Posted by Ange | 62100 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.justtheurbancowgirl.net%2F2013%2F04%2Fhome-improvement-sunday%2FHome+Improvement+Sunday2013-04-21+21%3A58%3A23Angehttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.justtheurbancowgirl.net%2F%3Fp%3D6210

Home Improvement Sunday

It’s hard to believe I’ve been in my condo for nearly 3 months. Wow.

I’m slowly working on organizing and putting things where they work best. I know I want be here forever (maybe only 9 more months) so I’m cautious of buying too much or making my improvements too specific as anything I do I’d like to easily take with me.

I spend most of my time in my living room/kitchen area, so I decided to focus my efforts on organizing this area first.

I even went so far to purchase a drill ($50 from ikea!!) to help with the improvements.

Today’s task was adding legs and doors to my entertainment area. My TV box and Xbox had been perched on top until I added doors and drilled a hole.

Even better!

I haven’t posted much of my living area, so here’s a bit of a view

Yup. Much better!

Then I found out one of my outlets was connected to a switch – so I moved my lamp

And now, some close ups of what I feel makes my house a home.

Orchid #1. I love these are only $14 at Ikea!

Orchid #2, I found it at ikea today. Love!!

A few decorations on the TV stand. I think they do a great job of brightening it up.

Next task is to tackle my desk!

Posted by Ange | 50170 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.justtheurbancowgirl.net%2F2012%2F07%2Fdo-we-or-dont-we%2FDo+we+or+don%27t+we2012-07-31+20%3A04%3A14Angehttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.justtheurbancowgirl.net%2F%3Fp%3D5017

Do we or don’t we

Okay.

So.

Our let’s build a house plan seems to be moving way way WAY faster than we had anticipated.

WAAAAAAAY faster.

As in, we signed a conditional contract on Sunday.

Commence freaking out: NOW.

As of right-freaking-now we have until August 13 to provide mortgage approval and fork over about a 1/3 of a zillion dollars.

The remainder of the zillion dollars is due October 31.

Sounds reasonable, right?!

Well.

Know it took us 10 months to get a solid offer on our condo (only to have it bungled) last time, 2.5 months doesn’t seem like enough time.

However.

I am freaking out considerably less than I was on Sunday.

I no longer feel like I’m going to throw up. (That’s a good thing).

Right now I have an email to our mortgage broker. We just haven’t heard back yet. I kinda want to hear now.

Have you gathered I’m not a terribly patient person?!

I’m not exactly sure what our options are if our condo doesn’t sell by October. I’m pretty sure we won’t lose the house, but we might have to pay interest.

I don’t like that.

At all.

Right now we have 13 days to get our ducks in a row and figure out what the heck it is we’re going to do here.

An offer on the condo would be really nice, oh, right about NOW.

Do we, or don’t we.

That is the million dollar question right now

*sigh*

***

Update:

Per some information from our mortgage broker AND running a worst-case scenario calculation, borrowing 2/3 of a zillion dollars does NOT look like it would be a good idea. Yes, I’m running worst case because that’s where I need to be comfortable to do this.

As of right now?

Not comfortable with the numbers.

We’re asking to extend our time to waive and crossing our fingers that the condo sells within that timeframe.

If not, then I guess that’s what’s meant to be. Right?!

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The Sads

I know I promised no more posting about the house, but I’m just trying to squish one last post in.

Last week Canada announced new mortgage and housing rules. Canada periodically (or, IMO way to effing often) make changes to mortgage rules. These changes are a doozy. And, they directly impact our ability to buy our dream home.

A summary of the rules:

• Anyone who puts down less than a 20% downpayment can only have a 25 year mortgage (Canada got rid of 35 year mortgages a year or two ago, but a 30 year option still existed).
• If your home is valued at over $1M you must put down 20% as you will not be able to purchase mortgage loan insurance for any homes valued over $1M

Well

Our dream home is over the $1M threshold.

Yes, I know you’re looking at that and thinking that’s a freaking expensive house. It is.

However, that’s what you have to pay here if you want a house and don’t want to commute 45 minutes or more into the city.

No joke.

So, we kind of have two options here

1. Negotiate with our builder to get our price below the $1M threshold (at this point, I’m assuming this includes GST as well). However, this will have an affect on the upgrades we want to include (have to stay below the threshold) and means we won’t be able to add the rental suite (as the cost to build, even if we finish it ourselves) since that cost alone will put us over the threshold.
2. Discuss with our mortgage broker (and possibly others) to see if there are any other options for us regarding downpayment. It will take us 2 years to save this up after we sell our condo, and I don’t think our builder will willingly wait 2 years to start construction on our house (or, 1 year if we take possession in 2 years).
3. Have all mortgage stuff done prior to July 9 when the new rules take affect. Now, this just won’t happen. We have so many pricing items to discuss with our builder that there’s no way we can meet this deadline without rushing into it and probably paying far more than necessary for items.
4. Win the lottery.

