Time's Up!

Ready or not, Christmas is here. The tree is up and decorated, the presents bought and wrapped. The baking done and waiting to be gobbled up tomorrow after our feast.
This year more than any other it has taken me the longest to find my Christmas spirit. Things have been so crazy at work, with everyone needing that last appointment in before the holidays, my mind has been reeling for the past few weeks as we were on the roller coaster ride of our lives trying to finalize all the details of the purchase of our first home. In the back of my mind I was just praying for it to all stop so I could prepare for the holidays.
Now ready or not, Christmas is here, and oddly enough after a blow-up with my grandmother I have finally found my Christmas Spirit.{Copy of fight as posted on message board:
That's right. Christmas Eve Day, fighting with my grandmother on the phone. It didn't start out that way though.
Back Story: My uncle is staying with my grandmother right now and didn't want to come to dinner tomorrow. Fine, whatever. My grandmother has been changing her mind everyday about whether she's coming to dinner. One day she is, the next day she won't leave him home alone. Every Christmas my grandmother puts on this one woman pity party crying fest that lasts all day. All of us are sick of it.
So I call today to ask her a question about cooking cabbage rolls. Then I ask her if her and my uncle are coming to dinner b/c if they are I'm obviously bringing more cabbage rolls. She says she doesn't know. I ask her why. She says she won't leave my uncle. I tell her that if he wants to sit at home all day sulking then let him, nothing is stopping her from coming to dinner. She says he won't be sulking, I ask if he's not sulking then what is he doing? She won't answer.
She then says that I know that the holidays are hard for her (referring to pity party cry fest). I ask her why it's so hard (now she's crying). She says that it's just hard for her.
Now it's time to lose it. I'm sick and tired of her being Debbie Downer every Christmas. I realize it's hard for her, but it's hard for everyone all the time. I tell her that every year at Christmas she just sits and cries all day. That sometimes you just have to suck it up. I tell her that Andre and I have our struggles, my parents have their struggles, but we're thankful for the blessings in our life.
I tell her that she should sit and be thankful for the blessings she has. She should thank God she has a family, and a family that loves her. She has her health, and her family is healthy. She should be thankful that she has a roof over her head and food that she can eat. Years of frustration with her just came out of my mouth.
She got all angry on the phone and said that she hopes one day I get depressed and know what she's going through. I told her that I have, that depression runs in our family, and that every single one of us has struggled with some level of depression. Then she blurts out "Well I'm sorry I'm not you!" and then hung up the phone.
I was so angry I was shaking. I had to call DH at work and talk to him. Thankfully he had a minute. Then I called my mother. They both told me not to worry and that someone had to tell her the truth. I feel badly that I might've upset her (when it truly wasn't my intention to do that), but I'm just sick of her bringing everyone down all the time. We are all truly blessed, and she just refuses to see it. }

I have heard from so many people that they feel this year especially, how the focus has been on things. Maybe it's just the usual consumerism sneaking up on us, maybe it's the economic crisis, who knows. It's like I had this awakening about how much I truly have to be thankful for this Christmas. How more than ever with all the uncertainty we had in our lives, I realize that sometimes when we feel like everything is upside down and backwards, there is a reason for it all. That everyone around us was right, things will work out for the best. We just have to be patient.

So to celebrate this Christmas season, I am going to list the many gifts that surround me every day.

First off, my wonderful husband Andre. We may not agree on everything, but he is my rock. The one person that I know will and has stood beside me though many of life's challenges. I love him so much.
My family. We may be flawed, I may think they're from another planet most of the time, but they're mine, and I love them.
My Friends. The ones that are close to us and far away. The ones that I have a chance to see during our week, or may only have a chance to "talk" to via our computer. They may not realize it, but they add so much to both my life, and Andre's.
My job. To be able to work with some very amazing people everyday, and make a difference in the lives of other people everyday is a truly amazing thing.
Our home. This being our tiny apartment now, and also our house, that will be ours in just 5 short weeks. This has been our dream to have a home for a long time, and something we didn't think was possible right now. I am so grateful for all the help and support that we received when I thought that our dream of owning was just that, a dream.

To everyone out there who reads this, I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas, and the best in 2009!

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe that it's been a week since I last blogged. The time is definitely slipping away from me.

So much has happened! We had our home inspection this past Monday. It went very well, and there were no surprises. Some very minor things have to be done to the home once we move in, but that was to be expected. The big things are all fine, so that was great news to us! Our home inspector even told me at the end of the inspection that he has inspected a lot of town homes in our area, and that this one pleasantly surprised him. He said that it was a solidly built home that has been very well maintained. Definitely what you want to hear!

At the inspection I also got a first glimpse of the living room without the cedar shingles. It looks so much more bright and open! I can't wait to get in there and slap on some paint and rip out the carpet. It will look like a completely different place!

