When banks compete you win! OK!!!

We’ve set up meetings, we’ve started looking at houses a little, so we better make sure we’re as good to go financially as we think, right? Right!  So what’s a girl to do when she’s bored at work and getting into the whole mortgage getting process?  Check her credit reports and scores, right? Right!

Now, I’m going to try and not brag too much, but let’s just say, my credit is looking at the really really good bracket of borrowers these days.  And because Jason and I live together and have been trying to get each other in good places and helping each other out so much, I know his is right there too. 

With our credit looking so good, we don’t want a lot of banks running our credit and potentially knocking down our scores.  So in an attempt to keep that threat at a minimum, we each printed our credit reports and scores and were ready to hand the lenders a copy at our meetings so they could see what they were dealing with, without actually “hitting” our credit. 

Which leads me to my first mistake in this process.  While in my quest to keep my credit in the spotless range, I remembered the numerous commercials that come on the boob tube for Lending Tree and decide to check it out.  Their slogan “When banks compete, you win” sounded pretty enticing.  I mean, I want banks to compete for my money, I’m an asset to them.  Good financial history, stable job, no creditors seeking my doom, right? Right!  So I go to the website for Lending Tree as that seems like a good place to start. Let’s see what they’re about and exactly how this whole bank-competing thing works.  Uh oh.  The website doesn’t offer a whole lot of information, not much history or reviews.  So someone, please tell me why I continued surfing this website?  I don’t know!!!  What I do know is that I ended up giving them enough information about myself for them to turn around and prequalify me. 

That is exactly what I was trying to avoid!  For them to have prequalified me, means they ran my credit.  Grrrrr!!!!!  But now it’s too late and I might as well go with it.

The website surf occurred on Thursday night and I got a phone call Monday morning.  Rut row!  By the way, Jason was not happy with me!!  His idea of looking for a mortgage involves a face to face and not a voice over a phone that sounds convincing.  And he just isn’t sure that a lender who is strictly online and that is known for quickly selling your loan to someone else can be all that legitimate.  I have to agree, but the damage was done. 

But the guy called on Monday.  The first thing he asked me?  “Have you found a home yet?”  Ummm, no smarty pants, I don’t know how much I can afford.  What a silly question, don’t ya think?  But he said I was prequalified for $95,000.  This is definitely an amount suitable for the foreclosure home we had been eyeing.  And…..that amount was based solely on my credit as if it were just me getting the loan.  But Jason and I would be getting a loan together, so we still didn’t know what price range we could potentially be looking at for our house hunt.

Within the next few hours, I had a prequalification letter in my inbox and was definitely something that we wanted to have with us when we met with the banks, mostly to find out their opinion.

Now….I’m not saying that Lending Tree is a bad experience, but for first time home buyers, it moved a little too fast, too easy and we’re too old-fashioned for a phone call experience.  But for those of you who may be buying a home for the second or third time, it might be the easiest route for you.  And if you’re strictly looking for information about Lending Tree…don’t use their website.  Just a word of caution, as it could having you falling into a quick hole of doom!!!!!

Here’s to hoping that the banks are as eager to give us money as a website!

Love as always!

Meredith

Getting started

Have I ever mentioned that I love Jason?  Well if not, I do!  This man is so awesome.  At first I was thinking that he might not be really into the whole house-buying thing at this point in time.  He had some reservations as far as if it was really what we should be doing and how much money it was going to cost us up front and so on.  I can understand.  I had those same thoughts floating through my head too, but ultimately, I’m still ready to be out of the rental and owning our own place.

But back to my point.  While I was doing all the leg work, calling banks and setting up meetings, Mr. I can drive around the county and look for properties while I pretend to work and use up gas in my work truck that I don’t have to pay for was out gally-falanting around and found an interesting property.

