After waiting for useful information for over a week, we finally heard back from our broker.  We’re switching loan types and have the quotes from the contractors ready to go. We’re going to need to borrow about $10,000 on top of the loan. With this, however, we’re going to counter because the owners of the home clearly are uninterested in fixing ANYTHING prior to closing. With this, we’re pretty much stuck.  Now, if we’re able to save up the $10,000 over the next few months (which is possible with both our incomes) we should be able to off-set the increase on the loan if they aren’t willing to budge on the contract price.

The way additional funding works would be to have the money put into an escrow account after the sale, and then for every tradesman that comes in we pay them and then are reimbursed. With that, it’s a good idea to have the money saved up based on the fact that we’re going to need it anyway. So when everything is fixed up, we’ll have that money back in our pocket. We’ll either use it to furnish the house OR to just pay $10k off of the overall mortgage and hopefully be able to get a little bit ahead.

We’ll have to see how everything goes either way, but for now we at least have the ball rolling. Since the owners aren’t fixing anything the closing date is no longer Jan 25th. Now we’re looking at a 60 day close so we’ll more than likely be getting into the house sometime in March if everything goes well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, we’re both in love with this house and I’ve already decorated my office in my mind so of course I’m itching to just get in there and start making changes.

Since the house was built in the late 70’s/early 80’s I’m hoping (with fingers crossed) that there’s hardwood floor under the ugly carpets. If there is, I’m ripping up the carpets and refinishing the hardwood. As ‘warm’ as carpeting can make a home, it’s just another place for smells to linger and allergies to fester. So a few low-pile area rugs and we’re good to go.

I’m going with a very muted/modern tone for the office.  A pale grey on the walls, and I’m going to be on the look out for scrap wood so I can build a new desk for myself that suits my immediate needs. I need a wide desk to accommodate the two computers.  I found this desk on Pintrest, and absolutely love it. I think it would work out perfectly because I’ll be able to build it in a way that gives me plenty of work-space without looking like a BS desk out of a big-box store. I have a very, very nice desk at the moment but I’m not overly thrilled about it, and it’s just not big enough. It’s also a weird brown particle board and really just not what I want in a desk. So with the wood planks I can make the desk as wide and as deep as I want and with proper reinforcements I can have plenty of room for a Mac station (two monitors) and my windows station (one monitor). In the middle, to double for support and storage, I’ll get a nice looking filing cabinet and go from there. I’ll leave the outer corners with the saw horses because I think it’s just an awesome effect. Then, hopefully, I’ll figure out a way to repulser my office chair and BOOM – work area done. Now, this is just for the desk itself… I do still have ideas for the walls.

I’ve always loved the idea of a chair-rail, but never really could figure out how to go about making it work for me. I think going with a two-tone gray (instead of the blues shown in the picture), I can then position the desk so that it’s looking out into the room instead of being up against a wall. This will make me feel like I’m not in a cave, and that’s a big plus for me.  I figure I can get a nice comfy chair for one side of the room and then have the TV in the other corner so I’m all hooked up and ready to go. I think a nice area rug as an accent so I don’t destroy the floors and I’ll be good to go. And of course, this takes care of the general feel of the room but it doesn’t complete everything.

I figure the room itself will be fairly pale so I’m going to want a pop of color, for that I’ve found a few paintings on Google Images that I’m interested in, but can’t seem to find anywhere to actually PURCHASE them for a reasonable price. I do like the multi-canvas paintings that have multiple sizes as well. I found one that I really like but I can’t seem to find it in the color tones that I like. Instead of the red/black, I’m hoping to find some type of a purple/white. Of course, I’m not 100% set on this particular image and in reality I could always go out and pick up some canvas and paint something for myself (which I may wind up doing if I can’t find what I’m looking for), but I do know that the creative juices are flowing like all holy hell… I just need to get in there to make everything a reality.

In any event, it’s knocking on 6am and I’m hoping to actually wake up at a some-what reasonable hour (being as I’ve been waking up after 7pm for the past few days). With the cold weather I’ve been staying awake so that the Cat isn’t bothering everyone when he’s looking to head outside. That and the fact that the house is fairly quiet at night so it’s easier to get work done as well.  It’s just a schedule that I’m no longer interested in staying on so :: fingers crossed:: I’ll be able to change it soon.

:: fingers double crossed :: for everything going well with this house too!