Stamp of Approval

We are pre-qualified for a loan.

This doesn't mean much but thankfully the amount is what we were hoping for.
We are going forward to the next steps of trying to buy a home. Our first shot, house #1, we'll call it the house by the train tracks. Tomorrow we sign some paperwork to finish the pre-qualification thing, then we'll try to put in an offer and see what happens. We're praying hard as always.

Let the emotional roller coaster begin. Hopefully I won't vomit... or die.

Jumping In With Both Feet

And so the adventure begins. In a quick real estate internet search we came across another house that we would like to try and buy. This one is surprisingly cheap for what it is, which makes it very unlikely that it will still be there when we get the funds, but still it doesn't hurt to try.
We drove past the property and looked in the windows, checked out the neighborhood and all is looking pretty darn close to perfect for what we would like to purchase at this point.
We have contacted a loan officer and realtor to see if this type of thing is even a possibility and we're hoping to hear back what kind of loan we might qualify for. It's all so nerve wracking.

The part that is not so fun is the wondering what we should do in the meantime. Our lease at our apartment is up at the end of December and they want to charge us an arm and a leg more per month more to go month to month until we figure this whole thing out. Hopefully we will be able to determine the possibilities soon enough to not have to deal with that. But again, we will see.

That is the latest update in the housing adventure round 2 for our live as of late. Till next time...

Door Number 23 Closed. On to Door Number 24.

We've been praying and praying the past few weeks for God's guidance in this whole rental home search. We've prayed for wisdom. We've prayed for peace. We've prayed for God to take it away if it is not what He wants for us.
After a few weeks of battling with the rental management company, sending over piles of unnecessary paperwork and, calling every few days to check up on their progress, we finally heard back. We had put in a very nice offer to pay all expenses even a month early and their answer?

No.

Back to square one. I know, I know, you may be thinking that "Hey, you know there ARE other houses out there to rent?" Well we're not feeling it. We're finding out that renting a house for us is almost as impossible for us as trying to buy one, so maybe that's what God is telling us.

We figured that God seems to be closing the rental door at the moment to possibly open our eyes again to a new possibility. Owning. A smaller, cheaper, house in a neighborhood that is close but not quite perfect. At least we'll give it a shot. One more time.

I am totally open to the idea since my dream house at the moment is a small white washed cottage in an older inexpensive neighborhood. About $100,000. Half the cost of the houses we have looked for in the past. Maybe we can qualify for one of these.

Jennifer's Dream House

I'm still super pessimistic though, since we have been through this emotional roller coaster before trying to buy a home. But maybe this time it'll be in God's timing. Maybe.
I'm not sure if I'm ready again to give this another shot. I just got over it and let it go from last time. But here I go. I'll clean off my face, take a deep breath, stand up straight and say "let's do this"
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." This verse has been running through my mind for the past week now, over and over. It's so true though. The shock of having another door seemingly closed has been lightened by this verse that God put in my head to remind me in this moment. "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
This was the last verse that I read. Job was a wise man.

It's hard not always knowing what we're suppose to do, especially when the timing seems awful. But I believe with all my heart that God is good. And I'm sure He's got something good up His sleeve. As usual :)

And Now, We Wait

The past few days have been a whirlwind. Monday, we finally got a chance to talk with the ladies at our apartment complex about the potential for us moving out at the end of December. They were super excited for us and gave us lots of tips of things to look for when searching for that perfect house. The thing we wanted to hear about the most though, was the cost of moving out. We have been there for 2.5 years and in that time we have had a flood from a broken pipe in the apartment above us, we have nailed up multiple pictures, our cats have shredded the edges of the carpet and bent multiple blinds, and every nook and cranny has "lived in" dirt that I would have to clean up. So needless to say we were pretty worried about how many fees we would have for the "damages".

We had decided before we walked down to the apt office that I would rather clean up the apartment then to pay someone else to do it, we would rather replace the blinds ourselves then have to pay through the nose for their fees, we would rather hire a carpet man to fix the carpet, and that we would re-fill all of the nail holes ourselves. All of this to avoid spending more money then we have to on this move, but all of this would be a ton of work.

