We Bought a House!

We did it! We bought a house! After a lot of looking and a lot of prayer we finally found the right place for us. It was a long process and a learning experience for sure. After striking out a couple of times and practically giving up we feel like we were led to this home. There were a couple of interesting things that kind of fell into place that made us feel like heaven is watching over us.

After making offers on three homes that all fell through for various reasons we kind of decided that three strike meant we were out and maybe the answer to our prayers was simply not to buy a home. We put our search on hold and felt like we would be led to the right thing if and when the time was right.

We planned to go camping for Labor Day weekend. We were all ready to go when I came across a listing for a home that seemed like it would meet our needs. It was all brick, one level, three bedroom two bath, in a culdesac, in the school district that we wanted, 20 minutes from work, 2 minutes from the freeway, less then 10 minutes to the mall, one acre fenced back yard. The best part was it was at the bottom of our price range but seemed to have all the things we needed most. It wasn't as big as some of the homes we had looked at but it had everything we really cared about and would meet our needs.

The house was on our way to the camp ground so I called Brian and we made arrangements for the listing agent to let us in. We didn't call our agent at this point because we really thought we were done with our housing search and didn't want to bother her if we weren't really serious.

On the way to the house we hit some metal siding on the freeway that couldn't be avoided. When we got to the house we looked around and liked what we saw. We could tell it had been well taken care of. The neighborhood was quiet and the location was great. We thought it would be a good option and decided we probably should offer on it. As we returned to our car we found out we had a flat tire. Brian put on the spare while Samuel and I played on the swings in the back yard. A few other people came to look at the house and seemed rather serious.

We couldn't get the tire fixed until the next day so we postponed our camping trip for the next morning. We called our agent from the tire store and found out that she was five minutes from where we were and free to look at the house with us. She had been with another client all day looking at homes in the same price range. She confirmed our feeling that this was a great deal and worth making an offer. We worked it up that night. The home had been on the market for two days and by the time we offered, it had 2 or 3 other offers. Had we left for our camping trip as scheduled the home would have been gone.

Everything fell into place quickly. The home was in great condition. We wanted to repaint and do a little remodel but other than that we felt confident that this was a home that wouldn't have issues and would be a good investment for us. We had been hesitant about getting a home because the housing market is so crazy right now and we weren't sure how long we would want to stay in it. But, we felt that if this home had that much demand in this market, then we would probably be ok.

Anyway, that is probably more detail that you wanted but we have felt very thankful to have our prayers answered in a way that we could understand. Brian spoke in church last week and he shared his feelings about this experience. It has been a testament to us that Heavenly Father cares about us and will guide us in even our material decisions if we will let him.

We moved in on Oct 30th and we LOVE being in our own place! My favorite part is the fact that is has central heat and air (our last place did not). Brian's favorite part is the shorter commute and Samuel seems to really love the garage! So, let me show you around!

Here's the kitchen. It's a little smaller than we wanted but it's working great! We liked the floors and the granite counter tops.

The appliances were new. We love the double oven. Brian is excited to put it to the test with Thanksgiving dinner.

This is the bonus room. It needed the most work. It's a refurbished garage and when we bought the house it still looked pretty garage'ish. We repainted, re carpeted, filled in the garage door frame with dry wall and added these windows. I love it! It is light, open, and a great place to play and hang out as a family!

Master Bedroom. Simple but nice enough. We like the hardwood floors.

Great room.

Back yard. It is super private! It backs up to the woods and there's really nothing on the other side of the privacy fences. No one can see back there. It is so nice!

Deck.

Home Sweet Home!