Off to the Bank!

We're one step closer! The appraisal was finally approved by the bank and I am headed off there now in a few minutes with a cheque from my parents. I can't even describe how appreciative I am to my mom and dad for helping us out this way. We would never have been able to get this far without them! I only hope that some day I will be able to help my own future children like this. I wish everyone had parents like mine. I am going to strive to make this new farm successful, so I can prove to them that they made the right choice!

I will admit I am still nervous though. There have been several times that my hubby and I have thought we were completely on our way, only to encounter unexpected setbacks. All I can do right now, is deposit the money and keep my fingers crossed. It wouldn't be the first time the bank said we had bridged all the obstacles and they were wrong. I am sure the sellers are just as eager as us to close on this sale! I am truly hoping that the next time I post it's to say are new farm owners!

Progress!!!!

We finally got a call from the bank today! The appraisal has been accepted. We now have to send them our last pay stubs, as the previous ones expired today, and deposit the money from my parents in our bank account. The next step is a closing date. I was hoping we would be able to close by our anniversary, but I will just be happy if we have a closing date by then! Fingers crossed that all the unexpected humps have been overcome and we will be well on our way to the farm of our dreams!

I love Avon Bottles!

          So, while we still sit here waiting for the appraisal company to respond to whatever ridiculous questions the banks underwriter seems to have. (insert frustrated sigh here) I thought I would change topics a bit. Anyone who knows me a bit will tell you I try to be a responsible shopper. I try and buy new things made in this country, or if I can't, I get them used. My German car is from an American used car dealership, I shop[ at the Goodwill and Salvo etc. So, today while we were shopping for some summer clothes at the Goodwill shop I came across this beautiful Avon Cape Cod Cruet for a mere $1.99. That got me to thinking, I wonder how many people know how to get the perfume smells out of Avon bottles?I certainly don't. So I thought while I sit here and stew over the fact that my dream house is sitting back on the market and my loan is in limbo, I would do a little research on this quandary.
       
          I have found through the vast resources of About.com and the various other sites on the inter webs, that there are several accepted methods to do this. You either fill the bottle with fresh lemon juice, vodka, rubbing alcohol or white vinegar. You let it sit over night, up to a week, then dump it out and wash it with dish detergent, then allow it to air dry. I am going to try this, and I think the white vinegar is the way to go. The only things I am sure I currently have in my house are the vodka and the white vinegar. Let's be honest, who would want to waste perfectly good vodka cleaning out a perfume bottle? Even if I had lemons, which have been awfully expensive this season, I wouldn't want to put the effort into juicing them unless it resulted in lemonade, and I'm sure my Hubby would agree. I probably have rubbing alcohol somewhere, but by the time I found it I would probably forget why I was looking for it, so I will proceed with the white vinegar. The plan is to leave it in until I get home from work tomorrow, dump it out and see how we're progressing. I'll keep y'all updated!


*Update*- The vinegar completely removed the smell from the cruet itself, but not the stopper, so I placed the stopper in a bowl full of vinegar and plan on leaving it there for a day or so. We'll see what happens.

Well it's an hour in to Monday, and we are still waiting to hear from the bank. At this point I would just really like to be in the house for our second anniversary, but it looks like that won't happen either. I am so tired of WAITING!!!! My husband and I spent yesterday decompressing, but today we have decided to get the heck out of dodge and go SHOPPING! Well we're going to BJ's, the pet store, Ocean State Job Lot (I need to return a pair of shorts, Idk why I thought it was a good idea to get shorts there!) and maybe even CVS! I know, we're being crazy here, but even errands are better than sitting around staring at the phone. Fingers crossed that we hear something today!

Facebook Page

I just wanted to throw a quick comment out to everyone. My blog here at Farmward Bound is now linked to Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Farmward-Bound/401054166617704. I will be putting up quick status updates and pics of the farm if and when we get it. You should all go and check it out!

Getting Tired of Jumping Through hoops!

I am starting to get to the point now where a simple yes or no to whether or not we will get our mortgage will make me happy. I am tired of getting the runaround from the bank, and I am thoroughly pissed off at the appraisal company. Is it so much to ask that the bank promptly return emails, or keep us updated? This is our future they are holding in our hands! We have been spun around and around and now we are back, stuck on the appraisal again. We overcame the PMI hurdle, but now the bank is the one who doesn't like our appraisal! I am so tired of all of this and just want it to be over. At this point, we had better get this property, because I am not sure I can go through all of this again for another chunk of land!!!

Actually on our way...we hope!

So let me just say this. I officially hate banks, appraisal companies and insurance companies. We were supposed to have closed on this house 3 weeks ago, but we are still waiting. I erroneously thought the quicker we took care of our responsibilities with the home purchase, the quicker we would be able to close. This, if you haven't figured it out yet, is completely not the case. We had all of our inspections and paperwork filled out within the first week of this whole mortgage process. The appraisal alone took 8 weeks! It began with the appraiser who was contracted by the bank farming the appraisal out to another appraiser who failed to submit it when she was done. The bank failed to follow up, so after a slew of e-mails and phone calls from both us and our Realtor the bank finally received it and we were back to waiting. After a few days we hadn't heard anything so we were back to harassing the bank yet again. We then found out that the appraisal wasn't good enough and the bank had sent it back to be reworded and have more comps added. Finally a week later we were back in business. The appraisal came back and was forwarded to the PMI company. Our contact at the bank told us she would call us to set up the closing that afternoon, as soon as they heard back from the PMI company. Three days later we had still heard nothing. We were back to harassing the bank. We finally found out that we were turned down for PMI. It never even occurred to me, or the bank, that this would be an issue. I went onto the great land of the interwebs and found numerous forum and blog posts about people having similar issues. Ours was refused over lack of comprables, size of the acreage and the existence of a barn, among other things. So we began the process of trying to find a money tree or some other source of the remaining 15% of the now necessary 20% down payment. We were lucky in the fact my parent were able to help us out.

My main reason for posting all of this is my concern on how this type of problem is growing. If my parents hadn't have been able to help me, I wouldn't have been able to get my farm. Even if I had been able to scrape together that kind of money, I would have been out of funds and unable to actually start my farm until I was able to save the funds up again. Other people may not be as lucky as we were and a situation such as this will cause others to postpone, or worse, give up on their dream of self-sufficiency.

Updates to come when we ACTUALLY close!