Our home building experience has been wonderful.  There honestly hasn't been a moment when we thought "building was a mistake".  We prepared for it - if you ever want to hear a funny homebuilding story you should talk to my brother and sister-in-law - but it really went up quickly, easily, painlessly.  Until...

The closing date and time has changed about a billion times.  Ok, not a billion, but it has changed around more than I would have liked.  First we had to move it because we were going to close this Friday but there were people who wanted to go on vacation for Memorial Day, so we moved it up to Tuesday, then it all went bad.  Between people at the builder and title company scheduling wrong days and times we were ready to give in.  Then, finally, we had a day - Tuesday - and a time - 10 am.  Worked for everyone, so we made arrangements at work, kids would be in school, scheduled the delivery of the fridge, set up the telephone installation, etc. 

The title company called to push back the time last Friday.  They said to come at 3, not at 10.  They were "busy" at 10.  They didn't have anyone to help us at 10.  Normally we would have said "Great!  See you at 3!" and gone about life without a second thought to pushing back our time.  However, these were not normal circumstances.

To begin with we'd already made scheduling changes at work.  We already were having the fridge delivered right around noon.  We had things to do before 3 pm.  And, there was the issue of the kids - there would be no way to get to closing, get that taken care of, and then sit in traffic coming back to Fort Worth in time to pick the kids up before late fees at school started accumulating.  Then, to top it off, there is a T-Ball game tomorrow after work. 

We explained the work conflict - they didn't care.  We explained the utility dilemma - no go.  We told them about the fridge delivery - no reaction.  According to the title company, there was "no way" we could close earlier than 3.  That was, until we pulled a Parent Poker move.  We called their bluff. 

I recalled the title company has a statement on their instructional packet.  It says "Children may become restless during the time of closing, you will want to make arrangements for child care during this time."  Polite way of saying "We don't want to deal with your kids in our office."  Ah Ha!  They exposed their weakness - they have an office full of people who do not like children.  Parent Poker opportunity! 

We formulated The Plan:  Chris would call the title company and explain we had child care for the 10 am appointment.  He would also explain that we were going to bring our kids with us - a 4 year old and an infant - to the 3 pm appointment.  I was pretty sure I would bring leftover Easter candy for Will to eat on the drive to the title company.  I was positive Reagan was going to need to eat, be tired, and there was an excellent chance she was going to have a dirty diaper.  I was equally certain I would change this diaper right there in the middle of the appointment.  Chances were also good that Will would have an asthma attack, requiring him to use his inhaler, which causes him to be a little nuts for 30 minutes after taking it.  I was also pretty sure Chris and I were going to be too involved in signing our life away to make sure the kids weren't distracting anyone.  We planned to bring one of Wilson's toys to keep him entertained - a toy gun that makes noise and has lights.  It was going to be furnished with brand new batteries, just to make sure it wouldn't run out during the long signing process.  Wouldn't want him to be there without a toy, you know. 

Luckily they heard "no child care for the appointment at 3" and we didn't have to raise the stakes with the candy, hungry-tired-dirty baby, asthma attack, noisy toy hand.  As soon as they heard we were bringing children to their offices, they suddenly remembered they had another staff member who was available at 10 am - if that fit into our schedules.  Oh, we think we can make arrangements for that, since that was all we wanted in the first place - to keep the 10 am appointment on Tuesday we were originally scheduled for by their office. 

I'm not impressed with the title company.  Luckily we're almost done.  Maybe.