But my husband being Angelo decided to see what kind of deal we could finagle. We are now getting the carpet replaced for free, they are replacing the blinds for cheaper than we can buy them at Home Depot, the apt is being cleaned down completely to their super high standards for only $140 out of our deposit, they are repainting and filling holes, and all we have to do now is move. Plus, on top of that, we get some of our deposit back! Woo Hoo!

So then there's Tuesday. We got a call back from the management company for house that we like the most saying that since we are really interested they would like to let us see the house before the available showing date of Dec 3. We had told them our situation and time frame for moving and really wanted to help us out. They talked to the current tenant and they agreed to let us come down and see the house at 2 pm yesterday.

Since both Angelo and I work on Tuesdays, I had to go down alone to see it while he covered the shop.
I get there and as I pull up, two other cars pull up to the house. Weird. But okay.
I go up and knock on the door and a lady answers the door and invites me in to take a look. The house is a wreck. I walk through stepping over baby toys and cereal boxes and anything else she felt belonged on the floor. It took a little while to get past the clutter to see the house that we would be living in. She showed me around and then there's a knock on the door.
She asked if I was expecting anyone else, and I said no. So she answers and there is a couple standing there asking if they can see the house too.
So she invites them in and proceeds to show them around as well. Then they leave, and two seconds later there is another knock. A man is at the door asking to see the house. So once again she invites him in to see it.
It was all pretty interesting and awkward, but whatever. It gave me time to look around and try to picture what it would look like for Angelo and I to live here, listen in to their conversations and questions, and take a video to show Angelo when I got back.
When I finished, the man left and finally it was my turn to ask questions.
Appliances? Gas stove. No fridge, no washer, no dryer. That's fine. We were expecting that.
Neighborhood? Fantastic. Quiet. Well protected since there is a park nearby (no child molesters allowed) and there are a lot of cops that live in this neighborhood. Lots of kids. Walking/biking paths.
Landlords? No problems. Mostly dealt with the management company.
Planning foreclosure? Not sure. But didn't seem that way.
Benefits? Open layout good for entertaining, decent backyard big enough for a dog, 2 walk in closets in master bedroom, DOUBLE SINKS, etc.
Overall it was sounding more and more perfect. But we don't have it yet.

I got back to work and talked to Angelo about the house and we decided that we would go ahead and turn in an application. We filled everything out and rushed over to the management office after work to turn it in before they closed.
They said everything looks great and that we would know more in a few days. So here we go. First application is in, now we wait.

House Hunting

Since our lease at our apartment is up in only 1 and a half months our lives have been consumed with rental house hunting. It's been pretty fun searching for a new place, and we're getting excited about moving closer to where we spend most of our lives currently anyways.
I'm ready for a change too. And I'm ready to only have a 10 min drive to church and Bible studies as oppose to our current 45 min drive that we make 3-4 times a week. I'm ready to be able to spend more time at home instead of constantly driving back and forth. I'm ready to be able to cook dinner more than twice a week since we'll actually be able to stop at home after work to eat before our weekly night events.
So far we have found a few 3 bedroom houses for rent that fit our budget and have almost perfect locations and landlords.
It's so nice this time around not having to worry so much about compromising on things. If the location is nice but not perfect, if the layout isn't quite what we want for long term, if the kitchen cabinets are too low, if the backyard isn't big enough, that's okay because we're not buying it so we're not stuck with it either. Those things are far more okay with me knowing that I don't have to fully commit to it forever.
We have one house that we love that will be available on Dec 20th (which would be perfect) but we can't turn in our application until Dec 3rd so we are waiting and continuing the search until we find out what happens with this one.
Our ideal situation would be to move the last week of the year and to be all settled before new years. :) Hopefully this works out. We've been praying hard that God will lead us to the home He wants us to live in and we trust that He will.
So we are house hunting. And it's kind of fun. This is our life as of late.