Jaye's Musings

Well, okay, along with the hubby.....and, oh yeah, the bank.

And not just any house, but after (for me) 28 years of moving every very few years, this is intended to be our forever home. For a brief description, it's rural central PA...as rural as I would allow the hubby to move me and about 30 mins from the closest good sized city, but the location is stunning. It's American farmhouse style, built in 2008 and about 2700 sq.ft, but we're going to finish off the basement, so that'll bring it up another 1000 sq.ft, four bedrooms, 2.5 baths. The only thing 'wrong' about it is the decor...so not to our taste, very flowery...but that is easily remedied. It sits about halfway up a big hill/small mountain with open fields in front and wooded to the top of the hill/mountain and is all but 22 acres (21.96 to be precise). It almost backs onto a state park...and the strip of land between the two is an easement for utility companies, so no one is going to build there anyway.

I won't say how much we paid, but if I converted it to British pounds, it would cost only 50kGBP more than my mum's 2-up/2-down end of terrace in the middle of town.

It was a long, roundabout journey to getting the house though.

We first viewed it back in July and really liked it (duh!). The problem was, at the time, twofold. 1) Hubby did not have a job, only his AF retirement (that hadn't actually come through yet) and naturally banks were not willing to lend him the money without a job, even though he would have a very good, steady income for the rest of his life. The second was that the property was actually divided into two parcels of 10 acres and 12 acres which would have meant two mortgages...one at a much higher interest rate. We had to walk away as it was just impossible.

Clearly, we weren't the only potential buyers with that problem, and within a couple of months they had combined both parcels into one. That problem solved, hubby still didn't have a job and our bank that caters nearly exclusively to the military would not give him a loan (despite the retirement pay). So, on the advice of our wonderful realtor, we went to the small local bank in the town, and we were pre-approved with very little fuss and certainly they weren't bothered by his lack of employment, knowing that a) he had his retirement, and b) he was looking for work. Our mortgage is worked out relying solely on his retirement, which is very good. As it happens right before Christmas, he got a job with the DoD, although he hasn't started yet.

Our next and last hurdle was the fact that the sellers, a Mennonite family had already moved out and were in Bolivia doing missionary work. We actually should have closed last week, but they had signed the Power of Attorney for their representative incorrectly, so they had to travel to the US Embassy in La Paz to redo it and then express mail it here. With the holiday weekend and the heavy snow on Tuesday, it didn't reach their agent until yesterday.

So now, after 28 years of moving, 9 months without a home of our own, and over 7 months of living with the in-laws...we have a house. Not that we've moved in yet...or will do for a little while. Arranging for our belongings to be delivered out of storage, some in VA and some in CA, can take a few weeks, and so we're going to spend that time decorating it to more our tastes. And that in itself is a thrill after so many years of base housing and rentals where magnolia white is the only permissible colour!