Here it is May; I'm enjoying my new position with Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, I've found a decent extended stay motel where I can actually cook without the use of a microwave, I look out over the valley and the San Pedro river to mountains, clear air, clouds, and rain in the distance, and think - Wow, what a great place to be!
Unfortunately, I'm enjoying this by myself. Back in heat-quenched Phoenix, Darla, Davin, and the girls are huddled indoors to stay cool, preparing for a pending move that none are exactly sure when it will occur. At this point my plans were to just find a decent place to rent, scope the place out for a year, then finally buy. At some point I realized, duh - this isn't Phoenix; it's not going to take a year to scope out. I was also fortunate to stumble across some information about the 2008 & 2009 tax credits for first-time home buyers. Since we've been renting after we sold our last house - hoping to find something more rural and not controlled by an HOA, we would qualify for this tax credit. That's pretty good incentive. Also, my new employer will pay a good portion of the fees involved in either selling or buying as part of their relocation package. Another good incentive.
Now if only I could find some way around having to make a down payment - since almost all our savings was used up over the last four months of unemployment.
Enter the USDA National Rural loan program. Since we were locating to a rural part of Arizona (tip: most of AZ is rural), the USDA provides 100% financing for families as an incentive to help grow these rural areas. It's not necessary to be a first-time buyer. One just has to be within their income range per number of household members, and the property has to be within their very generous price caps. An additional plus is that NO mortgage insurance is required, since the USDA is guaranteeing the loan. Well that was enough to convince me that I should probably be looking to buy instead of rent.
The next step was to locate a lender familiar with this loan program. It just so happens that the USDA has a list of "Approved Lenders". Its' even been revised for 2009. Use it, but don't trust it. It would be interesting to find out what it takes to be an "approved lender". I suggest one should qualify not just the lender, but the loan officer you'll be working with, to verify that they have recent experience funding one of these loans. If you don't, the mortgage road is sure to be a bumpy one - with more potholes than the dirt road to that beautiful rural oasis you find. Ask me how I know.
In that mistake I violated one of the core principles I strive to operate from - always go to the source. It turned a month to six-week process into more than double that. We also wasted time looking at properties that didn't even qualify. Not because of price, but because they were used manufactured homes. USDA only funds new manufactured homes, or used ones that it has previously funded. Out here in rural Arizona there are a lot of manufactured homes. The "approved lender" I chose didn't have clue that such a requirement existed until after the appraiser submitted their info to the underwriters. But hey - that's OK. Life's about learning, and I'm willing to give some time to allow someone else an opportunity to learn.
Suffice it to say this was not the first snag in the process. Darla and I had to backup on a couple of occasions during our four-month process and re-focus on our primary goals. Thankfully the sellers were accommodating, our realtor was pro-active, and my employer was very supportive.
The trick for us was to not get attached to a particular house or the "possibilities" that would emerge with each one we liked. We had a goal of buying before Dec. 1st, staying away from freeway traffic, being within 20 minutes of Benson, having at least an acre of usable land for horses, and using the USDA Rural financing so we didn't have to pay mortgage insurance.
Refocusing on our goal helped us realize that there was more than one house that would be a good choice, so we didn't get too hung-up on any particular one. We even had the option of buying land and either building a home or buying a new manufactured home.
That way the whole process becomes more like the ideal relocation. You're making your decisions and choices (based on your goals) and letting others do the work (their job) to bring it all together. The lesson we learned there is to try and find others who are proactive in how they do their work. If they are not, then the process can take a little longer, but it usually gets done.
At one point we asked ourselves if this particular house was worth the additional time it was taking to complete the closing. The answer was yes, but only to a point. We set that point in time, and fortunately everything came together in time. If it hadn't - no problem - we had found another house that had possibilities too.
Spent the weekend & Monday working on my son's 914. Pulling the engine to reseal everything.
Did manage to get some time in on the engine cradle - one of the side benefits of my son's infatuation with games.
Well I reached a stage of completeness - the framework and fixed shelves are up, painted, and ready for the facing and doors. I was so thrilled to finally have all this stuff off the floor and room for two cars in the garage again.
I added some extra bracing in the middle of the cabinets that spanned more than 50 inches so that I can use 1/2 inch plywood for these fixed shelves instead of 3/4 inch. The 3/4 inch will be used for the adjustable shelves though. I won't be adding the adjustable shelves until I see how the space gets utilized.
Phase 1
en the front of the garage and the entry door to the house. The cabinets here are roughly the same enclosed style, without the upper open storage area.
