Free and Clear

As of 9:09 a.m. this morning, we own our house free and clear! It took us four years and 10 months. Woo hoo! We made extra payments any month we could and when it was low enough we just couldn't stand waiting 10 more months of regular payments, we paid the last of it off. Plus we started with a full 20% down payment on the house in the first place.

We both went to the bank. (I was not going to trust them to do it by mail because payments by mail had not worked very well in the past.) We had a discussion about whether we both had to go in person. It ended like this:

One of us: "Whether it's necessary or not, I am going to the bank to pay this off."
And the other responding: "Well, whether I need to or not, I am going to be there too!"

So we went this morning when Troy is off and I told them at work that I would be late. (They agreed that paying off the mortgage was a good reason to miss an hour or two.) It turns out I may as well as not have been there...

We're sitting in the waiting area and Mr Financial Adviser comes up saying, "So Troy, you're going to pay off your mortgage" or something like that with his hand out to shake Troy's hand. And I was apparently invisible. Completely not there (while strangely sitting right next to Troy). Troy noticed this rather odd behaviour and after giving me a look, smoothly said, "Yes, and this is my wife, Christina" clearly indicating the invisible woman beside him. Mr Financial Adviser then suddenly saw me and deigned to shake my hand.

We made it through the payment process where he did things like ask only for Troy's ID and information and not direct any questions to me. I was the one with the payment (since, you know, society has allowed women to do banking for a number of decades by now) but I'm surprised he didn't have Troy look at it first to make sure I did it right.

Paying off the mortgage is reason enough to celebrate, but we were also very much looking forward to kicking Bank of America in particular to the kerb. There have been unpleasant issues over the life of the loan, but I have to say they ended with a particular flourish today.

The part they were correct about was that it really did only take about 10 minutes. In and out. Then we went to McDonald's for breakfast to celebrate, and as if they knew, MickeyD's gave me the supersize Coke instead of the kiddie size you usually get with breakfast. Super, indeed!

We have no other plans for celebration. We didn't really know what to do. I guess a mortgage burning is traditional. Maybe we'll have a barbeque/mortgage burning later this summer when we get the deed. I'll think about that...stay tuned.

P.S. The picture is of the north side of the house, taken when we first moved in. (One of the first things Troy did was put that door back in. It's the one that we use most often as we go to and from the shop.) I'll add a note to David who recently asked if we were planning a sitting area anywhere and I incorrectly answered no. Actually I have had in mind to put a deck off the back door there and wrap it around the west side into the "corner" of the house where Troy hasn't quite expanded the garden. Let me know what you think of that idea.