I Do Believe in Miracles...

...but am holding my breath right now because it's one of those things that seems too perfect...too coincidental...too much of the fairy tale stuff...

So, last week, I began my quest for new windows and a central air unit. We decided if we were going to do it, we also wanted to consolidate all our credit card debt. One big chunk payment, ya know? It was one of those, which comes first...? kinda things. Do you get the loan without knowing costs or do you figure out costs without having a loan secured? We dived into both at the same time. Tackling loans and quotes.

On the financial end, we went to Chase first. My amazing banker friend asked about equity. I said I didn't think we had any. We refinanced less than a year ago and with the housing market drop, I presumed our house worth dropped as well. Chase doesn't offer unsecure loans. Three Rivers Federal Credit Union does and, pending qualifications of our income, we qualify for $10,000. Wells Fargo denied our application for $20,000 unsecured. We need approximately $15,000, I believe.

Today, the a/c guys came to give us quotes. Yesterday, I struggled with wanting to just call and cancel because the idea of how to pay was overwhelming. We could get the TRFCU loan and then a separate financing through the company, but then, it was back to lots of interested and payments. And more applications and more marks on our credit.

So, A/C guy 1 came. He asked if we wanted a new furnace. I said not really. He said that without upgrading the furnace, we don't qualify for the tax credit. I said ok. He quoted us at $3500 for just an air conditioner. Spent about five minutes talking about how amazing the company was, but didn't explain much else. He left.

A/C guy 2 came. He asked if we wanted a new furnace. I said not really. He said that without upgrading the furnace, we don't qualify for the tax credit. I said ok. He explained that it would be hard to put an air conditioner with the furnace we have. I asked for a quote both ways then. He quoted us at $3000 for just an air conditioner or $7100 for both an air conditioner and new furnace. He spent about five minutes talking about how amazing the product was and spent about twenty minutes crunching numbers with me. He explained the effeciency percentages of air conditioners and heaters. He said the one we have now was probably 70% new and about 40-50% now. He explained that that means for every $100 we spend on gas, only about $40 or $50 is actually going to heat the house. We talked gas bills. We talked electric bills. He explained that if we do the furnace and air conditioner, it would be a $1500 tax credit. He also said that with that furnace, NIPSCO credits $200 on our gas bill. He answered all my questions then left.

A/C guy 3 came. He is the friend of a friend. He asked if we wanted a new furnace, I said to quote both with and without a furnace. He said it'd be virtually impossible to add an air conditioner to our furnace. He looked at our registers throughout the houes. He didn't quote us an air conditioner only price, but priced an air conditioner and furnace at $4500. He didn't explain much about his company or the products, but left.

So, I began to ponder. I really liked A/C guy 2. I liked that he took time to help me, but not talk at me. I like the price of A/C guy 3. I still was struggling with how to finance this project and new windows. (This may be too much financial information, but I'm a very open and transparent kinda person.) We owe about $6,500 in credit card debt. With the $10,000 loan, that leaves us only $3,500 to work with. It would be either one or the other (air conditioner and/or furnance OR windows). If we did both, we would need to finance the other. If we assume the cost for the air conditioner/furnace ($5,000) and windows ($5,000) and credit card debt ($6,500), we need a total of $16,500 somehow.

The numbers just kept crashing in my head. I am a planner. An OCD planner. I crunch and crunch and crunch numbers all the time in my head. That's what makes me a great grant writer. Numbers of service. Numbers of cost. Cost per service. It all goes around.

We would save money in interest by consolidating our credit cards and just never using them again. It's stupid to get an air conditioner/furnace without new windows because these 1940 bad boys are just not cutting it. In the winter, you can feel the air coming right in. In the summer, they are like magnifying glasses. I assume that at least 30% of our heat/air goes right out the window, literally. However, we are still wasting money with the window air conditioners and fans everywhere. This month, our electric bill has nearly tripled. We have three window units and approximately six fans. And yet, there's only about 10 sq. feet where you can comfortably sit without sweating. If we are spending half our bills for the efficiency and our gas bill about a year ago was budgeted at $300/mo. then that's at least $100 a month we are spending on nothing really. In a year, that's $1200, close to the difference between just an air conditioner and a furnace added on.

So, my mind whirlwinds keep going. However, here's the miracle part:

I keep praying. I know these are not necessities really. I know that we should give our finances to God. So, I basically did. I was upset when our loan application was denied, but just decided that if it is going to work, it will...somehow.

So, today, I grabbed the mail like always. Inside the stack was two envelopes that I didn't expect. One was from the county assessment office. They have assessed our home and property value for the year. Last year, it was $74,000. This year, it is $96,000. The other envelope was from the bank who has our mortgage. It was a random tax paper saying that if we were to pay off the loan right now, we owe $78,500. The difference between worth and what we owe is $18,500. Almost exactly what we need. How weird is that? If this isn't a God thing, I don't know what is...

I called the assessment office and asked what all this meant. She said it was the worth of the house with what houses around us were selling for. Somehow, it went up despite all the economic crisis. So, I called my banker friend to ask what she thought and am waiting for her call back...so, hopefully, this is my miracle. Say a prayer....

[Edit: The banker friend referred me to their bank's mortgage guy. He basically said the house needed to be appraised at $105,000 for them to give us the $10,000 we would like. I may call another bank. Not sure what to do now. Stuck between a rock and a hard place...]