A Brief Update

There will be more to the story, but I wanted to let you all know that we closed for real on the house yesterday!! Praise God!

'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.' Jeremiah 33:3

He has done incredible things. I plan to post the entire story sometime soon. Right now? I'm packing, cleaning, and moving.

So for now, I'll leave you with some photos:

Home Buying Adventures, part ??

The new roof was put on the house on Friday. I don't like the color. Boo. Sadly, it was my choice. The problem is that the brick is a variegated green and the paint is blue. And I had to select a color from the internet and my memory of the house. Not a good combination. Maybe it's not as bad as I think. Or maybe it is. My goal was to match the brick (the paint sure doesn't) so that some day, when we repaint the house, it will all tie together. We'll see.

No pix. Yet.

The latest (which changes all the time) is that we're aiming for closing on Wednesday. Since the entire deal with this house has been very loose and fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants, who knows what that means. Our mortgage broker really does have to close this week, however. If not . . . well, we'd prefer not to go there. We're also planning to be out of our current house by the end of the month. Unless "if not..." happens. But we're not going there.

So hopefully this week, I can post about getting through closing, having keys in hand, and maybe I'll even share some photos.

Other than that? Sorting, purging, and packing. Speaking of which, Audio Adrenaline (old stuff) and the B52s (well, old here, too) make for an awesome purging/packing dance mix! Very motivating. Especially when the house is void of other family member and I can crank the music.

Here's the Latest

The Next Step
Our realtor called yesterday to say that the bank (seller) has approved the repairs that we asked for on the house we're trying to buy. They initially wanted the money for the repairs to be escrowed and we'd take care of it after closing. However, the roof must be replaced or we won't make it to closing. So the listing broker is supposed to get that squared away. The appraisal has been ordered. Fortunately (for us, anyway), roofers aren't terribly busy right now, so hopefully that can get taken care of this week. IF everything comes together well (of course, that's God's call), we could be looking at closing within a couple of weeks. I suppose that means I should pack or something. Ha! Ha!

I actually have begun packing some of the non-essentials already. I became a little more serious today. I'm also still trying to purge out things I don't really need or use. I'd love to move into the new house with about 50% less STUFF than we currently have. I've also been reading a book called Too Much Stuff by Kathryn Porter. I've spent numerous years trying to organize my abundance o'stuff. Since then, my focus has shifted to decluttering and eliminating the abundance o'stuff. Throughout all this time, I've read quite a variety of books, magazine articles, and websites. This little book has been one of the most motivating for me. If you need a boost to get rid of your own excess, you may want to check this one out.

Homeschool
We just wrapped up our second week, and I am pleased to say that it's going fairly well. There are a couple of things we need to add into our days, but we're getting there. Of course, I realize that we may have to take a slightly modified path as I need to pack and we may be moving soon. One big hindrance right now is that the desktop isn't working very well. That's where the school programs are supposed to be. Also where the boys can do their work. Sigh. Maybe those things will have to wait until we've moved. Regardless, we're off to a good start. Praise God!

The Comedian has decided to participate in the homeschool bowling league again this year. He bowled his first turkey ever in the second game, which was pretty awesome!

"Show Me" Photo Meme
Robert at Thoughts of a Father is hosting a very fun meme this week, called "Show Me..." Each day this week (beginning today), he has a different thing to take photos of and "show" on your blog. Today's entry is "Show Me...Your Mailbox." Come join in the fun. Or at least go take a look at everyone else's mailboxes. The variety of boxes is quite interesting. Oh, you can see my entry here.

That's about it. Attempting to buy a house, homeschool, and taking photos encompass the majority of my life at the moment. Hopefully I'll have some further (good) news about the house this week.

Adventures in House Buying

I'd have provided an update sooner, but there's been just about nothing to report. It has been two weeks since we were last at the house, while the water heater was checked out along with the plumbing. So we requested the roof be replaced (that's been part of it all along), and now we asked for the water heater to be repaired/replaced. In addition, we've requested that a water softener be removed and the pipes be reconnected, closed off, or whatever needs to happen. Otherwise, we'll have a swimming pool in the crawl space. Not really an amenity we were looking for.

