Last Monday I had my appendix removed. Hence the lack of posting on this blog. During the week I was in the hospital, Tom got the house ready to show twice, and on my first day out one of those visitors came back. So three showings last week. We were feeling pretty good about our real estate situation. All we needed was the seller's sign-off on the house we were under contract to purchase and we'd be on our way.

No dice. We learned at about 3:00 last Wednesday, after much foot dragging, that the seller wasn't planning to do more than $500 worth of repairs (we had submitted two pages of requests, based on the inspection report), but that he would split the cost of mold remediation with us. (The mold was the biggest issue, but the seller's estimate was only $3,100.) We declined that offer and gave him more time to consider.

Then Saturday afternoon a little after 4:00, we learned that the seller was not on board with the required repairs, despite his agent's belief that he was. He was only ready to commit to part of the inspector's recommendations, leaving all electrical and plumbing, for example, for us to do. He had conceded to take care of the mold problem, but no more. (The upstairs toilet and sink didn't work, which he was unwilling to repair.)

So we wanted to get some estimates on how much it would cost us to make such unforeseen repairs, and since we learned all of this on Saturday afternoon, we requested an extension on our formal response so we'd have a few weekdays to try to line people up. This was a technicality, really, since the seller had not responded within the contracted time limits at any point thus far, and when he requested an extension after time had expired earlier in the process, we granted it (and he still went over by several days). So we requested this week to get the numbers together and get back to him (not to mention Monday was Tom's first full day back at work since my week in the hospital).

He said no! Wouldn't give us an extension past the 4:20 Monday afternoon deadline! After all this waiting and getting half-answers via email, not official documentation, he wouldn't give us time to get estimates (plumbing, electric, HVAC at minimum, plus we'd have had to have the floors and ceilings repaired so should have had those estimates, too).

I officially voided the contract with the request for the return of our earnest money at 1:15. After a few hours of grief, we've moved on, and today we went through another house. Tonight we'll process our offer to submit to the new sellers!