Escrow: Pre-Home Inspection

Well, Friday was the test.  If something huge was going to go wrong, I had imagined it going wrong on this day.

For our home inspection, we had to have the water, power, and gas turned on and ready to go.  We had already scheduled for the power and water be turned on earlier this week, and that the Gas Company arrive at 9 o'clock this morning to turn on the gas for our home inspection.  I had been worrying for 3 days about what was going to go wrong and I just knew that something, or everything, was going to go wrong.

Mike & I had not seen the garage at all because ours was detached and we didn't know which one in the complex it was.  We also couldn't see the water heater because it was in a locked closet on the patio and we couldn't find the key anywhere.  My wonderful realtor, Michelle, called the listing agent on Thursday and got the garage door opener as well as its location but we still had no word on the locked water heater closet.

Well at 8:45 am, Mike, Michelle, and I all met at the property with our list of things to check and discuss.  The first was the window in the kitchen: when we had arrived at the property a few weeks ago during the rains, the window was leaking and it heavily concerned us.  Well while we were entering the property we noticed that the HOA had apparently come through in the short time since we'd visited and fixed the window for us!!!  That's right folks.  Cross that off our checklist because it was already fixed!

Yup, here it is!  Our newly fixed and freshly painted kitchen window!  

With that taken care of we were off to check that the water and power had been turned on as they were scheduled.  Water?  Check!  Power?  Not so much...  Time to call Edison!  I was pleased to find no wait time to speak to an operator, but when she couldn't fix our little situation over the phone, she decided to send someone over the condo.  Problem.  She couldn't give a window of time for someone to arrive.  She said it could be 10 minutes, or it could be 10 hours.  My heart sunk.  Was I going to have to postpone the inspection?  

I hung up and was explaining the situation to Michelle and Mike when my phone rang again: it was a lady from Edison.  She asked if I was in the Discovery community and when I answered yes she began to explain to me that she not only worked for Edison, but she lived in that community as well.  She then directed me to the main breaker panel (those are apparently not the same as the ones located in the individual units) and showed me how to turn everything on.  Houston, we have lift-off.  

Then, she thanked me for directing the previous operator to give the technician the gate code.  Apparently this Edison-employed neighbor of mine had never received the gate code after living there for 2 years.  I couldn't believe it.  I was ecstatic!  She solved my problem and saved me the fee for a technician coming out to the property!  

Well following this, all we needed was the door to the water heater opened.  After looking in all the cupboards for a key and taking a wire hanger to it, Mike and I had decided we were just going to take it off of it's slightly rusty hinges for the inspection.  Just as Mike is about to begin, Kimberly, the listing agent enters the door and announces that she has hired a locksmith to re-key the exterior door and he should be arriving any minute.  

 
This is the door that Mike was about to simply remove until Kimberly arrived.  

Go ahead, you can applaud now.  My agent was so awesome that she called the listing agent and the listing agent was so awesome that she called the locksmith.  She then walked outside and while she was directing the locksmith as to where the unit was, she found the man from the Gas Co. and brought him to the property as well.  

Well the locksmith finished up about the same time as the Gas Co. man, who upon his departure informed me that while he was looking at the furnace he discovered that the filter was dirty.  He noticed some new ones in the closet so he just popped in a new one for me.  

So please, everyone reading this:  Whatever you're doing and all the words that you have been praying have been amazing.  By 11 o'clock in the morning, the water was on, the lights were working in every room, and as Michelle said "we were cooking with gas."  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  

Stay tuned for the Home Inspection...