So the van saga continues (see my previous post for Part 1)…

Eric got up this morning and decided to just take the morning to get the van squared away so we can legally drive it.  Good times.

He drove to Pataskala (30 minutes east) because their BMV and title office are right next to each other.  Kill two birds with one stone.  Excellent!  

Instead, the complications immediately ensued.

1. The BMV had no electricity (title office did), so they weren’t open.  Hoped to be open soon, but not open then.

2. Eric headed to a nearby car dealership (which would also be able to do the “inspection” required to change the title), but they weren’t open yet.

3. He waits for them to open, gets the inspection done, goes back to the title office.  

4. Gets the new title issued and pays Ohio sales tax.  Full Ohio sales tax.

Wait…WHAT?  I thought that a notarized bill of sale indicating that we paid Michigan sales tax meant we wouldn’t have to pay full Ohio sales tax.

Guess not.  According to title office lady, because Steve wasn’t a dealer, he wasn’t authorized to charge us sales tax.  So the price we paid him was just the price we paid him.  And now we owed Ohio sales tax.  All of it.  So of course, Eric has no choice but to pay tax.  Again.  (Can you tell this is the part where I’m annoyed?)  But it just wasn’t worth one more battle at that point.

5. Eric leaves title office.  BMV was still closed.  

6. So he drives to the Hilliard BMV.  They are slow.  But they do finally get the rest of the necessary stuff taken care of (plates, registration, etc). He even renews his license while he’s there. 

7. And now, at lunch time, he can finally go to work and try to accomplish something.  And we finally have a legal van to drive.   But I will definitely think twice before doing a private car purchase ever again.  Seriously…this was way more hassle than it seems should be necessary.  Seriously. *huff*

So…we begin our tale at about 7:45 last Friday morning.

Eric and his brother, Ryan, leave for Michigan, planning to stop in Plain City for a McDonald’s breakfast and coffee.  All goes to plan.

They head north, intending to arrive at the SOS office (Michigan’s version of a BMV) around 11:30.  All goes to plan.

Steve also arrives around that same time with the minivan in question.  Again, all according to plan.

From there, however, things got…let’s call it…complicated.

After waiting in line at the SOS office, Eric and Steve are told that the bank screwed up the title.  See…when they paid the car off (multiple years ago), the bank officer neglected to sign the appropriate space indicating that.  So, according to the title, there was still a lien on the van.  Um…oops.

So, Eric and Steve leave the SOS office to find a branch of Steve’s bank (keep in mind that neither one lives in Ann Arbor).  They find it.  The bank acknowledges the mistake and writes up a letter indicating that the lien does not, in fact, exist.  Excellent.

Back to the SOS…wait in the line again…

“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,” the woman says, “but this title still isn’t right.”  Turns out the bank screwed up a second thing on the title.  Not only did they not sign where they should have, where they DID sign indicated that the lien was to be transferred to the buyer of the car.  Um…no.  We were not picking up a loan on this van.  We were buying it.

The guys get out of line, call the bank, arrange to have another letter faxed to the SOS office clearing the second issue.  Half an hour later, the letter arrives.  Finally, they can now go through the line and officially sign the title over to Eric.  It took two hours, but that part was finally done.

Except that they were not done.  We also needed a notarized bill of sale to indicate we paid Michigan sales tax.  And the notary at the bank was now at lunch.

So they had to drive to a different section of town to find a bank whose notary was in the office.  Found it.  Filled out the bill of sale and got it notarized.  Then they went to find Steve’s wife, Sarah, so they could head back to Grand Haven and Eric could head home.

Eric finally called me at 3 p.m. to say he was on his way.  Thanks to a bank’s multiple mistakes, he arrived back at 6:30, much too late to do anything about transferring the title or getting temporary plates until Monday.  

So, the van is sitting in our driveway.  I drove it around the neighborhood this afternoon.  But until we get the title transferred and such, we won’t be using it much.  Hopefully, we can get all of that done on Monday…and then we will have full use of our new minivan.

Which, by the way, is very nice, full of amenities, and much akin to driving a tank in comparison to my little 1995 Corolla!

And that is the story of Eric’s epic journey to buy a minivan in Michigan.  

The end.

“From the fulness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another…” John 1:16

This was the part of my Bible reading this morning that really struck me today.  I am so grateful for all God’s grace…for example…

1. Today Eric drives up to get our new van.  As far as we know, the details are in order and it just has to be done.  I still can’t believe that by the end of the day, we will own a new (to us) Toyota Sienna.  I’m really excited.

2. I had my 38 week appointment yesterday.  All is well.  Definitely making progress.  My “cervix of steel” (yes, medical personnel have called it that) has finally started to soften and efface.  So we might actually get to have a baby without surgery in the next week or ten days.  Very excited about that!

3. My doctor is totally supportive of trying to avoid a c-section.  No pressure.  Totally willing to wait until 41 weeks to do surgery to give her every chance of coming on her own.  It’s just so nice because a lot of doctors would already be pushing to schedule a section, just in case.  It’s such a relief for me!

4. I’ve actually gotten a ton of work done around the house for NLS’s arrival.  Her room is inching ever closer to being ready, and I did a lot of sorting, organizing and laundry yesterday.  Still have some to do, of course, but if she decided to come tomorrow (today is the only day she’s been told she can’t come…as Eric will be in MI!), we’d be good.  

And that’s just a sampling (and the big stuff).  I’m sure there’s more I could put on my list.  But that’s a good start.  

Happy Friday!