It's inspection day!

Today, in just a couple of hours, is the house inspection. I am remarkably nervous about it. Well, I suppose it's not that remarkable, given that if the inspectors find something major wrong with the house, it could cause the whole deal to fall through. In fact, that's really the only thing that could cause the deal to fall through.

We filled out what felt like several reams of paperwork yesterday in order to apply for our official mortgage, not just preapproval, but since we were preapproved at a higher amount than what our house costs, we don't foresee any problems there. We should be able to lock the rate today. I am learning so much about all this stuff. It's so interesting. Thank god I have parents who have been through this process before, so I can call them up and ask about escrow and what reasonable closing costs are and if they can just take a quick look at this contract before we sign it to make sure we aren't about to inadvertently sign away our souls.

So yes, today is really the last hurdle. I am trying to relax by reminding myself that the house was a fix and flip--i.e., an investor bought it for cheap and renovated it, and then tried to sell it for a profit (sucks for him that he bought at the exact wrong time, but our good luck). And if you're buying an investment property you'd probably get it inspected pretty thoroughly, right? We can only hope. I mean, we looked pretty closely ourselves and didn't see anything major, but we aren't inspectors and don't know what we're looking for.

In any case, it should be a fascinating experience--our first home inspection. Apparently it will take three hours. We have to be present, as does our real estate agent (who is turning out to be pretty great, actually, despite our initial misgivings). We picked an inspector who specializes in remodels and comes highly recommended. There will also be a sewer inspection and a radon test. Two things I had never heard of until this weekend, let me say. But both apparently quite important.

And we talked to a family friend of ours who is a landscape designer, as well as a childhood play space designer, about options for landscaping our backyard to minimize highway sounds as well as create a safe, lovely space for our kids and dog to play. She was incredibly helpful, and suggested conifers as the best sound absorbers, which means that we get to plant some lovely Colorado blue spruce trees. And we may look into a water feature, perhaps a pondless waterfall, to create some pleasing white noise while not creating a drowning hazard for small children.

After the inspection is done and any issues that come up during it are dealt with, and our mortgage is officially approved--well, I don't think there's too much left to do after that. Assuming the house appraises for at least the value of the purchase price (and there's little doubt that it will), there's no further reason for the sale to fall through. Just a bunch of details to take care of, like picking a homeowner's insurance plan and figuring out moving plans. And repacking everything we just unpacked. Won't THAT be fun? But so, so worth it. Because once this logistical headache part is done, we can move into our house. Our HOUSE.