We got a call on Thursday morning that we have fulfilled all of our conditions on the offer, but when I talked to our agent, he wanted us to have our ESA certificate (had to be done before closing) completed for our home insurance before we sign off on all the conditions on Monday night. He said he doesn't expect a problem, but that it would be a good idea to have it done before we sign off completely. I understand why he wants it done, but he told me this on Friday afternoon at 4pm after I had to call him about signing off on the conditions. I wish he had been a bit more proactive, and had mentioned this earlier. I politely told him I couldn't take anymore time off work, and he said that he would arrange everything to be done before Monday at 8pm when we're suppose to sign the last of the papers.

I've discovered that finding our home was the easy part, it's all the paperwork afterwards that is proving to be a pain! If all goes as planned we will have our ESA certificate in hand tomorrow night and a SOLD sign up by Tuesday morning. I can't wait for that moment, because then I can switch my brain back to focusing on Christmas.

It's exciting to think that in just 7 weeks we will have the keys to our home in our hands!

Hurt Feelings

There was one not so great part about finding the house; having to break the news to my grandmother. You may remember this post from July. My grandmother has had her townhouse on the market since August. Her home is in the condominium complex next to the one my parents live in (one big happy family!). Her home is slightly larger than the one we purchased, and the price she's willing to drop to is a whopping $15 000 more than what our final ending point was.

I called her on Thursday to let her know the news. I had told friends and other family members before her. I knew that she wasn't going to be happy that we didn't buy her home. So the phone call was very painful to say the least. She did a good job of saying everything that a supportive grandmother is suppose to say, but she was lacking the enthusiasm that everyone else had when we shared our news.

She told me that she would've been willing to work out a deal (not one that we could afford), and she questioned us about the amount that we had been approved for, and then told us that that plus our down payment was only a few thousand that what she wanted for the house. Never mind that that amount was still a good $12 000 more than what we could comfortably pay every month in mortgage payments.

No matter what we said she just would not understand that although the bank was willing to give us all that money we didn't/couldn't spend it all. She didn't care that by taking her home we would be overextending ourselves to the point of literally living pay cheque to pay cheque. She only cared that we would've taken her home therefore solving her problem of having to sell.

Fast forward to today. My mother called me to tell me what my grandmother felt about us purchasing the other house. My grandmother told her that she was "hurt" that we didn't try and buy her home, and that she would've given us a deal. It's like she refuses to see our end. She just won't try and understand that we want money leftover at the end of the month to pay down our debt, go out, make improvements to the house, hell maybe even put some into savings. She refuses to see beyond her reality.

You'd think that she'd put her own situation aside and just be happy that her oldest granddaughter and her husband just purchased their first home. But no, she'll sit at home feeling sorry for herself for weeks on end now.

I wish this all was easier. This is just the mess I feared would happen.

One condition left and it is ours!

So much has happened in such a short time! Here's a timeline of all that has happened (and is to come).

Monday Dec 1- Put offer in for our townhouse. Agent says he'll call us before 11pm if there is word of counter offer. Nothing that night

Tuesday Dec 2- Our agent calls us at 9am. The seller countered our offer at just $1900 above what we wanted to pay. He suggests that we try and get him to lower it a little bit. We let our agent know that we will take the sellers offer, but want some work done in return.

Noon- Our agent meets us and we sign back.

5:15pm- They met us in the middle! They knocked off $900 and will take down the cedar shingles (pics to follow) and repair the walls for us.

7pm- Meet our agent at home, sign the final offer. It's ours (conditionally, of course)

Thursday Dec 4- Our mortgage broker calls to let us know that our mortgage was approved. We have our money! Recommends lawyer and I make some calls.

Saturday Dec 6- Make appointment for our home inspection.

After Mondays home inspection, we're just waiting on the certificate from the Condominium Corporation, and then all of the conditions of our offer have been met. SOLD sign can go up!

It's been such a whirlwind these last few days. It's been so hard for Andre and I because work has been so busy the last few days which means I'm madly trying to make phone calls during my spare moments at work. Needless to say we've had "words" with each other. Because Andre is always driving at work he can't make all the calls that I can, so I am stuck doing a lot of the leg work myself and have been feeling very overwhelmed.

Hopefully that will all be over come early next week.

Now for what you've all been waiting for...house pictures! Here are a few of the pictures that were on the MLS listing. I cannot wait to close on the house so we can get in there and make it ours!

(the view from our front door)

(the living room)
(dining room)

(basement--wet bar)

(basement--family room)

(kitchen)

(kitchen)

(master bedroom)

Putting an offer on the house

I know I haven't had a chance to really post about our house hunting experience, and I don't right now either!
I'm actually blogging from work from my blackberry. Thank goodness for unlimited internet!
So just like the title says we are putting an offer on one of the houses this evening. Our agent is coming over tonight at 8pm when Andre gets home from work so we can make an offer. I am so excited!! We want this house to be our home so badly!
If I have a chance tonight I will try and write about our house hunting trip this weekend. Otherwise I promise I will sometime this week.
Wish us luck!