the house appraised at value! this is a huge step towards closing. appraisals are usually the biggest hurdle. they take a long time to complete, especially in a frenetic market like this one, and if the house had come in under what i'd offered, it would have screwed up everything.

so that's done. and my interest rate was locked in a while ago which is a beautiful thing considering that rates have been going up since i was approved. i talked yesterday with the president of the home owner's association and got his low-down on the water intrusion/dry rot problem. seems that everyone involved is sure that the new roofs will solve this problem minus, of course, the repairs needed to be done on already damaged areas. plus, included in the new roof repair, which is being paid for by the seller, are new gutters and downspouts. this is a big hunk of good news since the existing gutters are too wimpy to handle the kind of rain we get and probably a huge contributor to the problem. so, yay!

now all that needs to happen is:

• finalize the loan documents and get the lender to sign off
• get an estimate on the closing costs from the title company
• do one final inspection on the exterior to see how much damage there is from dry rot
• have my dad talk to the consulting company about their report
• negotiate with the seller on the washer/dryer
• sign a billion documents
• move in

i can see the end of the tunnel and it seems to be well lit.