Happy Day Hallelujah!

On January 8th, almost 11 months of waiting, our house went under contract. Finally! What a journey it has been to fix this little 40's built home into something marketable. When we first bought this house I was the mother of 2 boys and I'd been married for 2 1/2 years. Our requirements? Very simple. We wanted space, trees, a garage, a unfinished basement, and a big kitchen. Jeff was only making $12 and hour. Walk in closets weren't not in the works for awhile. I saw potential for beauty within the walls of this house but I didn't know the first things about decorating or really any idea what I really liked. Its been thrilling to learn how much I love create and make old things into new things.I LOVE to decorate and put things together on a low budget, while making every thing look expensive. Together Jeff and I have turned this house into a home that we're very proud of. I've learned a lot about myself in the almost 7 years that we've lived here. A few more things I've learned...

• to spend way less than we make.
• how to wire a switch.
• how to redo a room in one weekend.
• how to make an ugly room my favorite one in the house.
• to simplify and declutter.
• I can live without television. There's so much more I want to spend my time on.
• how to be frugal.
  
• what to do without a coat closet.
• how to share an itty bitty closet with my husband.
  
• how to cover graffiti.
• how to love my neighbors.
• how to sell a home in an ugly neighborhood.
• how to clean my whole house in a 1/2 hour.
• how to be patient when things don't go my way.
  
• how to lay on the couch 10 months pregnant and let my mom and friend paint my nursery.
• how a sump pump works.
  
• that I can't wait to have a self-propelled lawn mower.
• that I CAN do hard things.
• that I DON'T like too much stuff. Because then I spend all my time trying to manage it.
• I love to be organized but I need to find a way to be better at it.
• how things don't always work out the way you plan.
  
• that my husband is the studliest, smartest, most talented man I've ever known.
• to realize that my timing isn't always the Lord's timing.
• that spray paint is the best thing ever invented.
  

So two days after we got our house under contract we found our NEW home. As soon as I walked into it I KNEW that I wanted it. We found it the day it was listed and decided after a day of number crunching and praying that we would put an offer on it for $10,000 less than what they were asking, also contingent on the closing of our home. We put $2,000 down in earnest money and waited for our agent to make the offer. On the way to make the offer my agent called to let me know that there were several other people looking that day as well as the next and warned me that if we didn't offer full price we could get bumped.

We ended up offering full price contingent on the closing of our home. The seller didn't like that we were out of the deal if our house didn't close so she didn't except the offer with the contingency. We then had to decide if we wanted the house enough to lose our $2000 if our own house didn't go through. Long story short. Everything is working out. We took off the contingency and decided to take a leap of faith that everything with our house would work out. There is a couple of contingencies on our home and it was kind of scary to make a decision. I was a bundle of nerves for 4 days straight. The offer was finally accepted on Wednesday and then I decided that I needed to look into financing while the interest rates were in the 4%'s. On Friday, after another crazy two days of calling and comparing we signed a loan. If you would have seen me that day I would given you a big fat hug! I was the happiest woman alive. In fact we went over to our agent's office (who is quickly becoming on of my closest friends) to sign some papers and I completely broke down into tears because of the intensity of joy I was feeling. I felt totally overwhelmed with how everything was turning out for us. In fact, our Realtor wasn't even going to show us the house because we it was a tad over our price range, but from the moment we fell in love with it, everything has fallen into place. Since I'm a big Dave Ramsey fan and I wanted to follow everything he's suggested, I wanted to make sure that our payment would be 23-25% of our monthly income.

I really feel like the windows of Heaven have been opened on my life. Its been a heart wrenching year, mostly because of my mom's death. At times I felt like our efforts were in vain. Every time we showed the house with no results I tried to be patient. I worked really hard and studied how to stage a home and wanted so badly to be out of this house 10 months and 29 days ago, but if it would've happened when I thought it should've happened none of this would be happening, especially locking in such a low interest rate.
I'm so excited for our closing day, February 24th. I lie in bed at night and dream of our house. I can't wait to make it my own. I can't wait to pull my car into my first garage and use a garage door opener. I can't wait to cook in my kitchen and soak in my garden tub. I can't wait to put coats in a coat closet, and hang my clothes in my very first walk in closet. I can't wait to sit on my deck and watch the kids play on in our yard on the Coscto swing set included with the house!! I can't believe I can own a home like this, it hasn't been easy for us, but still I feel so blessed because I know that there's so many people in the world that barely have a front door. I'm thankful that we started out in our little 40's house. I learned a lot.

Floor plan






♥