….a remodeling memory~~ Part II by NerdMom….a remodeling memory~~ Part II by NerdMom
Doyle here, can't seem to get beyond befuddled and confused. Remodeling his older home isn't quite as easy as he envisioned. Writing this segment has really been a challenge....we've had 4 high pressure systems move through our area of Minnesota in the last 48 hours.....so, unplug the computer...plug it back in. Back and forth it goes. It's a good thing to do though, the wind took down a maple tree on the side of our house a couple hours ago. Unfortunately, it took our neighbors cable lines with it. Last summer a lightening strike took out our modem....so I'm a wee bit gun shy.
OK, enough talk about the weather. We did indeed, walk down to the local First National Bank and apply for a home improvement loan. The loan officer showed us into her office. We told her what we had in mind and showed her the bids and material costs that we already had.
After totaling up the costs and bids, we ended up with the amount of $48,000.00. We also owe about $10,000.00 on our existing home mortgage. Added together, we would need to borrow about $60,000.00. Now that is a lot of money....made us want to stop and go "hhhhmmmm". After all, we only have 5 years left on our present mortgage. We thought about it for all of 30 seconds. We don't plan on moving anytime soon, and more importantly, we need the room.
Alice, the loan officer looked at the figures, waved her magic wand and told us that the amount we needed to borrow...spread out over 15 years would result in monthly payments of around $600.00. Eyeballing each other, we gulped a time or two and shook our heads up and down. How does that song go? Oh ya, don't worry be happy.
An appraiser would pop over the next week and figure out a value for our house with improvements. If it's worth $72,000.00, we get the money right away. If it's worth from $65,000.00 to $72,000.00, we need to float a construction loan first, and when the improvements were complete.....combine everything into one loan. BTW, she didn't say it in English...she used loan lingo that made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. I just rolled my eyes and winked at my husband. Hehehe...I knew a site at http://geocities.datacellar.net/PicketFence/1956 where I could look up all the terms that were glibly rolling off her tongue.
She also mentioned getting a copy of our credit report. No matter how good you think your credit is....the palms always get a little sweaty when you hear those words. Consumers can order a copy of their credit report (most of us don't like surprises) through one of these agencies ~ the cost is $8.00 in most states:
....and uh-hem, if you don't like what you see, once you DO get that report, here is a link to http://www.insiderreports.com/cbci.html, Insider Reports. They have a question/answer section on the myths of what can and cannot be changed on your credit report. Additionally, you can find out exactly what rights you have as a consumer by visiting http://www.wdia.com/statutes/2summary-printable.htm, this link.
The day the appraiser arrived, I tried to relax myself by cracking a few jokes. DON'T do that...she kinda gripped her clip board tighter in her arms and looked at a point somewhere over my left shoulder. She turned around and took off in the general direction she thought our basement door would be. I don't know what I thought she would look at, but I certainly had hoped she wouldn't poke around in all the nooks and crannies....sheesh! Remember I said this house was built in the 1880's? Well the one corner of the basement is a marvel of plumbing pipe.....going every which way in no particular pattern. It zig-zags up the wall and across the ceiling in several layers. The appraiser looked at me out of the corner of her eye and winked. "Oh my gawd", she laughed, "I'd ask the plumber to clean this mess up." She quite endeared herself to me as this remark broke the tension and I relaxed conciderably.....I guess the rule is....let the appraiser crack the first joke. Tape measure and clip board in hand, she stomped through the rest of our house, ending up her appraisal by measuring the outside demensions of the structure itself. At that point, she hopped into her mini-van and told us she would get in touch with the bank when she completed her report.
The 'WAIT' took 3 weeks. I called the bank the first week and was told to relax. Our older kids and friends said it shouldn't take more than a week. After the second week went by, we assumed the worst.....there was some demon at work in our credit report or the house didn't appraise at even $65,000.00. When the third week was well underway, I glared at the phone and decided to call the bank. "Oh, heavens....I was just going to call you," the loan officer chirped. "She had a problem with all the square footage of the house plus the addition, but it looks like the house appraised at $65,000.00.....it's a go!" Whew, there was a collective sigh from our diningroom (walls sucked in and back out again....). We made an appointment to sign the papers. Last Thursday at precisely 4:00pm (yes, this really is a work in progress), we met at the bank and were led to a small office. On the table to the right was a pile of documents; we sat down and listened as she gave the details of each form we needed to sign. The first outlined the construction loan and at what point we would start paying interest. Did we understand that the total combined loan would be for $60,000.00? We would turn in the bills as the work was completed and the bank would issue the vendor a check. We would be billed for the interest only on these amounts. Did we understand that the work needed to be completed in six months? Yes, gulp, we did.
The last document she slid across the table was the "Notice of Right of Rescission". If I understand it right....the paper stated that we had 3 days to change our mind about taking out the loan....and YES, we still want the money. On the bottom of the paper it clearly states: DO NOT SIGN UNTIL 3 BUSINESS DAYS AFTER RECEIPT! Alice rattled off the content of the document as she was sliding it across the table.....sounding suspiciously like she was reciting the Miranda Act! I whispered to my husband....."how would they know when you sign it?......would loan police barge into our kitchen if we signed the paper on Monday instead of waiting until Tuesday?
Friday, I took the building plans to the City Hall to apply for a building permit....we're still waiting on that. As luck would have it, the carpenter we're using went on a weeks vacation yesterday....but as they say....don't sweat the small stuff. We can start on the fun stuff while we wait....look at fixtures, tile, carpet. We will also be looking for on-line resources for Menards, Home Depot etc.
So long for now and we'll be talking to you later this month. Part III will include some photos on destruction/construction.
Below, you will find a site index along with other homesteading links
| View Guestbook | |||
Updated August 3, 1999
