Look ma! No hands!

Here's a fun anecdote... Last Wednesday Noel and I went to the KB Home office to sign the Sales Agreement. We were a bit confused going in to the meeting. We were handed an estimated 3,798,493 pages of legalese to read in two days. Now we were expected to sign it. I think we were both feeling a bit overwhelmed. So we brought along her parents.

The office wa a small niche carved out of what will soon be a garage for the model home. In this niche 5 of us sat: Sabrina (our friendly KB Home sales lady), Noel, me, my in-laws: Vito and Anna. Each one of us with a different agenda. Noel was a bit eager to just sign the paperwork, and ensure that the 'Den' is really a '4th bedroom'. I wanted to be sure I understood some of the legal clauses of the contract correctly. Sabrina was telling us about the HOA's and using language to make sure we stayed emotional and excited. Anna wanted to know a lot about the community ("What's the quality of water like?" and other questions that never occurred to us to ask). And then my father-in-law, Vito... his agenda.

Before I tell you, you should know a bit about him. If you've met him, you probably have already witnessed his immense talent for conversation. And if you've met him, you like him. Because there is no way that anyone has met him, and doesn't like him. He's a lot like my Pop-pop in that regard. Now Vito spent most of his professional career in sales. He was a chemist/sales rep for AGFA for 20+ years. Even though I've seen this happen many times now, I'm still not sure how he does it, but my father-in-law was able to work his magic on Sabrina.

The house came included with quite a few upgrades and additional features, but it did not come with an automatic garage door opener. As we're reviewing the upgrades page to the sales agreement, Vito leans over and says, "Where's the garage door opener?" With a pleasant smile, Sabrina lets him know that this isn't included. Vito responds. "What?! There's no wedding gift for them in there? Why don't you just write it in... 'garage door opener'?" Again, with a smile and a laugh, Sabrina declines. At this moment we receive a visit from a member of the HOA. Very nice gentleman named Paul. Paul is nice, but apparently has the reputation of being the enforcer of the CCR's. He's the guy riding around leaving notices in mailboxes for the lawn not being mowed. Noel and I start talking with Paul, and asking some questions. After about a 5 minute conversation, Paul takes his leave. We turn around and Sabrina and Vito are shaking hands, as she agreed to give us an automatic garage door opener.

I don't get it. I missed the whole thing... again. Now, she said she can't include it in the paperwork... but that it should be in the house when all is said and done.

I guess Noel and I won't have to get out of the car to open the door! And each time we pull into the driveway, as its raining, we'll thank my father-in-law for working that bit of magic!