House update...

Well, we're looking at an even further delay. We're seeking to get a VA loan and the VA has their process they need to do and it's on their end that all the delay is happening. The VA inspector has to come out and do an assessment to make sure we're not requesting a loan amount that goes above the value of the home. We were told by the Builder's office in the beginning that that shouldn't be a problem because the homes have been assessing at well-above the asking price.

The VA inspector can not do the inspection until the house is 95% complete. They estimated that the house would be ready for inspection at the end of July and that we should be able to move into the house around 8/6. I was expecting an "up to" 2 wk. delay at most.

Apparently the VA inspector came out around 7/29 to do the inspection but the house did not have carepets or appliances so was not considered to be 95% complete so the inspector left. She was rescheduled to come out on 8/6. I went to the Builder's office on 8/7 and the office lady, Liz, called the VA while I was there and the secretary for the VA inspector said the inspector was sick and so did not make it out then but would be coming out on 8/11 to take pics, but that all the paperwork from the VA side of things would NOT be delayed and would be to the bank in a timely manner which gave Liz confidence to tell us that 8/21 was not an outlandish date to expect to move in.

Vin stopped by on the 11th when the inspection was being done and was told that everything from the VA would make it to the bank no later than Thurs. the 13th. Vin tried Tues. and Wed. to contact our "handler" at the bank but was sent to her voicemail. Yesterday, he managed to get ahold of "Pam" and she stated that the company had been switching over their voicemail system, thus she did NOT get the messages. Also, she relayed to Vin the information she had that the VA would probably not be getting their stuff to the bank till Tues., 8/18. The bank would then need a few days to process that and get the documents put together so that we could then sign them and then *hopefully* 24 hrs. later get the keys as once the documents are signed, the state of CA requires the documents to be "recorded" officially before the owners can move into the property due to the potential of lawsuits should we get injured trying to move our things into the house. Blah, blah, blah.

In the meantime, we have had to reschedule our Houshold Goods shipment from 8/7 to 8/14 to 8/21 and probably will have to do so yet again. Also the delivery of our washer, dryer and refrigerator has been moved as well as the shipments for our "Non-Temporary Storage" and our Wein/Bier shipment from Germany. We have also had the added "fun" of having to re-book TLF (Temporary (hahahahahahahaha) Lodging Facility), being denied, being allowed, etc. By the Grace of God, we have been able to stay in this same apartment since 6/9 and are just praying we continue to be able to until everything is finalized with our house.

And here I was worried because when we toured around the house once, the granite had been incorrectly done for our kitchen and they had put the wrong shower into the Master Bathroom. I was fearful it wouldn't be done by the time we were to move in. HAHAHAHAHAHA! They had also "forgotten" the granite backsplash for over the stovetop. Well, that's all been done for a couple weeks now. Guess that was quite silly of me.

We still have an issue with one of our pantry doors that was very poorly painted and we pointed that out when it was our time to do our "walk through" to find all of those sorts of details/defects. I told the lady conducting the inspection that I expected they'd have to replace the door entirely or sand it down and start all over. Instead, they sent a guy in with a bucket of paint while we were still doing our inspection and just had him paint over the pain globs so now there are bigger paint globs because that just added to the problem...of course. *sigh*

Although I'm in no hurry to be fearfully indebted to a financial institution, it would be nice to settle into our own place and to actually, hopefully, start building some equity rather than throwing that money away on rent and contributing to someone else's potential retirement fund. I am very grateful for this opportunity but just want to have at it already! Patience is NOT my forte (pronounced "fort" not "for-tay" like everyone thinks. There's no 'accent agu' (little slash above the 'E') so the "E" is not pronounced.) so God is definitely giving me the opportunity to try to practice what I've been learning since accepting Christ a couple years ago.

I didn't have such a great night last night when I called my Mom and cursed up a blue streak, but God was working through her to show me The Way back from my insanity. Thanks Mum! Like I said, I was o.k. and expecting things to go 2 wks. past the initial date, but that would have been the 21st and now that doesn't seem likely so I let my panties get into a twist about it but I'm better now thanks to God and Mum. "This too shall pass" as the Good Book says and I thank God for the opportunity to adjust my attitude about this sort of stuff so that I can hopefully do the same with other situations. Hopefully my old and addled brain will remember for the next time.

In the meantime, I'm trying to let my children be my "water" and just enjoy the dickens out of them. They are such characters and we are so truly Blessed! I'll post a couple "funnies" about them. They leave us with NO END to entertainment! Bren's coming along with his speech, slowly, and we're having him assessed on 9/3 and hoping to be able to get him some speech therapy, but he is coming along and we just marvel at what he puts together...and LAUGH because he's got some good zingers even with his limited ability. He's deadpan and his timing is perfect!

Love to all,

Shannon:)