Oct. 15, 2008 - We closed on our construction loan!

After a grueling process, we closed on our construction loan. Between the time we put our offer to the house and this closing day, Lehman Bros. went belly up, Wachovia announced it would be bought by Citicorp, the stock market saw its biggest fall in decades, Wachovia's buyer was switched to Wells Fargo, the government churned out the 700 billion dollar "rescue plan," and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae got taken back by the government, and the government bought another $250B worth of bank stock. We don't even remember the order in which these things happened. What we do remember is that as a result of all this, we had to knock on the door of several different lenders to get the loan. In case you are wondering, we have two decent, stable incomes and excellent credit scores. Finally our mortgage broker found a bank that would lend to us, but it turned out to be a nightmarish paper chase; we had to take the loan "on their terms", and on the very last day they were issuing construction loans! Anyway, at least we have the money to start. The house (or the house-to-be) is officially ours.