It's Our House Now

   A couple of months ago C and I decided to refinance our house. We wanted to take advantage of a lower interest rate and to get rid of some extra charges. The goal is to pay off the house as soon as possible.
   When I bought the house, I was the one who carried the mortgage as I had the best credit. We decided it was best that way so legally the house belonged to me.
   With the refinance we decided to put C's name on the title and also have him as a coborrower on the loan. This allows him to take care of things relating to the mortgage without me having to give permission to talk to the bank.
   We closed on the refinance this morning. We were both excited about this. Part of it was due to the fact that there was a lot of paperwork and other things that needed to be done. We both wanted it to be finished. I was excited because for the first time in his life, C would be a homeowner.
   It wasn't like C had never lived in a house as an adult. He has. Most of the time he rented or had made other financial arrangements that did not end in ownership of the property.
   C moved a lot when he was younger. Once I asked him how many times he had moved before he turned 18. He counted over 20 different moves. He made a lot of moves as an adult too. When the children were born they had to find a bigger places to live. One time a place they had rented had a serious mold issue that made the children sick.
   When we got married, I told him that we were not going to move. I was very interested in staying put and putting down some roots. I hadn't moved as much as he had, but had done my share of picking up stakes for a new place. When we married I owned a small townhouse and he moved in there. Eventually we decided to move. We both had commutes to our jobs. Gas was expensive and it made no sense to live so far away.
   We sold the townhouse and moved to a small apartment in the Twin cities area. Then we went house hunting. I can still remember the day we first saw our house. We had gone to the Arboretum. It had started to rain. We had looked at this house online as a possible place to buy. It happened that there was an open house and we decided to go to it. It was pouring rain when we pulled up in front and went inside.
  From the first time I saw it I liked it. There was a dining room big enough to fit my dining table. The kitchen had a bar where I could put my counter stools. There were three bedrooms upstairs one of which had a small bathroom attached to it. The basement was partly finished and had a large family room, a storeroom, a bathroom and a small sauna under the basement stairs. There was also a room big enough that it could be a studio for C.
  We were both excited and trying to hide it. We had heard that it wasn't good to let the seller's agent know how much we liked the house. I'm not sure how well we hid it. When we got back to the apartment, I called our agent and told her we wanted that house. We both felt very strongly it was the place we wanted to live.
  There was another couple interested in it, but we had a big advantage. We had no other property to see and we could close as soon as the buyer wanted. After some inspections and a lot of paperwork, we closed on it. Actually, I closed on it. I felt a little bad about it. C said he didn't  mind, the important part was that we had a good place to live.
  I wanted us to have an experience that other couples have. Most couples when they marry buy a house together. To me it's kind of a right of passage in a marriage.
  When the chance at this refinance came up I saw an opportunity. Not only would we be able to pay off the mortgage faster, it would be a chance to put C's name on the title. After nearly 13 years of marriage, we would finally be able to buy a house together.
  This was the best closing of all. I happily signed the documents that gave the title to C. I smiled when I saw the words husband and wife joint tenants. For the first time in all my years, I didn't have to sign the documents alone. It didn't take very long, only about half an hour.
   As of 9:30 this morning, the house was no longer my house. It is now OUR house. Our house.... what a wonderful sound......
 
  
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