Dichotomy...

MLS# FX6963506, you're all mine! Er, ours!
After some unforseen (but at this point, not entirely unexpected) shenanigans on Monday and Tuesday, we finally got a call from our agent last night at dinner that we have a ratified contract! Turns out Brian was our good luck charm all along, either that or Jaipur. Suffice it to say that we both breathed a huge sigh of relief and finally got a good night's sleep. Certainly, there's a lot more to be done before we can actually claim to own and live in our new house, but the search is over, the contract is done, and the financing is in place, so things should go a lot smoother from this point forward.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments

On Super bowl weekend, I found a house a really liked, but Emily was out of town. So we went back to see it with our agent on the following Wednesday, and then put an offer together. Greg called the listing agent first thing the following morning to submit it, only to find out the sellers had accepted another offer. It was "supremely disappointing" according to my twitter feed. So after stewing for a couple days, we got back on the horse and went house hunting over the weekend. We found a townhouse in Oakton we really liked and decided to move forward with an offer first thing on Monday. Today we got a counter offer back that we are accepting, so, barring anymore unforseen shenanigans, I think we'll have a ratified contract later tonight or early tomorrow.
Which brings me to the issue of financing. We elected to go with BOA, as they had good rates listed on their website that were competitive with the federal credit unions. But as it turns out, their mortgage department and their consumer banking department don't talk to each other or deal with each other hardly at all. So our loan officer was some schmo who knew less than I did about mortgages¹. So after out offer nearly falling through because the banker handling our mortgage application isn't really a loan specialist, Greg came to the rescue with a contact (a Vice President, no less) in the mortgage department. In one afternoon of phone calls, she got us a way better rate on the same loan product, including an increased loan amount, and churned out an approval letter. All things our previous loan officer told us it would take days to accomplish.
So, I've accomplished very little actual work today, because I spent all day on the phone with bank/real estate people. But, it sounds like we're very very close to finalizing a deal. so in the end it will all be worth it. Hopefully it means we'll have something extra to celebrate tomorrow at dinner in addition to the presence of one Mr. Morris, fresh off his NSA mind-rape session.

¹: I can't tell you the number of times I've said "All I know about real estate I've learned from the internet" during the past couple weeks. It's going to the title of my upcoming book, alternatively titled "my wife's cousin's husband is also my awesome realtor."

Posted by Rev. Adam at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments

I think I broke my face (sinus cavity) like Anquan Boldin. Only I didn't do it in nearly as glamorous a way as getting smashed by a player on the opposing team. Unless you count glassware as the opposing team and stationary as smashing. On Saturday night, I clobbered my right upper cheek on a glass of water sitting on my desk because I stood up from my desk chair and bent over to pick up one of those stupid plastic wrapper things that come on print cartridges. It hurt like crazy. Frankly, I'm amazed I didn't break the glass. Sunday morning I had a tiny little mark there, but it didn't hurt much. Today? Much much more pain. It doesn't feel particularly swollen, and it's not terribly black and blue, so I guess that's a good sign.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments

"Who throws a shoe? Honestly! You fight like a woman!"

-Austin Danger Powers

First, someone throws a shoe at (now former) President Bush in Iraq, now we're throwing shoes at the Chinese envoy in the UK? What is this world coming to? Is just yelling at people or making signs not protesty enough? Or what happened to the classic rock-throwing? Throwing a shoe means you came unprepared to protest properly. Do your homework! Bring necessary supplies! I swear, if I have to start surrendering my shoes to get on a plane or attend a lecture, I'm going to be super pissed. It's bad enough I have to walk through a metal detector to enter places like World of Coke. You're ruining it for everyone! If you have to improvise a throwing object, why not throw a chair or a cell phone or your wallet. I mean, they're going to catch you regardless of what you throw anyway, you might as well be able to attempt running away so everyone else can get some amusement out of security guards tackling you. LEAVE YOUR SHOES ON YOUR FEET WHERE THEY BELONG!
If I ever speak in a public forum, here's my solution - if you want to attend, you have to do so naked and you have to pass through an x-ray machine so we can catch all those sword swallowers. Then you have to take a horse laxative and a desiccant and a diuretic, then be placed in a holding area for several hours until they've all run their course. This is to ensure that you can't throw feces like monkeys, urinate, or spit. You won't be allowed anything to eat or drink for 24 hours before the talk, during it, or until 1 hour after I have departed the site. Additionally, one hour before the scheduled start time, you will be given an elephant tranquilizer. Finally, I will give my talk from within the pope-mobile. Happy now?

Posted by Rev. Adam at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments

Happy Go-To-Hell-Phil Day! Apaprently, a pampered woodland creature was roused at 6 am, grabbed off the ground, saw a ton of moronic people and a beautiful day in the making, and then went back to sleep amidst fireworks, all of which somehow means 6 more weeks of winter. I understand the importance of tradition, but this particular one, as I have lamented every year since I was like 10, is inane.
In other irritating news, the Cardinals got robbed last night. Certainly the Steelers played a better game all around and probably deserved to win. But the non-review on Warner's "fumble" was complete bullshit. On a game-altering play like that, how do you not take a minute to review it? Apart from game-long terrible officiating, I thought it was one of the better games in recent memory.
The house hunting continues, although yesterday I saw a house that I'm very excited about and am trying to set up an appointment with our agent to see it again this week and start putting together an offer on it! Whoo! Moving out from under our monstrous upstairs neighbors could not possibly come soon enough.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments