Wednesday, October 13, 2010

All we have to do is wait

Today turned out to be a big day. We started off with the pre-closing house inspection, which is basically just ensuring that the property is in the condition we expect it to be. The house is in the same condition as before. We did find out the actual paint colour (Benjamin Moore HC-104) on the walls if we want to do touch-ups, repaint in that colour, or find a co-ordinating colour.

The only item of dispute was that the seller didn't know how to change the key pad for the garage remote and didn't want to give us the PIN they use there. I understand why they wouldn't want to give us their PIN but we want to be able to use that keypad. Fortunately, we were able to find instructions online on how to change the PIN without knowing the current PIN. I think the sellers are going to reset the keypad to its factory defaults which will be fine.

Later in the afternoon we met with the lawyer to sign the plethora of documents associated with the transaction. It only took about fifteen minutes to sign all of the documents and chat with the lawyer. We didn't read the documents all that carefully - there were a lot of them and it's expensive to pay the lawyer to sit there while you read them - but I was able to skim them and everything looked ok.

So everything is in place now for us to pick up the keys on Friday. Eeep! I'm excited but also feeling a bit unsettled. I never thought I'd own a house and the idea of home ownership is a little scary. Aside from the money involved - which is huge, and is definitely the biggest purchase of our lives so far - the house ties us down. Well, it does in my head, anyways. Even though I think of myself as this free-wheeling gypsy type, I'm really not like that. I'm more of a homebody these days.

I also feel a bit weird at the idea of taking out a 25 year mortgage. I've been so lucky to have four stable years with the sternal mets and I'd love for that luck to last. But in the back of my mind I wonder whether it's smart to make such a long-term commitment, given my life expectancy. Of course no one really knows if they'll be around tomorrow or next year or however many years from now, do they?

Someone told me that it's important to live my life in whatever way makes me happy and not to live "as if" the cancer will progress. After all, life isn't going to be fun or enjoyable if I'm constantly scared of serious progression. Still, I do feel better about this purchase knowing that I'm not doing it alone and that Ian's by my side, come what may.


Anonymous said...

Just a thought that I'm sure your professionals have mentioned, but I'll mention it to be safe: have you considered taking out life insurance for both of you in case one of the other doesn't make it for 25 years?
Love, Mom

Chantelle said...

Thanks - that's a very good question, and I appreciate you bringing it up.

AFAIK, Ian has life insurance through work and I think I'm the beneficiary so I should be covered there. Ian can actually afford the mortgage by himself so it's not such a big deal if I don't make it the whole time.

I will check with Ian abut this in case I'm wrong. It might be a good idea for there to be some kind of disability insurance for Ian.

With any luck, we won't have the mortgage for the entire 25 years, either. The mortgage payment isn't that much over our current rent payments (although we don't currently pay taxes). We're allowed to increase our regular payments if we want and can go back to the base amount anytime, if we need to. We can also do a lump-sum payment each year.

By paying more in the early years, we'll have less to pay later on - even if interest rates rise - and it's possible that we can pay it off over a shorter time period.

Love you,