I do have a bit of news to share with you, my friends. It seems that 2012 (do you say 20-12 or two thousand 12? Just curious.) is getting off to a good start. Our very mild winter (so far!) is one example. I have not missed the snow, ice, or blustery wind one iota! (I woke up to five inches of snow on the ground this morning. BLAH!) But, the best reason that 2012 is going to be a good year is that Hubby and I are going to be homeowner's again. We are very excited about it. In fact, you might say that we are downright giddy about it. Tee hee.
I'll share how our dream became a nightmare at a later date, but now it seems like the nightmare is dissipating, and dreams are back in our lives again.
For the past three years, we have been renting from Hubby's sis. She has been anxious to sell her house, but has graciously held off until we found a place. We have been searching for three years hoping to find a place where we could finally settle. We've been to umpteen thousand (it seems) sheriff's sales, auctions, and foreclosures. Each place seemed like a good place, and usually nearly perfect for what we needed and wanted to accomplish. But, every place, for one reason or another (usually because we were outbid) went to someone else.
We trusted in the Lord, sometimes got a little discouraged with the Lord, trusted some more, asked, begged, and pleaded; questioned, and trusted some more.
Last Fall, our prayers began to be answered. A friend had mentioned that she passed an empty house every day on her way to work. But, we were busy with other things (mostly canning and Hubby working out of state) and forgot about it. A couple weeks later, she asked if we had checked it out. This time we hopped in the car and went looking for it.
As soon as we pulled into the driveway, we started to get that warm, fuzzy feeling of first love. A little hopeful, but afraid to think about the possibilities in case nothing came of it. Mind you, this place has a face only a mother could love, but we saw great potential. We started peering into each window like peeping Toms, and excitement grew with each glimpse. (Don't worry the house was empty.) Usually, when you look inside a foreclosure, you'll find that it either has been trashed, or is full of mold, or crumbling walls that it would need to be gutted in order to be made liveable again. But not this little gem. We walked around the house, peering into each window for another glimpse. With each glimpse, we fell more and more in love. The walls were all in tact, there was no animal feces lying around, the rooms were spacious. The outside needed more work than the inside.
It's in the country but close to town, which we wanted; it has acreage, which we wanted; it has an office area, which we wanted; a basement, a decent-sized kitchen. We checked everything off our mental list. We would have preferred a 3-bedroom, but we could manage with a 2-bedroom. The road is a little busy, and the view across the road is not too appealing, but before we left, we had already started making plans on how to solve that problem, and Hubby had already envisioned how and where he was going to lay out our garden, blue blueberry and raspberry bushes, and where the beef cow, pig and chickens would go.
We called our realtor and asked him to find out what he could on the house. We had no idea how much patience we would be needing. We had no idea how much we would see God working in this process. He was with us all the way.
To be continued....
This is something that is much easier said than done--learning to wait on the Lord--wait to see what His will is--wait to see what direction He wants us go.
I've been in a bit of a funk this week...I'm not sure what direction this post is going to go...I certainly don't want it to be a gripe-fest, but more of a thinking out loud. So, there is my disclaimer. Continue at your own risk!
We are in our current position because of a decision that we made four years ago. More on that in another post, but, we felt the Lord was leading us. Everything that we tried to do just fell into place like a puzzle.
We sold our business, moved out of state to lovely North Carolina, and in less than a year, had to move back to Ohio.
We are currently renting from my SIL, but she and BIL would like to sell this house, when we find something else.
Hubby and I have tried to buy (mostly at auctions) 10 - 12 houses. On one house, we were the high bidder, but after the obligatory five minutes "wait and talk it over" time, a new bidder appeared on the phone, and bye-bye house. On another deal, we looked at a house that had been sitting on the market for about a year with no one interested. The house needed a LOT of work, but for the right price, we were up to the challenge. Now, remember, no one had even looked at this house for several months. We looked at it, made a list of all the repairs it needed, worked up an offer. The week that we gave them an offer, not one, not two, but FOUR other offers poured in!! We brought that guy a great blessing, because all the offers were higher than ours!
So, with every house we have tried to get, but have not gotten, we said, "Well, I guess the Lord has something better for us." And, each place that we looked at was better than the last. Except that they all went to someone else.
Our last experience is the one that has put me in my current "funk". We looked at a small but cute house, a cottage, really. The price was low enough that we could put an addition on. It has a little bit of land, so we could have a nice sized garden. It is owned by a local bank. When we looked at it, the guy that showed it to us said that there was someone else who had shown some interest in it, but had not put in an offer.
So, we put in an offer. The guy told us that the bank people were having a meeting in the morning, and he would tell them of our offer. Fine. Great.
An hour later, "our" guy calls and tells us that the bank CEO thought the other party should know, so he called him, told him our offer, and asked if he wanted to "up our offer".
Does that sound A) slightly unethical B) highly unethical or C) AOK? I pick "B". So, we play the little unethical game, raising the price.
After two rounds, Hubby asks for the name of the person we are now bidding against. It's a contractor by the name of Jones*. Hubby knows Jones*, so, he gives him a call to let him know what is going on. He was hoping that when Jones* realized how unethical the bank dealing was, he would back out. Nope.
When Jones* was told that the bank told us he had raised the bid $500, Jones* said he hadn't even talked to the banker that day. Hubby told Jones* that we were backing out, and wouldn't raise the bid. He called the bank and them that we would offer the same as Jones*, they would have to make the decision.
When we didn't hear from the bank, we had someone call for us, pretending to be interested in the house. He was told, yep, they sold the house. Only one person was interested. Hmmmmm. I thought there were two people interested. Now, why would the bank have to lie about that?
But, that's the way things seem to go for us. Think of the weirdest, most bizarre scenario, and that's how it happens. (Hubby did call Jones* and offered him a little more, if he wanted to make an easy profit. But, he's buying it for his in-laws so they can be closer.)
I know the Lord hasn't forgotten us, but I wouldn't mind at all if He wanted to send us a little telegram with just a hint of what He has in mind. I guess we'll know soon enough, if we just keep waiting on the Lord.
