New House Update

Things are moving right along with the new house. Again, I'm amazed at how smoothly the whole process has gone to this point.

Sunday we went to Sears to see what kind of refrigerators they had available. Our builder has an account there and with one other company in the area. Well, the other company's hours of operation are from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., which doesn't exactly mesh with the hubby's work schedule. So we found one at Sears that we liked, but the folks we needed to talk to are only there during the week. That's ok, though, because since we picked out the one we wanted, I would be able to go back later to place the order. I took care of that on Monday. The gentleman I worked with was really nice. He applied the best rebates he could to bring the price of the refrigerator down as much as possible. In the end, after sales tax and delivery were added, I only ended up having to pay $45 and some change out of pocket. The fridge is scheduled to be delivered the Monday of the week we close, so it will be installed and ready to go by closing.

Monday I also called USAA to get the homeowners insurance in place. That was one of the other things I had to take care of before closing. Wells Fargo gave us an estimate of what the homeowners would be, but I was pretty sure we would be able to save money through USAA. Sure enough, we're saving almost $200 a year. So of course, that helps with the closing costs since the homeowners is one of the things we have to take care of then.

I also called the cable company on Monday to inquire about having our services transferred. We have our cable, internet, and phone (digital) through the same company...saves us lots of money. I'm glad I went ahead and called them. They can schedule transfers as little as a week in advance, but it turned out that since it's a brand new house, they have to go out there and make sure everything's there for us to be able to have services. That is going to take three to five business days itself. So, like I said, it's a good thing I went ahead and called them. We should be able to have our services transferred by that weekend. We'll see.

I got our acceptance letter from Wells Fargo today. It even has the loan account number on it. I refused to really believe this was official until I had that acceptance letter in my possession. Well, I guess it's official now. I drove by the house after I had lunch with the hubby today. The sign out front has been changed. Instead of "For Sale" it now says "Contract Pending." Whoa! One more thing that makes it seem real. Excitement had started replacing the anxiety the week after we signed the contract. I think I'm gonna start getting anxious again for a bit as reality is hitting me. This is such a huge step for us. I think in a way, home ownership represents actual adulthood for me. Yeah, I've been married for 12 years now and have been an adult for longer, but purchasing a home to me signifies that I really am a grown-up now.

I'll continue to share updates as they develop.