I’m not thrilled with any of these options and I’m actually pissed that the government is taking away the option for us to build our dream home. We’ve met with our mortgage broker and have been pre-approved to do so. AND we know we can afford it.

So, it seems, we’re screwed

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Ebb and Flow

I feel like the past 20 days have flown by but also have taken a year to get here.

I can’t really believe that is was only 20 days ago that we put the deposit down on our lot. Seriously.

Since then I feel like I’ve been up and down like crazy. Some days I’m 100% confident that this is what God has planned for us; others I’m so overwhelmed it’s all I can do to focus on work.

Some days I want this all to be done now (because I’m not always a very patient person) and others I’m okay if it takes a while because I’d like to ease into it (I’m also not that great with change).

Where does this leave me?

Confused, mainly.

Is this what’s in store for us?

Is there another house? but I LOVE (times a bazillion) this house

Will the condo sell? the condo will TOTALLY sell But we’ve only had 2 showings It’s only been on the market since Thursday

So on and so forth.

Ugh.

Which is to say, I haven’t been posting because I don’t know what to post about.

We might have a house if/when the condo sells, but we don’t know when that will be and we can’t design/decorate/buy furniture until that’s done, but all this maybeing is taking up all my time and brain power.

Also, it’s rained nearly steady for the past freaking month and that’s also depressing.

The past 20 days, while awesome, have been an ebb and flow of up and down and all around. Being in a tizzy isn’t terribly conducive to blogging, especially if you’re me.

Posted by Ange | 47002 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.justtheurbancowgirl.net%2F2012%2F06%2Foh-what-a-feeling%2FOh+what+a+feeling2012-06-14+15%3A14%3A54Angehttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.justtheurbancowgirl.net%2F%3Fp%3D4700

Oh what a feeling

Update: The Cowboy said yesterday (about the house), “We’re in the first trimester here, it could all fall apart”, so I think that means he wants me to be a bit more hush, hush about the whole house thing. Which is difficult because I’m so excited but I also understand. So, house-talk will be limited for a bit, but I’m praying we’re able to sign our contract soon enough so I can finally talk about how exciting this is. I truly do feel blessed.

You know the feeling you have when everything just feels like it’s going to work?

Kind of like the Universe coming together for you?

That’s exactly where The Cowboy and I are right now.

This whole crazy buying a really-super-expensive-house-that-we’ll-never-tell-our-parents-how-much-we’re-actually-spending thing feels like it might actually work out.

Seriously.

We need so many things to fall into place for this to work – and it actually feels like they are.

Gosh, I sure hope I don’t jinx it by talking about it – but, then again, God doesn’t “do” jinxes, does He?

Yeah, I just talked about God. I don’t always talk a lot about Him on here, but I can’t deny that He is awesome and The Cowboy and I feel very (very!) blessed right now.

Heck, we don’t even have a confirmed mortgage approval, but we know what we could get approved for 18 months ago, and we both make more now, so that’s promising.

Sure, our condo isn’t even listed yet but my heart feels better about listing it this time. I’m taking that as a good sign.

We need our business to pay back about a bazillion dollars we’ve “loaned” it because one of our customers is slllllllllow to pay. And? It’s starting to come in. Seriously!

Falling. In. To. Place.

This feeling is a good one.

I don’t doubt that building this house (should it work out) will be stressful at times, but I truly do believe that it is the right step for us. Everything about this just feels right.

Yes, even the really-super-expensive-house-that-we’ll-never-tell-our-parents-how-much-we’re-actually-spending mortgage that we’re going to have for the next 20-odd years. (Goal? Pay this sucker off in under 20 years. That’ll mean we’re mortgage free by 50, and totally reasonable!)

I haven’t felt this content in a loooong time, and I sure to like it.

When was the last time you felt content?

Posted by Ange | 46924 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.justtheurbancowgirl.net%2F2012%2F06%2Finspiration-kitchen%2FInspiration%3A+Kitchen2012-06-13+16%3A09%3A51Angehttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.justtheurbancowgirl.net%2F%3Fp%3D4692

Inspiration: Kitchen

I know I promised the blog wouldn’t be all about the house that we may or may not be building (on that note: realtor and mortgage broker appointments are lined up!), but let’s be honest here, who doesn’t like looking at house porn?!

The Cowboy and I are a bit torn on how we want our kitchen designed. We like the two tone cabinet look, but can’t decide between white uppers and dark lowers, or dark uppers and white lowers. We’re pretty sure we want a lighter granite counter top as our current kitchen is all dark on dark. Looks sharp, but is a bit gloomy (and small!).

Thanks to the awesomeness of the website Houzz, here’s some inspiration for our hopefully new kitchen.