The seller/bank required two bids on each repair - the roof and the plumbing, so they've had those in their hands for the past six days (business days, that is). Apparently they were asking for some clarification earlier in the week, but that's all we've heard.

Our interest rate is locked in, but the lock ends in a couple of weeks. So we signed another amend/extend a couple of days ago, bumping our closing date out to coincide with the expiration date of our interest rate.

Now here we are in a holiday weekend (meaning one less day for the bank to sign off), with no further information. The listing broker thinks that this will all go through, but until it's in black and white, we just wait.

That being said, however, I don't have any reason to believe that God isn't going to put this together. He's already done some amazing things (see here and here). He hasn't given us anything else to look at or even consider. Even when we did try and look at a couple of houses awhile back, we knew that wasn't the direction we were supposed to take. He has us waiting on this house. Period. Even when I want to become frustrated or impatient, I really can't. Because I know that He is still sovereign, still in control, and still loves us beyond measure. So why would I flip out? Why would I try and figure something else out? This is the place He has us. Here and now. As before, all I can do is press in, pray, abide in and trust Him. And that's enough.

I'm Packing

I suspected that I may still have been sleeping. Surely this phone call came in a dream, right? Our realtor called to say we are . . .

U N D E R
C O N T R A C T!!

Then I realized that I was actually awake. And had been for a number few hours. This was the real deal.

Wow! How exciting is that? Of course, there are still a few more things to get past, but God's brought us this far. In fact, He's done some pretty amazing things in regards to this house.

If you haven't been along for the ride, let me back up just a bit, so you can grasp how totally cool this is.

Our utilities became WAY too expensive last winter. And we were freezing very cold. Since I homeschool the boys, we're at home most of the time. Freezing did not make for a very pleasant learning environment. We already kept the thermostat fairly low and tried to dress warmly, but apparently that wasn't enough. After the annoyingly large bill, we dropped the thermostat to 59-60 degrees. Only when we just couldn't stand it, or company was coming over, did we turn it up. Well, then, and for a short time in the morning so that we could actually warm up enough to get moving out of a sound sleep.

So we made the monumental decision that ought to move before the next winter rolled around. After a couple of conversations here and there, we ended up getting approved to buy a house - January 22nd to be exact.

Since that time, we've looked at house, and looked at houses, and looked at houses. We even made offers on some houses - six, to be specific. We actually looked at the house we currently have under contract 2-3 months ago. But the day we wanted to take a look, it went under contract (with someone else, obviously). We continued with our looking process. The middle of last month, this one came up again. I called our realtor and found out that the previous potential buyers found another place and backed out of the deal. So we went to look.

Other than this house not being in our first choice of area to live (it's our second. And it's just over a mile from my sister and her family), it fit everything else we wanted. The right amount of rooms, size of garage and yard, and a good, works-for-us floor plan. So we made on offer. Number seven. The number of completion, Biblically speaking. On July l6th. Well, this house is owned by a bank, having already gone through the foreclosure procedure. It's been vacant for at least a year. There's some cleaning and minor things to be done, but it definitely has some good things going on, like newer vinyl windows, newer furnace, and a/c. Ceiling fans in the three upstairs bedrooms and in the dining room. Newer pergo in the living room/dining room.

Making an offer to a bank is very different from trying to buy from a private party. First of all, they don't respond within the somewhat standard 24-hour period. More like 3-5 days, business days, that is. So factor in weekends. The week after we offered, they agreed (verbally), but wanted to add a couple of things on an addendum. We decided we could live with those things, so we signed an addendum. And waited.

Then they wanted something else changed. So we did. And then we waited. Then it was one more thing. Because we did this so many time, I'm not sure if that was the last "one more thing" or if there was one more. Regardless, we signed one last addendum last week and decided that this would be the last-ditch effort. This was just getting silly.

Yesterday I got the call from our realtor that we've been waiting and waiting to hear - "You are under contract." Amazing, but true. That's not to say we're home-free (actually, that'd be opposite of what we want to be - we want to be home-ful, or something like that). There are still a couple of hurdles to get over, but with offer #7 and almost seven months later, we've gotten further than the rest. And honestly, this house fits better than the other six.

