On moving

The American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman (who according to many from the South, in particular, South Carolina was anything but civil) said: There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell. (June 19, 1879, Michigan Military Academy). There is relevance in that quote when the subject of moving to a new home comes up.

There is many a person here today who looks at a new home as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell! For anyone who has never bought a property, you have missed a real treat, for anyone who has gone through the excitement and anticipation, the pleasure... the sheer unmitigated delight of land transfers, lawyers, agents, appraisers, water, electric, telephone, cable, predelivery inspections, contractors, bank drafts, bankers, insurance, mortgages... need I go on? Should you by chance have bought from someone else (that is, your property is not a new build), or a condo, sorry, but you really have not experienced property buying the way it was meant to be. (Americans who read this, don't get smug, from what I hear you guys have it a lot worse.)

Just a small sample of what I am dealing with. The agreement of purchase and sales for our new home was to close on February 8, 2008. The builder pushed the date twice, ultimately the date the deal closed was April 15, 2008. (That is why I have not been posting to the blog or going to TISC, I am absolutely swamped.)

Now April 15 was a Tuesday, on Thursday, April 10, I called my lawyer to find out how much money I would need to give him, in the form of a bank draft to cover the various closing costs, including down payment, land transfer taxes, legal expenses and so on. Surprisingly the lawyer answered the phone, not his assistant, she was given the day off. But my lawyer took the time to go through his files, a promising sign, and told me over the phone the problem. It turns out his assistant was well on top of the situation and had in fact contacted the builder several times, starting on the 8'th asking for the paperwork so that we could pay in time. The builder ultimately delivered on Friday (April 11) late in the morning.

Lesley, my lovable wife, had the dubious honour (as the only person in our family to have a regular bank account, some other time I can describe the horrors of PC bank as applied to home buying) of going to the local bank branch to obtain a bank draft for several hundred thousand dollars. Initially the branch refused because they were not her home branch, don't have her signature on file, cant get through to anyone at the home branch. Ultimately I called the local branch and asked who was going to pay when the builder sues me because I cannot get the money to make the down payment, or any other closing costs? (Implied in my question was, do you guys want me to sue you?)

Its amazing what a threat of a civil action can do when there is good grounds for said action.

Tuesday morning the mortgage company, who already has a mortgage on our current property decided to inform my lawyer that they require proof of home insurance prior to signing over a lot more money. (Thanks guys, you only knew this was coming for the past several months so asking for that sort of information the day of the deal closing is a sign of a really well run organization.) I got the mortgage secured by around noon. At around 1 or 2pm, after the builder's lawyer got the bank draft from my lawyer's trust, the builder's lawyer screwed up again (recall the were late getting the paper work). They deeded over the easements and the garage, but neglected to deed the house. Ooops! (Actually that particular error can share blame between a law firm that I won't name, and the Ontario Land Registry Office.)

Naturally much of the house remains uncompleted, including the garage and landscaping, sometime very soon I will have to list out all the defects in the Tarion 30-day report.

Oh and of course I have to move all my material possessions from our old house to our new house and sell the old house, yummy!

I was going to put in a thing about biking here, end on a happy note, but I'm just too tired. Suffice it to say, I have my beautiful new bike, I love the thing but the bed beckons, the stress of moving and 50km rides seem to get to me.