October 25, 2016

 My day at work started with trying to get people to fill out a survey. I thought it would be easier than doing it during people's lunch break, and my ratio of success might have been better, but there were so few people to ask. Quite a few people came into the library this morning but only a small portion of them came in the door I was standing at. It was a very long hour.

The bank seemed to accept the note from my cousin and later in the day the seller's agent submitted a letter from the roofer they had look at the roof. He gave an estimate of repairs at $97. All of this stress and bullshit over $97. Good grief. Moving on.

This morning the bank had me sign a waiver saying I could still go through with the closing even if I didn't get the appraisal outside of three business days before closing. And then about an hour later the appraisal was submitted. So now, everything should be good to go. The house appraised for $4,000 more than my offer, so that makes me feel good. I am glad I asked for $5,000 less and didn't go for it when it was $10,000 more. The appraiser had access to my contract though, and knew what I offered, so that has to create some sort of bias. We'll ignore that.

My realtor wanted me to call him so I did that over lunch. The appraisal came in right before that so I spent most of my lunch looking through the report trying to find the appraised value and talking to the realtor. That left me less than ten minutes to eat my lunch. It didn't help that I was five minutes late leaving for lunch and had to get back on time because of the genealogy class that started at two o'clock.

Despite the rush I made it back in time for the class. That part of my day was pretty stress free because I wasn't teaching the class, two people from the genealogical society were. There was a lot of information to cover and I think they handled it admirably. They've taught the class before and they do this for a living, so I would say it went well. Only four out of the five people showed up, but I kind of like the smaller class size because it makes it a more personal experience and the patrons seem to like when one-on-one opportunities are available. Hopefully I can get them back for another class sometime.

I was on desk after class until I got off work. I spent that time working on my budget presentation. At some point I need to start taking the books I'm using home so I can actually read them a little deeper than the skimming I can do at work while on the desk. I want to highlight different methods for keeping a budget and I think that will include focusing on information from each of the books I picked out is a good start. Not only will it provide information, it might encourage people to check out a book. I'm making good progress so far but I need to put a lot more time into it because I want it to be good.

Most of my night tonight was spent reading through the appraisal report. I've never read an appraisal report before but it seemed pretty straight forward. I also practiced the presentation I have to give tomorrow with one of the other librarians at the all staff meeting. We actually have to give it twice because there is a meeting first thing in the morning and again later in the afternoon to make sure as many people as possible can attend. Along with practicing it I also made a few tweaks. I added the short joke Mitch Hedberg had about flyers and how when someone hands one to you it's like them saying “here, you throw this away”, because it is funny. I also made a few aesthetic changes. Now I just need to remember to bring the flash drive with me.

My realtor told me some things I should do before closing so sometime in the next couple of days I am going to call the gas, electric, and water companies to have those services put in my name on the day of closing. I also need to find out how much my final closing costs will be so I can go to the bank and get a cashiers check. I either didn't know or had forgotten about that when my mom bought her house because I thought I would need to use my own check, of which I only have one left. (I didn't want to get more if my address was going to change because I'm just now getting through the checks with my old address on them). I also need to find out when the closing will take place so I can schedule the carpet installation and the cleaning service. And sometime this weekend I'm going to go over and walk through the house again so I can take some measurements and just to make absolutely sure I still want the house before I pull the trigger. My near future is going to be a very stress time. And then I have to move. Yay.