We Bought A House: Our God Story!
It’s so crazy to me to think that a year ago I began this blogging journey (My Crazy But Beautiful Life As A Housewife) and soon after that I shared a somewhat awakening revelation in our search to expand our living quarters. A revelation that allowed me to see that often times, less is more and even though we often think that we “need” more, God has us right where He wants us (click here to read A Lesson On Letting Go).
If you don’t know Guy and I’s situation then you don’t know that when we first got married we lived in my mother-in-laws house for 7 months, and soon after that we moved into a 2 bed/2 bath condo where we have since resided. To say that we have been blessed is an understatement…God has continued to pour out His favor on us. Selfishly, I have desired to own my own home, a place that I can truly make ours and begin to raise our family in but to be honest the finances just haven’t been there.
After Guy received his real estate license and began doing that full time things got tough. If you know anything about real estate you know that it is 100% commission based. Being young, inexperienced and self-employed, it just was not in the cards for us to get an adequate mortgage from the bank. So we continued to rent and pray, rent and pray. We knew that when it was time to buy a house God would make it happen, it had nothing to do with us and our timing…it had EVERYTHING to do with HIS timing.
When we agreed to continue living in our condo as we continued to save up our money, I felt my heart begin to sort of let go. I began to see our condo as our home; I began to see the people around me as our neighbors; and I began to see our community pool as a sweet sanctuary for those hot summer days. As I let go of this idea of a forever home that I “needed,” I began to fall in love with our community, our cozy home, and all the amenities that came along with it. For heaven sakes, I even began to look forward to saying hi to the maintenance man that came to cut our grass every Thursday. Letting go allowed me to let in all that God had given me in the first place. We were beyond blessed.
But as our family grew and storage becomes tighter and tighter, there was a reality that needed to be faced; No longer do we “need” to get a home, we literally HAVE to! I almost cringed at the thought of searching for houses. I knew that our mortgage situation hadn’t improved a ton since we checked a year ago but our savings had come a long way. After talking with the bank we knew we had a challenge on our hands; buying a house in OUR price range, a house that could sustain us for a good 5-7 years was not going to be an easy find for us.
Knowing our circumstances weren’t exactly ideal, we set out with high expectations. Here were some of our “starting” credentials (I say starting because it changed about 3 different times):
- 3-4 bedrooms (ideally 4)
- 1-2 baths (ideally 1.5)
- Basement or attic (for storage)
- Playroom
- A fenced in backyard (for our dog)
- Safe neighborhood/good school district (even though we are toying around with the idea of homeschooling)
- In the city Champaign or Mahomet
With this “list” in our hands, we set out to find our “dream” home. I think we looked at a good 3 houses the first night and came back home extremely discouraged. Not only were these houses a complete disaster but they needed an extra $15,000-$20,000 in repairs (and that was low balling everything that needed to be done). Obviously we knew we weren’t going to find our PERFECT forever home but the pickings were much slimmer than we ever anticipated. To say we were discouraged was an understatement.
When we got home we reassessed (and majorly compromised) our list and came down to this:
- 3 bedrooms
- 1 bath
- Basement or attic
- Safe neighborhood
See the difference? We looked at a few (or more) properties within the next couple of weeks and got excited when we found something we felt had potential…it’s kind of sad when you think a house that smells like dog crap and has animals in the wall to be potential BUT that’s where we were at. We continued to search and consult close family members but at the end of the day we were at a loss. At this point we accepted it just wasn’t in God’s timing but agreed to continue looking whenever the mood struck.
One Saturday, as we did our occasional on-line search, we were surprised when we found a new listing…one that we hadn’t seen in the last 3 months and one that was surprisingly in our price range. We agreed to take a look but didn’t get too excited. The next day, following church, we decided to take an impromptu trip to see this mystery house. When we arrived we lugged the kids out of the car and unenthusiastically patrolled the property…what we found next had us speechless:
- Move in ready
- 4 bedrooms
- 2 bathrooms
- Finished basement
- Attic
- Safe neighborhood
- In Champaign
- Fenced in backyard
- Room to play
Oh and did I mention it has an underground POOL in the backyard!?
We were incredibly blown away. With little to no hesitation we contacted the listing agent. After a gruesome week of online biddings (it was a foreclosed property and there were multiple offers on the property) plus stress/excitement up the WAZOO we finally got confirmation that the property was in fact OURS! We were outdone by our God. Overwhelmingly so. And that still doesn't do Him justice. Our God, our GOOD, and FAITHFUL God met us right where we were at and it was never about our timing it had always been about HIS!
**Our fun photoshoot at our NEW house! The kids had such a blast exploring their new surroundings and getting acquainted with their new rooms! Plus who doesn't like a little dancing?!
We are so excited to announce that we will be starting the move in process tomorrow (September 9th) with a Kitchen renovation project beginning this week. Any and ALL volunteers are welcomed! We have a big job on our hands but we are doing it "Chip & Joanna" style and couldn't be more thrilled! If you are free the weekend of September 12th we would love some extra hands in the kitchen! Contact me with questions if you're interested!
**All pictures were taken by Alisa Nicholle Photography. If you are looking for an amazingly laid back, creative, and talented individual to capture your families most precious moments or any other event in between contact her at alisanichollegreene@gmail.com. You will not be disappointed!
