We are so close to completing the exterior of the house I can hardly stand it. Sitting at work is torture knowing that we are just eight hours of labor away from finishing up and finally moving our attention inside.

Saturday was an exciting day. We had periods of torrential rain that would cause most DIYers to duck, cover, and take the day off...but not us! We tarped the back of the house and pressed on! We managed to finish the gable without much of a fuss. Unfortunately we had to use the regular lap siding in the back gable rather than the shingles that we installed in the front and side gables due to a lack of materials. Our constant craigslist creeping paid off when we found a guy selling bundles of Hardie Shingles for $50. It was basically $500 worth of shingles so we pounced on the deal before considering whether or not it would net us enough material to finish the job. Result: lap siding in the back gable. Oh well.

By the end of the day Sunday we had installed our new Bilco basement door and all of the trim across the back of the house, which means, SIDING! Siding goes up so quick and easy it gets you the most "oooh and ahhh" factor for the least amount of sweat/time. I love putting up siding.

Hopefully next time we post we'll be inside!

Our house looks like a house!

FINALLY! The siding on the south and east sides are 95% finished. There is a stop sign on our front lawn and for the last few weeks we've had to live with everyone stopping and looking at house with a mixture of disdain and pity. Not so anymore! Now all the front windows (seven) and doors (who else has two front doors?) are installed and, aside from a small strip of siding next to the right front door, we are done. It's enough to bring a tear to my eye.

Now we are focusing our attention to the north side and the rear of the house. Our north side borders some state land and our backyard borders the expressway so needless to say it's not nearly as fulfilling to finish up these parts of the house. But finish it we must.

Where to begin?

I'm not going to waste time trying to catch up on the last two and a half months of home ownership. It's sufficient to say that it has been an adventure.

The commentary we kept getting from everyone prior to our closing was "it will take twice as long and cost twice as much". We got sick of all the haters. Brigit and I are optimistic, idealistic, and other istic things too. We knew we could do it on schedule and on budget.

Guess what? Things are going great! We have received so many blessings in the way of free and discounted material, not just things we needed but things we wanted as well. Craigslist is an amazing thing. So is working for a building supply. As we approach our end of the year inventory my manager is pretty much willing to give me anything that's been sitting around because, in his words, it's worth more out of the system than it is in our warehouse.

A list of things we've gotten for free:
Six windows
Two exterior lights
Decorative gable brackets
Roofing shingles (about 700 sq. ft.)
Air compressor

A list of things we've gotten for RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP:
Hardie Shingles for our gables
All of our interior doors
Kitchen sink

I'm probably (definetly) forgetting something.

So far the process has been a blast, tiring, but fun. I'm going to try and update the blog once a week from here on out with photos of our progress.

Coming to a close (ing).

We ditched Milek. After what seemed to have been a if-it's-not-one-thing-it's-another relationship with Wells Fargo we decided to go with a local mortgage broker. Our lawyer was not excited about this but we made the decision and went forward.

Our original closing date was set for July 15th. Then it was pushed off to August 15th. Then August 28th. Now, finger's crossed, we're "set in stone" for this Tuesday, September 8th. The reason this becomes so important is that our rate lock-in expires on September 6th. We have a pretty decent rate (5.5%) and we don't want to risk raising a half point or more.

BUT WAIT, you're thinking, you just said the closing is set for the 8th and your rate expires on the 6th, what gives? Well, as it happens the 6th falls on a Sunday so our broker is extending us to the 7th. And it just so happens that the 7th is Labor Day so we are being extended to the 8th. This Tuesday is quite literally our last ditch effort to close on this house without having to lock-in a new, higher, rate.

I never want to purchase another home again.

Cat urine has more staying power than the Rolling Stones

We are doing our best to avoid the dreaded rehab loan. Since we are buying an old house that was listed "as is" our mortgage company and the assessor are both saying that the property is unliveable. Happily, the current owners have allowed us access to the house so that we can spruce up the place a little and hopefully get an assessor to agree with us that this house is liveable.

So we've been doing a lot of sprucing up. We brought in a stove (thanks dad!), wired it up, did a quick fix to the sagging floor in the mud room, and hung smoke detectors and a carbon monoxide detector. That was all child's play. The real struggle has been the smell. You see, the current owner had cats. A lot of cats. The cats were kept in a room and, as far as we can tell, left to their little kitty cat ways which seems consisted mainly of spraying all over the place. The odor is unmentionable. Brigit has been mopping and scrubbing and spraying and mopping and . . . you get the idea. This has gone on for two Saturdays in a row and as of yesterday it seems like it's as good as it gets. It still smells, but it's a "liveable smell". Atleast we hope so.

Who knows? Maybe we're getting used to the smell.

Today is Monday and we're hoping to get the assessor back sometime this week. Our next post will either be one of glorious victory or utter defeat.

Mortgage locked and loaded

So our mortgage is approved and locked-in. We paid two points and ended up with a 5 3/8% interest rate. We have the cash to do a 30% down payment but we've taken the advice of our lawyer and put down 10% instead. The thought is that we're better off holding our money back and using it toward the renovation because of how much work needs to be done immediately.

Now that things are moving forward we're feeling pretty antsy about getting our hands on the house. I'm excited to get a crowbar and start pulling down walls while Brigit has been browsing the internet for furnishings non-stop. At this point we're not sure how far the money we have will get us, but I'm hoping to have all the guts done by winter whether or not we're sitting on milk crates and eating ramen noodle.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Our mortgage broker Milek is dragging his feet again. We have all the ingredients for a smooth home purchase but he seems to be doing everything he can to keep us in our apartment. We met the sellers the other day and they seem really nice. We're so excited and anxious for this home to finally be ours...come on Milek!

It wasn't even that scary giving our lawyer a check for $10,000! We are so ready for this.