Sinking feeling

Our realtor pointed out that our bank should not have assigned us an appraiser from Johnston county who is not familiar with the Durham market. It took much longer than expected to get the appraisal because he/she had trouble finding comparable home sales in the area (imagine that!)

Well, we finally received the appraisal yesterday, and I'm not sure what to make of it: there is another required repair in the appraiser's report which the Seller may not want to take on, and the home was valued several thousand less than our offer price. What this all will mean for us is beyond me.

It's a real pain in the ass to not know what will happen next. I'm starting to get a real sinking feeling.

Everything's up in the air

The repair process sucks. Had to cancel gas line setup this morning because HVAC wasn't installed yet. After repairs come re-inspection. A bit freaked out about the appraisal part, especially after reading this in Bull City Rising (see 5th bullet down).

Is everything going to work out?!? Clinton and I ready ourselves for disappointment.

Gas line set up

I called PSNC Energy to set up gas service to the new house to start next week. Makes me feel giddy...almost as though we already own the place. Why do utilities get me so excited?

Best idea ever

Thanks to the Endangered Durham guy, I now know about "Durham City Directories", which are sort of like really, really old-school phonebooks. Only they don't have people's phone numbers. Instead, they list Durham residents and tell you their professions and addresses of where they live and work. These books date back to 1891!

On Friday night I couldn't sleep, so I decided to check out the Durham City Directories on the Durham public library Web site. Well, the Directories were so fascinating that I ended up staying up until 4 AM on Saturday morning reading through them!!! You can actually FLIP THROUGH these crazy old books ON THE INTERNET, and they are chock full of Durham history!!! I totally understand why the Endangered Durham dude gave up being a doctor to do this history detective work stuff.

From my late night research, I now know the names and professions of the actual people who lived in our 1884-built house in the years 1892, 1897 and from 1902-6, as well as all the names and professions of the other people who lived on our street at those times!

BEST IDEA EVER:
My crazy idea is to put together a murder mystery dinner party at our house in December or January. Prior to the event, I'd write up bios of the people who lived on our very historical street back in 1892. It would be historical fiction, based on what I know about these people from my local library research. Party participants would select a historical person, study their bio and come in character, complete with costume!

DOES THAT NOT SOUND LIKE A CRAZY FUN TIME?!?!

Okay, now I'm really hoping this house sale goes through. I've got a party to plan!!!

Update on the big old house

We're in this weird limbo phase while we negotiate repairs with the seller. I'm not a fan of this part!

Hopefully we'll get these things resolved soon so we can move on. Projected closing date is still September 29th if all goes well...