One problem follows another, like a trail of ants.

Wednesday we were told that the lingering issues (all caused by the title company) were taken care of, and that they were sending a rush on the recording for Thursday afternoon, and we’d get the keys that day. Thursday arrives, and we get a phone call in the middle of packing up the rest of our toiletries from Bekah. The title company didn’t get the money to the sellers on time, so the sale won’t be recorded until Friday morning. Good news is, we can have the keys to the house to start cleaning and painting, but we have to promise that we won’t move any personal belongings into the house until Friday. Unfortunately, Friday was not a fortuitous day for the move as we were unable to secure help. We scheduled the move for Sunday and figured we’d be able to have everything out of the rental by Tuesday. Tim called our landlord and let her know that Tuesday she could have the keys.

Yesterday we cleaned most of the house and started painting our bedroom. We spent a total of $400 at Home Depot on paint and supplies, new heating/air conditioning vents and some electrical supplies. A little scary, especially since our door project is going to cost another $400 next week. The listing agent for our house stopped by and took the lockboxes off of the front door, and removed the “For Sale’ sign off the front lawn. We left our house in Napa around 8:30 and when we were about fifteen minutes from Calistoga, I received a phone call from the Calistoga Police Department. Apparently the milk cartons of old motor oil that Tim had put in front of our house for the recycling deparment to pick up were run over by our neighbors and dragged halfway down the street. Luckily, none of the oil got into the sewer system. However, the fire department had to clean up the oil and throw down sand on half our block. We didn’t receive a ticket or any fines, but they wanted to let us know and make sure we hadn’t done anything on purpose.

I go to bed feeling tired, achy, and a little worried about money but completely excited to get a start on moving our mountains of stuff. Tim and I woke up early this morning and went to Home Depot AGAIN to get another can of White Truffle paint for our bedroom and a few things we’d forgotten Thursday. Bekah let us know at 11am that we would hear from her as soon as the sale was officially recorded, probably around 3 or 4. We managed to get our bathroom and the hall bathroom painted before we needed a break at 3:30pm. Then we get THE CALL. Bekah informed us that the sale did not record today and would not record until possibly Monday. The underwriter at the title company decided that the $2000 credit towards our down payment we received from our realtor was not put into our contract to their satisfaction EVEN THOUGH IT WAS DONE EXACTLY AS THEY REQUESTED. So, the underwriter decided not to send our transaction to the county recorder.

Not only that but we are NOT allowed to move anything until this sale is recorded. I can do all the cleaning, painting and repairing that we want but the move is off until next week.