On the Down-Low

I haven’t put this on anyplace public because 1) I don’t wanna jinx it and 2) I’m kinda shocked at how it’s going and 3) I really don’t wanna jinx it.

Y’all know we bought our itty bitty house in the middle of nowhere a couple of years ago, even though we didn’t move in  until October of last year. It’s a fixer, though it’s certainly livable even as-is. We’ve done a few things with it already and will keep chipping away at all the little stuff in need of fixin’. We’ve already replaced the water heater, yanked the (non-functioning) dishwasher, replaced the crapola stove in here when we bought it, fixed a hella lot of leaks, replaced non-usable doors over the laundry area with curtains (for now), replaced the toilet, did a partial rewire, and so on.

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The one big and looming gotta-do is the AC, which is at least 14 years old. It works for now, knock on wood – but we already know the previous owners didn’t do squat to take care of this place (understatement of the century) and the aging unit isn’t gonna last us forever. If you’re remotely familiar with home repairs, you know any kind of HVAC system ain’t cheap. We figured it will run $6K-10K even for a house this small, and were trying to figure out the best way to address it.

Well…

A few months ago, the mortgage company (a bank that’s actually treated us decently) sent out a letter recommending we refinance. And considering how much the original mortgage company jacked us over when we bought the place originally, we knew it would lower our payment a little, maybe enough to be worth the trouble. (Our mortgage was sold before the first payment was due. I had to do detective work to MAKE the first payment.)

So a day or two after we got back from ye vacation to the midwest, I bit the bullet, went online, and filled out a refinance application, asking about not just a refi, but one big enough to cover the cost of a new AC unit.

The mortgage officer emailed within a few minutes, and we setup a phone call. When we did connect on the phone, we started going over numbers. Until everything to finalizes, some of the details are staying under wraps. I will say since this involved a slightly bigger loan without an increase to the mortgage payment, a new appraisal was required. We knew housing costs here have gone a wee bit insane since we bought the place two years ago, and were hoping this little box had gone up a fair amount in value, enough to comfortably accommodate the additionial funds to cover the AC unit.

Yeah. About that. It didn’t exactly come in a little bit higher in value.

It appraised higher even than I dreamed was possible: more than double what we paid for it just two years ago. The loan officer called this afternoon and said with the appraisal results in, the refi should probably close sometime next week. Even she seemed shocked by the valuation. The bank is more than fine with funding about half the market value of the house, on dramatically better terms.

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I still want a summer home in southern Iowa, even more now.

The little grandson who lived with us until he was 5-ish? His dad and stepmom are planning to move. They can’t afford housing here any more – understandable – and she can transfer to a location in Ohio, where they can buy a nice house for a hella lot less than renting a roach-trap apartment here. When you take the grandson’s Cystic Fibrosis into account, for them to move is kind of a no-brainer. In theory we’ll still get to see him, but it’s already been about 2 years and he only lives about 100 miles from us here.

Granted, I can’t do winters there. An Iowa winter might literally kill me – either from falling on my face on an icy sidewalk, or an athsma attack, or my joints locking up like they’re super-glued. But I would love to spend summers again where you won’t get second-degree burns on your feet from walking outside barefoot, scorpions aren’t frequent visitors, and opening your front door doesn’t feel like opening an oven door.

And my want-it-so-much house is still available. It’s waiting for me, I tell ya.