Closing Drama

Okay, as I alluded to earlier, there was much drama surrounding our closing. We thought all of the drama was over when our agent called to say that yes, we really would be closing on Thursday. Ha!

Thursday morning dawned, and I just knew it wasn't going to happen. I don't know if I was just tired of being disappointed or what, but I was not confident at all. And the longer the morning wore on, the more convinced I was. Closing was set for 3PM (I was wrong about that yesterday, thought it was 2). They lawyers had to have the papers by 2PM for us to be able to close at 3, and neither DH nor I were leaving until our agent had confirmed they had them.

10 AM came and went, Noon came and went, 1 PM came and went. Our agent called at 1:40 to say they had finally arrived. "We are on for 3 PM." Really? I'm still not feeling it. DH left work at 2 to come get me. We waited until 2:20 before leaving the house (it was closer than we originally thought), just to make sure someone wasn't going to call and cancel or delay. Even on the way there, I told my husband that something was still going to happen. The address is wrong, or the sale price is wrong, or a car accident, or *something.* We turned into the complex with about 10 minutes to spare, then realized we didn't have the actual address! Directions, yes, but there were 90-something townhouse-type offices, and we had no idea which one we needed. DH was on his phone with our agent getting the actual address when a call came in to my phone.

"Mrs. Gaston, this is Luke's daycare. Luke is running a really high fever. Our thermometer says it is 104! His whole body is shaking and he looks awful. We need you to come get him." THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING!! Technically, we're supposed to be there within 30 minutes if they need us to pick up our child. I explained that we were literally about to walk in the door to close on our house, and they decided they could keep him (in the office away from other kids) until we arrived. I really hoped it would be as simple as walk in, sign, and walk out. It was when we bought this house (once we finally got there), and the papers were ready, so it should be quick and simple, right?

You'd think I'd know better by now. Neither our agent nor the buyer was there yet. The buyer was about 5 minutes late, but they were very sympathetic to our circumstances. The buyer's agent talked to the lawyers so we could go ahead and sign our portion of the papers, the idea being that we could finish and be on our way and not have to wait for the buyer, who had numerous additional papers to sign. We could also start without our agent, who came in about 10 minutes later. By 3:40, we had signed everything we could, but they were "still working out some things on the HUD, the numbers just aren't adding up." I was ready to pitch a fit!! Finally I just had to go get Luke and hope they had it worked out by the time we got back.

Luke did look pretty bad when I got to daycare, but the assistant director was going on about how much better he looked (he'd slept about 30 minutes on a mat in the office). He was still pretty warm, but nothing approaching 104. With some children's ibuprofen on board, we headed back to the lawyer's office. He had half a cup of juice on the way, which was both good and bad: good that he was willing to drink something, bad that he only drank half (he's usually downed the whole thing in under 5 minutes). We arrived back at the lawyer's office right at 4:30. The room we were using to sign papers were directly across from the entrance. As we walked in, I could see DH, our agent, and the lawyer sitting at the table, and no one looked happy at all. Great.

The good news was that they had figured out the problem. The bad news was that no one could figure out what to do about it. I do know more of the details, but again, I'm going to be intentionally vague here. We still need to work out if and how much *we* will be affected, but I was so stressed about the whole thing between what the lawyer was telling us and Luke's condition, all I really heard was "blah blah... might have to rework the deal... blah blah... something about our taxes... blah blah... might not close today if we can't work it out with the county." No one, not even the lawyers who do this for a living, can figure out how the mistake happened and how it has gone unnoticed for so long. They did work it out so we could close that day. Now we just have to hope the county doesn't come after *us* for many thousands in "corrected" taxes over the last 9 years!! So the drama may not yet be over, but we did close. We walked out at 5:30 PM with the papers and the check to prove it (though we might need to save that check in case the county comes calling).

And for everyone wondering, Luke is fine. His fever is responding to medicine, there are no other symptoms, and he is acting mostly fine otherwise (a little tired, but that is to be expected), so the doctor said just to monitor the fever and keep him on Children's Motrin. Call if any other symptoms show up, and if the fever isn't gone by Monday to bring him in. But as of bedtime tonight (Saturday), his fever was under 99.5 with no meds, so he should be fine by Monday.

So, drama drama drama, but it's DONE!! We offically only own *one* house!
Currently feeling: ready for a quiet week