Refinancing

Since our house went up in price, along with our taxes, we decided to use that equity to refinance, pay off our credit card debt (that we've been trying to pay off for 17 years), put a new deck on the house (one that we weren't fearful of our lives the moment we stepped on it), and do some things to the house, like finally buy some furniture to sit on.

We started the process 6 years ago... ok, a month ago, but in stress time it seems like 6 years. The hoops you have to jump through in order to get money from your house is amazing. Papers you have to submit to prove that you are worthy of a loan (we need the money, therefore we can't get a loan, but if you don't need the money, they literally shovel money on you theory), then there's the phone calls:

1.) Oh, we need to have your house appraised, because even though the state of Maryland thinks that your house is worth a gazillion dollars, it may not be. (it was)

.) The last time you refinanced, well, that payoff never got recorded, would you happen to have a small slip of paper that says it was paid off that you were sent 3 years ago? (we dug it up).

.) Since your house is worth a gazillion dollars, we'll need you to up your insurance (which we did, but then the computer ate our policy, it was a whole fiasco).

.) I know you said you were making this much, but your stubs only say this much, so we'll need to know how much money you're worth should you croak suddenly. (401K paperwork sent).

It's been a roller coaster of fun. But we finally have a close date and time to sign the paperwork, barring any stupid things happening, a mere 6 days away and I'll get to tell all of our credit card people to shove their disability insurance fees up their ass, don't even call me again, bite me. I can't wait for that.

In 7 days I'll call the deck people and we'll start the stress of having the super mondo huge, sturdy, within county ordinance deck put up, buy a grill, lounge on the new deck in style. I can't wait. Before that happens we have to get fill dirt/mulch, topsoil dumped into the back yard to fix the slope that has made our yard into a waterfall, plant some grass (there's a miracle, what with the dogs), and do a zillion other things to get ready for grill fest 2005.