The other cool thing? We were going to pay to have the furnace serviced, but the way it worked out, the bank paid for it. How sweet is that? God's provision is so awesome. So the furnace was serviced today and it's in great shape. The A/C is good. The water heater needs a valve or else the entire thing needs to be replaced. There's a water softener that needs to be removed (leaking terribly and the water here isn't at all hard). The house also needs a new roof (we already knew that). So if they'll take care of those things, we're good to go.

If this had been a quick and easy answer from the selling party, our closing date was originally slated for tomorrow. But that's okay. God's timing is perfect. Better than what we think might be good. So we'll trust Him to continue to put this together.

In the meantime? I'm packing.



Disclaimer: That's not our house up there. I wish that were the setting, but the house is teeny tiny.

Great & Mighty God Things

In the last two days, God has just blown me away with His grace, love, and kindness towards me.

As some of you know, we're house hunting. We've been house hunting for 6 months. We've made yet another offer on a house (offer #7). However, at the same time that we made this offer, hubby's income went down - significantly. His employer decided to pay him differently. So he got the smallest check he's had in a long time last week. Now we have this offer out there and if they accept, we have to get an inspection done fairly soon, plus an appraisal.

On Monday, I was downloading our bank account information into MS Money. It wasn't pretty. Pay day was a week and a half away and things were looking bleak. Huge sigh. Our realtor calls to let us know that it looks like the bank is planning to accept our offer. With a couple of changes. One being that they want the inspection date moved up. Meaning we need to pay for an inspection, with money we don't have, sooner. Bigger sigh.

Our realtor received a worksheet for the counter proprosal. Since we decided to move forward, they'll need to send an official form. One that can be signed. We're still not sure how this will all come together. Still not under contract, but moving in that direction. I put a call into our lender to update them on hubby's income.

Great & Mighty God Thing #1:
It turns out that our loan approval was already based on hubby's basic income - without the extra hours for which he is no longer paid. His decreased income had absolutely no effect on the amount for which we're already approved. Worried for nothing.

Still stressing about how on earth we're going to make it to next pay day. Hubby's doing some work for a guy this weekend and will be paid then, but that was still a ways off. It's really not looking so good. My van's down to a quarter tank of gas, my sister's birthday is tomorrow, we have less than a gallon of milk (we go through 4-5 a week), and on it goes.

Great & Mighty God Thing #2:
I checked the account on the bank's website this morning and it was off, significantly, from what I showed in MS Money. If the rent check had come through, there shouldn't have been as much left as was shown. If it hadn't come through, we were in big trouble. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Then I remembered that I was working with MS Money the other day, not the bank's site.

I opened our file and discovered 3-4 checks that had been entered twice. The money was taken out twice. We weren't in the hole anymore! We could actually make it to pay day without selling any blood. Praise God!

While I want the bank that's selling the house we're trying to buy to come through pretty quickly, cause we'll have an August 15th closing date, if it all comes together, I really wanted to put off the inspection until next week. Like on pay day. It's hard to be anxious and drag your feet all at the same time.

Great & Mighty God Thing #3:
Our realtor called this afternoon and guess what he had in his hot little hands on his computer in a pdf file? The inspection done by the previous buyers who had a contract on the house. They GAVE it to us. For FREE. It was done by a very picky inspector and they usually cost even more than a typical inspection. And God gave it to us.

Every single thing that I have been concerned/worried/stressed about, God has TOTALLY taken care of. And in ways that I'd never have imagined. Isn't that the way He is? We can see Options A, B, C, and D. And here comes God with Option H.

I'm humbled and floored by His kindness. He's already done it all. Jesus already paid the price for my sins - past, present, and future. He's already given me a hope and a future. Yet He cares enough about me to do these amazing things in this big old house hunting adventure. I certainly don't deserve it. But it's never been about what I deserve. It's all about His love, His grace, and His mercy. Because He's God and I'm not. And He loves me in spite of me.

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3