Buying Mcneil / Intro to "Fabulous Finds" and "Drab 2 Fab"

To make things easier, before moving, we sold as much of the big stuff as we could. Living room furniture, dining room furniture + my buffet that I loved so dearly, brand new FRONT load washers & dryers, refrigerator, etc. The thought behind all this was it was less stuff to move, plus I could shop for NEW furniture that was a perfect fit for the new house. This would have been a great plan, but of course, things didn’t go the way they were supposed to.

Everything went so smoothly when we sold the Whitworth house. Our Realtor was awesome and really did everything he could to help us. Our Mcneil house realtor, not so much. First of all, who doesn’t have their email sent to their phone.. especially when you tell me it’s your “preferred form of communication.” I shouldn’t have to call you to ask if you received my email. Secondly, either answer the phone when I call, or call me back in a reasonable time frame. 1-2 days later is not reasonable. Thirdly, if you say to meet at the house “around 9ish” and you don’t show up until 9:30 that’s NOT considered 9ish. *deep breaths*

Upon negotiating the purchase price for the house, we agreed that the seller would pay closing cost, up to $4,000. She told us, and I quote, “John, Heather, don’t even worry about that, there is no way closing will be more than that!” Awesome! It was the last we thought about that. So, after a month of getting everything ready for closing and having horrible communications, on her side, it was finally closing day. Yay! Furniture shopping tomorrow… or so I thought. We arrive at her office and began signing the eight million closing papers. Towards the end she says, “Ok, and this is the amount you owe, which you brought the certified check for.” John David and I looked at each other, dumbfounded, and then back at her. My response, “Huh?” She slides the paper over and says “yea, the closing costs went over by 2960.” My response “Oh, twenty nine dollars?” John David gulps and says “no, twenty nine HUNDRED.” We both just started at her blankly and then she said “Oh my gosh, I forgot to tell you about this. I found out last Friday and it was the weekend, and I was leaving to go……..” I couldn’t hear her speaking anymore because I wanted to hurl across the table and CHOKE her. How are you NOT going to tell us about a twenty nine HUNDRED dollar overage that WE have to pay? Furthermore, we need a certified check? Where do I even get one of those? Oh my Jesus. I could feel the tears forming.

Long story short, there was no way around it. It’s what we owed and just because she forgot to tell us didn’t mean anything. Then I asked her about the air conditioner. See, the coils needed changing because the unit wasn’t cooling the house down. “Oh” she says. “I’ll call about that right now”. OH MY GOD. This pregnant girl is going to throw a complete temper tantrum. She comes back and says “I’m so sorry, but they can’t come and change them until Thursday. Today is Monday. It’s July. In Alabama. And I’m Pregnant. Lethal combination!

Thankfully, we bought a small window unit AC a few years ago when we first moved into Whitworth and never got rid of it. They finally got the coils changed, only for us to realize, the coils were not the problem. The unit is too small for the house and just can’t keep up with the Alabama heat. The homeowner’s insurance wouldn’t cover replacing it because the unit WORKED. There was definitely no way we could afford to replace it, ESPECIALLY now that we have spent every bit of extra money we had on CLOSING costs. Soo the unit would run all day, the house stayed about 84 degrees and the electric bill was over 400 dollars for every summer month. The window unit was too small to put in any of the open rooms so we kept it in the bedroom. I basically lived in my bedroom until mid September.

The air in my car also went out the first of July. John David started driving it to work and leave me with the truck since he went to work and came home from work before and after the sun rose and set.

When it seemed like nothing else worse could happen, we found out that I do not qualify to go under John David’s insurance. Between the time we were accepted at Mobile and the time he started work, their insurance policy changed. Pregnancy was now considered PRE-EXISTING. I had been paying my insurance through my previous employer for 4 months now, at over 300 dollars a month, and now I had no choice but to continue paying until the baby was born. As if that wasn’t bad enough, since I wasn’t under the resident’s insurance, I could no longer have the baby for free at the hospital, which meant I had three months to come up with 20 percent of the delivery cost. Seriously?

As if I wasn’t an emotional wreck already, this about put me over the edge. We had a plan. We had a budget. We had paid off all credit cards. Things were going to be great. Now, I have no job, sick as a dog, and have more bills than we have ever had. Like I said in my last blog, I cried. Every day. Even if I had a day where I wasn’t super sick, I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything simply because I didn’t have the money.

Finally the long awaited month of November rolled around. This was the first month since I got pregnant that we weren’t basically throwing money down the drain on healthcare. Of course, now I owe the hospital around $4,000 from delivery of Khloe since it wasn’t a “routine” cesarean. The total bill was almost $29,000. A normal cesarean is about $3,500. Thankfully I had good insurance and I only had to pay $4,000, but still. We’ll be playing catch up for quite some time to get back to a comfortable place.

So, the reason for this blog is to give you an idea of why I haven’t posted any pics of the house décor. If I could go back in time, we would have rented 8 U-hauls before I sold all my furniture. I had no idea things were going to turn out the way they did.

Decorating here has been a super slow process for many reasons, but mostly because I could never replace what I sold. Over the past few months, on a very limited budget, I have begun to try and fill the house. Desperation often leads to inspiration! One piece at a time, I have been scourging my local Goodwill’s, Thrift stores and Department stores for “fabulous finds” and things I could turn from “Drab 2 Fab.” This is what my next few blog entries will be about. Hopefully, it will give a few of you crafty girls (and maybe a few of you who are on a very limited budget, like me) some inspiration to get creative.

A very wise woman, Barbara Scruggs, once told me “it’s short term discomfort for long term happiness.” One day I will be able to afford very nice things, but even then, I will still love me some Thrift stores! One person’s trash…. Another person’s treasure!!!

I’ll be posting “The Dresser” in a few hours. I’m super excited about it.

Love you guys!

Heather