Making Tracks
By Kat Bryant
This past weekend, I packed up my motel room in Centralia — cats and all — and made that 55-mile commute for the last time. It was finally time to go home to Hoquiam.
My son and my brothers brought my sweet Rose back from Seattle, and we got her and the kitties situated in our new house. Then, after a nice family meal at Brunch 101 (where we lifted our juice glasses to Mom on what would have been her 76th birthday), we started pulling my stuff out of storage.
It was a long, back-breaking afternoon — but what a glorious feeling it was to fall asleep in my bed in my house at the end of a two-month nightmare! Ahhhhh.
… And yet, it couldn’t have happened without one final bit of drama.
Quick rewind: For the past few weeks, my awesome team (Mike at Windermere, Cathy at Grays Harbor Title and Jacqueline at Prime Residential) had been working diligently toward a likely closing date of July 5. So imagine my joy when I received a call from Cathy on Thursday to schedule The Signing for Friday! They were still figuring out the exact dollar amount required to cover my down payment plus closing costs, but she said she’d get back to me on that before I went in.
Well, we missed each other late Thursday afternoon; so I didn’t actually get the “magic number” until Friday morning. And since my credit union has no branches closer than Lacey, it was too late for me to go pick up a cashier’s check before my 9 a.m. appointment.
No problem, said Cathy: I could have them wire the money while I was signing papers. So, after I got to the title company, I called to make those arrangements.
No problem, said the credit union representative — but it would take two days for the wired funds to transfer.
No problem, said Cathy: Just overnight a cashier’s check instead.
No problem, said the credit union rep. Done.
So I finished signing the massive stack of closing papers and went on my merry way, secure in the knowledge that the check would arrive first thing in the morning so the loan would close and I could move in that weekend.
No problem, right?
Yeah, right.
I called the title company at 10:30 Friday morning to confirm that all was well. But no — the FedEx guy had come and gone, and my check wasn’t there.
I called the credit union immediately and got the tracking number for the envelope. The FedEx website showed it was sitting in Seattle, with delivery scheduled by 4:30 p.m. (It seems there had been major storms in Memphis overnight, disrupting service nationwide.)
That’s a problem, said Cathy. If the check arrived that late on Friday, there was no way the loan could close before Monday. And that meant I couldn’t move into the house that weekend after all.
I took a deep breath and decided not to cancel the truck rental, or the moving helpers, or the activation of the utilities. I chose to believe it could still happen, because at that point it was the only thing I could do to stay calm.
Lo and behold, Cathy called me at 1:30 p.m. to tell me she had the check in hand; the FedEx guy had made a special trip.
Less than an hour later, Jacqueline called to tell me the loan had been funded and the deed would be recorded by close of business.
Soon after that, Mike called to congratulate me because it was done. My dream house was finally mine.
I’m still not sure I believe it. But as I continue to unpack boxes and watch my furballs settle in, it becomes ever more real.
I’m home.
Kat Bryant is lifestyle editor of The Daily World. She’s immensely grateful to have her dog, her bed and her sanity back. Reach her at kbryant@thedailyworld.com or on Facebook at Kat Bryant-DailyWorld.
