Get your ow
n diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries newest entry

9:07 p.m. - 2002-07-31
Welcome Home
Well, today has been just a non-stop thrill ride of ecstatic drooling bliss. No, really, I mean it!! At approximately 10:30 this morning Bruce and I finally became the owners of Hickory Hill.

The closing was strangely calm. We arrived at the the closing attorney's office at 10 a.m. to find the seller, Drucy, and her agent, Janice, already there. David showed up a few minutes later and we all went into a conference room where a packet with literally about a hundred pieces of paper was sitting on the table. The attorney, Mike, (who can best be described as an upper class twit) came in and we immediately set to, signing, and signing, and signing.

Mike explained each piece of paper as we signed. There were papers that said what our monthly payment would be and that we agreed to pay it, there were papers that said we agreed to escrow for taxes and insurance, there were papers that said we knew we would be charged interest on our mortgage, there were papers that said we knew the condition of the house. There were papers that said the house had been checked for subterranean termites but not flying ones, which aren't even a problem in northern Alabama. To my amazement, there was even a paper that said we wouldn't sue the bank if the house got termites.

"Why would I sue the bank if my house had termites?" I asked Mike.

"I have no idea", he said, with his best lawyers smile, "but evidently someone must have at some point or you wouldn't be signing this paper."

In between all the paper signing, Drucy, whom I have actually started to like even though she has put us through such hell trying to buy her house, tried to tell me about the plants around the house. She is actually a horticulturist by trade.

"The rose on the side of the house is Dr. Van Fleet", she started. "It's an antique, it'll get black spot, but just ignore that and it'll bloom like crazy."

"The pink rose?" I ask. "Isn't there a white one, too?"

"This is the paper that says you agree not to run a crack house. You just need to initial and sign here" interjects Mike.

"No, there's only Dr. Van Fleet. And that fig is a Brown Turkey fig, that's an old variety, too. All those figs should be getting ripe now. And there's a Grancy Graybeard tree, that's a native."

"If you sign here, this paper says that you agree to live in the house."

"Where else would I live?" I ask.

"It means we aren't going to rent it" explains Bruce.

"And there's a wisteria. It gets out of control. You have to prune it back hard. And the tree in front next to the Dogwood is a Chinese Chestnut, so all the little Oriental ladies in the neighborhood will come and ask if they can pick the chestnuts. Mama always let them."

And so on and so forth. I had the same surreal feeling I had when Bruce and I got married, like I was doing something that was totally irrevocable but strangely right.

And then it was over. We came back home, gathered up the painting supplies and drove over to the house. Our house.

I must admit, I got strangely choked up. We walked in with a bowl of candy and some quarters, so that only sweet things and abundance would come in with us, and the minute we walked in the door I felt it was my home.

A few hours later we happened to look out the window and saw the most amazing omen. Up over the mountain, a double rainbow was forming. It hadn't even been raining! I guess this was the Universe's way of saying welcome home.


0 comments

 

 

previous - next

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!