Which 5 Percent Do We Own?: Much ado about [probably] nothing...

On Friday we received our appraisal and the house appraised above our purchase price, which is a very good thing. I wasn't losing sleep thinking that it was going to appraise below the purchase price, but with all the crazyness going on in the housing sector nothing seems safe anymore! Our loan processor e-mailed us a copy of the appraisal and it was 18 pages long!! It was really, really interesting to read. The appraiser was extremely detailed and even took pictures of the inside of the house. Because the house is still under construction, the appraiser will have to go back out there right before we close to confirm that the house was actually finished...

When we stopped by the house today, they had delivered all our cabinets. They're all in their boxes still and should be installed tomorrow. They've also done a lot of the painting, but they still have a lot of touchups to do. When Brian spoke to Chris yesterday, he said that they will be installing our laminate floors later this week and then next week they will begin installing fixtures and all that stuff. The carpet will then be installed in two weeks.

We're starting to get the point where stuff is beginning to get close to complete, which is very cool. Brian also reminded me tonight that we close in exactly one month from today!!!!!

Thank goodness!

This buying a house business is ridiculous. (Honestly, I'm about over it.) I feel like my head has been totally spinning for the past month. I am really good at organizing stuff and making plans, which is a good thing because if I wasn't it would be absolute chaos. I have a very lovely Levenger notepad that is filled with a million notes of appointments and things to buy!! But, still, I have a major obsessive worrying compulsion issue (I'm driving Brian absolutely mad!). This is nothing new though--I have a very strong history of worrying issues:

Example 1: In 6th grade when our class had a lesson on HIV and AIDS, Wes and I became convinced that we had HIV because we bit our fingernails and we knew that "open sores" could spread the disease. We called the CDC AIDS hotline with questions everyday after school for two weeks straight until the people there got pissed and told us to stop calling! :-)

Example 2: My first chorus concert in 7th grade, our teacher scared us all to death about what would happen if we showed up late that I was so freaked out that I thought I was going to throw up on the way to the Science Center (about an hour early) and I drove my mom insane as she drove me there! I can still remember that entire drive moment-by-moment and how I felt the whole way there!

Example 3: A similar phenomenon occured on the way to the airport for my first Europe trip. We left Hickory to get to Charlotte in PLENTY of time (I'm talking like probably 5 hours early...), but as soon as we hit I-85 in Gastonia and I saw brake lights (that lasted about 10 seconds), I had a major freakout. It's really amazing that my mother hasn't thrown me out of the car!

In retrospect, it's pretty amazing that my mom is as sane as she is...

There are a bajillion more examples from my short life, but the bottom line is that I'm a compulsive worrier that something is going to go wrong. I'm not nervous about buying the house, because I know that we made the right decision, but I'm worried that something is going to happen where we can't buy the house for some reason or another. [A lot of this started with the confusion at CTX because it was the first time with the mortgage process that a mess up was really tangible in my mind.] I have no idea why I'm like this, but I am definitely looking forward to having the closing over and done!! (Unless Brian kills me first!) I know that there will be plenty of things to worry about once we actually own the place, but I also know that I'll feel a bit more in control of the process and not be so freakish.

A few of the pictures that I took today--

First coat of paint on front door: