Christmas Crafts

A few weeks ago I spotted some Christmas wreaths that I liked.....until I looked at the price tag. After catching my breath after a ridiculous case of sticker shock I said to myself  "I can make those". Now the one I spotted had large fluffy loops. Although I liked that better I needed to keep mine smaller in order for it to fit on the french doors.  Here is my attempt......

This is the first one, "J" for Justin

Here is the second one "B" for Brandi

Here they are together, excuse the picture quality, I have got to get a good camera

Britney came over Friday and we did some more Christmas crafts. As soon as I remember to take pics I will show them to you.

Climbing Trees

Saturday while Justin was outside attempting to blow the leaves from our yard. I heard "Brandi Come here". I hurried outside (to avoid the don't let grass grow under your feet speech) and there in front of Justin's feet sat a pretty little bird. I thought it was hurt because he was letting Justin pet him (I feel like it was male but I didn't get that close...lol). Justin then said "call Molli". I was horrified thinking that he was going to instruct her to kill it. However that wasn't what he had planned. He picked the bird up and placed it on a limb of the pecan tree in our yard.

Molli watched him do this and was quite interested. She began barking a circling the tree. All of the sudden she ran up the tree and hung from the limb!!! I ran in the house to get the camera. When I got back she had gotten down but with a little convincing from Justin she did it again.

See for your self....

 FYI:
No birds were harmed in the making of this video. You can't see it here but it flew away at the last moment. ;-)

Where's Molli???

The other day I was scanning through different pictures looking for one in particular and I noticed a pattern.

I am sure you all know my precious dog, Molli. However I am not sure if you have ever met her in person. She is a ball of energy and LOVES to run. I mean we really should have named her Forrest Gump because she is always "Runnin".....

Anyway back to my point I noticed that many of my pics have a glimps of her in them. Yes this is because Molli loves to run from where ever she is and stand in the shot. So I thought it would fun to play the game.............


Where's Molli..........

In this one I sware she wasn't there untill I hit the button.

Here is the proof. I took this one a second later and she was gone already

its like she runs in the shot, stops and looks away

I tried to cut her out of this on but she wasn't having it

This one is blurry.....

This one is a prime example....please look at her ears

 

And just to show you her in action.....

She looks like a rabbit

FINALLY Closed Part II

Last time I left with how we thought we were finished with Mr. Smith and were going to close our loan at the lower rate. As I read back I realize I left out something....

Mr. Smith appraised our house as a "New Construction" and listed the date built at 2011. This was technically incorrect. Justin asked him when he gave him the comparables why he had done this and he replied by saying we had done do much work the home had to be considered new. This sounded reasonable because we did ALOT of work.

Well, last Monday I received an email from Our Mortgage company asking if we tore the house down and restarted. I said no we did not completely tear it down. They replied by saying they needed the date built to reflect it as a remodel and not a new construction. I said okay. The problem was Mr Smith refused to change it. Our loan Officer (Melissa) asked if I could call him and request him to change it. So I did.

When Mr. Smith answered I said "What is the deal?" "Can't you change the date of construction?". Apparently this comment crawled all over him because he then began to scream at me. Now when I say scream. I mean in all since of the word he was SCREAMING at me. He kept saying "I have been nothing but helpful to you people and I don't think you appreciate it". I replied by saying what would be helpful is if you let me get a word in edge wise" (I said this because he would not stop his irrational shouting rants long enough to let me speak). He went on and on about how Justin lied and told him we tore the old house down and how he did not have to talk to us. He did not have to listen to me....ya di ya di ya.

I then said "let me tell you my side" I continued to talk hoping he would get tired of his own voice, shut up and listen. Boy, was I wrong. He ranted and raved for a minute or two longer then he hung up on me. HUNG UP on me people!!!! I called Justin and filled him in and may I just add Mr. Smith better thank his lucky stars I called him and not Justin. If would have spoke to Justin that way, Justin would have loaded up his Daddy and paid him a not so pleasant visit.

We informed  Melissa of Mr. Smith's unprofessional behavior. She decided she would call him and try again. He screamed at her too.. she simply said "I will be praying for you" and hung up the phone. They immediately put in a rush order for a new appraisal.

Tuesday we had a new appraiser come (Darlene Daughtery). She was respectful and professional. Thursday morning the value came in at what it should of been. It was HIGHER then our original appraisal. Meaning they saved our saving account from complete and utter destruction. (which is good since there wasn't that much left to destroy in the first place). Melissa and Kristina from our Mortgage Company worked all day to get us ready to close by Friday. They did it we closed!!!!  Well we did our part anyway. They require a three day cooling off period (you have three days to change your mind) But if nothing happens we will be DONE with this whole process Wednesday morning!!!!

