Strictly a House Update

On Monday I met with my mortgage broker to sign a fat stack of disclosures, and then I visited my realtor at his office to write/sign a repair addendum to send to the seller.

Within the next week and a half the appraisal should be done. In case you're not familiar with this stuff (haha, like I am), the bank that you are trying to get a loan at sends an appraiser to look at the house that you want to buy. The appraiser determines the current worth of the house. If it is worth less than what you offered the seller, then the bank won't give you a loan. The appraiser has to say that the house is worth as much as the selling price, if not more, in order for your loan to go through.

FYI we were trying really hard to get a conventional loan, but I'm going to have to get an FHA loan. This is because I only have one credit card, which apparently is not good enough, even if you have really excellent credit. So if you are thinking about buying a house in the next few years, you should have about three credit cards. Personally, I find this unnecessary, but the bank doesn't.

After the appraisal is done then I can actually start working on the real-life paper work for my loan (which--let's be honest--terrifies me).

Natalie and I went to Lowe's yesterday and looked at paint chips for the bathrooms. Natalie also got in one of the model bathtubs, and I took a picture. She forgot her cell phone inside of it and we had to look for it later. We also checked out the refrigerators (definitely like the side by sides) and Natalie pulled out all of the ice makers to see how "party friendly" they were. We looked at the gourmet kitchens they had set up too. We have plans of going to Ikea soon.

I am pretty sure I will go nuts at Ikea. I've never been there, but I view the website frequently. Natalie says the whole store is set up like display rooms. I'm so excited. I better have a lot of trunk space when I visit.