I should be more excited... (Long)

As many of you know (from my rants about this!), Rob & I are having a house built on 1.5 acres of land. The builders have been stringing us along for quite some time now ... we started this process in February after we got married. We signed a contract in May or June. They told us the house would be done by the end of August.... then suddenly, a snag. We needed loads of paperwork throughout these months - pay stubs from me, pay stubs from his parents (they are co-signing because I'm $1200/year short in the income department and Rob isn't considered established yet...It would be much easier if I just made that extra $1200!!!), bank statements, drivers licenses, SS cards, conveyance of land (apparently getting land for free is bad ... that tacked on another 1.5 months of waiting because of the banks and their wording).

Well, August came and went. I voiced my concerns on the time it was taking, and said I really hope it is finished by our 1st wedding anniversary in February 2009, but really preferred it to be done by Christmas. The financial guy who has been keeping us updated (works directly with the builders ... in the same building, at that) said "Oh, it'll be done by the end of October!! You'll be living comfortably in your home by Christmas." It is now October 15. They have not broken ground for the foundation yet.

I got a call yesterday and the financial guy told me that we were scheduled to close Monday, October 20 at 5pm at the lawyer's office. Of course, Rob's dad can't make it that day because he travels a lot for work. He was home nightly for the last 2 weeks, but they were still having trouble figuring out how to word the title work for the construction loan since the land is ours and we're not financing it. So his parents told us to tell them Wednesday or Thursday (I prefer Wednesday cuz it's earlier). But at the same time, I'm just not as excited as I should be.

I'm extremely sick of living with Rob's parents - we've been married for 8.5 months and still live there. This house was supposed to be done 2 times over now. Sure, we've saved one year's worth of maximum mortgage payments for the house, but I would much rather be in my house paying that mortgage. I figured I'd be jumping off the walls when I found out that we'd finally be going to the construction closing (yeah, not even the real closing) ... but I'm more upset than excited! Our house definitely will NOT be done by Christmas, as it takes 60 days from the time they get the house (modular home) ... and they still have to do the whole foundation thing first! So unless they do that in two days and get the house there, it will not be done by Christmas. We're looking into at least January 2009. I will be devastated if we do not have it by our 1 year wedding anniversary. I'm just that sick of being where I am, that I can't fathom being there for that first anniversary (although it'll be our 4th anniversary of being together, and 3.5 years of living there, ugh). If it turns out we are still there, I will probably rent a week at the extended stay hotel we stayed at after our wedding until our honeymoon. Just because I want to feel like we have a place of our own, even if we don't.

Whew, this turned into a rant of sorts! I'm just so fed up. They kept giving us the "oh we're going to close this week" line since the end of August. Sure, it was the lender they were going through that was being so stringent, but don't tell us those lines if you aren't positive we're really going to close! It us off! Rob is much more held together than I am, but he is also fine with our living situation right now. He's gotten pretty upset about this taking so long, because he too really wanted it for the holidays. We were supposed to have our first married Christmas in our own new house, and my parents were going to come down from Charlotte for the weekend. (Instead, we'll go up there, which is a nice vacation too). *Sigh* I just want this whole stupid mess to be over with. Of course, after we spent $6200 on land clearing, $1000 in earnest money, and $500 to release the land from his parents' mortgage, we found a perfect house, already built on 1 acre of land, 300 sqft larger, for the same price. Now where was that house when we were looking before starting the building process!!!!

I know everyone will say it'll be worth the wait, and I'm sure it's true, but I won't feel that way until I'm finally sleeping in my new bed in my new house with Rob, Katina, and Nero.

so sorry this is taking so long. I don't think I could help myself from going off on somebody at this point. Mega vibes that things start moving along.

Oh hon, I can understand! We built our house on land that was "gifted" to us by my MIL, and it WAS complicated and a very long and drawn out process and can be frustrating, but it IS worth it, believe me! What kind of foundation are you getting, as in full basement, crawl space, etc? The land we built on was all woods and we had someone come in and clear it and dig the hole for the basement in 2 days...I was shocked! We got basement walls already set by the contractor and they just craned them in and that was another day. Now, we did have to pour our own concrete for the floor which took a few days to set but if you aren't getting a full basement don't worry about that.

We got a double wide, which is easier to set up than a modular, but honestly once the ball started rolling (late nov), we moved in the middle of Jan. Our longest wait was trying to get electric hooked up and that took a least 2 weeks. It IS very frustrating but it WILL happen (I had to keep telling myself that a million times!).

