We bought a house!

On Thursday Tim and I bought our dream home. This experience was so different from our home buying experience the first time around. The first time around I remember being so devastated when we lost the first house we bid on. Then we found the home we live in on accident and it turned out to be perfect first house. Tim took care of all of the loan stuff because that was his career at the time. So I really did nothing and nearly had a heart attack at the closing. It was so much paper work and so overwhelming to be making such a big step. However the house has been so perfect over the last seven years and will get it's own goodbye post later.

Last summer, we started looking for houses on-line and driving around neighborhoods trying to find an area for us to call home for perhaps the rest of our life. At the time we were not in the position to really buy because we were unsure where Tim would find a job for school year 2013-2014. So we would look then stop because we knew nothing could happen until we were set on a location. Also we started  paying daycare for two babies last year, so financially we weren't in a good spot. Around May of this year we started looking at houses again. We were praying for Tim to find the perfect job and if now would be the right time to find a house. A positive part about this experience is we were not in a rush. If it happened great, if not well then it just wasn't the right time. We were truly trusting God would lead us in the right direction if we just let Him. Well, I believe it was the middle of May Tim got offered a job at a Christian school in Broken Arrow. At first I was not super excited, I was nervous of the pay of a private school, the lack of benefits and the school is a different denomination than ours. I even said I wouldn't send my kids to a private school. Basically, I was a Debbie Downer about this place. Tim on the other hand was excited. The more we spoke to the administration and prayed about it I came around. Oh and once our kids are two they can go there for free. That helped the accountant realize this might be a great deal. So end of May we got serious about a house and called my Aunt Peggy to say, "Okay, we are ready! Find us our dream home!" We had a lot on our wish list. We really didn't want to settle. If this was going to be our forever home, we didn't want to rush it. Once we started looking we realized our must have's, at least an acre lot, mature trees, 4 bedrooms, shaded back yard, large living room and kitchen, and a pantry was going to be hard to find in our price range. Middle of June after a day full of house hunting we found one we decided we would put in an offer. It had been on the market for two years, so Peggy and we went home and made a plan. We would put our house on the market in two weeks and then put an offer on the other home. We didn't feel rushed because it had already been two years, what's another two weeks. That night we prayed that if this is the right house please let us know. We got a call from my aunt the next day, "well, this morning the house went pending". It was disappointing, but I knew that meant it wasn't our house. We looked for several more weeks. Even drove by the house that went pending to see if it really sold. The new owners were moving in. God was saying MOVE ON. So we continued watching the daily listings. It was the last week before Tim had to report for school. I told him to just go check out a house without me. I really couldn't leave work and taking kids to a house wasn't very easy. He called and said "This could be the one. You need to see it." I made arrangements for the kiddos and went that evening. The house wasn't exactly in selling condition. There were things scattered everywhere. However, the bones of the house were good. It had everything on our wish list except the pantry (but plenty of kitchen cabinets). It cosmetically needed a lot of updating. We waited a couple of days and got some bids on what it would take to update the house. Finally, on Friday we decided to make an offer. After lots of back and forth and waiting we finally had a contract the following Thursday. This past Thursday (September 5th), we finally closed. Throughout the process we were fortunate enough to meet and talk with the previous owner, Don several times. He had so much to clear out of his house, so he was there nearly everytime we went to visit. We made sure to let him know that we were going to take care of his house and love the house that he and his late wife so lovingly built as their dream home. After we closed on the house, he had asked to stay the night in the house one or two more nights. At this point we felt as though Don was like a grandparent so we didn't mind at all. Thursday evening we brought the girls over and took lots of pictures of the house and with Don. Then Don spent nearly 3 hours talking Tim through all the tips and tricks of the property, house, and neighborhood, truly priceless information. Okay I think that covers it through the closing process, on to some pictures.....

Don wanted the closing to be a party so my aunt brought a cake.

 

Don and George(his realtor)

 

Some before pictures....