Home Sweet Home

I know what you’re thinking. It IS so unlike me to write 2 posts within a week! However, I wanted to share some great news. We are under contract for a home!! It happened like a whirl wind within this last week, but as of this morning, we are accepting the counter offer on a home in Green Mountain Falls! Of course the process isn’t even near completion, but it’s been amazing to see God’s handiwork thus far.

Tony and I have wanted a home for a loooong time. Most of you know that we’ve been working hard on paying off our debt, while living with my parents. Another reason for living with them was to make it possible for me to stay home and not work during my high risk pregnancy. Well, now it’s time to move on! Micah will be on the move sooner rather than later, and I’m ready to have a kitchen of my very own again.

A couple weeks ago, Tony and I (along with the entire family!) tagged along with Anna and Kenny as they walked through the 3 available homes for sale in this entire area within our price range (we have to stay within the fire district for Tony to stay with the department). There was a 4th home we looked at, but it happened to be outside the fire district. The first house was the one of which I fell in love. Kenny and Anna are buying the second house. The third house was waaay below the standards of the first two. That’s it! Two houses fit our criteria in this entire area… not much of a choice! We knew the chances would be slim of us actually getting the house we both loved. And it is a great house! It was recently upgraded with a brand new kitchen, granite countertops, new carpet and wood flooring, window coverings, walls knocked out to make a better space, new septic and furnace, and the price was lowered a good deal too! Not to mention, it’s directly behind the fire station, a 20 second walk to the center of town, where you’ll find the lake, gazebo, playground, park, restaurants, ice cream shop (uh oh!), and a little further down you’ll find another park with tennis and basketball courts, and the community pool. It’s 2 bed, 2 bath, 2 stories, 2 livingroom areas, about 1300 sq ft. Perfect size for our small family. There is also a huge ‘utility room’ which we could use as a laundry room, but it could also house a guest area. hint hint.

So, I decided to pray. And pray and pray and pray. Pray that all the doors would open if this is God’s will; and that they’d slam shut and make it obvious to us if it’s not. I prayed that ‘our’ house would become invisible to those driving by and looking at the listings. I recruited a couple friends to do the same. I also needed to find out how financially we are going to make this work, with the small downpayment we’d need and the other fees that seem to add up when purchasing a home. I told my mom ‘It’d be great if like $6,000 just dropped into our laps.’ Well…

The ’spendulous bill’ as we like to call it may actually do us some short-term good, even though we’re going to be paying for it for years to come! We will qualify for the $8,000 first time homebuyer’s tax credit. Once we receive the closing papers, we take them into H&R Block and write an addendum to our 2008 return. Two weeks later, we’ll have $8,000 directly deposited into our checking account.  Hmm… there’s more than the $6,000 I asked to drop in my lap! Cut to last weekend.

We met with a family friend who is a mortgage broker. He made it clear that we are MORE than qualified to get a loan. We thought it would take at least a few more months of paying down debt to be in that place, but apparently we’re in a much better position than we originally thought. After the meeting, I called another family friend who happens to be one of the best realtors in Colorado. He set up a second showing of the house 2 hours later! The next day, our offer was sent to the realtor. She countered with exactly what we were thinking and budgeting. We’re getting an amazing deal, with them paying the closing costs and us having instant equity in the home (the most recent appraisal had it at $15,000 higher than our purchase price).

Now I know the process has just begun. We still need to figure out where some of the down payment money will come from. And sure, some minor things need to be done to the house. BUT we’ve gotten this far, so much further than we ever imagined we’d be in such a short time. We’ll continue to pray for a smooth process. If all else falls into place, we’ll get the keys on April 30th!! Thank you Lord!

Here are some pictures from the listing:

P.S. Congrats to Amber and Mark, who are recently engaged!!!