Closing

We officially own the house now!

We closed on Friday - the process to that point had been fairly smooth so something had to go wrong didn't it? Well when we got to signing off on our land survey, the closer pulled out a differently marked plot than the one we'd signed when we made the offer. The main difference was the utility easement on the back - it was now 14 feet instead of 10.

That means we are not allowed to dig foundations (or pools) in the back 14 feet of our yard. Given that our signed off pool design sits 12 feet from the fence that is a problem. We were angry - this is material information that we did not get in a timely manner.

After much hand-wringing and phoning around we decided we could accept the change but we negotiated for half our 'lot premium' back from the builder (the lot premium is paid on lots that are larger than normal and so on). He made a lot of noise about how we still have a large lot and it's still the best one in the street but we got them to concede there was some loss of utility and so 50/50 is what we arrived at.

I wish it hadn't happened like that but in hindsight it is not the worst thing in the world. The pool builder is coming over at the weekend to discuss. I am sure it will be fine.