speaking of the re-fi…

I had to lay the smackdown yesterday with our broker.

He tried to pull a fast one on me.  Nice try, buddy.

See, when I first called them to discuss a loan, and after he pulled our info and found a lender who would do a 115% loan (this was before we knew our house may actually appraise for higher than $165K), he told us we’d need to pay for the appraisal out of pocket.  No big deal, we did that last time.

Then I decided I wanted to try and see if we could get any better deal out of our bank, W3lls .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).  They were willing to wrap the loan up into one (rather than having a 1st & 2nd), but the rate would be about 10%, and we’d pay nothing out of pocket, period.  We were kind of OK with the rate (one rate at 10% is better than one at 9.9% and a second at 16.5%), they pulled the stats on our neighborhood and estimated our house may appraise for as high as $192K (which is why they would wrap the two loans up into one).  We even set an appointment to meet with their broker at their branch.  Until I was told that they require PMI (mortgage insurance), and it would tack on $7,000 to our loan.  Uh, no thanks.  Especially when I went back to the first broker and he said they don’t add mortgage insurance to their loans.

I told the first broker that the deal with WF, up until the $7K PMI part, sounded good, especially since they’d even pay for the appraisal.  He said, we can do that for you, too.  I was like, cool!  I cancelled the appointment with WF and went about gathering the info I needed to send the first broker (paystub, W2s, etc).

Then yesterday, when the appraisor called to make the appointment to come by our house and said he would need a C.O.D. for the payment, I flipped.  I told him I needed to discuss the matter with the broker, and that I’d call him back to set up the appointment after I got the matter settled about the payment.

I called mr. broker and questioned him about this C.O.D. thing with the appraisor.  He said, yeah, you have to pay the appraisor out of pocket.  I asked if we were going to be reimbursed for it?  He shuffled some papers, and said, No.

Say it with me now… wha-wha-WHAT?!  So I politely lit into him.  (Polite being, I didn’t scream.)

I said, first you tell us we have to pay the appraisor, then when I go to WF and find out they will pay it for us and tell you this, you agree that you can do the same thing, and now you turn around and tell me we have to pay for it?  So what’s the story?  Why are you suddenly changing everything around like this?

I basically cowed him into agreeing to reimburse us.  It’s not a cash-in-hand reimbursement, but he said we should see a line item on the mortgage papers showing a deduction of $250, which will be the reimbursement for appraisor. 

So you can be I’ll be looking for that line when it’s time to sign the papers.

their deaths won’t come soon enough…

We went ahead & decided to do the 5 year Termidor treatment for the termites.  As of today, there are two exploratory tunnels on the north wall of Josh’s office.  When the inspector came by on the 24th, there was only one.

Unfortunately, we’ll probably see more before they die, as it could take up to three months for the little buggers to die off.

The

terminator

exterminator comes by on Wednesday.

We figure since we’re in the process of trying to get another refinance done on our mortgages (1st & 2nd) to bring the rates down and to lower our payments, that we’ll easily be able to afford the approximate $275/mo for three months this exterminating thing is going to cost us.  The appraisor just came by to do the measurments on the house, we’re hoping it’ll appraise high (there was a sale of a house similar to ours in sq. footage, in April, and it sold for $186K)... because the deal that’s on the plate is assuming the value to be at least $185K on the house, and we’ll be paying $600 less a month in mortgage payments between the two mortgages if it goes through.  If the house doesn’t appraise that high (say, around $165K-$170K instead), the rate we get may be a slight bit higher (than the really good deal), but we’ll still be saving around $500 a month.

But that won’t just be free money, oh no.  See, we’re just financing the mortgages (including closing costs), no credit cards or any other debt.  The money we get back in hand each month with a lower mortgage payment is going to go straight to paying off our credit cards.  That’s the plan, and I intend to stick to it.  I’m even forgoing a new car in order to pay off the cards first.  I figure I’ll use little green Saturn for as long as she’ll carry me around, and worry about possibly trading her up once the rest of the debt has been tackled.  She’s paid off (from our last re-fi), so I may as well take advantage of that fact.

But I digress… this was about termites.  I can only wish upon them a quick & speedy death once Termidor is doing its job.  They’re creepy little fuckers.

bleh…

Just bleh.
I don’t want to be here at work today.  It’ll probably be worse tomorrow during my 12 hr shift.

On the plus side, it will be my last 12 hour shift for at least three months.

On the down side, I will only have a one day weekend this weekend.

Now, you may be thinking, “well, niki, don’t you always have a one day weekend these days, what with your second, part-time job at the YS?”

And I’d say, why yes, but this time it’s different.  Because I’ll be coming back here to job #1 on Monday, instead of going to the YS.  And that is what makes for a very short weekend.

when words start to look wrong…

You know how, when you look at a word for too long, it may start to look like it’s spelled wrong?

