who didn't use tax software, you can just follow the directions found on this forum and get the forms off of the irs site. I found the directions back on page 5 or 6. You have to look for them, but they're pretty detailed. I wish they'd sticky that one!
Again, my thanks to one and all. It has been one busy week!!!!! Let's see: electricity is turned on, water is turned on, locks have been changed, contractor is working on scheduling the work he needs to do, the exterminator has been in to take care of any possible bug problems inside and out (hey, it's Georgia, you can't take any chances!) , lawn maintenance has been arranged, refrigerator has been ordered and will be here Tuesday, furniture will be in a week from today (not moving until the Monday after Father's Day), and both security and cable will be coming by next week. Next week, I start taking the pups over and letting them get used to the property, will finish putting in shelf paper, and taking over boxes, clothes, etc. The new house is only four miles away, so I can take care of a lot of stuff before actually moving in.
Bless you one and all - and thanks for your support. Couldn't have done it without you.
SilverBerries
