I decided that today I would just blog anyway and at least tell you our amazing house story sans pictures.
Ahem...
Back in February David and I decided to start looking at houses. (We rented a cute little house off Lovell Road for our first year of marriage.)
We didn't feel like we had to make it happen, we just wanted to look and see what was out there.
Our price range was fairly modest, so we knew that looking at foreclosures was a good option for us. We weren't afraid of a little work and man I love a good deal!
Phase One: The Doubletree house
We found a house about two minutes from the church in a great neighborhood. It was a foreclosure and well within our price range. It was 4 bedrooms, big backyard...it needed some cosmetic work, but other than that, it was a steal! We made our offer only to find out that it was already on the negotiating floor for someone who was buying 3 houses. (Probably a flipper) They didn't even look at our offer....
Phase Two: The Canton Hollow House
After that, we looked pretty much at only foreclosures. We were hoping for another great deal to come our way. We found a beautiful house on an acre lot that was a foreclosure and in our price range. Only problem....it was basically surrounded by mobile homes. David loved the house and wanted to make an offer, but I just never felt peace about it. We prayed about it and God changed his heart. We did not make an offer.
Phase Three: The Benington House
This is probably the longest phase! We looked and looked at new houses and nothing in our price range was really what we wanted. If I saw one more Tennessee split level home, I thought I would puke! Then our realtor called us one morning and said she had found a HUD home in a great neighborhood. We went and looked right away and loved it. It was in probably my favorite neighborhood ever. It had 4 bedrooms, a beautiful screened in porch, an acre lot, huge fenced in backyard with a pool...everything! I loved it! We bid on the house and got it! The siding was in bad shape and the carpet needed to be replaced, so we applied for an FHA construction loan to fix it up. We were still well within our price range and were convinced that this would be our home...little did we know, God had other plans. As the process went on of getting together a bid for our construction and meeting FHA guidelines, we quickly found out that there was a lot more than a few thousand dollars of work to do in this house. We found something else wrong at every turn and our loan amount kept going higher and higher....this made me very uneasy. I still loved the house and pictured raising our family there, but more and more doubt kept creeping in. We got to the very end of the process and were 3 days from closing when the huge tornado storms rolled across the South East. The wind and hail destroyed the roof of the house, the pool, the windows, and literally tore pieces of siding off the house. We found out that since the house was a HUD home, there was no insurance fairy to pay for the damages. They would simply offer it to us at a reduced price. They never put tarps over the holes and it continued to rain. It was then that we knew this was not our house. We walked away from it heavy hearted, but knowing that God had a different plan for us.
Phase Four: While I'm waiting
We slowly started the process of looking at houses again, but with much trepidation. I felt burned and didn't really have the desire to go through that whole process again. We used the house money we had saved to pay off the last of our consumer debt and with selling David's car, we found ourselves in a much better financial situation. We decided to stay in our rental house and just save money until the right thing came along.
Phase Five: Barbee Lane
No sooner had we said "OK the buying a house right now door is shut right now" then our friends Brian and Laura from church told us that the house next door to them was for sale and we should look at it. My immediate thought was...absolutely not. I was so burned out by the whole house thing that I was dreading even looking at another house and getting my hopes up again. We knew their neighborhood was nice and so I knew this house would be more expensive, but we went and looked anyway. I had a knot in my stomach the whole way there. However, the moment we pulled into the driveway I had instant peace. This house was older and needed A LOT of updating, but there was just something about it. We made an offer, but there was already a cash offer on the table that was higher than ours.....bummer! Then I was really convinced that we were not going to be buying a house. I completely let go of it.
Here's the exciting part! Not more than a week and a half later, we got a call that the other offer had fallen through! David and I prayed separately about a fair number to offer and both came back with the exact same number.....and that is what we got the house for! We got the house!
Everything about our closing and inspections went so smoothly.
This house is more expensive than the last, but because we are out of debt now and got a much lower interest rate so our monthly payment is actually lower than what it would have been in the foreclosure.
The house is beautiful and we love it! It is beyond what we ever imagined. God is so good to us! His timing is perfect! I could never have orchestrated everything the way He did.
We definitely have work to do on the house, but little by little we are making it our home!
This is the house BEFORE we moved in. We have since removed the security door, trimmed the hedges, painted the door and shutters and changed the light fixture.
