July 15th, 1998 - K & M decide that they want the option of buying a place in 1999, and put a clause in their apartment lease that will let them end it early.
February 1st, 1999 - K & M decide that they want to purchase a dwelling this year, and have loosely decided to be in the new residence sometime before October 1st, the day their lease is up.
March 14th - K & M start looking, and attempt to go to their first Open House. This ends abruptly when they find the house is not "open", and is complete trash.
March 21st - The optimistic couple again goes looking, and this time finds several interesting prospects, including 1750 W. Ohio, which they will eventually bid on.
March 22 - 28th - They get smart, get a real estate agent ( Linda "Lin" Liston from Baird Warner) and start looking for real.
April 5th - K & M start the preapproval process for a mortgage.
March 29th - April 6th - Melissa tirelessly looks at house, townhouses, and condos, and finally decides she likes the place she saw way back when.
April 6th 11:00- A bid is placed, with several small conditions attached.
April 6th 14:00 - K & M retain the services of Matt Gallagher, Attorney at Law.
April 6th 16:00 - A counteroffer is made and accepted, pending preapproval
April 7th - K & M are preapproved by Wally West and Commonwealth United Mortgage.
April 9th - Home inspection takes place, everyone gets signed copies of the contract. Minor issues are found.
April 10th - Kris and Melissa meet the seller/contractor, Ted. Issues are discussed with Ted, and Ted agrees to resolve them. ( "Have your lawyer talk to my lawyer to get it all written down.")
April 13th - K & M lock in a loan rate.
April 15th - May 15th - K & M deliver every possible financial document to Wally at the mortgage company, in triplicate. Well, it wasn't really that bad. It was mostly a matter of proving where the money came from.
April 20th - Kris buys condo insurance. Much like renter's insurance, but a little less expensive.
April 20th - Kris arranges for Best Price movers to move him and Melissa.
May 14th - Matt Gallagher informs his happy-go-lucky clients that not all is well. The builder has not provided a Certificate of Occupancy yet. For those of you who are not familiar with the Certificate of Occupancy, there are a couple of key points to be made. 1) It is illegal to live in a residence without one, and b) starting soon, a C of O is required in order to get what's call a Certificate of Zoning Compliance, which in turn is necessary to sell a residence.
May 20th - The closing is pushed off a week due to the above C of O issue. Thanks to some good foresight on Wally's part, the rate lock is good for another week, so no extra paperwork or approvals are necessary.
May 20th - Kris reschedules the movers, and schedules an apartment and carpet cleaning for the current apartment.
May 22nd - Matt receives a copy of the C of O, so the rescheduled closing
can go ahead as planned.
This is the staircase going up to the sunroom. In the background is where the office will be. Behind you is the kitchen.
This is the kitchen. The cabinets are extremely high gloss. The dishwasher will be a new experience for us.
This is the view from the east window of the "sunroom". The sunroom
will actually be our living room,
because it is entirely finished.