I have a house!

Remember how the other day I wrote about not wanting to talk about house stuff to keep from jinxing it?

Notice that in saying I didn't want to talk about it, I brought it up publicly.

Even the small superstitious part of me figured that was okay, because at the time we were two days away from closing escrow. The loan was supposed to fund the next morning (yesterday), and escrow would then close today.

Yesterday I didn't think much about it until 5:30 p.m., when I received an email telling me that the loan had not funded.

I panicked. I called the title-company person, who told me that she had been waiting to hear from the mortgage broker about what was up—all she knew was that she had received an email saying that the loan wasn't funding. She didn't know whether that meant "not funding today" or "not funding ever."

I called my mortgage broker. He said that he had spent half the day trying to find out what was going on, and that he still didn't know why the loan hadn't funded, but he assured me that it would come through on Friday morning.

So I spent Thursday evening biting my nails and fretting and thinking to myself "I really should've known better than to talk publicly about jinxing this before it was final and done."

This morning my real estate broker called and told me that the loan had funded, which was a huge relief. But I figured I still oughtn't to count any chickens.

But a couple hours ago, my mortgage broker called and told me that escrow had closed, and the property transfer had been officially recorded by the county (or wherever it is that records these things).

So I'm now the owner of a lovely house!

This is very exciting, though the process has been almost too exhausting and tense to leave me with a lot of room for excitement. And the whole thing hasn't really sunk in yet.

I'm staying at Kam's for another week—she's going out of town starting tomorrow, so I'll have her place to myself—and then sometime on or after the 14th, I'll start moving in to the new house.

It's a great house. At some point I'll have a housewarming party and y'all can come see it. Three bedrooms, three bathrooms. Guests welcome, once I'm settled in.

For now, here are about a dozen photos. I have a couple dozen more, but I'm hesitant about posting them all publicly; if you know me and you want to see more photos, drop me a note in email. (Or if you see me in person, I can show you on my iPhone.)

House highlights

15 Responses to “I have a house!”

  1. Jackie M.

    I’ll have you know that even in spite of the title of your post I was biting my nails and worrying about your loan as I read this e-mail! (Banks refusing to fund loans because properties appraise lower than the agreed-upon value is a major problem down here in AZ.) Anyway, congratulations! And whew.

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  2. Haddayr

    Buying our first house, a ton of shit went wrong with the funding and estimates and blah blah blah. It was a nightmare.

    But I’m so glad we went through it! I hope you will be, too. This looks so great.

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  3. Megan

    Huzzah! I’m particularly charmed by the living room. Lots of light, and I do love hardwood.

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  4. cj

    It’s a beautiful house, tiddly pom, tiddly pom!

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  5. Jed

    Thanks, all!

    Jackie: Hee! I had considered making the entry title something ambiguous, but I thought this way I’d be sparing readers anxiety. I guess I should’ve said up top that Jed’s loan does not get eaten by sharks at this time.

    …We had already been through the appraisal (and the re-examination of the appraisal) a couple weeks ago, and the lender had said that everything was fine, so I was gonna be really upset if they somehow changed their mind the day that they were supposed to fund the loan….

    Haddayr: 🙁 Sorry to hear that about your house. But glad it worked out eventually.

    Megan and cj: Yeah, it’s really gorgeous. My photos do not do justice to the living/dining room, which is big enough for a story reading or roundsing, two stories high, and filled with light. And they don’t show the full glory of the kitchen, which is huge and has cherry cabinets and granite countertops and tile floor; it’s kind of a waste given that I basically don’t cook, but just looking at it makes me happy, and I imagine my friends who do cook will enjoy cooking there.

    Anyway, yes, it’s a lovely house. Thanks for reminding me of that!

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  6. eclectic-boy

    1) Congratulations!

    2) What a lovely high-ceilinged living room.

    2a) I wonder if it has good acoustics for roundsings? :^)

    3) Your new house appears to currently be in need of many more bookshelves, and many books upon them.

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  7. Jackie M.

    Jed, I recently had a friend do exactly the same thing–only she was talking about the lump she discovered in her left breast, and she failed to give the blog entry a title such as “don’t panic, I don’t have cancer”. When I finished reading, I called her up on the phone to tell her how incredibly relieved I was that she wasn’t going to die of breast cancer, because I was going to kill her with my bare hands. So thank you for not doing that!

    And seriously, it’s a lovely house. Where is it?

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  8. Steph Burgis

    Congratulations!!! That’s fantastic news. And the house looks great!

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  9. Kendra

    Hooray! The house looks beautiful.

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  10. textjunkie

    ohmygosh you have a jacuzzi bathtub??!! Squeeee!!!

    Um… I’m going to be in San Francisco in about two weeks… Can I have a bath? 🙂 LOL. Just kidding. Congrats!!

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  11. Jed

    Thanks, all!

    Jim: It certainly has enough horizontal space for a roundsing, unlike my condo. Not sure about acoustics, but looking forward to finding out. Want to come visit?

    And yeah, I have roughly a dozen bookcases waiting to be placed against various walls soon after I move in.

    Jackie: Eep! but :). Re location: see next entry.

    textjunkie: Not sure whether I’ll be settled in enough for guests in two weeks, but if I am, you’d certainly be welcome. And although the tub is in the master bathroom, it’ll be available for guest use by appointment. 🙂

    (‘sfunny, I’ve recently stayed at two different B&Bs that had jacuzzi tubs, but I haven’t used them because they would make too much noise late at night. So I don’t think I’ve ever used a jacuzzi tub. But I’m looking forward to trying it.)

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  12. Tacit Hydra

    Yay house yay! Oh, it looks beautiful.

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  13. Laura A

    Hooray and congratulations!

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