Home Sweet Home

This past Monday, our sale officially closed, and this house, became ours.

Our very first home. All our own. No more rent checks, no more landlords.

Of course, that means that when the plumbing decides to act up, or there's a rat in the attic at 3am (heaven forbid), there is also no landlord to call to come deal with it. But, there is such a sense of pride and satisfaction in owning our own house.

The week before we found this house, there was another one we thought we wanted. We had been working with a Realtor at the time, and it was the nicest home we'd seen up to that point (read: no appliances had been ripped out and there were no domestic violence-esque holes in doors). Also, it appeared to be in a really nice neighborhood, something else we had not found. We decided it was as good as we were going to be able to find, even though it was a bit more than we originally wanted to pay. We told our Realtor on Saturday that we wanted to make an offer. He told us he would draw up the papers, and we could officially make an offer that Thursday - oh, and to bring a $5,000 check with us as earnest money deposit. Now, I'm not going to get into specifics of our finances and whatnot, but we are a single-income family, with two kids, one on the way. We don't have very much in the way of disposable income, so when the Realtor said "Five thousand dollars", I literally almost started laughing. I thought for sure he had to be kidding. He knew we were looking to go with a VA loan - no money down, and $5,000 sounded as good as a down payment in my mind.

Richard and I exchanged awkward glances, telepathically asking each other, Is this guy serious?

The guy shifted, and said, "Okay, at least a thousand then."

Another awkward exchange of glances.

The realtor raised his eyebrows, "You have to show them that you're serious about buying, you have to give them something."

We promised to arrive on Thursday with a $1,000 check, although neither one of us knew where we were going to find that money over the next five days.

During the drive home, our excitement over having just made our first offer on a house faded into uncertainty and frustration. We began to feel that maybe we just weren't able to buy a home; maybe this was something that was still very much out of reach for our young family at this time. By the time we got home, 45 minutes later, I wrote an email to our realtor telling him we had changed our mind on the offer, and that we just didn't think we could buy a home now. Essentially, we broke up with him.

The following weekend my parents had been driving around, when they came across a house that was for sale by owner. They got a flier, spoke briefly to the sellers, whom they said were super friendly, and then they passed the information along to us. We thought the flier looked great, although we were still feeling very skeptical from the brief house hunting experience we'd had. The next day we went to check it out, and, as they say, the rest is history.

Looking back now, I am so glad we didn't stick with that first house. Aside from the financial issues we were faced with up front, I realize now that we were going to sacrifice a lot. The house was a good 35 minutes from the school Jacob now goes to. So either I would have had to change and dress three little kids four mornings a week, to get Jacob to school on time, or he would have had to change districts, which we really did not want to do, since the one he is in has such a fantastic reputation. Also, the backyard of that house, while gated, left much to be desired. It was quite small, without much of a yard to speak of at all. The inside of the house was nice enough, but there wasn't any sort of designated playroom, and the family room wouldn't have accommodated all of their toys, plus our furniture. And, to top it off, we were going to pay way over our budget for the house, that, in hindsight, was just so-so.

The house we ended up purchasing? It's perfect, if I may say so. I have so many visions for this house. The backyard, in particular. I think our boys will love spending long summer days out in the fenced yard running, playing, chasing, rough housing, imagining. It is the perfect yard for kids. There is already a swingset, and I would like to add a slide onto it. There is also a seriously awesome tree, that is pretty wide with a low center - the perfect kind of tree for a tree house of some sort, so we are going to get to work building something like that next summer. There is a large deck, which I envision us having barbecues and drinks on while we watch the kids run around in the grass. I am so beyond thrilled about our new home, it really has all of the things that we wanted when we first set out on the house hunt a few months ago. And it was just too ironic that within days of us becoming discouraged, and believing there was no way we could afford a home, we found the one that met all of our needs, and was within our budget. I firmly believe God had his hand on us, guiding us to that house, knowing it was the perfect one for us and our three boys.

Now all that's left to do is pack up our things and prepare for the big move!