Another Day Closer

Most would get a kick outta this, so I have to share. Trey called our insurance company to check out rates for insuring the new house. We were estimating about $1800 after finding out that TX is the most expensive state to insure a house. Who knew? Well, that was the avg price for TX residents to pay. Better to overestimate than underestimate.

Anyway... Trey called and was told that they weren't giving any quotes or writing any policies for our area. When Trey asked why was that he was told that there was this pesky little thing called a hurricane coming for our area. ha ha... Good point, that didn't even cross our minds even though we knew that the hurricane was going to hit at about a category 1 for us on Saturday afternoon. So, he was told to call back on Monday or Tuesday. Duh for us.

Later that evening, I was talking to my dad and he recommended a different insurance company. Not because what we were told was wrong, but he found a place when he first bought his new house a few years ago that gave him a great deal, and since our cars are only on liability insurace that we wouldn't get any price package breaks anyway by using our same carrier. Of course, it was after office hours and we were coming on the weekend, so we had to wait until Monday.

Friday night I went to Wal-Mart because Trey wanted some ice cream. You would not believe how packed the store was. There was not a loaf of bread, a bag of chips, a jar of peanut butter, or a can/bottle of soda to be bought. People were grabbing clothes off the racks without looking at them and just shoving them into their carts. Many of the evacuating people from Houston and Galveston came up here and to Tyler to wait out Ike. I grabbed the last can of formula for Jacob because I only had enough to last until Sunday morning, and who knows if they'd have it re-stocked by then.

Saturday morning blew in with a strong and steady breeze. Rain started falling and didn't stop until the middle of the night. Lots of small tree limbs and even some larger ones littered the street. The neighbor across the street came home from work to find his "redneck carports" mangled over his cars. (He has a couple of those canvas gazebos in his front yard that he uses to cover his cars) One was even up on the roof. Rain came down in buckets with no slowing and the wind just kept picking up and the gusts were getting pretty strong as well.

Sunday afternoon, we drove by the house that we are hoping to buy to check and see how the drainage did from all the rain. This house is positioned lower than the road, and we wanted to see that the water didn't just pool around the foundation of the house. That's a big no-no when it comes to a va loan and we had written into the contract that we wanted swells cut near the driveway to make sure that doesn't happen as it is. The house was fine. Trey and Kathryn walked around the back of the house to check things out while I sat in the car with Jakey and all of a sudden I see the garage door opening. Out comes Trey and Kathryn.

Apparently, the backdoor was left wide open. Either because of a contractor that was working on the house, or possibly the wind might have made it open after all the wind from the storm. But regardless, it had opened and they were able to get in. I told Trey to hurry up and close it and get back in the car before a neighbor decided to call the cops since that house had been vacant for over a year. Just what you want to see, strange car in the driveway and the garage door wide open.

We then went Lowe's which is about a mile and a half from the house to price blinds. We picked out the ones that we are going to want and are happy to find out that we will be able to do all the windows in the house for less than $600. And not the cheap aluminium blinds that you get at Wal-Mart. The nice bamboo ones that really look nice. Trey wants the wood ones, and I like the white ones, but I'm caving. They will look nice.

We also went and priced some of the upgrades that were already in the house, and we are getting a great deal. Just to change out a regular front door and get the nice one that comes with this house it would be almost a grand. A chunk of change you don't want to have to shell out later.

Which brings us to Monday. Trey went back to work on days this week. He'll have 6 days off after this work week. He called the insurance company my dad recommended. My dad told us that we would probably get a policy at about $1000 a year. Much cheaper than we were estimating as I mentioned earlier in this post. Trey called to tell me it's even better than that. It's less than $600 a year. Of course, size of house factors in and the fact that it is brand new. Oh, and it's technically in the sticks.

Trey also shelled out the $425 for the va appraisal. Yet another necessary expense to put us on the path to home ownership. Once that is set up, and if it appraises for at least what we are to pay for it, then we can set up the home inspection and termite inspection. And yes, we have to pay for that as well. At least another $500that will fly outta the bank account.

We are inching closer and closer each day. It still feels like forever from now. Not to mention the fact that we know that this can be snatched from us at any time. Especially with how volatile the market is behaving right now. The only thing that seems to be going well is the va loans, and this is our one way to get in a house. We just hope that everything holds on until we sign the papers. We are excited, but refuse to get attached after our disappointed attempt at this the last time. Cautiously optimistic.