Last night we sat in a short meeting with ACORN Housing.

ACORN Housing Counselors make the home buying process more accessible to first-time buyers. Instead of having to approach bankers or contend with brokers, first-time homebuyers can meet our counselors in the local ACORN Housing office to pre-qualify for a mortgage.

The advantage of going through ACORN is that homebuyers can gain access to mortgage programs with lower interest rates, lower down payments, flexible underwriting guidelines and lower origination fees. And the biggest advantage is that you do not have to pay Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) regardless of how much you need to finance, even if it is 100%. I’m not sure if I stated everything correctly or not, but so far the program seems to be worth the $20 it costs. Perhaps Kim will add a comment sometime since she is the one with the finance degree. :)

Since we already had an approved contract for a home and all of the paperwork filled out, they had us stick around so that we could be pre-approved (which we already were) and receive the certificate of completion. That has to be some sort of record! We completed their entire program in about an hour, although there is a required class towards the end of the month. Luckily the lender that Kim had already talked to was also at the meeting, so just about all of the paperwork has now been completed. I think today we will be locking in a rate and then from there we are almost done.

Hopefully that wasn’t too boring. The sad part is I know very little of what I just said, although I have learned a bunch this past week. Seriously though, if you are considering your first home, I would highly recommend this program. Sorry bro, it doesn’t look like they have any offices in Ohio.

We had an inspection performed on the house yesterday. It ended before I could get there, but both Kim and our agent were there for the whole thing. We are now trying to sort through the issues that were reported to see if anything could be considered a deal breaker. The nice thing is that there aren’t any glaring red flags in the report, at least from my point of view (I think my dad agrees though).

We’ve already been pre-approved for a loan, but now we need to look around to see what all is out there. We are quickly discovering that many banks will require some upfront fee just to get started. US Bank even has fees and we’ve got 3 different accounts with them. We thought about using the credit union that I belong to, but they don’t have any authority (license?) in Ohio. Feel free to point us to any lenders you’ve used, enjoyed, and have low rates. :)

Today’s entry comes from a soon to be homeowner. This weekend Kim and I spent a bunch of time working out the details to buy the house I mentioned last week. If all goes as planned we will be moving all of our stuff in just over a month, the weekend of May 12th. Overall I would say that it has been very nerve racking, but at the same time also very exciting!

Besides all of the time spent on the phone and signing our names on the dotted lines, we had a pretty busy weekend. On Friday night we went to a Shaking Tree concert. Saturday we played nine holes of golf (although Kim was on the phone most of the time) and then hung out at the Brooksider for the night. Sunday we ran some errands (including faxing in our official offer for the house), hung out with Bianca, and I even got in a game of hockey.

This week is definitely going to be a busy one. Heck, the next month or so is probably going to be jam packed. That should give me plenty to write about, I just hope that I still have the time to do it.

We are so unpredictable. One minute we both are thinking of how to move back to Cincinnati and then the next minute we are out looking at a house for sale. We started a few months ago by looking at a couple of condos that were close to the plaza (within a mile or so) and then moved on to houses from there. A few weeks ago we toured a house that was in our price range and in the plaza area only to find it was a complete piece of crap! From there we sort of gave up on the idea until Kim was contacted yesterday about a wonderful house that was affordable and close to the plaza. We toured it last night after work, and it really is a nice house in great condition. Who knows how long it will last but we are actually attempting to get info on it and do some additional research.

Wait, what was I just talked about? Moving to Cincinnati? You see what I mean.

Oh yeah, we looked at a house last night. After that was over we drove right up the street to Jazz for dinner. We had a gift certificate from awhile back that we had surprisingly not used yet. Dinner was delicious as were the drinks. After we were completely stuffed, and we collected enough leftovers to get stuffed once more, we headed home to watch some TV.

