Down to the Wire

It’s actually very warm tonight, to the point where I like my feet to stick out of the blanket — which isn’t hard, given my height. This seems strange, after how just two nights ago we were bundled up in here with three layers of blankets just to keep from turning into popsicles before morning. Apparently what they say about Texas weather is true: “If you don’t like it, just wait a minute.”

The Great Home Buying Adventure of 2011 is just about down to zero hour now, and by now you’d think we’d have some kind of guarantee that yes, our loan has been approved. Well, we don’t. Everything looks to be on track, we’ve been getting all of the pieces like our survey, title policy commitment, insurance, etc…except I still can’t say with any certainty that the biggest lynchpin of all, the loan, is a go. This is perfectly normal, our realtor assures us. He’s seen it all, and lately, lenders are still asking for more and more arcane financial and personal documentation all the way up to the closing date. It’s like the real qualification test isn’t whether your finances are in order, but whether you are organized and diligent enough to keep up with all of the paperwork requests. Either way, this detail-oriented, ass-covering fanatic is ready to rise to it.

Two nights ago, I sent in what I dearly hope is the last of it. The fact that they’re asking for such trifling minutiae as a copy of the canceled check for the earnest money we paid to the title company just last month suggests that they must be about ready to approve the loan. After all, if my finances and credit were in shambles, why nitpick over such small potatoes? At this point I have a good feeling that it’s all going to work out, but I have a harder time feeling confident that we’ll make the scheduled closing date of February 21st. Everyone involved in the process says there’s no reason to worry about missing the date yet. I guess I should defer to their judgment, especially since there’s nothing more I can do.

I got a call today from one of our family members who lives here in Dallas, telling us to let them know if there’s anything they can do to help us settle in once we get the house. It was really a nice gesture and just another reminder of the many good things we have going for us here. Honestly, I just want to get moved in so I can finally tell everyone what’s going on and lift the anti-jinxing media blackout!

This Sunday, Apple and I will fly back to Florida for a few days in the sunshine before we return for the closing “ceremonies” — thanks to an invitation from my parents. This has been an abysmal winter for Texas and we were looking mighty forward to getting out of it when we booked the trip…of course, now it looks like the weather in Frisco and Naples will be fairly similar all next week. Oh well! It’ll be fun nonetheless.

Tonight we went out for some authentic Texas barbecue at a place called Hutchin’s in McKinney. Housed in a barn, the restaurant serves up smoked meats ranging from brisket, ribs and pulled pork to turkey, chicken and sausage. We went with several of our friends and had a good time. Not only that, but before the meal I dredged up several “buy one, get one” coupons off the ubiquitous Internet that shaved significant coin off each of our checks. Two people each getting stuffed on barbecue for $13 total is always a good thing.

Tomorrow morning I’m heading out early for the monthly Cars & Coffee show, then it’ll be a largely quiet Saturday of errands and side job work before we leave for a few days of Florida sun on (appropriately) Sunday. I even think I might take a day off while I’m there — since I get paid vacation now!

Hopefully, when we get back, we’ll be just hours away from owning our own corner of the world again. A much nicer, much bigger corner, at that.