It's finally happening!

Tomorrow, at 10:00 am on 12/31/12, we will be signing paperwork to be homeowners. I can't believe it's finally happening after waiting so long! God has really come through for us on this house, so it must be the one for us.

After all the junk with the qualifying incomes and homeownership counseling program, the inspection and appraisal, the counter-offers and haggling, the packing and more packing, we've finally come to the time where the house will be ours. Tomorrow, after we get the keys, I will take lots of pictures with my new camera so everyone who's not here can see what a great house it is for us. We won't have internet until the 4th, but I will hopefully be using that time to unpack and get settled so I can upload the pictures the minute we get online again. :-)

About that new camera...

Yesterday, while I was closing up the branch at work, I got a text message from our credit card company. They asked if I had authorized a $296.79 charge for BestBuy. I almost texted and told them no, but I decided to call Nat and see if he had done it, and if so why he had bought something that expensive. So I called and asked. This was roughly the conversation that followed:

Did you buy something for around $300 at BestBuy?

Yes.

What did you get?

A TV.

What?? Why did you get a $300 TV when we have a perfectly good one??

I can return it.

But why did you get one? We'll talk about it when I get home.

There were a few more exchanges of "I can take it back" and "Whatever, we'll talk about it later" after this, but since I was fuming, I didn't really think it would be good to continue the conversation. So I texted our CC company back and told them that it wasn't fraud and went home.

Nat was sheepish. And rightfully so, if I do say so myself. We have been scrimping and saving every penny over the last 6 months because we have student loans to pay and we were trying to buy a house. When we got the actual amount that we would need to pay at closing, it was a few thousand less than we were planning. Apparently, Nat had told me that he didn't mind spending money now because we had some extra. I missed that statement, but apparently he was okay with purchasing a new TV because it was on sale. After more exchanging of "I can take it back" and "why because we don't want TV's in the bedrooms" (personal choice which he misunderstood because he thought I did want one in our bedroom), he said that the TV was actually small in comparison to the other thing he bought.

What other thing?

Are you sure you want to know? It was supposed to be a surprise for our new house, along with the TV.

What other thing did you buy?

Okay. I bought you a camera.

You got me a camera?

Yes. It's almost exactly like the one you had on your amazon wish list, but better. Do you want me to tell you how much it cost?

No... How much?

Anyway, we have been discussing the fact that I want a new camera, a nice camera that I can use to pick up as a photography hobby. He was right, the TV was small in comparison. They were supposed to both be presents that would have bows on them in the new house, a bigger TV and my camera. Our CC company spoiled the surprise by the fraud alert (Nat's fault because he tried to do them in 2 separate transactions back to back), but it was probably better that way. I'm not a huge fan of financially large surprises, but this time it was okay. We've been talking about getting me a camera for a long time, but it was always one of those 'wait until after we...' kind of deals.

It was done from a good place, but he was in the dog-house for a while after that. It took me a while to wrap my head around how much he spent on my camera and the TV, as well as a wireless router for the house (ours is awful and slowly cratering).

................................

Now we're almost completely packed (and by we, I mean I packed everything), and ready to go to settlement. It's been a long and harrowing process, but will be worth it! I'm ready to have  more room and not have to share a bathroom with company! Very ready for that last bit. Pictures will be coming soon (hopefully).