Tag Archives: home ownership

Homes for the Holidays

Home Ownership, , , , ,
This is my first holiday season living in Maine in over a decade and it is wonderful to be close to my family again. The changes I’ve been through in the last year have also made me appreciate my family’s prosperity and recognize how lucky we are. 
 
I am fortunate that everyone in my family owns a home. After this Friday (paperwork willing), all of my adult siblings will be homeowners. Home ownership, while not cheap, is not a hardship for us – we can afford to furnish them, heat them, and nourish our families in them. We each have a home with enough space to live in comfortably. We are able to meet and exceed our basic needs. 
 
Today, I am thankful to be in my home state again.  I am thankful for my family and the joyful bedlam of our holiday gatherings.  And I am thankful for a place to call home.

Femi-nesting

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Despite moving in back on November 18th, this week was our first week at our new house. It was also my first week at a new job… or my first 3 days. Aaron and I came back from our holidays with a really nasty cold and after toughing it out on Monday and Tuesday, I cried uncle on Wednesday and Thursday.  

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Home Is Where Your Dog Is

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For some people it might be the first overnight or the first meal, but for me a house starts feeling like a home once my dogs have been there. I visited twice this afternoon bringing RAV-loads of boxes from storage and trying out some paint colors (more on that later).  It was interesting coming and going on my own, putting boxes of our things inside, but it didn’t really feel like it was mine.

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Days Late and Dollars Short

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Today we signed on the dotted line and officially became homeowners again. It was days late because we were supposed to close on October 21st, but items in the paperwork kept being nitpicked and reworked. The mortgage industry (specifically an underwriter in our case) is very cautious these days and their ducks in a row had to have military precision. The dollars short is actually a very good thing – everything came in lower than the good faith estimate. This is due in part to the estimate being on the high side so we’d be ready for a worst-case scenario.
House buying is a harrying process and having good people working with you makes a world of difference. Our first home buying experience included an inexperienced real estate agent and an efficient but indifferent mortgage company. This time around, we had a wonderful duo of women helping make the process a little less painful.  

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