Right now that word for me is “request”.

I just used it five times in an e-mail at work, and now it doesn’t look right anymore.  I really hate that.

the debates…

I’m at work so I am unable to watch the one for tonight, but I think one of our TiVos is recording it.

But I’m getting reports from the hubby that ol’ George is sounding like a broken record half the time.  Something to the effect of, “My opponent says Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time…..” and he has used it several times.

Dude, can you not think of anything original to say?  Oh wait, I guess you can’t.  It was all pre-scripted, right?
Puh.  [eta: that was sarcasm, btw.]

I guess I’ll find out for myself tomorrow morning just how bad it is if indeed our TiVo recorded it.

that just gives me the warm fuzzies…

I just checked my Cox e-mail and saw a piece of spam with the subject line of:

“How can one become a terr*rist?”  (the asterisk is mine, = “O”)

It goes on to welome me to their website, and advertise they sell all sorts of b*mbs.

Yes, b*mbs.

WTF?!

Usually I delete spam, but I think this is one I’m going to end up reporting to my ISP.

I did a whois on the domain, and it’s valid (I have not visited it), and the phone number listed on the whois info matches a number that is contained in the spam.

It may be nothing but just spam, but it’s still quite creepy.  *shudder*

Okay, I just now checked Snopes.com and while this particular email isn’t listed, the domain in question IS, and apparently they’ve been the targets of what is called a “Joe Job”.  The definition, from Snopes:

“Joe job” is the Internet term for forged e-mail which appears to have been sent by one party, but has actually been forged by someone else with the intent of generating complaints about, and damaging the reputation of, an innocent victim. For example, a “joe jobber” might spam a message containing child pornography to thousands of people using a forged return address of “john.smith@xyzcompany.com” in order to outrage the recipients and provoke them into flooding John Smith’s mailbox with complaints, or to tarnish the reputation of the XYZ Company.

Mmmmm…

I may be under the weather today, but it’s not so bad that I couldn’t smell the popcorn someone was cooking up in the break room (and thankfully, didn’t burn).  It reminded me that I was hungry, so I went out and got myself some vegetable teriyaki.

Mmm… yummy!

while the little bugs are boogying…

...we are contemplating the method to their demise.

We have three options.

1)  1 year contract, $125, using the same termiticide that was used on our house originally
2)  2 year contract, $400, using Termidor
3)  5 year contract, $825, using Termidor

Option 1, as already stated, will use the same stuff that was originally used on the house, and will basically be spot treatments.  Guaranteed only 1 year, of course.

Option 2, they will drill around the perimeter of the house, exluding the garage, and do the soil treatments.  Guaranteed for 2 years.

Option 3, they will drill around the perimeter of the house, including the garage, as well as the soil treatments.  Guaranteed for 5 years.

We’re leaning toward option #3, as that will get the most bang for our buck, and the termiticide used on the house originally has already proven itself 3 times that it ain’t great.  Our original contract was 5 years with that stuff (came with the new house, was treated when the slab was poured), and twice we had termites chomping away in our bay windows.  This last time happened just as our contact had expired (on 09-09-04), and also just after our next door neighbors had their house treated.  I can just pictures those little stinkers fleeing the scene… EEeeeEeeeEEE!!! Run away!! Run away!!!

Anyway.. The exterminator told us if we chose the 3rd option, we could break up the payment into three installments over a three month period.  Still quite a chunk of change, but if that stuff works like it promises to, we won’t be seeing any of those little creepy crawlies for at least five years.  I kind of like that idea.

Now if only there were a way to keep all the other creepy crawlies away for that long, I’d be a happy camper.

@#(*&@#$& termites!!!

AGAIN!  Can you believe this shit??

I guess we should have expected it this time, considering our neighbors were just treated for termites last week.  I guess the little shits had to go somewhere.

What peeves me off even more is the fact that our original contract we got when the house was built, was for five years, and it just expired on the 9th.

Of this month.

@#$&*#@$&^*#^&!!!

So, someone is coming out next Friday for an inspection.  And then they decide whether to be kind and do one last treatment for free since we’ve already had them come out TWICE in the last five years to treat for termites, or if they’re going to be greedy and squeeze a couple hundred dollars out of us to renew our contract.

My guess is they’ll go for the

jugluar

money.

Anyway… What annoys me the most is the fact that the outside walls of our house are make of brick.  But these fuckers are getting in through the roof, at the eaves, since those are still wood, then snuggling up in the 2x4’s on the inside of the walls.  Grrr.  Stupid bugs.

“Bush by numbers…” (link to outside article)

Bush by numbers: Four years of double standards.

A good read.

Form your own opinions on it.. but me, it just reaffirms my decision to NOT vote for Bush.

Via Josh.

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