Finally

Yeah, we found a house! We are moving back to Fort Smith in two weeks and I am completely excited! It's in Park Hill, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, hardwood floors, awesome backyard with a deck and 1 car garage. I can't wait to get over there and start decorating.

On another note, it's HALLOWEEN! It is crazy in our neighborhood on Halloween! I mean there are literally a million people roaming the streets right now. I wish I was able to take a picture to show you that I am not exaggerating. Halloween is by far my favorite holiday and I'm sad that I wasn't in the mood to decorate this year. This whole house mess has really put a damper on my spirits, so to speak! I love decorating for the holidays, especially Halloween, but this year I just wasn't in the mood I guess. At least we'll be back in Fort Smith for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Slacker...

I know! I know! I'm such a slacker lately when it comes to this blog. I just haven't been motivated to do anything lately. I'm so frustrated about this house mess that I don't really have time to worry about anything else.

We are still in the process of looking for a new place to live. Our house is still in "escrow", but who knows what's going on what that. My Realtor is supposed to call my mortgage company today to try and get some answers. Apparently, the buyers are getting a bit antsy. Hell, I would too! They have $8,000 on the line! I honestly wouldn't blame them one bit if they decided to back out of this deal. I would have a long time ago.

As for the rental world, there is nothing and I mean NOTHING available right now. We are waiting on a call back from one, but they are taking their time about doing it! Oh well, we'll find something, eventually... I hope...

SERIOUSLY?

The rental house we were told we had, was sold. Apparently, the day after we looked at the place, King Realty strolled in and decided they wanted to buy it for a rental property. Now we are out of a place to live... again. I guess it is not meant for us to live anywhere! HA! We'll find something eventually. At least we have a little bit of time to continue looking.

By George, We Found One!

We have found a rental house in our desired neighborhood, Park Hill. Let me tell ya, there isn't much out there to find right now. It's a cute 2 bedroom, 1 bath, hardwood floors, formal dining room, nice backyard and in our price range where we can start saving money for our future down payment! The guy we are going to rent from is super nice and laid back. He is really cool with us updating the place and cool with us having dogs. He also mentioned that maybe sometime down the line if we wanted, we could do a lease to purchase type thing. Not a bad find! I can't wait to post pictures on here for you guys! I totally plan on going in there and painting and redoing a lot. There is wallpaper in the dining room that I want to take down and wallpaper border in the living room (which is HUGE by the way and has a gas log fireplace). The kitchen will need some improvements, but nothing we can't handle now that Brent is a pro with the peel and stick tile! Since we plan on being there awhile, I don't mind fixing up the place to make it more "us". He also mentioned to us that he is having the outside repainted and new custom shutters put up! Whoo Hoo! I can't wait! Although, it is kind of sad to leave our first home. To be honest, we haven't had a lot of good memories in that house. So, I'm looking forward to starting fresh in a new house, new town and a new outlook on life in general. I've been in a much better mood today than I have been in a long time. For once, something has gone right for us! I hope it stays that way.

Change of Pace

October is almost over, can you believe it? There hasn't been a lot going on around here blog worthy at least. We are still in the process of the short sale. We don't know when we'll hear anything from the bank regarding that, but we hope it will be soon. We have decided to start looking for a rental house that we can move into for awhile so we can save up some money for a down payment for when we can buy in the future. Hopefully, that will be in another year. It's a bump in the road, but we have to make the most of it. I'm trying to look at it is an adventure. I was pretty bummed at first, but what can you do? As long as I have my husband and dogs, wherever we are, it will be our home. We'll just have to make it work.

We found this house in the Park Hill area on South Q Street. It's a 2 bedroom, 1 bath with a den, hardwood floors, fenced yard for $675 month

We made an appointment to go and look at it on Monday. I can't wait to see what it looks like on the inside. The man I talked to said they are going in and completely updating the place...

We plan to drive around this weekend and look for some other rentals to look at. To be honest, there really aren't a lot out there right now. It's sucks to have to take a step backwards from owning my home to renting and paying someones mortgage payment for them, but hopefully I can find a nice house at least! Wish Us Luck!

