Pre-Construction and then Some

Today I met Matt at the House around 2:00 for a pre-construction walk-through.  We started on the outside and found that the air conditioner lines were run in the wrong place, so he is going to have them move that.  I was also able to convince him to move the fence back behind the dinning room window which we are very happy about, we didn't want the only view from the dinner table to be the fence 10ft away.  On the inside we had to move a few wires that were not put in the best location for TV's and plugs, but he was cool with that and agreed that they needed to be moved.  We also discussed all of the options and upgrades that we chose and we are on track for that.  He is throwing in the 8' French doors to the study, and the under-cabinet pre-wire for free!  

Last weekend after Cassie and I wired the house we stopped by the sales center to say hey to Mike, as I was leaving he asked me if I minded putting down some more earnest money, It caught me off guard since he had not said anything about it before now, but I agreed since the money would go towards closing.  The next day I received an e-mail from him now asking for even more earnest money, but he assured me it would go towards closing.  Well this just didn't sound right so I started bouncing the proposition off a few people and really just got a bad taste in my mouth about the whole situation.  Later that day I gave Mike a call and told him it really smelled fishy and that it was coming off that Highland was having deeper issues if they were coming back for more money, now the amount of money was nothing compared to what it costs to run a company, my few thousand dollars was not going to have any affect on their cash flow, but it still seemed really fishy.  So I decided to ask around and it seems our Sales rep got a pretty big butt chewing at the previous weeks meeting for not getting the option money upfront like he was supposed to.  Apparently after we make selections we were supposed to write him a check for 50% of that to go towards closing, but he had never said anything about it.  Well he had to go back with his tail between his legs to 5 or 6 other buyers and ask them to pay this money.  So we got to the bottom of it, but I will be honest, I would much rather someone be honest with me upfront so I know what to expect, don't lie to me and then expect me to give you more money.

Well some good news!  Yesterday for a few hours the rates dropped and Cassie and I were able to lock the mortgage rate at 4.5%.  We both have pretty good credit and we were expecting to get around a 5% rate, but you cannot beat 4.5.  If you do the math we saved about 80 bucks a month if you compare it to 5.25%.

This Friday is Cassie birthday so we have plans of going to dinner with Mom. We also have the family shower this weekend.  Aunt Debbie and Aunt Cheryl have been working their behinds off to throw a cool Fiesta so we are really looking forward to spending some time with our family before the wedding.  So much has been going on over the past few months, but it's been a ton of fun and we are enjoying every second of it.

On other fronts Cassie and I are trying to get in the best shape possible for the wedding, I have been doing pretty good staying away from the sweets this week, I don't know if I'll be able to hold out for another 7 weeks, but I'll do my best.  Cassie doesn't need to loose a pound, but she is doing some arm toning workouts, and this pull-up training program.  I'll have to let Cassie explain the program . . . but the gist of it is she will learn how to do a pull-up over the next 12 weeks.  I can't imagine how it would take 12 weeks to learn how to do a pull-up, but every time I walk in the room while she's working on it, she gets real embarrassed and kicks me out . . . gotta love her.

You may remember me telling you a few co-workers were finishing up on their part of the project, well Dustin left so my darling fiance went up to my office tonight to move some furniture around and give me a bigger office now that we have more room. 

It's almost Friday, but don't hold your breath.