Thursday, May 21, 2009

The face of indignance

This is my handsome kitty, Tracer. He's upset that we're going to move to NEWBURGH!!!

That's right. We got the loan today, and our contractors are submitting paperwork to be validated. And with luck they will be.

Don't worry about Tracer. He's moved at least 12 times.

Monday, May 18, 2009

A new day...

Two amazing things happened this weekend:

1) My first Woody Allen sighting!!! I have lived in New York for six years, plotted to stalk him for at least four of those years, and then magically, he sits one row in front of me at the Martha Graham Dance Company performance Friday night. Soon-yi was there as well as two children, both of whom did not look like his. Plus, he carried his floppy hat in his back pocket.

2) Less importantly, we met a new contractor over the weekend, he looked over the house, and said he could rehab it in our budget! We have to check his references, but he was very professional, knowledgeable, and extremely optimistic.


We also had lunch with Door Sixteen blogger Anna, and her husband, Evan. They've been living in Newburgh for four years, three in their amazing house. They gave us a little tour of their home and it looks more amazing in person than in the photos on her blog (which are still amazing). They also gave us a lot of great tips, so hopefully, we'll be able to speed up this process.

So...off to email the contractors our FHA 203K work write-up, documents the bank needs them to fill out, and some inspirational photos/clippings.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Still looking for a contractor

We are hopefully done with submitting information to the bank for the mortgage loan. We haven't been officially approved, but the bank finally stopped asking for more proof of funds/proof of where those funds come from.

This weekend we're going to meet more contractors and see if any will take the job (a lot of work for little money), and if so, will the bank accept them? The last two contractors didn't pass inspection because of credit histories - too poor or not enough of one.

We're only pursuing half-heartedly now. It seems impossible to find good contractors willing to jump through FHA hoops.