The Naked Green

2005.5.18 Wednesday

God Owns the Money

Filed under: Homefront — Mr. Green @ 10.02 pm

Jamie and I attended a rush loan appointment with People’s Mortgage today. Justen, the loan officer has been working hard for us since we first started looking for a home and we’re happy that we may be giving him business after all. We found out from him yesterday that after talking with his underwriters, he has approved us for an FHA loan with CHFA. This means a lower interest rate (probably 5.625%) and less closing costs! Evidently, Richmond has also agreed to pay the $3,000 incentive if People’s can get us into an FHA loan. People’s closing costs are less, meaning even more savings. We can see God’s hand of blessing in this apparent loan mess!

Background: We decided to try Richmond’s lender because it was the only way to get their incentive. Right away I was not comfortable with our loan officer there, but decided to see it through. Two loans that would be “no problem” to get approved on have been denied and we’re now past our closing date. I must say that Richmond has been great in working with us over all and our loan officer there really did work hard. We are excited to have this great opportunity with People’s, though and are hoping it will pan out.

2005.5.15 Sunday

Our New Home!

Filed under: Following Christ, Homefront — Mr. Green @ 4.10 pm

Because our loan fell through, we’re now renting a beautiful place with great potential. It will take some work to “make it home”, but I think we can manage. It’s quite a tight fit, though. Hard to find a place to relax in 70 square feet and besides lights, we have no electricity.

We decided that it would be better to let our stuff reside in our storage unit while we seek asylum elsewhere…like our parents’ home. Thankfully we have a place to go, but we really want to either get into the house we’ve been “buying” or move on to something else. It’s hard to be in limbo.

Our pastor gave a good sermon today, Understanding The Season. It got me thinking that we’re probably in a “sowing season”. We’re spreading lots of seeds, but only the harvest will show us which seeds bore fruit. I’m glad we had that word today and feel good about the “season” we’re in. Not the most comfortable or exciting, but with the breath of God it should produce great results.

2005.5.12 Thursday

Nomads Again

Filed under: Homefront — Mr. Green @ 7.41 pm

We just found out that our “approved” loan has been denied on this, the night before our closing. How that happens, I don’t know, but the why is apparently because we were doing our DTS, not working. The broker Home American Mortgage was working with required two years of steady work for the loan in question.

There are still some options to get into this house, but they probably won’t be as good and they definitely won’t be done tomorrow. Unfortunately, we already broke our lease on our apartment and are supposed to be out on the 18th. It looks like we’ll be moving back to the parents’ house for a bit.

I believe God has a plan in all this and I believe it’s a good one. I just have no idea what it is. We’re open to anything, but the disappointment is certainly there. I guess it wasn’t exciting enough.

  

2005.5.10 Tuesday

Multiple Permalink Structures

Filed under: Blog Publishing — Mr. Green @ 9.10 am

I just found out that it is possible to create multiple “Permalink Structures” in WordPress! This is great if you want to change the structure (i.e. /2005/05/10/multiple-permalink-structures.html), but already have people linking to your articles using the old structure (i.e. /archives/2005/05/10/129/). It’s also good if you have an existing site with a certain structure you want to match as well as making a new custom structure. Here’s how I did it:
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2005.5.9 Monday

Upgrading The Green

Filed under: Blog Publishing, Web Design — Mr. Green @ 8.21 pm

I finally upgraded to Wordpress 1.5 with little trouble! It didn’t take long to get it running and move my theme over. It’s strange to see the same old blog staring at me from a whole new backend.

Wouldn’t you know it? The day I decide to upgrade, Wordpress 1.5.1 comes out! Two upgrades in one night, that’s pretty good!

I’ll need to add plugins and probably tweak the design a little, but for now I’m up and running again in style.

Update 2005.05.10: Podz has started a support forum post to help people upgrade from 1.5 to 1.5.1.

2005.5.7 Saturday

Learning Lending

Filed under: Homefront — Mr. Green @ 9.13 pm

The past several days have been filled with crunching numbers. Not exactly what you would expect from the one who forgot how to divide, but I had the help of an Excel spreadsheet with an abundance of equations. I was trying to ease my mind into the world of loans after our traditional FHA was denied due to my income not being kosher (I’m “self-employed”*).

I guess I failed to mention that Jamie and I are in the house market. Planning on looking in a year or so, a zealous friend hooked us up with his realtor. Less than a month later, we find ourselves on the last free-fall of a roller coaster ride that is home buying. We close on the house next Friday if everything falls into place with “the Js”: Joel, Jason, Justen, John, Joe and Jerry all taking some integral role in our future. Because I am self-employed, we have had to go off of Jamie’s income which has made for an interesting and educational time getting a loan.

The solution: an 80/20 loan which means that we’re getting two loans, one for 80% of our home’s value and the other for, you guessed it, 20%. After some extensive thinking, I figured it would be better to add an “interest only” option to the first loan (80%) meaning that for the “term” (ten years in this case), I would only be required to pay interest, not principle. The loan then amortizes for the remaining 20 years, making the payment higher. It provides increased flexibility which, in our case, means we are able to pay off the second loan (20%) with a higher interest rate off quicker. This essentially lowers our interest mean interest rate and by the time our payments jump in price, we’ll have the second loan payed off. This will essentially save us $8,000 over a traditional loan at the same mean rate!

*Word to the wise: If you plan on buying a house soon, don’t start that business venture of yours quite yet. FHA requires a small business to have two years of tax returns to prove income.

2005.5.2 Monday

Satanic Verses

Filed under: Personal — Mr. Green @ 1.54 pm

I just finished reading Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. Rushdie’s writing is quite different and hard-to-follow at times. It is certainly well done, though. I must admit that my head was spinning and dreaming along with Gibreel and Saladin. I was captivated after the first section of the book in that must-get-back-to-sleep-to-finish-the-dream sort of way. It’s mezmerizing, thought provoking and insane which are great components of writing in my opinion.

The only problem is that I come away with not much. The dream has ended and it lingers in that morning melencholy, but fades quickly. That and my aversion to the work and tearing-apart which is “book review” leads me to talk of the experience of reading with no real explainations.

A friend of mine dogged me about reading the book for a while, which I ignored fairly well until he gave it for a birthday present. It was harder to ignore then, but I still avoided it. Couldn’t get rid of a gift book and couldn’t read it. It was the name that got to me as you may imagine. After reading, though, I say “thank you” to my friend for the gift. It’s hardly a read for children or those needing no encouragement toward immorality. Language, sex, blasphemy and I digress.

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