Saturday, August 1, 2009

Packing, Packing, and More Packing

Today Harry and I focused on packing up more stuff. Even though we haven't closed on our house we do want to be all packed up and ready to go when we do. So today we drove around looking for plastic totes for my toy collection. I normally use those 50 gallon tubs but we went to three Targets and one Home Depot and no had those large totes. Guess I'll need to buy smaller ones.. just more of them.

So we got home with no totes so we decided to pack up what we could from the kitchen. We also tried to purge the crap that we either don't use or is too old and crappy looking. So we spent a few hours packing up stuff.

We still have quit a bit of stuff to pack but we still have until the end of September to be out of our current house... so that should be plenty of time.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Vet - Part Two

After our visit to the vet yesterday we found out that Daisy needed one of her teeth pulled so we had to drop her off and leave her there. Last time we did this it was horrible as she gives you that look like you are abandoning her and I was not looking forward to doing it again. Luckily this time Harry was here and actually did the leaving.

As soon as we get near the building she started to whimper. When we walk in she was whimpering and when they came to take her away she was not moving, she was holding her ground and wasn't going to budge. Harry had to pick her up and walk her to the back. It's tough leaving her because we know she was abused by her former owners and you don't want to cause any more trauma for your dog but we also knew that in order for her to feel better she had to get that tooth removed.

Well four hours later we go to pick her up and she can't wait to get out of there. She had shaved her right leg to start and IV so now she has a bald spot but she seems much happier now.

This visit cost $400+ along with yesterdays visit $350+ so in two days we spent $750+ on Daisy.. but what are you going to do.. she's part of the family, luckily we don't spend money like this on a regular bases.

So now she should be good until her regular check up in October.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Vet


Today we took Daisy to the Vet, she looked as if she was losing weight and very lethargic, but the real reason we were taking her is that she broke one of her tooth's in half and we wanted to see what needed to be done.

We get there and of course she is terrified of the Vets. But we manage to drag her in the front door. We weight her and find out that she actually has gained about three pounds... so much for losing weight. We are seen by the doctor and he says her weight is being re-distributed around her body. He said the reason she is always tired is because partly the heat and secondly the bad tooth is painful. He said the nerve is exposed and has to be really painful. They asked that we bring her back tomorrow and drop her off so they can extract the bad tooth. So he gave her a shot for the pain and drew some blood to make sure everything was functioning properly.

Left the Vet with a $350+ bill... Ugh!!!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Too Good To Be True

And it continues... I got an email from our home specialist informing me that they could not complete the loan because of an FHA case number issue. It seems that the house had an appraisal done back in June of 2008 and there was a case number issued thru FHA. Well that is the case number they were using for our loan (don't ask me why) but it's the wrong number and now we can not get final loan approval until this is taken care of. And of course it will take 5 to 7 business days to cancel that case number and issue a new one for our loan.

I then emailed my loan specialist and asked if this means that our loan was approved. Here is what she wrote. "Correct. This is what the underwriter said: The loan is fully approved, subject to case # issue being resolved So the good news is our loan is fully approved but we just have to wait a week for this case # issue to be resolved.

Of course I'm not going to celebrate just yet.. I won't celebrate until I sign the final papers and have the keys in my hand.. I don't want to get excited but it tough not being a little excited that this long horrible process is almost over. (Famous last words).

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

And it Continues

Today there are several new developments regarding the Loan Documents. This morning we were waiting to hear from the Loan Specialist about the Gift Letter for the Down Payment on the loan. Normally that letter should be good enough, but we did send them the "wire" transfer document and was hoping this would suffice.. Well no surprise here they did not accept it and wanted a bank statement from Harry's bank. That was it.. we had hit a wall. There was no way of getting Harry's bank statement and I was hoping this wasn't going to be the thing that would make them decline the loan. After a few hours of major stress I asked Harry if he had an older bank statement and sure enough he had one that was over five years old. But it did have his name and account number on it and I was hoping this would be proof enough. So I made a PDF of it and sent it to our loan specialist.

