Order of Events

A few people have voiced their concern about the order in which things have been done in the process of buying this house. Specifically related to the home inspection and signing the contract. For the most part, they said I should have had the home inspected before I signed the contract to buy the house.
It makes sense that you don't want to commit to buying a house without knowing the house isn't in really bad shape and need a ton of repairs. It's good to know that you'll be buying a quality home.
The thing is, the contract itself stipulated that I had 10 days from the date it was signed that I could cancel it for any reason. That gave me the ability to lock in the home, keeping another from buying it before me, and the time I needed to get the home inspected, making sure that the house was something I actually wanted to buy.
I'm fairly sure this is a common thing, possibly even a state requirement, when buying a house. Everyone I've asked about it at least followed the same procedure as I did, putting in an offer, then having the home inspected after. With the 10 day window at the beginning of the contract to cancel for any reason, I felt confident in signing the contract before having the home professionally inspected.
Now, this is also the reason I was stressing so hard earlier. I only had a 10 day window to figure out everything. I had to know that there wouldn't be any major hurdles to buying the house, and if there were, I'd need to know right away. So I made sure I got all my paperwork into the lender right away, made sure I got the inspection done, made sure I could get insurance. Any one of those things going wrong could have meant I wouldn't be able to close on the house and if it happened after that 10 day window, bad things would happen.
At this point, I'm sure there's going to be more to stress over, there will be more things that pop up that I'll need to deal with. But right now, I've done everything I can do to make sure it all goes as smoothly as possible, and I'll have to deal with anything else as it comes along.

So very stressed

So, yesterday I started dealing with the mortgage paperwork. I read through all the documents on Sunday after I finally got them. Then as I was going back over them while I signed them, something seemed off. Looking at the numbers given by the bank, the money due up front from me was insanely huge. Like double the max money I had available to spend. So I tried to get a better idea from the lender about it, and turns out she completely flubbed the numbers. Left off $1,000 of the earnest money and put in the wrong information for a number of other areas. Now, the number is in a more appropriate place where I can handle it.
Even so, those wrong numbers caused me an enormous amount of undue stress. This whole thing is really throwing me for a loop. Luckily I've only got about a month of all this, then it'll become a different kind of stress.
I'm really worried about screwing something up, or something going totally wrong and me being out all the money I've put in and owing even more cause of something that could have been avoided.
On top of that, today is the inspection of the home. I'm going to try to put together a video of the home, like a walkthrough and introduction to the premises. Also, because I'm so worried about money and being ready to put money down on the house, I'm going to be working all weekend for overtime. I might actually just end up working everyday this month if I can. It's gonna suck, but in the end I think it will be worth it. Luckily I have 3 paychecks till the closing date, so I'll be able to sock away some money.
I'm just going to have to live off credit cards for the next month and spend as little actual money as I possibly can. I'll probably have to raid my Dragoncon savings for this year to make sure I have enough money at the end.

Now what?

Contract is sign, so what's next? Well, I have to talk to my lender, get the mortgage going. I need to get the home inspected. One article even says I should contact the municipality to find out more about the home. So, today during lunch I will need to call my bank and talk to the mortgage guy. I sent him an e-mail last night, but have not yet gotten a response, so I need to find out the next steps there.
I also need to do some research about home inspections. Find out what I should do to make sure I have gotten a proper and thorough inspection, and questions to ask ahead of time to know the inspector will do what needs to be done. Then after work contact some people to get it scheduled.
Then maybe tomorrow I should see about contacting Lilburn (I'm guessing that would be the "municipality" I need to contact) about the property. Of course, I'm going off the suggestions of a blog I found from a couple years ago.
I also need to contact my insurance company and get homeowner's insurance. Luckily, I can do that anytime of day. I plan on continuing to use Progressive, since they do my car insurance already and should have reasonable costs.
I have e-mailed my agent to find out more about scheduling with her about getting the inspection done, can't get in without help.
I will also need to worry about utilities, but I have time before that has to be done. Luckily I don't plan on moving in immediately, but I do need the house to be somewhat livable right away. This is going to be an ordeal, that's for sure.
A couple more links that might be helpful:
Finishing Details
Post-contract Pitfalls
After the Contract is Signed

Good news getting better!

Heard from the agent today and it's on. I have to run by the bank to get another cashier's check, and then deliver it to the agent, sign some papers, and then do all the rest of the stuff that comes with being under contract. Technically, I'm not yet in escrow, but tomorrow I think I will be!
I'm pretty sure the next steps are going to be to deal with the mortgage paperwork and schedule a home inspection. Hope to get that done by the end of the week, but gotta figure out what's involved and all that.
Other than that, I think everything is going according to plan. I'm still kind of nervous about this whole thing, but I know it's the right thing for me. I honestly can't wait to get on with the moving process, because that is going to take a while.