Saturday, September 17, 2016

Changes part 3

As we continued to go through our daily routines we also continued to wonder where we were going to live. We thought the house on Water Oak, five houses down from Don and Kathy was it but it had already been longer than normal and we were not getting any confirmation that we would get a closing date. As days became weeks and weeks started becoming months we weren't sure what to do. We continued to look at other houses but nothing seemed right. Even though we were comfortable staying with Brian and Diane we felt like gypsies.

We prayed a lot for God's guidance so we wouldn't forget our reasons for moving and maybe settle for the wrong house or location. Finally, after many weeks, we asked our agent to again come up with a list of houses fitting our criteria that we could look at. We spent a full day looking at houses and then she said she had one more that just went on the market that day. She said it was priced a little higher than what we had budgeted but convinced us to take a look at it. This house was also a short sale, like Water Oak, but there was a lawyer handling it so it should move quicker. We were hesitant but figured since we were in the area we might as well take a look.

When we pulled up in front of the house at 148 Nivana Dr we thought we had spotted a little piece of Americana. The house was ten years old, nice lawn, attached garage, shade tree in the front; we were both not sure what to say. Most of the houses we were looking at needed work and we planned to budget extra money to do repairs. We walked into this house and realized it was move in ready. Kim was probably the quietest I had seen her concerning any of the houses we had looked at.

We went home and discussed the houses we had looked at that day. Kim said she was hesitant to say anything about the last house we looked at because she loved it and didn't want to get her hopes up since it was more than we had planned to spend. We needed to give our agent an answer so we prayed, looked at the numbers and decided that since we didn't have to budget much for repairs the price was something we could afford, and we both liked the house, so we made an offer. We signed the contract the next day and continued to pray for God's guidance. We were very excited but a bit apprehensive. Would this turn out to be another long wait?

To shorten what would otherwise be a much longer story, we did get a closing date of October 1 for the house on Nivana. After fourteen weeks of not having our own home, we moved in to our little piece of Americana. It has been almost a year now since we moved in and Kim will still say that she loves our little vanilla house. It isn't perfect and there are still things that need to be done but it is just right for us. We no longer have a pool to take care of, the yard is smaller and we are close to the kids and grand kids. We thank the Lord for His provision.


Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Changes part 2

The closing on our house was scheduled for Monday June 29. We had a lot of work to do to get everything cleaned and moved. On Saturday June 27 the moving truck and three guys pulled up to the house in the morning. The rest of the day was total chaos; you think everything is ready till moving day arrives. The guys were very efficient and fast. We were moving everything into a storage unit in Crestview except what we were going to move into Brian and Diane's, where we were going to live till we got our house. All of these items were to go on the back of the truck. A few things we needed went to storage anyway but we figured we could get them later.

Brian and Diane were graciously allowing us to have a little suite, composed of two rooms and a bathroom, in their house. The moving truck went to their house first and unloaded the items we were going to use there. After we finished there we headed to Crestview to put everything else into the storage unit. We unloaded everything there and the movers left and I went back to the house. We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning and getting rid of last minute stuff. We spent over twelve years in that house and had a lot of memories. Seeing the empty house and knowing we would be leaving it forever was bittersweet. The buyers came by and inspected the house and we closed the door for the last time and with a tear in our eye drove away to our temporary housing wondering what would happen next.

The closing happened on Monday as scheduled and all went well. Now we had money but no home. Kim spent the next few days setting up our temporary abode, we had a bed, dresser, table, clothes, laptops and other necessities. I continued to go to work and carry on as usual but something was missing. In looking back everything was great, but at the time I was antsy. I spent a lot of time searching to see if God was showing me lessons I needed to learn. Unfortunately I am sometimes a very slow learner. Let the lessons begin!


Sunday, April 17, 2016

Changes

Sunday, April 17, 2016

It has been almost three and a half years since I have written on my blog. A lot has happened since then and I thought i would write them out. I survived my hospital stay and have not needed any treatment so far. We decided last year that it was time for some changes in our life, so after much prayer and discussion we put our house up for sale. It was an older house on a large corner lot with a full size in ground pool. The pool seldom got used any more and it was just a lot of work to maintain.  We had a friend who was a real estate broker and she helped us to sell our house and look for a new place. Let the process begin.

I think it was sometime in April, 2015 that we first put the house on the market. Our agent suggested we start looking right away for a house to buy because she said our house will sell quickly. We were planning to move to Crestview to be closer to family and we could also get more house for our money. We started looking right away but didn't want to commit till we knew our house was sold. We got an offer on our house very quickly and we were getting excited and a little panicky because we didn't have a house to move to. We made an offer on one contingent on selling our house but they would not accept the contingency. We started looking at short term rentals as well as other houses to purchase.

We looked at other houses but nothing that we felt was right. In the meantime the sale of our house fell through. There was a problem with the purchasers finances. We were upset and relieved at the same time. We put the house back on the market for a higher price than we originally had it. We very quickly got an offer for the full price. The only catch was that this was going to be a VA mortgage which has more restrictions. In the mean time we found a house very close to where Don and Kathy lived and we made an offer on it. The problem is that it was a short sale, and i can tell you from experience that there is nothing short about a short sale!

Inspections were being done on our house and there were a couple of issues that needed to be taken care of before the VA would give the buyer a loan. thanks to my son in law Don, with much hard work we accomplished the things that needed to be done. There was still one small problem though. We did not have a home to move to! We were still waiting on the short sale as well as looking at other homes. We had a closing date of June 29 and we prayed a lot about what we should do as far as where to go. We found a short term rental but that was going to be expensive. About the time we got a closing date for the sale of our house Brian and Diane offered to let us stay with them. We really didn't want to impose but accepted figuring it would only be for a couple weeks. Let the process continue.