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| whither cabrini, part 2 |
| 07.15.04 (12:13 pm) [edit] |
So, January 1998. DH and I sign on the dotted line and descend into panic. Where the heck were we going to come up with the down payment? We went home and called our parents.I can't remember who we called first. My parents were probably a little cautious but aware of the potential value of the home. I don't know if DH's mom really got what we were doing, but was not in a position to be able to help us financially at the time. DH's dad, however, thought about it, and decided to hand us our new home on a platter. Within a few weeks, we received two checks, totalling enough for a 5% down payment. Yay verily, did the townspeople nervously rejoice! We stumbled our way through the mortgage process, helped enormously by the fact that we had another friend in the business. She sort of held our hands through it, and figured out how to get us the kind of financing we needed. Every time I took the Brown line train, I could see the landscape of Orchard Park before we turned the bend between Sedgewick & Armitage. I tried to picture living there, and just couldn't. I always imagined the model home, which was larger (and uglier, frankly) than what we were getting. The house was to be completed by the end of October, initially. The first few construction delays didn't surprise us all that much. I was on a business trip in Armonk, NY when I got the call that the home was being further delayed until early spring of 1999. I called Ian in a panic. We had no way to really fight, and nothing to gain from rescinding our hold on the contract. As Ian said, we just wouldn't be able to afford anywhere near the space for the money we had to spend. We stuck it out, DH with far more patience than I. We tossed out our plans to wait for the house before trying to have a baby, and announced to our families in June that I was expecting. 1999 brought the passing of DH's father (pancreatic cancer) and my grandmother (heart, age). I made it through morning sickness okay but was knocked off my feet by hormones (Zoloft). We made our primary selections for the house, which became moot as the delays just multiplied. The construction foreperson was a woman who smoked heavily, and apparently drank a lot, too. She cancelled our appointments to re-make our selections countless times, each time with another farfetched excuse (but often sounding like she was still drunk from the night before). I finally hit the wall in early winter of 1999. I was hugely pregnant, DH's father had just died, and my parents were supposed to be doing this with us. Debbie the Foreperson called me 30 minutes before we were to meet and asked if we could postpone it again. "Hell, NO!" I responded. Hell hath no fury like a pregnant woman annoyed. 45 minutes later, we trooped into one of the empty houses. Debbie reeked of stale booze and cigarettes. My mom reached for her purse. "Anyone for an Altoids?" Jacob Alexander joined our world five weeks early, on Wednesday, January 27th of 2000, but we didn't have a house. We brought him home to our apartment and had him sleep in a Pack 'N Play bassinet, figuring the house would be done anytime so it was silly to have the crib delivered. (FYI, this is not a recommended move. Jacob slept poorly if at all. We had the crib delivered a few bleary-eyed months later and he then started to sleep.) Finally, a few days before Labor Day of 2000, we took possession of our little dream home. Located in the last row, it was at the southeast border of the property. A three-story townhome, it featured a single-car garage, a few closets, a den and a half bath downstairs. The second floor held a huge kitchen and a combination living/dining room with a fireplace. The top floor had a regular bedroom in front, a full bath and linen closet in the hallway, and our master "suite" in the back, complete with another full bath and a small emergency walkway that doubled as a nice place to read or watch the air & water show in the summer. We were so thrilled to get into our home and have all new things, that the small details not well-completed didn't faze us much. Second bathtub drain fitted wrong so that the water leaked into the living room? Dryer air shaft bent the wrong way? Crappy, pickable locks on the doors? DH and I settled in, getting to know our neighbors slowly. For the most part, everyone was so damned happy to have finally taken possession that we began to hang out together and enjoy the common areas as they were completed. By the summer of 2001, the landscaping was as done as it was going to get. We made several close friends, and I ran for the townhome association board. It was an idyllic time (other than us both getting laid off that year). DH got into having the greenest patch of lawn in the complex, Jacob bonded like glue with Olivia from two doors down, and I commiserated at the YMCA with my friend Rachel, who had already been laid off twice. Little did we know what was coming 'round the corner. [i]To be continued, again....[/i] |
posted by: Cyberpal (reply)
post date: 07.16.04 (10:48 am)
Sorry but I have to say, wt where you doing? When they didnt deliver in the first instance, you shd have cut your losses and run... I have a sneaky feeling I know where this is going, but pls write on.. I could never resist a goo yarn!! ;)
posted by: almsthvn (reply)
post date: 07.26.04 (5:33 am)
it's been ages... next chapter!!! pretty please?!?!