Let me add the current requirements do not allow you or the bank to hand pick your appraiser. They are randomly selected now. However you do have the right to say who you do not want on your property. We did not know this. If we had we would have researched the local appraisers. At any rate if any of you build/buy a new home my advice to you, when it comes to the appraisal, is do your research! There ARE some bad apples out there!!!

PS:
If you are related to or friends with Josh Smith the Appraiser in Wedowee Alabama. I am sorry if I have offended you but I want others to learn from my experience. (This includes Josh himself)

FINALLY Closed!!!!

Friday 11/11/11 we signed the paperwork to close our mortgage. FINALLY!!! Now I have not updated blogger nation but this has been a NIGHTMARE!!! Who knew closing the mortgage was harder then building the house in the first place.

This is a LONG story so I will tell it in two parts:

We locked in our interest rate Tuesday 9/27/2011. (May I add rates are G-A-r-e-a-t right now). We "officially" completed our house Monday 10/10/2011 (and did not close for a month and a day later). An appraiser came out a week later. Two days after that I received an email from our mortgage company giving us what the value came in at. I FLIPPED out!!! It was 18,000.00 less then out initial appraisal they had performed based on our house plans. Now keep in mind we added square footage and the concrete drive to the original plans. These upgrades were not noted in the original pre-appraisal. With the current economy we expected it to decrease some but not 18,000.00 in five months.

Now for those of you who have not yet dipped your feet into the cold water of real estate; Let me explain why I was so upset......

The bank tells you what your soon to be home is worth then they loan you 80% of that. You either have to have the other 20% in the bank, pay Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI - essentially a higher rate that will decrease when you have paid the principal down to 80% of the value) or  you build and/or buy your home for 80% of what it is worth.

When you are building they perform a pre-appraisal for the construction loan. Then you base your budget from that. You try to build it for 80% of the value plus whatever amount of cash you have in the bank. This is what we did and if I must say so myself we did a wonderful job. We came in well under budget. Did you hear me? I said UNDER our budget (from what I hear this is a hard task to accomplish).

However when the value dramatically declined so did our budget. Meaning we were now short. We were fixing to have to drain ALL of our savings down to their minimum balances. That terrified me. I do not feel safe without at least 3 months living expenses. What was going to happen if one of our cars died or if one of us lost our job???

Justin began to be proactive. He searched the appraiser's name on google. (His name is Josh Smith from Wedowee) He found out that Mr Smith has had his license pulled and reinstated due to a court case he was involved in. He was now on probation. We then asked around and have yet to find someone who had positive things to say about him. Justin called him and gave him other properties to use as comparables. He refused to use them.

We then spoke to the Mortgage Company about contesting the appraisal. They said we could but if the next one came in lower we would have to take the lower number. This was too much of a risk to take. We decided to proceed with the closing. We put the whole thing behind us and were finished.....or so we thought........

To Be Continued

Not the Way to Start the Day

Do you ever have one of those days that go wrong from the very beginning? You know the ones that leave you debating on going back home, going back to bed and starting over. Well for me yesterday was one of those days.

My morning began with me getting in my car and saying to myself "crap I need gas, I hope I can make it to Hollis". After that I started on my way. I made it to the first reasonable gas station (Hollis crossroads for you locals). I pulled in and parked my car by the gas pump and reached for my debit card............"wait where is my purse"???? I thought. Yes that is right I forgot my purse!!!! Let me add by this time my gas light is on. I most likely don't have enough gas to get me to work in Heflin nor do I have enough to get me home to get me purse.

I decided I would call my hubby and get him to give me the credit card number (in hopes the clerk would take it as a trade for gas).  I called Justin and no answer. So I decided to "beep him" (meaning use the push to talk option on our cell)......No answer. I alert him. He comes back and says "I am busy call you later". I scream "but I need you now". I try to "beep" him again but now his phone is off. Ahh my hero. I am so glad to know he is there for me always....Ha! Good thing I wasn't dieing in a car wreck trying to tell him my last good bye!!( He is soooo very lucky I love him like I do).

Any way on ward to the next person. I called JoNell and got her credit card number. I then hung my head and moaped into the store. I told the clerk my situation and gave her the credit card number. She responded by saying "we can't put card numbers in manually". Thankfully she gave me enough gas to make it home to get my purse. I sped home got my purse, went back to the gas station, paid for my gas and was on my way.

Let me add that during this time I was calling my supervisor's office to inform her of my tardiness. I did not get an answer. I decided to email her when I arrived at work. However as luck would have it I pulled up at the audit site and saw nothing other than the black Honda sitting by the front door. You got it.....my supervisor was there waiting for me....."great". Luckily she is pretty easy to get along with and hopefully she understood.