Arriving on the Red Island

Picture with me if you will, you have just sold your house in the province you have always lived in, and a new adventure awaits, three provinces away. Now all you have to do, is get there. In a tiny Corolla. With three dogs, a cat, a rabbit, two kids and two incredibly exhausted, over tired parents who decided it would be best to just drive the insane 48 hour trip straight.

In our defence, we weren’t really sure you could find a hotel that would accommodate a barn yard of animals, and about three days before our house was set to close, we were told that we needed to be on the Island in two days to sign the paperwork, in person. Great. So while we had decided to make the insane trip all in one shot, it suddenly became necessary, if we were going to be able to close on time.

We arrived on the Island with much less enthusiasm than you would expect. Here we were, starting our brand new life in a brand new place, with no real idea of what to expect, and we were all too tired to care. We made it to the Lawyer’s office with about 1 hour to spare. Our documents were signed. Our house was as good as ours, we could feel it!

So we turned around and drove to the other side of the Island where we would stay the night with David’s Aunt (and our only relative on the Island), before we made the trip back to the other side of the Island to pick up the keys the next day. It was exhausting, but we were almost there. The keys were as good as in our hands.

We may have been exhausted, but after we got a little food in us, every one was perking up and sitting around our Aunt’s table, happily talking about all the things we wanted to do just as soon as we moved in.

And then the phone call came.

The mortgage company had called the lawyer to say that they decided they needed to do an assessment on the property before they would close on the mortgage. Ummm… what?

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the mortgage process, this is not a step that mortgage companies always opt to take. If they do, however, it is done BEFORE they agree to even lend you the money. Not in the eleventh hour when your house is about to close the next day. This would mean our house would definitely not close on time. It could also mean, that depending on the assessment, the mortgage company could decide our house was not worth our prior negotiated amount and refuse to extend us all the money. The mortgage company assured us, they would send someone over to do the assessment, next week.

Thankfully, our lawyer was a miracle worker and managed to get an assessment done that day. The lawyer received the assessment within hours and forwarded it on to our mortgage company for approval.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited.

For three days, all we heard from our mortgage company, was the melodic chirping of crickets. Let me tell you, this is not how we wanted to begin our Island adventure, with the possibility of being homeless, dangled before our eyes. So we did the only thing we could, we prayed.

Finally, at 2pm on November 4th, we received word, our house was closing. We could come get the keys. We hopped in the car (barely managing to get our things repacked into our car with all our children and barn yard animals) and raced to the lawyer’s office. We got there just before they closed.

The house was finally ours.