I came home on Thursday from work and he told me about this ranch style house that’s off the road and is very private and is still really close to the highway and wouldn’t increase my drive time to work by more than a minute or two.  Oh, and he had found the listing online.  Guess what?  It’s list price was $60,000!  While we hadn’t heard anything from any banks yet, we kinda figured that was well within our price range. 

Here’s the house:

(I did not take these pictures and if the realtor that listed this house happens to stumble across this post, please contact me, as I can take way better photographs and maybe help you out, sorry for being so brash though)

Big front yard...love

This is pretty much what all the pictures of the bedrooms look like, standard I guess, right?

Mantle!!!  Okay, so it could use some cleaning up and/or a coat of paint, but still...it's a mantle

Kitchen...again, it needs some work, OR APPLIANCES, but look at that back splash and huge window!!

awwww!!!!!  Hard wood floor living room and crown molding, cute right?

3 outbuildings!!  Are you kidding me!?  Finally a space to put all of Jason's hunting gear..BONUS!  But what's up with a stone picnic table?  How would I move that thing if, say, I wanted to?

It’s not exactly move-in ready, but it was a foreclosure and so we get that.  Besides, being a DIY kind of couple, it was definitely something we could deal with.  Besides, look at that fireplace!  How cute?!  I could see an awesome Christmas mantle there.

By the time Saturday had rolled around and I had the day off, I made Jason drive me there.  It was only 5 minutes away from the house and it wasn’t fair that he had seen it in person and I hadn’t.  For whatever reason, he thinks I’m weird for wanting to see the house in person too.   I like the property!  It’s really cute from the outside and at 60K, I’m pretty sure I can like a lot.

But, there is a blue tarp on the roof.  Uh oh…we’d have to do some roof work right away.  I mean that’s okay, again it’s a foreclosure and we’re ready to get our hands dirty, but it makes us wonder what else is wrong with the house.

Besides, we still haven’t met with the banks yet.  Let’s see what they say, shall we?

Love as always,

Meredith

Phone interviews

Ok, so Jason and I had a bunch of questions that we needed to get answered and after asking our parents, we sat down and came up with a “script” to ask banks via the telephone.

                #1: What’s your current rate?

                #2: Do you offer mortgages to un-married couples?

                #3: I don’t remember what the other questions were, the first 2 were the biggies and most of the voices on the phone went into a whole monologue of information after these questions were answered anyways….so I kind of got cut off

We sat down and made a list of all the banks we wanted to call:  Bank of America, Wells Fargo, SunTrust, Citizens South, BB&T, etc.

I think I called a total of 6 banks and got an initial call back from 5 of them.  Blow it Bank of America!   

How I felt...hello? hello? Damnit, is this thing even ringing?

How I think they felt...why yes, we would love to take your money ASAP, when can we meet?

All of the banks that I spoke to an actual mortgage counselor gave me the same information.  The resounding consensus was that YES! we could get a loan without being married and that we should expect to get a rate at either 3.75% or 4% interest.  And they pretty much all asked us to meet with them.

BTW: all of this happened within a very quick timeline.  The phone calls were made on a Thursday and/or Friday.  We had meetings set up with 3 of them for the next Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.  The initial house hunting conversation had just begun 1 week prior.

In fact, here’s a true timeline up to this point

Feb 18/19 – Talk to my parents about the idea of buying a house, seriously buying a house

Feb 24-26 – Talk to Jason’s parent’s about the idea of buying a house since they were in town

Feb 27-28 – Create script and gather phone numbers for banks

Mar 1-2 – Call banks set up appointments for week of March 5^th

So this is where I’ll leave you until next time as I don’t want to give you all the details yet.  Just a bit each time.  But, is it just us, or are things sounding good so far? 

Love as always,

Meredith

Questions, Questions, Questions

So what’s the next step when you’ve decided to buy a house but you haven’t actually “done” anything yet? You ask your parents for their advice of course!! 

Jason’s parents have bought a house within the last three years and are pretty savvy when it comes to their finances.  My parents are currently looking at their options for house hunting and are going through the process a little too.

