BAM! And just like that...

After revealing the big news last week that we bought a house, I felt I should go back and explain the crazy. And by crazy I mean the process which then turned us crazy. Seriously, stress eating is not good for my figure.

Let's start with a simple Tuesday morning...I'm working (in theory), Daniel is torturing people at work, and the boys are at the sitter's house. I get a text from our realtor that he was still keeping an eye out for little gems in the areas we were targeting and a house came on the market that day. He was actually at the house checking it out before he even told us. Because it had what he considered "good bones", he thought we should come take a look. So off we go that afternoon...

I walk in and see instant potential. Daniel walks in and sees lots of work. Yep, we're always that opposite. Probably why God put us together, to balance each other. So while Mike Adkins (our realtor with Home Advantage...and yes that's a shameless plug for him) and I were prattling on about what could be changed in the house, updates, etc. Daniel just listened. Thankfully he trusts my vision after years of watching me transform spaces and furniture.

We left pleasantly surprised and also wondering how a big renovation project might work via a loan. Wednesday I spent part of the day investigating loans...to which there was only one I could find that would meet our needs. But that gave us hope. In this market, these type houses go very quickly since they are in a prime school zone. We had already missed out on a few houses we liked because they were scooped up in a week.

Thursday we decided to go back to the house and look at it with fresh eyes. You know, eyes that say "will this really work for our needs? what other repairs did I miss? how much is this going to cost?" Thankfully Mike's wife joined us and talked through it with me. I'm pretty sure at one point Daniel just sat on the floor with his head in his lap. I'm not quite sure if he was hyperventilating or if the room was spinning from hearing all our ideas, but he did make a point to say "I'm out. You talk amongst yourselves."

Thursday night...Daniel and I hit our knees. Nope, not on the kitchen table as we're getting up from dinner. Hit our knees to pray. We didn't want to walk through a door if that's not what God had planned for us. I speak from experience when I say God's plan is waaaay better than mine!

Friday morning we made the offer. This is where the crazy begins.

On Friday I also decided to go ahead and list our current house on craigslist for rent (apparently that's the place to find rentals these days). After all, it wasn't selling, even at a drastically reduced price, so might as well see if we could rent it. Carrying two mortgages wasn't really something we wanted to do long term. I also called a local rental company to see what the market was, how they worked, etc. in case we decided to go that route. But I'm all about saving a few bucks so if I could rent it myself, I was all for it. By dinner time we had 10 people already asking about it. Crazy.

The next day was Saturday and I strategically scheduled two potential renters to come see the house. Not only were they quick to respond to the ad but they also were quick to respond back, a sign they were serious. By 6pm that night, it was rented. Yep, both were interested and one of them came back that night to fill out all the paperwork and pay for the deposit. Crazy.

While I was still reeling from the fact we just rented our house in 24 hours, I started to realize we had to be out of our house by July 15...just ONE MONTH AWAY! Oh and did I mention that we also had to find a place to stay? Our closing won't likely be until the end of July but the renters were relocating here and needed the house early. Not to mention we have renovations that have to occur before we move to the new house. So I look over at Daniel and say "know anyone who will let us plus our two rambunctious toddlers, two dogs and a cat stay with them for two months?" Then he just laughed. To which I responded "yeah me neither."

Sunday was spent going back and forth but eventually we found fabulous friends who would let us stay at their house (and then later we found a friend with a vacant house we can use), places for the dogs and cat and storage for all our stuff. In the end, thanks to those same great friends, we are saving a ton of money and have a great environment for all our precious dependent life forms.  

And BAM, just like that...it was Monday. Pretty busy week wouldn't you say? Amazing how God worked it all out. Now I just need to step. away. from. the. junk food.