In waiting mode - again

We are still waiting for the builder to give us his numbers. DH left him a voicemail and email yesterday. While we know it will probably be quite a bit higher, due to the original numbers we got are now almost 2 years old and we added/changed things, we can't really make any more decisions at this point until he gets us those.

Basically, I've been pre-qualified through the bank, up to a certain amount, and that we would be able to not have to sell this house prior to building (ie have both payments). We are pretty sure this approved loan amount will be under the total cost to build both the house and shop, but easily should be under the cost to build the house. And with that amount, our land itself, (without proceeds from sale of house) is more than enough to cover required 20% down. We were kind of thinking yesterday, if his numbers for both come in higher than we are approved for, we will probably just have him build the house and not the shop. Then, when we sell the house and get out from under that $1000 payment, we can use the proceeds from house sale to build the shop and have to borrow a little for the balance. Of course, final amount needed would all depend on how much we end up getting on this house. We do not want to have to sell this house first, try to find somewhere to live and store all our stuff. That would be just total added stress we do not need. We'll have a completely crammed 3 garage until we can build a shop, but that's ok.

It felt like this pre-qualification process went smoother than 2 years ago when I first tried to get qualified through that bank lady my boss uses (and turned into a fiasco!). Being now more than 7 years past bankruptcy and a better credit score made the world of difference. While I'm sure the actual underwriting process will be just as annoying, at least this part felt easier. And we're not waiting on a sale to close, that kind of thing, either.  We're just waiting on the dang builder! We finally got a site work (foundation, septic) quote, today, from that one contractor that kept blowing DH off.  Like 2 1/2 months since he first contacted him about all this.

I've been trying, this week, to get back into doing M-Turk. Even if I can just do $2-3 a day, it adds up. So far, so good this week. They seem to have changed their layout and now putting in a search criteria doesn't disappear every time you complete a survey and want to go back to searching for the same types. Makes it a little easier, I think. And they have a spot you can quickly copy your ID number, needed for some jobs.

I was doing my daily Swagbucks stuff yesterday and noticed I somehow got $5 (500 points) more all of a sudden. Well, apparently when I made my JC Penney online purchase awhile back (and rec'd 10% back in Swagbucks) I also received a $5 bonus. That sure made those few Christmas gifts I bought even cheaper! Nice deal.

DD has got a job interview lined up for one of her resumes she sent out. In a couple of weeks. It's a job for the state as a purchaser. She doesn't know how much it pays, but I'm sure more than she is making at her current job. If nothing else, it gives her some more interview experience. She hasn't had much..she always get the first job haha!  Keeping my fingers crossed for her. She did get awarded a $200 gift card from her employer a couple of days ago, based on her good work.

Payroll is tomorrow and the lady at the company that does our payroll emailed my boss and cc'd me saying "sorry, I processed payroll and got the shareholder's salary increases included but not the "others". Hmm...wondering exactly what she means by "the others".  Well, the others have to be us regular employees, but who? exaclty. When I asked my boss last week if I was going to be getting a  raise this year, she did say she was working on them next week...but usually we don't get them until we have a review....and nothing has been sent out about reviews, either.  The 2 owners and 4 managers (shareholders) always get their increases the first paycheck of January....the rest us is a wait and see deal.  I seem to have gotten left off the reply back (LOL) on whether she wants to just have the payroll company add it on retro next check or so a separate run checks just for the increases.  So, waiting to see what happens on a raise too.............wait wait wait. Ugh.