Checking in

Hello from across the pond! Thought I would drop in and say hello from Riswijk, Netherlands. My first time in Europe and I came all by myself. I'm such a big girl now.

Not the best image

But you get the picture...

We did close on the construction loan yesterday! Yeah! That should be the last closing we attend for a long, long time. Well, at least for a few months since nothing is in the pipeline right now and the well has completely dried up.

Oh my gawd

After work, I drove by the little old house that is no more on the way to pick the boy up from school. I decided to stop as I noticed that someone was repairing the neighbor's roof (which was fairly new) and that the big old tree was gone. I was greeted with the pleasant news that things could have been much, much worse.

My builder talked to the tree guys this morning and the game plan was to lop the 50', nearly 100 year old tree piece by piece. As he left to run a couple of errands, the amateur hour tree bozos decided to speed things up a bit. They tied a 3/4" rope around the tree and tried to pull it down. Fortunately, the wood post on the fence stopped a huge branch from completely crashing through the neighbor's house, who happened to be home at the time.

As I am trying to put my head around the fact that we almost killed my neighbor, I watch in horror as the back hoe operator whips the heavy machinery around with little to no regard for the tree we are trying to save, my truck, the portocan, etc. And then I see the spray of water as he digs up the water main. I quickly decide that this is why I am paying the builder and tell him I've had enough, I am heading home to my wine.

Coma

My husband really cracks me up. To put up with me for 17 years, you'd have to have a good sense of humor. He really got me Friday. I was trying to open the door to the title company and it was a level handle and I just could not get it. I finally gave up and told him to open the door. Meanwhile, the receptionist is almost at the door to let us in. He opens it, we walk through and looks at her and says- it's ok, she just came out of a coma and is relearning basic skills.

The girl completely bought it and looks at me with these look of pity. I held it in as long as I could and then busted out laughing.

Conversations from the back

Overhead in the car this afternoon on the way home, but first, some definitions.

Mattie= the girl's best friend (she's 3)
Pawpi= my father (he's 60)

The girl: Mattie's big.
The boy: How big is she?
The girl: She's 50!
The boy: She's 50? No way, if she was 50, she'd be dead!
The girl: How old is Pawpi?
The boy: He's 48.
The girl: Mattie is 50! She's tall!

Ah, crud

Well, the sale of the house that we were not trying to sell but were very much more than happy to do so, fell through. Young home buyers coupled with a house with some, uh, issues. We'll be calling out the termite and foundation peeps this week. The refi is back on and we close on Friday.

In other news, the appraisal finally came back for our new house and we received the construction permits. And HOPEFULLY all will go better than they have in the past few weeks with the totally incompetent mortgage broker and we will close next week. Can you tell I am at my wits end with them? So much so that I even called their daddy to complain today?

And what bozo told me this would be fun?

Important questions

Have you ever been on such overload that your mind shuts down to everything important and focuses on the little things that you can control? No? Well, mine has.

So, while organizing my scrapbooking stickers and die cuts, I came across a dilemna. Do camping themed stickers go under 'travel' or 'sports'? At first I would think travel since if I'm camping, I've gone somewhere. However, it does go along with hiking boots and if hiking, then that is a sport.

Surprise!

As I complained about before, everything is moving slower than I would have liked. It looked like we still would not have the necessary documents until later this week, but the builder allowed the demo crew to go ahead and move in the big equipment to prepare.

Surprise!!!! I got a phone call yesterday from hubby on his way to pick up the boy from school- the house is gone! There is nothing but a giant Caterpillar sitting on top of a pile of rubble. The girl got really upset when she saw the house and started crying. They tore down our house! Now where are we going to live! Poor thing. We spent half an hour last night explaining how to build a new house, how we will move all her things to the new house, what we will move.

It was a three ring circus yesterday evening with everyone driving by, stopping, mouths gaping open. Apparently there is a general misunderstanding that the neighborhood is historic and you can't tear down the houses. The neighbors were SO INCREDIBLY appreciative to see the house gone. It has been vacant for so long because the house was basically unlivable and patched together so poorly, no one who bought the house could afford to fix it. Well, we took care of it.

In other news, we have a sales contract on our house! No, not the one we are living in and trying to sell. One that we were in the process of refinancing. Now we have to get the tenant to move out. This is the house that has been a thorn in our side for 3.5 years, so we are very happy.

Here's some pics for your amusement.

Frustrated

Patience. Not something that comes easily or naturally for me. I was expecting day one of construction on the house to be this week. Instead, we are still waiting on funding and the construction permit. It looks like it won't be until 2 weeks from now until we close.

TWO WEEEEEKKKSSSSSS. UGHHHHHH.

No, I really don't feel any better.