Apartment Drama, or, Exile to the Suburbs

At this point, I'm calling it: We will not be moving into our new apartment this weekend.

For those keeping track, we found our new home back in January and signed the contract on it the first week of February.  (For those not keeping track, here's all news I remembered to print.)  There were some early complications in the way the condo was set up with commercial space on the ground floor, but those have long since been worked out.  Back in March, we had our first walk-through, and we were glad to see that it was largely ready for us to move in, with only cosmetic things making our punch list.

In April, we waited.  Waited for bank to give us our loan approval.  When that came, we were truly excited.  Everything was falling into place, and we were set.  Now all we needed was for the bank to make some final approvals on the building itself after those earlier complications.  But all signs pointed to closing in April, or perhaps early May at worst.

Toward the end of April, we heard the building had been approved by the bank.  Our lawyer scheduled a closing date for May 11th.  We were warned that the bank might not have all their ducks in a row by then, but that there was every indication to believe it was possible.  With certainty, we were told, the process was so close to being finished that there was no way the closing would be delayed beyond May.

So it was a time for celebration.  We threw a party in early May to say farewell to our backyard garden (and celebrate a birthday).  We told our landlord that the end of May was when we'd move out of the apartment, giving us time to paint the new place.  Wheels were turning, and we came to realize that Memorial Day weekend, if not earlier, would be when we moved.

Then, suddenly, the bank withdrew its approval of the building.  They'd approved it on a false premise, we were told, they didn't understand some key elements of the way the commercial space was set up.  Huh?  At least one part of the complication came from the fact that the condo uses one address, while the commercial space uses a different address.  Paperwork got confused, the bank got confused, and pulled their approval.  Whether or not we would close in May was once again under question.

Still, we were told not to worry.  The bank would sort out its confusion and re-approve the building any day now.  Any day now.  We asked our mortgage brokers for daily updates, but the answer remained "we're just waiting for the bank's approval."  We tried to be hopeful, as the weeks wore on, but in the back of our minds we were beginning to realize we needed a back-up plan.  And fast.

Which brings us up to this week.  Just yesterday, our lawyer called me again with a tentative closing date on Thursday.  That cuts is close, but still allows us time to move to our new apartment this weekend, since we can't stay in our current apartment beyond the 31st.  Relieved, I shot an email over to the mortgage broker again asking if he thought this was a possibility as well.  He does not think so.  In fact, he's confident we will not be closing tomorrow or Friday.  But he assures us, he's working as hard as he can to get it through as soon as possible.

Time for Plan B.

Lynn's parents have offered to take us in.  They live in Stamford, CT about a forty-five minute train ride from Grand Central.  They have a guest room in their basement with it's own bathroom.  We'd have use of a car, and would be train commuters to work, along with thousands of other suburbanites.  Three and a half years ago, I retreated to Stamford to wait out the job hunt, and now it looks like we'll be returning.  While I'm not looking forward to the commute (at all), I'm grateful for their generosity.  It's won't be convenient, but it will be a way of saving money and spending time with family.  And it's certainly a more viable option than finding a Craigslist short-term lease for a married couple, living out of a hotel, or hopping from couch to couch among friends (although I am also extremely touched and grateful to all of you who offered).

Louis the cat, however, may disagree when he meets Riley the dog.