All the Juicy Details

Home Sweet Home :)

Prepare yourself for a novel. We decided to keep track of the ridiculousness of our house process and talk about it after it was over... so here's what we went through.

Our kitchen when it was under construction (and the termites were discovered)

1. From the date of our offer to the closing date, it was a little over 3 months. According to our realtor, this was the longest closing he's ever experienced. It started with it being an estate sale so we had to wait for the probate court date which ended up happening two months after we put in our offer. The original court date was scheduled for a month after but the judge got reassigned so instead of them just letting the hearing happen, they rescheduled it for a month later.
2. We were preapproved and underwritten at the time of our offer, but because it took so long, we got reassigned a new underwriter who was just out of training. Because of that, the whole process started over again and took 3 weeks to close when it was supposed to take 2 days.
3. We started work on the kitchen and discovered termites. The home inspection company missed it so they offered to pay for the mistake but it would have been nice to know that beforehand. 
4. Someone, we don't know who, called the building department on us and because of that, we got "redtagged" and doubled the construction time. We then had to file for a permit and go through several inspections to get approval on the work. Someone really had to have no time on their hands for that to happen because they have to jump through hoops to file a complaint. The craziest part was that we weren't even at the stage where a permit was required.
5. Our contractors showed up to the house one morning and the garage door was wide open. All of our kitchen appliances were still in the garage but that gave us a heartattack. What they think happened is that, since it's an old garage door opener, that someone has the same code as us. My dad said that sometimes one of my parents old garage doors used to spontaneously open so it could have been that too. Needless to say, the door got bolted down and the garage door opener got replaced.
6. We had an island built for the kitchen and then decided to get rid of it. After bringing it into the kitchen, we realized it was just too big for the space and instead had the cabinet guys build a china cabinet. It was a good hiccup because we absolutely love the new cabinet.
7. Our contractor opened up the wall in the back room for the TV mount and found more termite damage. Luckily, there weren't any live termites so he just replaced the damaged wood and continued on. CJ, on the other hand, had to take apart the brick planter box in the backyard that was built against the perimeter of the house. We also called the home inspection company one more time and complained about them not finding this either, so they offered to spray the entire house for free. 
8. Our heater broke. From the time that the heater broke to when it was fixed, it took 2 weeks. It got so cold in the house when we walked in that we could see our breath. It also delayed the floor refinishing process by 2 weeks because the wood was too cold to get finished. We had to let the wood heat back up after it was fixed so that all the moisture was out of the wood. If we didn't wait, there was a possibility that the hardwood would bow in the future.
9. Our heater "broke", again. After the motherboard was replaced, it started working just fine. Unfortunately, a couple weeks later the heater started making weird noises when it turned on and would shut itself off after a minute or so. After having the technician come out again, he found that the filter was so clogged that the heater couldn't take in air which is why it was shutting itself off. So, luckily it just required a new $7 filter and we were back in business.

Moral of the story is nothing ever goes as planned so you just need to find the silver lining in everything and learn to enjoy the process because, in the end, it will look beautiful and it will all be worth it.