I think maybe getting away at least for a few days would be a good idea. Get away from the whole situation and relax for a while. It is aggrevating when you know what you want but don't see it happening right now. You need to get away and decompress for a while.

I understand your frustration. When we finally decided to buy a home-after our landlady tried to evict us twice as she wanted to rent the house to relatives, it took a full year to find a home!!

At the time we worked in two different communities about 40 miles apart and we wanted something inbetween, in the country with at least a couple acres. We looked at many many houses and went through three realtors. One was showing homes in town even though we said country!

We ended up buying a home for sale by owner. But before we could close our landlady evicted us again as her son finally was moving and she needed the house we were renting. She was not willing to give us an extra month so we moved all our possesions 60 miles away in my in-laws garage which I was not happy with as I felt the place wasn't secure. Neil lived with his parents, I lived with a co-worker during the week and spent the weekends at the in-laws.

When we finally closed, even though we rented a truck to move our stuff I made twice a day trips to speed up the process.

I suppose in these financial stress times, the banks are being more cautious. But the end is drawing near and you will soon be in your own home.

Originally Posted by calico2222

Oh hon, I can understand! We built our house on land that was "gifted" to us by my MIL, and it WAS complicated and a very long and drawn out process and can be frustrating, but it IS worth it, believe me! What kind of foundation are you getting, as in full basement, crawl space, etc? The land we built on was all woods and we had someone come in and clear it and dig the hole for the basement in 2 days...I was shocked! We got basement walls already set by the contractor and they just craned them in and that was another day. Now, we did have to pour our own concrete for the floor which took a few days to set but if you aren't getting a full basement don't worry about that.

We got a double wide, which is easier to set up than a modular, but honestly once the ball started rolling (late nov), we moved in the middle of Jan. Our longest wait was trying to get electric hooked up and that took a least 2 weeks. It IS very frustrating but it WILL happen (I had to keep telling myself that a million times!).

I think maybe getting away at least for a few days would be a good idea. Get away from the whole situation and relax for a while. It is aggrevating when you know what you want but don't see it happening right now. You need to get away and decompress for a while.

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His parents "gifted" us the land as well. We're going to build his dad a steel-built garage/carport in a few years (once we're settled in a routine and 100% on a budget, getting used to paying a mortgage) as "payment" for it. They had 4.62 acres, and have about 1-1.5 acres fenced off for themselves. I definitely want a wood fence around ours Working on getting Rob to agree - I said he needs to make sure he makes wifey happy Happy wife = Happy husband LOL. I cant imagine looking behind my house and seeing their house right there ... plus we're going to put a hot tub out on our deck one day (we're not building a deck right now, they want a LOAD of cash for that upgrade that we cant afford right now).

We are having a crawlspace under the house. No basements in this area! The Lowcountry of SC is not a basement friendly area Talk about flooded basements! A good bit of our land was trees and brush, but we had that cleared back between December and March (his estimate was to be done by Jan 17, til he saw how much stuff there was and how he under-charged us for the clearing job!) We figured that would speed things up a bit, having it cleared before starting the process of picking one to build. Our house shouldn't be too much different than a double wide to set up, since it's a rectangular ranch house, and comes in 2 pieces like one, it just doesn't have the trailer bottom to it. Supposedly they've already ordered the house, so I hope they'll start working on it ASAP - it takes 8-10 days for it to be built in the factory, and then gets driven here from Georgia. They say 60 days from the time they get it here, it'll be done. Hopefully it will only be the beginning-mid January at the LATEST by the time we move in.

I definitely feel like I need to get away from everything for awhile! In December I wanted to run off to Isle of Palms for a couple days for Rob's birthday, as well as just get away from where we live. We could still go to work from IOP (we did that in February), but staying on the beach would be very relaxing right now too, and since it's close by we wouldn't have to take off work. Unfortunately the hotel prices haven't dropped very much yet!! We were thinking of just taking a week off work and spending it together as a vacation, too, and just stay in the area. But that probably won't happen until our house is done, because it wouldn't be much of a vacation together staying at his parents'!

Aww hon, try not to let your frusteration get the best of you I'm sure it seems like it's going to take forever, but it will be done before you know it

I would just be firm with the company right now and let them know there is a timeline to complete the project. (light a little fire under their butts!)