Already an adjustment in plans...

No worries, folks, everything is still going smoothly with the process, but we've already rethought one aspect of our financing.

The roof re-shingling wouldn't happen until Spring and the policy of the bank is to hold back 1 1/2 times the cost until the repair is actually done. So we'd have to give them half the cost of the roof repairs and wouldn't get it back until spring. Our friend Matt is actually fairly experienced with building, so it's possible we'd finance it and fix it ourselves or take out a small shorter lerm loan to have a pro do it. The less financed for 30 yrs, the less interest and the lower our mortgage payment and downpayment have to be. The end result is more money available at the time of closing and a less expensive mortgage overall. Sounds like a good plan, right? We think so!

So as it stands now, we've got an appointment with the plumber and the water softener guy tomorrow so we can get estimates to submit from both of them and an appointment with the carpet guy on Saturday. If the prices of those are low enough, we may also finance the replacement of the sliding glass door with a new Energy Star door, since those doors are the biggest energy drain in a house and the house currently has electric heat. We're going Energy Star whenever it's feasible, we want to save money and have our house be more environmentally friendly.

Current game plan:
$89,000 for House +
$ 6,000 for renovations (we hope!) =
$95,000 loan, minus downpayment

Current place in the process:
- All appts for estimates currently set up
- A call into our friend Matt to see what further upgrades we can do low cost with his help.
- Julia and Aaron have both collected the financial paperwork listed below:

Required items for our loan:

• 1 month pay stubs
• 2 months financial records
• 2 years ('04-'05) W2s
• 3 years Federal Tax Returns
• 3 years residency addresses w/landlord contact info