I took possession to the keys of my home on April 12th, 2021. I knew all along what this house would be like – we got to choose almost every fixture and color. We watched it go from just an empty field to a foundation to framing and finally to a finished product, suitable for humans to live in.
We spent many pandemic evenings and afternoons driving by and checking out the progress. I didn’t really envision life within the house. I just knew it would be an upgrade and get us into a spot where our kids would live among their school peers without having to be transfer students.
We had so many snafus towards the end from paperwork to incomplete build items to missed signatures. It almost became comical except this was my family’s well-being in the balance.
These keys are earned. They were never a privilege and never will be.
Here’s a timeline of how we ended things. I swear these things probably happen to people – but probably different people.
- 30 days to Close Letter (email): February 24th – doesn’t seem feasible but YAY??%?
- Blue Tape: March 27th – um…I think we used all the tape in Tennessee. It was NOT where we thought it would be for us to move in in 4 days.
- Closing Date: March 31st – well…the appraiser failed us to due to all of the blue tape and there still wasn’t a proper roof in front of the house and, and, and….some blue tape gone but still TONS left. Oh, and the painting look like I did it and not professionals. And oh yeah, an important document was not filed properly so…12 day delay to close with Good Friday not counting as a “work day”. Also…utility company cannot find conduit to connect Internet…
- NEW Closing Date: April 12th – house looks livable (still blue tape spots missed but it’s good. Oh yeah, another document issue due to some crap…delay, delay, delay…but by noon-ish, I have KEYS in my hand
- Move in Date: April 13th – movers lose lots of items – most of kids clothes giant comforter, my laptop bag (thankfully I removed the laptop)
- Post Move- In: missing downspout in the front yard so when it rains, this one area just gets DUMPED on and turned into mud; no Internet for the first 10 days as they DIG UP THE FRESHLY PUT IN SOD to try to find the buried line; various other items that pale into comparison with the first 2.