Part Three- Closing

Another bump....
The day before the closing Mister lawyer was riding his son’s bicycle, fell and broke his arm.

Turned out his father was also a lawyer and agreed to step in.

Problem solved!

Monday morning came, Lawyer Dad called us a few hours before the closing to check and see if we had all the necessary papers. Did we have the proof of insurance?

WHAT?

So two hours before the closing we went scrambling to find an agent to insure a house we didn’t yet own……. 

Now, I moved quite a bit growing up and my parents brought me with them to the closings so I would to get an idea of what it was all about.

Mostly you sit there quietly and get writer’s cramp from signing endless checks for things you never even considered…like the half tank of fuel for the oil burner that has probably gone bad from sitting stagnant for two years since the old man who owned the house died and his estate went through probate…..huh?

But I digress.

We sat at the large conference table not knowing anyone there, I, clutching my little checkbook, ready to write out all the required amounts, fully confident that we had enough money to cover everything.

After all, we had checked, double checked, TRIPLE CHECKED and over estimated what we would need.

I started to write….and write….and write…..

At this point you have to know that when I write a check (or debit anything) I immediately reconcile the amounts in the check register. I’m anal that way.

So as I wrote I did the math.

Then the lawyer for the estate asked for one last check…..and I looked at the balance in the register and realized I didn’t have enough to cover it!

Panicked, I leaned over to lawyer Dad and told him I didn’t have any more money. He coolly whispered out of the side of his mouth, “Just write the check!” as he smiled at the others.

For the first time in my life I wrote a bad check!

Finally it was over, they handed us the keys and it was ours!

To this day I can’t recall where we got the money to cover that last check.