Bllllah....

So, still in the process of buying this house.  We survived the well inspection, the septic inspection, the house inspection, and signed all the paper work for our USDA loan.  Check, check, check and check.  The house had to be dewinterized since no one has lived in it for over a year, but everything worked!  There are many items that need attention and fixing, but nothing popped up as a deal breaker.  So excited, we were finally allowing ourselves to breathe and actually get excited about our dream home.  We even went to Home Depot and spent a hour picking our paint colors for each of the rooms.  Walked out with a dozen paint samples.  Purple here, Mint green there, Robin's egg blue EVERYWHERE!  Not really, but I wish, its such a lovely color!  We got a second dog because we knew we would finally have enough room for two.  (His name is Telsa and we adore him.  Got him from an adoption rescue group in Eastern Washington where he was found in the middle of nowhere, abandoned.  He looks like a fox with longer legs!)  Raleigh has adjusted fairly well to having a larger little brother.  It melts my heart to see my usually serious, sullen old dog smile and play like a puppy with Telsa. 
Yup, our little family was coming together and preparing to make the move to the country.  Then we get a call from our loan officer, saying the USDA loan wasn't going to go through after all because we actually ended up qualifying for a FHA loan.  Sweet, okay.  Let's do this.  We lock the rate, waiting for it to reach as low as possible.  Just two weeks to go to close on the house.  Feel good.  ONE LAST STEP.  Pasquale goes in to the loan office to approve the loan appraiser to evaluate our house.  The loan officer and he were "chitchatting" (or bullshiting as Pasquale calls it), just making small talk.  The officer asks where the garage is, and Pasquale answers that there is no garage, its a double-wide with a stick-built addition.  Unplug the cord, hang up the phone.  Deal is done.  Apparently Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac DON'T like homes that America' tornado-bait.  The house is tricky because it doesn't look like a double-wide due to the addition.  It looks like a "real" house.  Our realtor should have told us that this was VITAL information and that getting a loan would be more difficult.  We now have less than two weeks to secure a totally new loan (plus its Labor Day weekend, so no offices are open).  I have one more week of school until the quarter is over and I have a little break before Fall quarter.  I was planning on spending those 3 weeks off by "nesting" and painting and settling in and feeling like an accomplished adult with a real home...but now everything is totally up in the air until we can secure a new loan.  Its disappointing to know that all this stress could have been prevented by one sentence of communication.  "hey, mobile homes don't qualify for normal financing, so make sure your loan covers mobile homes"...see, how hard was that?
Anyway, we are staying positive and we are simply not entertaining the idea that this won't go through.  We feel like buying this house has been like trying to win a war.  Or that we are playing Risk.  Sure, okay, we lost Asia, but still have the other continents, right?  We may have lost this battle but we will win the war.  This house will be ours.  To be perfectly honest, I would have given up and allowed myself to be defeated if it wasn't for Pasquale's endless capacity for positive determination.  Living with him inspires me to be stronger and more confident.  He fights for what he wants and doesn't let things stop him.  I know this because when we were dating long-distance, I didn't think we had a Snowcones-chance-in-the-Sahara of making it because lets face it, how many long distance loves last?  He had complete faith and his loyalty to making "us" work totally erased my doubts.  I could believe in love again because he carried me through the insecurity.  We want this home and can totally picture ourselves there for the long-term, so if we have to keep jumping through hoops, bring it on.


On lighter notes, I am SO excited that Snow Patrol is coming out with a new album.  Their music is dessert for my ears.  I still love Dave Matthews, but Snow Patrol is far and away my favorite tune-producing machine.  For Labor Day we went with friends on a sail boat to Blake Island State park.  The dogs got their sea legs and are salty dogs now.  We sailed for 4 hours out to the island, set up camp with 7 of our friends on a beach with Mount Rainer dead ahead.  Beautiful!  We could also see the Space Needle and the Seattle skyline as our nightlight out on the island.  We hiked around the island and saw cute little Bambis and   multiple raccoons.  Nothing like a campfire with friends and new place to discover.  And some Sweet tea Vodka.