Adventures in Home Buying...

So, on Tuesday, June 9th, we closed on our new house! Yes, we are excited about it, but it has been extremely stressful getting this done! We found out on May 20th, that we needed 5% rather than the 3% we had and were planning on for a down payment becuase the zip code we were purchasing a house in was changed to a "restricted market". At that point in time we were planning on closing on June 1, so we had 10 days to come up with $4000. We, thankfully, got an extension on our closing date without penalty of extra fees, and were barely able to make that 5%- thanks to the blessings of bonus's from both of our jobs. We also had to borrow $3000 from Cory and Sherri just for the purpose of making it look like we had more money in our account than we really would have after closing. Well, we didn't expect that we would have to actally USE some of that money...but as it turns out, we did.
You know, it would have been nice if someone would have told us that we would have to pay $1000 in HOA fee's and another $1000 extra in taxes that we had to bring to closing... I am not as ticked about the taxes- but it would have been nice if someone had told us that...but the HOA fees- MAN! I am so mad- we have two HOA's, one for Traverse Mountain, which is a fee of like $35 a month, and we had to pay $200 for a stupid fee to set up our account- DUMB...but even worse is the HOA for our particular neighborhood- it is $45 a month and we had to pay an outrageous amount of $500 to set up our account. All I have to say is that they BETTER be doing some awesome stuff for us with that money that they are taking. As a result of these ridiculous fees, we have had to cut our food budget in half and ALL extras are gone until we are in the clear again.
Needless to say, I am a bit stressed about it. You know it is sad when you have a coupon for a free box of Capri Sun that you are excited to get as a treat for your kids, and when you can't find said coupon, and therefore, cannot get your kids a $2.50 box of Capri Sun and you wind up crying in the parking lot...well, you get the idea...
At any rate, we are now homeowners. We need to do a lot of things before we can actually move in- basic things like painting and setting up stuff, but also we need to do some important repairs (holes in the ductwork in the attic, and the master shower won't turn off all of the way and a large brake in the backyard fence that I don't want the dog going through- I think the HOA should fix it!) But also, they didn't give us keys to the locks that they had taken off the doors or a key to the mailbox- so, there are some additional things that we get to deal with that will cost us more money that we dont have. Why are we buying this house again? Oh, yeah, Shawn fell in love with it...
Well, I just wanted to let you know what is going on...don't worry, I don't expect very many people to read it all, mostly it is for my own sake to remember what happened. This is going to be a busy summer, with two houses to take care of and moving to be done- not to mention the usual responsibilities of work, child care, etc. So much fun to look forward to!!!