Closing on our house

Don't have any pics to include in this post...maybe a picture of me in a straight jacket or something would have been appropriate because closing on a house in Billings has been way more stressful than I ever imagined and I just about went crazy.  Only joking of course.

On Wednesday, August 7 we closed on our condo here in Billings.  Michael was bugging me to write this post so we could have it in our book.  I'm super proud of Michael (and myself) for this milestone.  The fact that we're in a position financially to actually buy a house, especially with Michael being in school.  Michael's really done all the hard work, I've just complained a lot and asked a lot of questions.  The seller agreed to pay for new carpet installation and closing costs.  Up until the day after closing, we hadn't gotten our carpet allowance check from the seller, so even when we showed up at Chicago Title to close, things were still up in the air like trying to decide if we should wait until we had the carpet $ before signing all the papers, as an incentive for the seller to comply, but ultimately Michael and I were both really anxious to close and move on so thats what we did. Luckily the seller agreed to pay for the carpet allowance via monthly payments (if she didn't then it meant she'd breached her contract and we could have taken her to court and been on TV with Judge Judy (awesome!).  She didn't end up making much of a profit off her house and her realtor made it sound like money is tight for her.  Anyway,  I've been in charge of the whole carpet fiasco.  I've spent a lot of time on the phone with Michelle in the flooring dpt at Lowe's including going over there once to talk to her and look at the carpet and get some numbers.  We determined that if we wanted to re carpet the entire condo we would only be able to afford the "in-stock" carpet which is lower quality and what buyers use to "flip"houses (buy to sell).  We weren't thrilled about having the cheap carpet so and my brother had actually suggested having it professionally shampooed so I called Stanley Steemer and they came and did a "spot check" I guess you could call it where they treat a really bad stain to see if the carpet was even salvageable and it was completely gone after they shampooed that spot!  We decided that we'd make a final decision (shampoo or get new carpet) in a couple days once the carpet was completely dried and its Saturday and the stain is still gone so we're mostly likely going to shampoo the whole place and save the $ from the carpet allowance and put it towards something else.  I'm thrilled that we didn't have to pay closing costs and that our mortage is WAY less than rent is here in Billings and its going towards an investment for us.  If we can't sell the condo when we want to then we can always rent it out.

There's been lots of decisions to be made lately it seems like.  I've learned a lot about patience and how Heavenly Father helps us along but usually we can't see the final outcome which makes the process difficult.   We started working with our realtor in March of this year and I'd never thought it'd be such a fiasco.

 A year ago I started taking piano lessons again.  I tried to practice a 1/2 hr every day.  That didn't always happen but I was getting a little bit better.  I found a piano online in the heights that was selling for $200 and so I drove out to take a look, it looked good except one key was sticking so I wasn't sure if I could get it since I wouldn't know if it could be fixed until a piano guy could look at it. miraculously enough, a friend of ours who fixes pianos was in Billings THAT DAY and came and drove out to the heights and looked at it for me that evening.  He said he could fix the key and that we should get it.  So the next day he was there again picking up his car that'd broke down the previous day and he, his bro in law and Michael moved the piano from the heights to our condo with a u-haul trailer.  I think its a blessing that it all worked out so well.  Our 2nd Sunday in our new ward I was called and sustained as our primary pianist.  Didn't see it coming at all.  That was when I got serious about getting a piano, but someone from back home had generously said we could have theirs, but it was a full sized one that would have taken up a lot more space, but it was free, so it was hard to decide.  I hate making decisions but I'm glad I decided to get this piano from the heights...I've loved playing it and am going to have to practice a lot.
Anyway, we're official home owners and its been fun but kind of overwhelming thinking about projects and the responsibility of owning your own home.  We're learning and grateful for these life experiences.

Our neighbor has a little 2 year old grandson who she's adopting and she invited me and the kids over to check out her condo just this evening.  She was talking about Michael and how he "seemed like such a nice guy" and how she thought he was cute and reminded her of some relative she had.  Anyway, she was telling me some horrible sad things that'd happened to her, her husband and grand baby's death, her daughter dealing with lots of medical problems, on the verge of death herself, and nasty divorce, losing her job, etc. and I felt so incredibly grateful for my husband and the life I have.  She just seemed overall impressed with our family and the life we live (mostly impressed with Michael he he) and it was awesome to take a step back and realize what an incredible blessing the gospel is.  Incredible because it puts you on a path in life that you don't even realize you're on sometimes.  A guy like Michael with standards and goodness like his are hard to come by ....not as many LDS members here in Billings so we kind of stick out in some places, especially in our little condo complex. Anyway, lots of rambling.  As soon as I clean my house I'll take some pics of our condo! :)