Fret not, gentle reader...

... so the other couple's offer was accepted. I was a bit disappointed, but not crushed. The Real Estate Agent was good enough to tell us the exact situation. Apparently the first couple were self-employed and unsure if they could get approved for financing (a condition on their offer). She promised to let us know if their deal fell through.

To be honest, I figured that was the end of it, but about a week later, the agent contacted us letting us know that they could not, in fact, get the financing they needed. Eric and I took a few days to decide whether we were going to make an offer, and by the end of October, we did. There were a few frustrating back and forths as the terms were hashed out, but ultimately the offer was accepted, conditional upon our acceptance of an inspection, financing, and insurance. Initially we tried for an April closing date because we didn't want to carry the mortgage through this first winter when we wouldn't be using the place, but we talked her down on cost by agreeing to an earlier closing date (more than what we'd be paying out in mortgage payments). The closing date was only a month away!

We arranged for an inspection on November 8th. It was another glorious sunny fall day. Our inspection was conducted by Mike O'Grady and I can't tell you how pleased we were with his work! If you ever need a home inspector in that area, he's your man. He was extremely thorough (3 hours!) and he took the time to answer all of our silly questions. Really fantastic. 

The inspection revealed a few issues (pressure tank for the water pump was busted, wood stove was a fire hazard, and one of the baseboard heaters wasn't working) but structurally and electrically the building was sound. I had a lot more time to take a lot more pictures, so I did. Lots more. The second visit revealed some warts that I hadn't seen the first time out (like the icky fridge and the scary shower floor), but nothing that put us off buying.

With the inspection completed and no major show-stoppers revealed, Eric got the ball rolling on financing and insurance. The financing took about 3 weeks to get in place, so if you're contemplating a secured borrowing account, keep that in mind when you're working to a short timeline.

Financing is now in place, and the insurance was pretty easy to set up. They had a lot of oddball questions for us, but the inspection gave us the answers we needed to square that away. With all the conditions passed, we signed on the dotted line on Friday, November 13th and agreed to waive the conditions of our offer.

I have started an extensive list of things we want to do/change. I envision a lot of paint and a fair number of work-weekends in the spring of 2010. First, we need to find/buy a boat; it's going to be hard transporting building supplies in a canoe.

Now, the dreaming and scheming begins in earnest.

This is the view from our dock (which needs repair. The dock, not the view.)