The Story of Our New House

So...we have rented my parents' house for the last eight years while they have lived out of the country.  It was our way to help support them but also keep the house in the family.  It is, after all, where we got married.

So, my parents have been overseas for eight years and a lot of things have changed.  Patti went into the army, got out of the army, got married, moved to Boston and moved to NJ in that time.  Roo moved back to the states when he turned 18, entered the USMC, got married to Annie and bought a house in AR.  Miki moved back here at 18 and has been living with us while working.  And Chris and I?  Chris was a police officer, then a sheriffs deputy and now is rocking an awesome job at FedEx. (Well and in there a funeral director and carpet cleaner).   He just finished his B.S. in Christian Studies!  I have been a kindergarten teacher, a seventh grade teacher, and a sixth grade teacher.  I have finished my M.S. in Science Education K-8, my Ed.S. in Educational Leadership and my Ed.D. in Educational Leadership.  And our biggest "accomplishment"?  We have had two babies!  Lorelei, 4, and Boaz, 13 months.  So, anyway, a lot has happened for our family in the last eight years.  And this is just the kid side of things, I'm not even going to get into all that Mom and Dad have done in the last eight years! 

So, when Chris and I knew that Mom and Dad were getting released by the Lord to be able to return home (by faith---they don't have a job lined up yet) we decided to casually start looking at houses.  We found a foreclosed property that we thought we might be interested and contacted our bank.  If you work through realtors certified by USAA you get a gift card after you buy or sell based on how much the house was sold for.  So, we got connected with a realtor who talked us out of the original property and said he would take us on Saturday to look at four houses.  He sent the emails with the pictures you could click through.  We didn't hate any of them.  (Isn't that nice of me?)  So, on Saturday we meet at the first house.  Big thumbs down for me.  The realtor said that the owners of one of the houses we were supposed to look at said it wasn't a good day to look so we headed to the next of two more houses. 

We pull into a cove and we were like, "Yes!  We always look in the windows of that house and now we get to see inside!"  And then the realtor pulled into the driveway across the street from the house we were talking about.  And I said, "I've never even seen that house before."  We go inside and realize this is not a house that he had sent us on the email.  He looks it up and we were supposed to be going in the house across the street that Chris and I had looked in the windows.  His GPS had taken us to the wrong house!  GPS?  Divine intervention.  We said, we like this house...how much?  Yeah people, foreclosure, move in condition.  Bank just painted the whole house and re-carpeted.

So, that was a Saturday.  We got in touch with my parents the next day to make sure everyone was on board...we couldn't afford to buy and continue paying rent and wanted to make sure we were not leaving them in a bind.    So, Sunday we got the go ahead from my parents and got pre-qualified.  Monday we made our official offer.  $5,000 under foreclosed asking price.  When we made the offer no one else had made one.  That night was date night for Chris and I.  We found out that night that someone else had made an offer.  We had until 5 pm the next day to submit our very best offer.  We then found out that the house had shown 10 times on Saturday!  I had a lot of ideas and things I wanted to say about how much I thought we should offer but I kept feeling God say for me to be submissive to Chris and let him make the decision.  (I have to be careful because I know I can persuade Chris to do things my way)  The next morning he said we would offer $5,000 over the asking price.  We lost the house.  The other buyers backed out at midnight and our realtor got the bank to consider our first offer rather than our best offer and they countered so we bought the house for $2500 less than the original foreclosed asking price.

That was a super hard paragraph to write, giving God glory in how He worked out the details and not using poor taste in talking about money everywhere!  Y'all know I usually err on the rude side and do discuss money.  It's a reality we all have to deal with.  God is good, He promises to take care of all of our needs and He keeps His promises.

So, we closed on February 13th.  When we finished signing all of the papers I pushed Chris (not hard!) and told him to run.  I felt like they might take the house away, that they made a mistake.  Isn't that dorky?  I was just so excited!  

So...then we could start moving in but not really.  What that means is we couldn't move in until my parents were back or very close to it.  This sounds wonderful because there was not a weekend where everything must be over there at one time...however after three months there comes a point where you just want everything in the same place.  We painted Lorelei's room, Boaz's room and our room.  We might paint more later.  We are not in a rush.  Everything is freshly painted.

And while there was not much work to be done on the inside, the outside...well much work is needed for the yard and landscaping.  It will come with time.

And truly God is so good to us! 

Video tour later?