Phenomenal Residential Powers!

Last week I just kind of did a lazy ninja update without any details. I posted that update after the second of two lengthy sessions at the sales office. I wanted to get the news out and then go to bed. Now that it's finally Sunday night and I should be getting ready for bed (again...why do I have to go every day?), I'm going to blog because it's a good thing to do or something.

Actual real life view of our existing home

After prayer and deliberation, we felt like it was the right thing to do. Of course, our realtor felt like we could have been better served with another builder. Probably because she had found a way to get them to bend over backwards to give her clients a lot of concessions. This builder (Meritage) wasn't giving anything up, and our realtor felt like the sales guy was being too unreasonable. I wasn't really prepared for what happened next:

Genuine footage of negotiation between realtor and sales agent on 4/29/2013 (props to Joeartguy of dA)

Well...perhaps it wasn't as physically violent as I may have indicated. Jabs and jibes were exchanged, and I think after 2 hours or so the sales guy started to try and find a way out. Turns out that it was to throw in a covered patio for free.

"I'll take it."

In exchange, we sprung for a bay window and a sprinkler system, since the cost of installation wasn't really that much more expensive than it would cost to do it myself (that plus the multiple weekends it would have devoured). All this talk took so long that we had to come back the next evening and finish the deal. In the end, we finally were at peace with one another.

Much like Christian Bale and Kermit the Frog

Then came the small matter of financing. It took a lot of phone calls and typing to figure out what the heck was going on.

"We're making money right now!" 

After talking to 4 banks, we finally settled with the builder's lender, because they were offering to pay a ton towards closing costs. There was actually another bank that came close, and their monthly rate was a bit less because their mortgage insurance premium wasn't as high, but the difference would have taken about 8 years to manifest. Alison and I had to scrounge together pretty much every document that proved that we existed, made money, and did productive things with our lives. Heck, the bank now knows more about my 401k than I do. I just hope that the fact that Alison had difficulty with "University Survival" back in her freshman year at USU doesn't come back to bite us (yes, they asked for our school transcripts).

Once all that gets processed, they'll start moving some dirt around. So far, it looks a bit like this:

And this:

Other than this, we've just been trying to keep up with the goings on. I'm still trying to figure out whether or not HP will force me to use vacation time around the 4th of July, whether or not I have it available to spend. Alison has been getting a bit sick to her stomach off and on; we're hoping to figure out what's going on (no announcements here, people, relax).

The store manager can detect the blend of fabric here by burning and inhaling fabric fumes. He was willing to give us a 25% discount after a good hit of a 65-35 poly-cotton blend.

We abandoned our plans to go see Indiana Jones on the downtown IMAX screen and instead viewed a silent film with an original live soundtrack on Discovery Green, hosted by Houston's NPR affiliate.

An Academy Award winning movie? How passé. 

Also, Iron Man 3 was great. Go see it.

"We're done here."