In fact, my parents actually told me a few weeks ago, that when they went to the bank a mortgage payment was extremely similar to what we were already paying in rent.  And this is when I jumped on the gravy train and got things ‘a movin’. 

Both of our parents were very excited for us and have been extremely supportive throughout the entire process so far!  Thanks so much guys! We love you!

They have also provided valuable insight into the process and given us things to think about that we may not have questioned otherwise.

For example….

The fact that Jason and I aren’t married was an issue.  Would a bank see us as not committed as we haven’t fully committed ourselves to each other yet?  On a side note…we’re both totally in this for the long haul…no question about it on our end….but banks don’t know us or our commitment to each other and may not see that way.  What if we were just another couple with our heads in the clouds?  Were we still too reliant on our parents for financial support?  Etc. 

Another big question we had for our folks was what our very first step should be?  Do we call banks right away?  Do we do more online research? Ahhhhhhhhhhh………we just don’t know.

Their advice was to do some online research as far as quotes go and then to call the top few. 

So that will lead us into the next step as we start to get our questions answered. 

MARCHING INTO MADNESS

Well, here it is March 9^th and I haven’t posted in a while. 

A couple of reasons:

1.  The crafts I have been doing have been repeats of things I’ve already posted about.  i.e. another family crest for a close family friend and homemade coasters for a co-worker that weren’t my own idea.  But thanks Pinterest!

2. Things have actually been a little busy at work and so I haven’t been wasting time there.

3. When I’m at home with Jason, I like to spend time hanging out with him and not hidden in the office on the computer.  Sorry.

But mostly, he and I have actually been very busy.  Doing what you ask?

                MARCHING INTO MADNESS!!!

Sorry, I had to, with the ACC tourney under way and my boys over at UNC bringing down the house against Duke last week, it seemed fitting!  Hahah

So what kind of madness could I possibly be referring to that doesn’t have to do with our already crazy lives with unique jobs and 2 dogs and training for a 10K and planning a wedding?  Whew…that makes it sound like a lot, huh?  Well……………we are fully into the threshold of house hunting!  OMG, can you believe it?  

First things first:  Jason and I rent a very nice, big house in the middle of Spencer.  Being such, it holds a pretty hefty rent.  It’s not anything that we can’t handle, but it is a large sum of money that we’re paying solely to help someone else pay a mortgage.  Why?  Well we weren’t entirely sure that we would still be in Rowan Co. when we first signed a lease.  There was still a chance that we would be moving to Davidson Co. and we didn’t want to buy a house in Rowan, just to up and relocate within the next year.  With today’s economy/market, it didn’t make sense.  So, here we are 18 months after moving in together and we are now certain that Rowan Co is where we’ll be.  

We have found ourselves in a very good situation financially and it seems silly to keep throwing money out the window every month and having nothing to show for it at the end of the year. 

We also have had several strange people approach our house at all hours of the day for no particular reason.  Our dogs are pretty protective, but when push comes to shove, there’s really no reason to put our pups in a situation of HAVING to protect us.  And roughly 1 month ago, there was a high speed chase that ended in a crash in the front yard of our neighbor’s house, 2 homes down.  We were just lucky that it wasn’t our front yard, as we’re much closer to the road than they are. 

Thus, IT IS TIME TO GET OUT OF THIS HOME.  Also, I’m suzy home-maker and the fact that I can’t paint/build shelving/customize our home is literally driving me bananas!!

So there are all the reasons that March is madness for us.  Tomorrow will be an all new post about the first steps for our first time home buying experience!

Love as always!

