I bribed my contractor with cookies

So, our loan FINALLY went though. The money was in our account on Sat. I have never seen that much money in my account at one time. Kind of cool to see.

Too bad all of it will be gone in a matter of weeks.

My contractor has been GREAT - he basically has been working for very little money. Since he knew we were getting our money, he prepaired a bill of sorts. The initial deposit (which we still had not paid) minus any payments that we have made, plus any overages thus far (extra money spent for the vanity, tiles, etc). He gives us an allowance for all items and then we just pay over if we spend more than the allowance.

So, since we have the money now, we are giving him what we owe him. Our payments are divided in thirds so we still need to give him a lot more after today.

So, I baked 3 batches (9 dozen) cookies and wrote him a really nice note. Saying how much we wanted to thank him for understanding about the loan and how great he has been as a contractor.

Of course I am thankful - but the cookies were really just so we stay on good terms. I sure they will gobble them up!

My bank SUCKS ASS!!!!!!

I hate my bank. HATE them!! We applied for a loan over a month ago. A loan that was supossed to take a week to ten days.

We kept getting dicked around. We would turn one paper in and then they would call us 2 days later and say we needed something else. They did this about 4 times. Paperwork was lost which cost us a week, yeah we were real happy about that one.

Then we had to pay off a debt that is not even ours. We made it from our account at the same bank - so that they could see right away that it was done. I guess that was not good enough. This held it up for 3 more days.

So, FINALLY we close on the loan on Monday (3-3); we were told that it has to go through this 3 day wait period crap and that the money would be deposited into a separate account on Thursday (yesterday). The loan officer said that the amount can then be transferred into our checking account the next day (today).

Well, wouldn't you know it - it STILL is not done. It was supossed to be done first thing. We keep checking our account and there is nothing. I call the bank and it goes right to voice mail.

Now we have our contractor calling and asking for more money. I don't blame him - he has basically been working for free for 3 weeks. We did not want to write a check today because we KNEW this would probably happen.

I really HATE this bank!!!!!! I am tempted to take all of our money out of there!

No new pictures

I don't have any new pictures because most of the work that has been done in the past few days have been things that you really can't take pictures of.

Such as:
Electric Outlets
Plumbing for the sinks
Spackle
Etc.

There is so much stuff to pick out. It seems like I am making all the comprimising. Frank tries to nickel and dime things like crown molding on the kitchen cabinets, but then wants granite in the bathroom.

We are way over budget, and there does not seem to be an end in sight. It seems like Frank thinks we are made of money. But, then tells me that we can't order a pizza.

I know in the long run - the house will be beautiful - I just can't wait until it is DONE!

Some updated Pictures

New Floor in the laundry/mud room

New Drywall in the living room

Bathroom ripped out to the studs

I think our loan will go through

I finally think our loan will go through tomorrow. We still won't get our money until Wednesday. Some BS 3 day wait thing.

Anyway, our contractor has been nice enough to start work (and continue for 2 weeks) without much money. We have been giving him a little here and there. But nothing close to the tens of thousands of dollars that we owe him.

I am sure he will be thrilled to get a huge chunk of money from us. He initially said it would take a month. Which would make now the 1/2 way point. I think we still have a month left. There is still so much to do, If it is finished in 2 weeks I will think he is a magic man.

We still have:
the upstairs bath (everything)
the kitchen (everthing)
drywall in the living room & dining room
crowne molding in the living room & dining room
windows (delivered today)
siding
little minor things here and there

I will add more pictures tomorrow.

Why can't we just be made of money

We are not rich people. We do not have tens of thousands of dollars in the bank. If we did, our house would have been done over a year ago.

So, we took out a home equity loan.

When we bought our house we did a 80% loan and a 20% loan. We do not pay PMI. So, when we went to apply for the home equity line of credit, we were told that they (the bank) would have to "take over" the 20% loan. This is because they can not be the third leinholder. Ok- fine. we do even more paperwork. The process seems to take forever.

Well, on Sat we found out that the "value" of our house is $60,000 less than the actual value of the house. The value is based on a drive-by of the house, comps in the area, and the housing market.

Well, since the market is so bad right now, the bank TOTALLY undervalues houses.

What does this mean to us....well it means we are SCREWED!!!!! According to the bank, we only have about $50,000 in equity in our house. $25K of which has to be used to pay off the 2nd loan (the 20% loan). So, that only leaves us with about $25,000 to do $55-60,000 worth of work.

I am so upset right now. I have no idea where we are going to get the rest of the money from. We opened a Home Depot Home Improvement Loan - which will pay for the kitchen cabinets, the appliances, the floor, and any little things that we have to pick up.

We have no choice, but some will have to go on credit cards. Exactly what we did not want to do. I guess in hindsight, we should have found out how much we could get before we started work, but we were CONFIDENT that we would get at least $70,000. This was thinking that they would undervalue our house at $30,000 under market value.

The whole thing is just so upsetting. On top of the fact that our contractor has already started and basically has not received tons of money yet (this was his choice, not ours).

Where is the money tree when you need it :(

Old bathroom

I can't believe how much more open this looks!