Rut

I'm in a rut and I want to apologize. Ever since I got the bad news on the house, I haven't really cared about much else. My whole life has been consumed by this. I was notified by my Realtor that the buyers want to go ahead with the short sale... Which means that if I can't convince the FHA people to still give me a loan (which I am working on), I am screwed. I am suppose to get an answer from them by this coming Tuesday. I have a feeling it will feel like forever until then, but there isn't anything else I can do. I just have to be patient, cross my fingers and hope that everything works out. You see, once you are involved with a short sale FHA will not give you another loan until 3 years have past... But technically, this isn't my fault. Maybe they will have mercy on me.

Okay, enough about that. I have been eyeing those arc floor lamps that are showing up everywhere. Maybe you've seen them...

This bauhaus arc floor lamp is from cb2.com and is way out of my price range at $199

How about this bad boy from Marc Sadler called the Twiggy lamp...

Action Shots!







Me likey! I would love to find one reasonably priced somewhere and snatch it up! Hopefully, I will have a new crib to put it in... It wouldn't look very good under the bridge... Ha, that was a joke...

I'm Done

Well, I officially give up on my house. You have no idea how exhausted I am from this whole ordeal. I just want everything to be done and over with. When I purchased my home 3 years ago, I never thought I would be in the situation that I'm in now.
When I made the decision to sell my house, I contacted my mortgage company and got a "payoff quote" over the phone, since it takes them 10-14 days to get the actual payoff (which I have yet to get from them and I've ordered it twice). I took that quote to my Realtors office and that is what I based my listing price off of. As the weeks went by with my house on the market, I forgot all about my payoff that I was suppose to receive in the mail. Well, last week when I got the offer on my house, I decide that I better contact my mortgage company to make sure of my actual payoff. This time I was told that my payoff was much more than what I was quoted 3 weeks earlier. You see, earlier in the year my husband was laid off from his job and I got behind on our house payments trying to pay them by myself. So, the "payoff quote" I was given 3 weeks earlier didn't have the accrued interest, late fees, etc. included in it. Now I am under contract to not only sell my house, but to also buy a new house, and I find out this information. What to do now? The buyers offered me a full price offer on my house with me paying $5,000 of their closing costs. Now, with the new "payoff" on my mortgage subtracted from the list price, subtract the Realtor fees, that should leave me, oh about ZERO... Therefore, I am unable to pay the buyers closing costs.
I was given the option of a Short Sale. A Short Sale is where the bank will accept an offer on my house for less than what I owe. Which the buyers have to agree to this, since it can take a couple of months to be approved (why?, I don't know) and with a Short Sale now lingering over me, I am unable to get another mortgage anytime soon. That doesn't sound like my idea of a good time! If the buyers decide that they don't want to mess with a Short Sale (I wouldn't blame them if they didn't) we could put the house back on the market at a higher price and see if we get any offers... I am about ready to walk away from it all!
MY HEAD HURTS...

Pictures

Yeah for October! 3 days in and I'm completely loving the weather. I'm still trying to figure out my new Blackberry, so I haven't been able to upload any pictures. But, I think I've got it figured out. It took me forever to figure out to take them! I thought I would retake a few pictures that I already posted so you could see the detail better.

This pictures shows the paint color in the bathroom much better. I found the paint can and the color is Rejuvenate by Behr.

We had some left over tile from the kitchen, so we decided to update the tile in the master bath. We had to. The tile the previous owners picked out was a green swirl (I swear) and it was horrible. I don't know how we managed to live with it for 3 years!

Another shot of the cabinets! Yippee!!! I'll try to get a full frontal (hee hee) of them tomorrow!!

Kitchen floor...

Here is the guest bathroom floor...

and the guest bathroom vanity and new mirrors


We actually got an offer on Monday. We have come to agreements with the buyers, now all I have to do is get some crap worked out with my mortgage lender and we'll be set! It has been one long and stressful week. I haven't been able to get a straight answer out of anyone at the mortgage company and it's driving me crazy. I STILL don't know what my actual payoff is. So, I am crossing my fingers that it is what I was "quoted" on the phone 3 weeks ago before I listed the house. If it isn't, then we are completely screwed. We don't have any extra money to bring to the table to make up the difference. I'll keep you updated as soon as I find out anything. Not knowing what's going on is killing me. We can't celebrate "selling" the house yet or celebrate being able to move into the new house until we here from Chase on our payoff.

My Hubs is out with some friends tonight, so I am going to go and enjoy what little alone time I have left.