Meredith

Happy February 2012

Since the first of 12 months has already gone by, I thought now would be a good time to reflect on those New Year’s Resolutions. Maybe I can keep them this year if I check in at the beginning of every month.  Hmm....we'll see.  But for the original post, go here

1. Attend church more often – TSG and myself have never lost our faith, we have just haven’t done our best at hearing His word. But when I really think about it, a 2 hour visit once a week shouldn’t be that hard of a commitment to maintain

We have attended church a lot more!! My granddad invited us to his church and that’s where we’ve been attending. A couple of reasons why we’ve been able to hold to this resolution: 1. We know people that attend. It is just so much easier to join somewhere when you already know someone and they already know people. 2. It’s convenient. It’s only a 15 minute drive from our house, which is just fine with me. 3. They have an early service that blends contemporary services with traditional practices. We love it; it was just what we were looking for. Plus, with an early service, we don’t feel like we’re stopping whatever we’ve already started for the day to go church. 4. The sermons are really powerful reminders of why I’m a Christian and how to be a better one every day!

2. Run more often – We ran our first 5K in 2011 and hope to up the ante in 2012 to a half marathon or at the very least a 10K, if not both

We registered for the 10K, so there’s no backing out. The half marathon just wasn’t feasible right now for several reasons. But we were doing really well for about 2 weeks of going to the gym and running there, and then I slacked. And then I tried to run outside at the park….yuck, it was awful. Check back in on March 1st to see if this has improved.

3. Spend more time playing with the dogs. Living in a populated area has been new to both TSG and me, and as a result, our pups have suffered from lack of exercise and outdoor attention

The nicer weather for January has allowed a little more opportunity to get the dogs out and about, but I hate to say, they are still suffering the most from our city living. My heart is breaking

4. Save money

Yay! TSG and I have a plan and so far, we’re sticking to it.

5. Lose weight

Don’t ask….

6. Collect gift cards to Lowe’s

I haven’t collected any new cards, but I was able to use my Christmas gift cards for a new steam cleaner!! Tedious Tuesday and I are about to be reacquainted and my floors are going to be the host to that party

7. Sew more

I finished a duvet cover for our master bedroom. It wasn’t anything special which is why I didn’t feature it on the blog. I was just excited to finish it and have something to cover up that nasty thing that I called a comforter.  TSG is demanding that I place inner attachments to it though so that the duvet doesn't get lost in the cover.  So maybe, I'm not finished with this one yet.

8. Watch less TV

I’m not sure why I felt the need to make this a resolution as I’ve realized I don’t watch much TV to begin with. Working full time, having neglected pets, cleaning floorboards, trying to craft, plan a wedding and take care of TSG doesn’t leave me an abundance of time to chill out. Maybe my resolution should have been to relax with the TV more

9. Whine less

Meh…it’s hard to say if I have done better, worse or remained at the same level of whiny-ness at this point.

10. Celebrate my loved one’s accomplishments more

Nothing out of the ordinary has happened in the last month, but I have high hopes for February!


All my love!
Meredith

Homemade Holidays: Cornhole Boards

Well Since January is over, I figured I could sneak in one last post about our Homemade Holiday.

This is actually a bit of a trio to be honest.  TSG and I love being outdoors when the weather is nice and when the boat isn't beckoning, we really enjoy playing corn hole.  Now, to be honest, I actually find the name of the game to be a bit on the dirty side.  It just reminds me of Beavis and Butthead when they talk about bung holes and cornholio. 

Image courtesy of:
http://www.musicskins.com/category/tv-movies/beavis-and-butt-head.html

Sorry to put that image in your head, but I just feel like I should share my distaste for the name of "corn hole"  I much more prefer BEAN BAG TOSS.  However, no one else seems to agree with me when we're playing.

Anywho...sorry I got off on a tangent.  TSG and I made our first set back in September.  These were a set that we could keep ourselves. 

Go Panthers and Pirates!!

Bags to match ECU

Bags to match Panthers

We built these boards using the method outlined on this website: How to Cornhole
The designs were placed on the board by handpainting.  I located the decals online and blew the images up to the size I needed.  You can do this by selecting poster print on the printer properties.  I taped the numerous pages together and then transferred the design to the board using transfer paper that I bought at A. C. Moore.  And then it was as easy as paint by numbers.  And by easy, I mean it took us 4 days.