Hours pass and I'm stressed out when I get an email informing me that the underwriter accepted the bank statement and that we have finally fulfilled all our requirements for the loan with one exception... they were having a problem verifying my employment. I immediately called my boss Darla and asked if she had been contacted, she said now. I contacted the loan specialist and she said they had been trying for two days to get a hold of her and left messages. I emailed my loan specialist and gave her Darla's cell phone and then got an email back informing me that they can't call cell phones. So I called my boss again and she said she hadn't gotten any message and gives me an alternate number. I tell her to stay at her desk and that I will let the loan specialist know and she'll call her now. So I did so and she called but said she left a message. I call Darla and she says she's calling the woman now. I finally get an email from my loan specialist informing that she had verified my employment and that everything is done and we should be hearing about our final approval either tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. Now we wait and see what happens. I don't want to get my hopes up.. I'm I can't help but get excited that we are almost done.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Greg Aronowitz - Master SFX

My friend Greg Aronowitz ( a master at SFX making) who I videotaped for a week while he made the weapons for The Guild music video.

He is doing a new project and he wants to share the process with his fans. So he asked for my help. I suggested that he create a blog where he can post pictures and video of the processes. So today I set up his Blog.. and posted his first day on creating Zombies masks.. you can check it out here.

Home Loan - MIA

As you guys can tell from the title of the Blog Post. The Loan Documents are still Missing In Action!! No surprise here. I would have been shocked me if BofA had managed to get the loan documents together today as promised. Meanwhile it has been 70+ days and they still haven't gotten their act together, which doesn’t really surprise me.

Our Realtor got involved today, she first called our so called Loan Specialist and of course she didn’t get a hold of her, so she left a message and was expected she didn’t call back. She then called the woman she had talked to on Friday, who was very helpful but didn't know much about our loan. , she managed to get the phone number of the supervisor of our loan specialist. Of course she didn't not answer but Mary our Realtor left a message and said she wasn't mean but clear that we were upset and the slowness of their process. Maybe a half hour later Cindy, our so called Loan Specialist, started answering our emails that we have be sending to her for the past several weeks.

Suddenly all the documents we had all sent in were now approved. The only thing that came back as pending was the Private Road Maintenance Agreement. Mary than emailed them the CA Law for a second time, that in essence states, that certain easements exists. These easements are a irrevocable part of the title and supersede and Private Agreements. That’s what Harry's has been saying from the beginning, as a private agreement is not the way things are being done in rural/agricultural areas and on the other hand such private agreements are not even worth the cost of the paper they are printed on. The Loan Specialist then forwarded that to the Underwriter and we got the info back that this was good enough. So it looked like everyone was done and we were on our way to home ownership... well not quite.

Later we got another email from our Loan Specialist telling us that the Underwriter wanted proof from where the funds of the down payment are coming. We had done a gift letter stating that the money came from Harry's bank account and that it was a gift and I was not expected to pay it back. Normally this is good enough but for some reason BofA wanted Harry's bank statement showing the amount being transferred. We of course can't get Harry's bank statement since he hasn't been back to Austria for over five years. We did find out that the Underwriter wanted to see Harry's name with the amount of the gift. So I printed out the "wire" transfer info which had Harry's name and gift amount. I was hoping this would suffice. This is the last thing we need to deal with before closing on the house which is suppose to happen in two days. Now we wait and see if they will accept this. If it's not one thing it's another.. just wish this would all be over.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Comic Con Day Four - Final Day

Today was the final day of Comic Con. Again I had a list of panels to do but since Will was here I really wanted to hang with him as we were only did about 1/3 of the floor yesterday. So we got up and got ready. I had to wake up Ethan as we had to check out. So we all left the hotel a little after 9am. I checked out and we packed everything into our cars and got a taxi to drive us to the convention center. We got to the con about 9:45am and started in the hall where we left off. What was fun about doing the hall with Will is he enjoys visiting every table and is so friendly and chats with everyone. So I got to see things I would normally just walk by and not give a second glance at.
At lunch time we picked up some food from the convention center cafe. After lunch we did a little more floor and then Will wanted to do another VO panel. He went upstairs and I headed to The Guild booth to visit. Once his panel was over we continued to walk the floor and finally finished the entire floor around 4pm.


Will was able to grab a photo with Felicia as they were finishing there final autograph session. Other Guildies started to show up as the hall was closing at 5pm and the Con would be over. Everyone wanted to meet up one more time to say our final goodbyes. While we were waiting another Knights of the Guild fan found me. Nightscream is her screen name. We chatted for a bit before we said our goodbyes.

We all said our final goodbyes and Will, Ethan and I went back to our cars, made some peanut butter sandwiches for the ride home and started the trip back up north to home. I dropped off Ethan around 9pm and made it home by 10pm. Comic con was awesome but man it was good to be home.