My beautiful kitchen with gorgeous cranberry maple cabinetry, black appliances, and a black sink that looks like stone. The floor is all dusty from the construction process, but we'll clean it up...someday.
The view of the kitchen/dining/living rooms complete with carpet.
Our HUMONGOUS master bathroom. I think it's technically called a powder room, because the toilet and shower are in another room off of this one.
This is the kids' bathroom. It won't seem very big when they're older and fighting over time, but it's the perfect size now.Some of you have been asking us when we are going to move in, and the short answer is "not sure", so I thought I'd take a moment to share the longer, more detailed answer.
There were rules made in the last 2 months that effect the speed and efficiency of the appraisal process. All homes have to appraised before the bank will loan you the money to purchase the home. The new rules specifically state that a mortgage broker can no longer contract their own appraiser, the appraiser is now chosen from a master pool of appraisers that can be located as far away as 4 hours from us here in Bend. In lieu of specific, boring details, I will say that the appraiser who was contracted failed to show up for 2 weeks in a row. After much complaining on the part of our mortgage broker, the appraiser went out last Monday to view the house so he could do the job. Finally, on Thursday our mortgage broker received the WRONG papers from the appraiser. Supposedly that was fixed and we would be getting the appraisal on Monday. Wrong! Then Today arrived with not so good news. The appraisal finally made it's way into our mortgage brokers hands, and was listed approximately $20,000 below our building cost. As of now, the bank that is supposed to give us a permanent loan to pay off our construction loan will not finance us for a house that is "worth" less than it cost us to build and we currently owe. We cannot move into our house until the permanent loan is complete and has paid off the construction loan. We are awaiting an appeal and hopefully a new appraisal before we find out if the construction loan company is going to foreclose on our house before we even get a chance to move in. We are hoping and praying that this is not the case, but there is nothing more that can be done on our part. The only bump, er... mountain in the way is the appraisal. Our mortgage broker seems to think that we have good grounds for an appeal and a new appraisal given the fact that the appraiser only used foreclosed/bank owned, and short sale properties to determine the value of our brand new home. He did not, however, compare our home to ANY non-foreclosed home sales which make up 60% of all the homes sold this month here in Bend. So now we wait.... and wait.... and probably wait some more, until we find out what to do with this problem. Either we will be denied the appeal process and the construction loan company will foreclose, or the appeal will go through and we are looking at probably another 3 weeks or more until we can sign the final papers and move in. We shall see! We could use your prayers.
There were rules made in the last 2 months that effect the speed and efficiency of the appraisal process. All homes have to appraised before the bank will loan you the money to purchase the home. The new rules specifically state that a mortgage broker can no longer contract their own appraiser, the appraiser is now chosen from a master pool of appraisers that can be located as far away as 4 hours from us here in Bend. In lieu of specific, boring details, I will say that the appraiser who was contracted failed to show up for 2 weeks in a row. After much complaining on the part of our mortgage broker, the appraiser went out last Monday to view the house so he could do the job. Finally, on Thursday our mortgage broker received the WRONG papers from the appraiser. Supposedly that was fixed and we would be getting the appraisal on Monday. Wrong! Then Today arrived with not so good news. The appraisal finally made it's way into our mortgage brokers hands, and was listed approximately $20,000 below our building cost. As of now, the bank that is supposed to give us a permanent loan to pay off our construction loan will not finance us for a house that is "worth" less than it cost us to build and we currently owe. We cannot move into our house until the permanent loan is complete and has paid off the construction loan. We are awaiting an appeal and hopefully a new appraisal before we find out if the construction loan company is going to foreclose on our house before we even get a chance to move in. We are hoping and praying that this is not the case, but there is nothing more that can be done on our part. The only bump, er... mountain in the way is the appraisal. Our mortgage broker seems to think that we have good grounds for an appeal and a new appraisal given the fact that the appraiser only used foreclosed/bank owned, and short sale properties to determine the value of our brand new home. He did not, however, compare our home to ANY non-foreclosed home sales which make up 60% of all the homes sold this month here in Bend. So now we wait.... and wait.... and probably wait some more, until we find out what to do with this problem. Either we will be denied the appeal process and the construction loan company will foreclose, or the appeal will go through and we are looking at probably another 3 weeks or more until we can sign the final papers and move in. We shall see! We could use your prayers.
.JPG)