A close up showing the paint strokes

What we learned from our first try:
1. Handpainting is tedious and takes a lot of energy and effort, but it gives the best results
2. A cornhole bag will not stay together if you only use a single cotton fabric layer and basic thread
3. If you keep the cornhole bags in the shop outside and in a plastic grocery bag, mice will eat through the bags and get to the corn

Fast forward to November and our second set:

Now, it literally pained me to make these, but they were for a very good friend and we enjoyed making a second set

We made two identical boards for this set

As a Carolina Tarheel fan, I had a difficult time not "accidentally" destroying the decal

For this set, we used vinyl decals that we purchased at the Murrell's Inlet Flea Market while on a mini-vacay.  They were a little expensive, but the ease of using them made it worth the money.  A few notes about using vinyl decals:

When you put the lacquer on, the vinyl bubbles up and makes you freak out.  But if you let it completely set up, the vinyl will lay back out.  We don't know why, it just does.  It will continue to do this for each layer of lacquer you put on.  We were putting on at least 3 and sometimes 4.  Make sure to LIGHTLY sand between each layer of lacquer.

The bags for this set also caused a minor issue:  Apparently the licensed fabric for NCAA schools comes in only 1 style.  So, getting creative, each bag had one side that was Duke fabric and the other side was the differing fabric.

One side Duke fabric / One side solid blue on all 4 bags for team A

One side Duke fabric / One side white with black polka dots on all 4 bags for Team B

This set was being made for a couple, so I chalked up the polka dot fabric to being the slightly more "girly" fabric, but I don't think they cared either way.

The bags for this set were made to be a lot more sturdy.  I made them with 2 layers of fabric, one canvas and one cotton.  BE CAREFUL NOT TO SEW THE COTTON FABRIC INSIDE OUT.  Trust me, I had to restich the same bags sometimes 2 or 3 times.  Also, I used a heavier canvas grade thread.  Unlike the first set of bags, the hole for filling in the bags with the corn was placed in the center of one side and not at a corner.  It was easier to double stitch on the outer part of the bag instead of whipple stitching them closed.  They held together better.

After realizing that, I went back are re-made the bags for mine and TSG's set.

And last but definitely not least, the ultimate in custom corn-hole boards!

Deer with a fall theme

The second board matched this one, the leaves were just placed falling down the other side.  The deer was also a vinyl decal.  The "W" was placed on the board using the tracing paper method that we used for our personal set.  The leaves were placed on by finding various leaf images on the internet and creating stencils using cardstock paper and then painted on with a stenciling sponge.

I used the same stencile multiple times.  Just make sure each layer is dry before starting the next and place all the stencils for a single color down before you begin painting, a "dry fit" so to speak

This is what I mean by sponging the paint on.  The bubbles tend to disappear after a few minutes, but lightly blowing on them helps too.

Here I am putting on the "W"  Notice the backwards "W" on the board to the left..Yea, I had to fix that several times.

This is what the leaf pile looked like when we thought we were done.  We decided it didn't look authentic enough and went back and freehanded in the veins.

BTW: This is what TSG does while I work...sexy huh?

This is what the Shadey 1 does while I work...if you look hard, you'll see the squirrel that she's stalking

Lessons learned while working on this set:
1. spray paint looks like crap, so take it from me, and just use the latex crafting paint.
2. don't try to construct these when the person that will be getting them for their Christmas present is visiting.

The bags for Team A

The bags for Team B

My sewing machine and I were in the middle of a heart to heart when I ultimately forego the top stitching and just kind of winged it.  Here's what you get.  It worked better than expected, it's just not as pretty.  

Oh, and it turns out, I didn't know how to properly thread my machine.  Lesson learned.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, BEAN BAG TOSS in action!

We like to call this the drunk man's horseshoes...no one gets hurt with hard metal objects and you can still hold a beer.  PERFECT

Or hold a drink...with a lid

All my love,
Meredith