Refi

My dad, Mr. Very Smart, does our taxes every year (thanks, Pops). Can I tell you how much I love that? It's a huge blessing. And very kind of him. He was taking a look at our form that shows info on your mortgage, and he called me. He asked if we had considered refinancing our house. I hadn't really thought much about it; I figured we hadn't been in it long enough to have very much equity. Dad made some calls to some people he knew (I swear he knows 95% of Idaho Falls), and he said he thought we could do it, lowering our interest rate, thereby saving us some money every month.

One of the things we had to do was get an appraiser to look at our house. I thought for sure it would appraise for more than it did. It only appraised for a thousand bucks more than what we bought it for 2 1/2 years ago! And that is after we have put in a new furnace and ventilation system and finished a bedroom downstairs. Crazy. And dumb.

Luckily, we were still able to proceed with the refinancing process, and we are so excited about it. Our old interest rate was 7.5%, I believe. Now we're at 4.875%. Huge difference. It's saving us money every month on our mortgage. Now we can use that extra moolah for a car payment! Our car only fits three kids; we need to upgrade. We were wondering how on earth we were going to do that, and voila. Blessings from heaven, sent through a very smart daddy.