Up and down the puppies’ hair
Fleas and ticks jump everywhere
’cause of original sin
Down the hill fell jack and jill
And you came tumbling after
’cause of original sin
Rip away the tears
Drink a hope to happy years
And you may find
A lifetime’s passed you by
What would you say
Don’t drop the big one
If you a monkey on a string
Don’t cut my lifeline
If you a doggie on a chain
Don’t bite the mailman
What would you say
I was there when the bear
Ate his head, thought it was a candy
Everyone goes in the end
Knock knock on the door
Who’s it for, there’s nobody in here
Look in the mirror my freind
I don’t understand at best
And connot speak for all the rest
The morning rise a lifetime’s passed me by
Every dog has it’s day every day has it’s way
Of being forgotten
Mom it’s my birthday
What would you say

-DMB

Yesterday was the first official day of spring and with it came lousy weather. Usually you expect spring to be a little rainy, but starting just after work yesterday we got snow! I checked the weather before leaving work and saw that we were under a “winter storm warning,” which I guess doesn’t only apply to winter. I heard predicted snowfall amounts in the neighborhood of 2 to 4 inches. In the end it didn’t amount to much, less than an inch, but just north and west of here got over a foot of snow!

You always hear that April showers bring May flowers, well what about March snow showers? What do those bring us? Perhaps it kills all the flowers resulting in fewer allergies for us to deal with in the next couple of months. It never hurts to think positively, right?

Well the lenten season is upon us, and even though I’m not a church going Catholic it still doesn’t hurt to give something up. This year’s sacrifice is cigarettes. Yeah I know that I gave those up awhile back. Truth be told though, I have been known to sneak one from time to time while out at a bar drinking. So for the next forty days (and hopefully after) this should not happen. Not only is this sometimes hard to do, it obviously has a positive benefit on me.

On to the no meat eating on Fridays thing, I will continue to ignore this, unless that means no red meat, because I’m all for that. Friday is the one day of the week that I go out to eat for lunch, and if I want a chicken sandwich I’m gonna have a chicken sandwich. I say that if you are allowed to eat fish, I’m allowed to eat chicken, and I’m heading out now to do exactly that!

This question was posted on OARfans.com yesterday, when the author had someone ask her, “What’s the revolution? Are they supporting a cause or something?” If you didn’t know (and I assume that most of you do) O.A.R. stands for ….of a revolution. When I read the thread again this morning I stumbled on this response:

the revolution is…
– their music
– their views on taping/trading
– their fans (loyalty)
– their endless touring
– their rankings in the music “industry” (how they don’t get any recognition on TV or the radio, yet they still managed to sell out MSG
– the fact that they stay loyal to their music roots (to some extent)
– the differences that set them apart from any other bands
– this website and oarsa
– ed paff

Viva La Revolution! :)

Last night was tax night, well at least for me. I started off by filling both of our federal returns. I know that I said last year that I didn’t like the way H&R Block’s questionnaire worked, but filling online is so much easier than any other way I’ve done it. It’s free for us, you don’t have to send anything in, and your refund is direct deposited very quickly. Obviously, I choose this same method again. The nice thing was that the answers I entered for many of the questions last year were automatically filled in this year. I completed my return first and I will be receiving an $850 refund! The IRS has already accepted my return and I should have the money direct deposited within a week or two. Next I did Kim’s federal return hoping for something similar, but as it turns out she owes $10. The nice thing was that we could set this up to be automatically withdrawn from a checking account.

I then tried to do our state returns the old fashioned way, since H&R Block will charge you to file your state returns. Missouri has an online PDF that automatically calculates most of the blanks. I attempted to use this on my old PC but it kept freezing. So then I tried the same form on my new PC. I got the whole thing filled in and then I went to print it out. One problem though, the stupid thing wouldn’t recognize the network printer that’s hooked up to the old PC. I tell ya, this is a never ending project! I called it a night and I just got done with the state returns here at work. I’ll be getting $61 and Kim will be getting $115. Our overall return will be $1016. Time to plan another trip!

My toe still hurts quite a bit, and the swelling is still about the same, but at least it is beginning to feel better. The coloring of it has gotten worse though. If I remember, and it still looks as ugly as this morning, I’ll take a picture when I get home and share it with you all. :)

Last night we went over to Doni and Phil’s house to eat some dinner and play cards with Mike and Christie. Doni and Phil are currently in the middle of their two week vacation in Hawaii and Christie was put in charge of the dog and cat. Mike cooked up some of his grandma’s spaghetti sauce and we had ourselves a little feast! We also played a couple games of euchre, and drank a little wine. We’ll call this another “team building” event.

Tonight is the Crosstown Shootout. GO CATS!