Tomorrow

After years of this being the only kind of house I ever owned, my dear husband and I are closing on our first real house. Tomorrow morning.











AAAAHHHH!

Can you sense my excitement? No? Ok, then...











AAAAAHHHHH!

There you go. 

Some of you know what a ordeal/long-drawn-out-process/challenge/what-have-you this has been for us. For the rest of you, here's the reader's digest version (I wish I had been blogging about everything this whole time, but I always hesitated to constantly update because I just wanted to get to the end!):

In March of last year, we found what we thought to be the perfect house for us. It was small but well laid out, nice looking neighborhood, move-in ready, and less than $90k. We offered, the bank countered, we countered, they countered, we accepted, we got an email saying it had been opened up to multiple bidders (I KNOW...) we submitted the same "offer" that we had accepted, but didn't win. It stunkg. Bad. But it was out of our control. After wrestling with the Lord and the seller's agent, we finally accepted that He had something better for us, although we didn't understand how. I was pregnant with Josiah at the time and we really wanted to get into a 3-bedroom before he was born, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. We stopped looking at houses and decided to wait until we were in a better place financially.

Fast forward to February of this year. The 8k tax credit for first time homebuyers had been extended. Riley had been promoted and given 2 raises, a nice tax refund and bonus, and we were still expecting a settlement from his accident 2 years ago. We figured we might be able to get a house this year (instead of waiting till Julia turned 5 which had become the plan after the Hidden Oaks sting) so we contacted the realtor we'd been working with (Dave Eichhorst, great guy, highly recommended if you're in the market) and had him set up a new search for us.

We started looking online, saw a few houses and not 2 seconds later (ok, it was longer than that) had put a bid in on a HUD home. The street name was Tranquility. 4 bedrooms, twice the square footage of our apartment, 2 stories, great neighborhood, top-notch schools, extra room downstairs, good size backyard, large open kitchen with island, garden tub, massive master bedroom, I could go on. But in short, SO MUCH BETTER than what we were trying to sign up for a year before. And we could pay it off in half the time.

Um, it needed a little bit A LOT of work. I was scared. Riley assured me it was no big deal. Ok this has started to turn into the unabridged version, sorry. We won the bid (still don't know by how much, but I'm curious) but then after looking at what all it needed a second time around, it looked like we might not be able to afford it after all. Oops.

Before we could even mull it over and decide for sure, it looked like the decision was being made for us. There was a problem with the water heater and the lender didn't want to loan us the money because it wouldn't pass FHA inspection. And the seller wouldn't even let us fix it. Or something like that. 

We started looking at other houses, wondering if we'd EVER get one. Namely, before the April 30 contract deadline. But then,


There was a loophole and we and the house made it through. Approved! I'll save all the details for another post, but the Lord proceeded to bring one blessing after another in the form of contacts and discounts for all things home-improvement, credits on closing costs, etc.

And now, we're all set to sign 1,000 documents at 11:00 am and start living the American Dream (kidding)! Well, except for the fact that our bank has no local branch and FedEx still hasn't delivered the cashier's check we will need to present at the table.

Isn't this a fun ride?!




...Problem almost solved! I just talked to our bank and we can do a wire transfer in the morning. Whew!

Tranquility. Think we're supposed to learn something through this whole thing?! Our worries have turned into being humbled at the Lord's constant showering of blessings upon us and proving that He is more than able to do above and beyond all that we could ask, think, or imagine. Every time I'm wowed by the latest provision, he goes, "Oh yeah? Watch this!" Ok, I get it. No, I won't ever get it. I'll never understand why He's so good to me when I so don't deserve it. But I'll try to always be grateful.

Now, if I could just decide on paint colors. Oh, and START PACKING! =)