Home Buying

Did anyone ever tell you that buying a home is difficult and time consuming? No? Well it is! (I'm loving starting this off like I've been extremely busy with purchasing a home instead of obsessing over Netflix so much that I'm watching movies regardless of how good they are and rewatching seasons of "Monk" and "Scrubs"...that is in between deliveries of "Gilmore Girls" DVDs--that and writers block.)

1. Going through the ugly to get to "the one." About 7 emails are sent back and forth to the real estate agent to establish a meeting. You then stress over making sure you actually meet the right person. Then you are grateful that your agent offers to buy you a drink at Starbucks, but their sizes are weird and you accidentally order the largest so it looks like you're ordering the most expensive and thus a horrible first impression. Then after your horrible first impression your agent will drive you around and show you what (s)he thinks is a good fit for you. (Which is a stressful aspect for any introvert--every time the conversation lulled I panicked and couldn't think of anything to bring it to start again.) Unless your agent finds "the one" on the first go, you have to figure out nice ways to tell her that the current house you're viewing is crappy/not what you want at all/needs too much work/has a bad smell and you're not sure it will come out/disgusting/weird/in a sketchy part of town.
2. The paperwork. Now that you've found your home you have the lovely task of signing a million different documents and trying to choose everything you want to get out of buying your house--which means meeting with your agent at the office as well as the lad(y) who decides whether or not you get the bundle of money to help pay for your home. If you're like me you won't know the lay of the land where you're moving or anywhere where people are located, so you'll end up getting to the area an hour before your appointment because you drove faster than you intended and you were wanting a little extra time to prepare for traffic/mistakes. Then you realize you're grateful for the extra hour because you can't find the place at all. After looping around the area 3 times you pull into a Chick-fil-a parking lot and beg your husband to save you because you're lost. After all that, you end up being late to your meeting. Lovely. Your agent then describes all the documents you're signing and helps you figure out how to decide what you want to put in for your offer. At the very end of all this, the agent will smile sweetly and tell you that this could have all been done electronically. *facepalm* You, however, are too hungry/weak from not eating because you were to nervous that morning to even be hungry that you don't care
3. The biggest "you puddin' head" mistake of all. Don't tell everyone and their mother that you are hiring a moving company to do the move. Don't brag on and on that yeah you're tired of moving and aren't going to go through all that this time. AND FOR THE SAKE THAT ALL THAT IS HOLY Do Not Tell People that you don't need their help. Because guess what? That's going to bite you on your butt! You're going to finally get a quote from the movers and find out that to actually have what you've been boasting about you are going to have to pay more than your mortgage payment. Then you will have to turn around and beg your friends and family to help you because there is no way that you can afford that!

On the plus side the picture that I mentioned here is back up! The seller must have reposted the house. :-)

Couldn't they have done some fresh pics though?

Hector

Ok, ok I'll admit it. I haven't even thought of posting. I've checked to see if there were any new comments and gleefully smiling at the fact that simple math kept away the stupids--I was getting about 20 spam comments an hour and my husband fixed it! :-D So here is what I have been working on it's a dream that I had that I thought I could make into a (very) short story. And I did! Only...I haven't finished it and currently I'm stuck. I know how it ends and some other moments, but filling in the in between stuff is what's got me in a block. My high school teachers were always telling me that my essays needed more details.... So in completely scraping the motif I've worked so hard to keep, here is the story thus far:
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Hector was a small child. He was meek and often overlooked. He cared less about his grades and more regarding a secret project of his--a computer, small and round like a ball. They weren't supposed to have computers (especially not ones that were tended to instead of focusing on the lesson). Time with such devices was considered unnatural, but necessary and therefore was to be limited. His classroom composed of connected desks and chairs was held on the side of a hill under the protection of an oak tree. His teacher, Ms. Peregrine was a tall slender woman with a pinched face and a constant look of disapproval about her. She kept her hair swept up in a tight bun with never a strand out of place. One could often find her peering down at her class over half-moon glasses looking as though each child were a separate, but equally nasty taste in her mouth that she couldn't wait to spit out. Most of the other students weren't bothered by Ms. Peregrine. Except for them completing the assignments given to them by her, you would think they didn't even know that she existed. Hector was terrified of her. He held his breath as she walked by his desk continuing to march between the rows.
“Class,” Ms. Peregrine said. “Be quiet and pay attention! This next assignment will be worth twenty-five percent of your entire grade. You will need to work diligently as there will be no credit given for late or incomplete work.”
Hector sat forward and gulped. He couldn't mess this one up. If he did he'd have to repeat the entire year again. He hurriedly wrote down everything Ms. Peregrine said regarding the assignment not once glancing around to see if the other children were as panicked as he. They were to write a paper regarding the science of everything around them and provide visual support. From the blades of grass that brushed their feet to the sun that lit their classroom. The enormity of the task was daunting to Hector; his hands automatically reaching for his small computer and a screwdriver that he kept hidden in his desk. As he nervously took it apart and rearranged the pieces yet again he looked around the classroom to see if others had responded with the same fear to the assignment. Everyone else seemed perfectly unaffected by the news. Lily, a girl sitting two desks ahead of him in the row to his left, was lazily drawing spirals on her paper and Petrel, a boy one desk behind him on the row to his right, was watching an ant marching on his desk and occasionally altered its course. Hector sighed. Why couldn't he be like the others?
Just then his computer sparked and went dead in his hand. Hector desperately hoped no one had noticed. He slid his hands out from under the lid of his desk and pretended to have been preoccupied with staring at a brown, dried-up flower instead of doing something that could possibly make any noise. Realizing that none of them had heard, Hector lifted the lid of his desk again and resumed tinkering with his tiny computer. “Now let's see,” he thought. “The sun makes the grass grow as it does me. Without the sun I will whither and die. Each blade of grass would be a mighty tree, except for my stomping feet which halt every try.” Wasn't that what Ms. Peregrine had told them? Yes. He remembered the shame that he felt upon learning that he was the reason the grass couldn't reach it's full potential. He had worked hard for the remainder of the week to step on rocks only, but Ms. Peregrine had scolded him for walking “in such an appalling manner” and it had cost him two demerits. Since then he worked harder to be invisible and so far it had worked.

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So I hope you don't think it's terrible. It occurred in dream world so of course not everything is right--especially the tech stuff, but my mind isn't completely tech savvy so I couldn't get that part right even if I had been conscious! If I get past this block and finish then I will do a new post with the entire story. :-)