Buying a house!

When you think back on moments in your life where there is no question that the lord is on your side its an incredible testimony builder. The last month and a half there have been so many miracles in our family that I wanted to document a few to remember.

Juan and I have contemplated selling our home for about a year now, but it just never felt like the right timing. One week it would be brought up, then forgotten. It has gone on like this for quite some time. The thought of having an increased mortgage on top of an already tight budget just wasn't something we wanted to do. We were comfortable in our small payment. But what was getting tight was the house. A family of 6 in a 1524 sq ft home was getting cramped. Adalyn in our room, not even in a bed or crib, but a bassinet chair to sleep in. Rubbermaid drawers to hold her clothes. Damon is an absolute must to have his own room. With him waking up at night, machines and equipment for him, he just cant share a room. If that wasn't the case, we could stay here longer probably. I went home to Washington to visit for a week with the kids while Juan stayed and worked. I would bring up the idea to my family that if we sold we could make a decent amount of money on our home. As I was driving home, about half way there, it hit me. If we sell out home, we can make enough to pay off every little debt we have including car payments and student loans, and have money to put down on a new home, and put money into savings. It seemed like a no brainer and stupid not to do that. Because isn't that what our goals are? To be debt free? I messaged Juan and his response was, "So now you want to sell again?" I mentioned above and he was onboard! This was the only way for us to get a bigger home and mortgage and be able to afford it. He immediatly starting looking online and sent me a link to a home on Ash street in Yamhill. Absolutely perfect home for us! Having Damon makes home buying just that more stressful! We need a bed/bath on the main living floor. In this area in Oregon, most homes are two story with all the rooms upstairs. Wont work. If they do have a master on the main, then that leaves Juan and I to take a room upstairs and share a bathroom with the kids. Doable yes, ideal no. So when he sent this home to me, 1000 sq ft more then our current home, 3 bedrooms on the main level, with a master and a full bath for the other two rooms and two bedrooms down stairs. PERFECT! I was instantly in love with the new build, the open floor plan, and that it was in the country for the most part! Something we have always wanted to be, in a small town, country setting. But it was thrown out when it would add another 20 min or so to Juan's commute. If anything he wanted to move closer to his work. With home prices creeping up, and offers going over the original asking price we didn't want to delay. 

Before we could actually go out and seriously start looking, we needed to know what we could sell our home for to see if it was what were thinking. Because this wasn't going to be something to we could do so pay off part debt. We wanted out completely.That week we had a realtor come to our home check it out, and then send over a CMA which lists properties in the area and what they have sold/or selling for. We were right where we wanted to be and what we were expecting! It was GO time! We started getting listings from the agent, Randy Thiessen. Who is awesome! That saturday, June 27th, that house came back up as we were searching again. Juan mentioned that he had a co-worker who bought out in Yamhill a couple months ago and loved it! So Juan was open to the idea. So we packed up kids and went for a short 20 minute drive from where we live now! The home at this time had dropped $10,000. We drove the area,drove past the home, and then went and talked to his co-worker. We called Randy and let him know we wanted to go look at that home. We were all set up for Monday. I asked a friend who used to be in our ward who recently moved out to Carlton which is about 3 miles from Yamhill how she liked the area, school, ect.. I also mentioned we were going to look at a home. Come to find out, its the Relief Society Presidents house in that ward! 

We loved the home! We put in an offer by Tuesday, and there was another offer also. Then as our offer went in, a family went in and looked for a second time and put in an offer. We came in low the first time, then came in at asking for our second offer, and then because the competition was so high, we went in at the original asking price! We were not the highest but because we had a mutual friend helping us out through facebook messaging, we were able to get an accepted offer! I remember being on the verge of tears that week. I wasn't eating like I should have been because of stress, our offer was contigent on the sale of  our home, but I just kept going back to my faith that everything was falling into place then why wont it work out? But because the process of offer after offer after offer, it was hard! I very vivid remember pulling out of the garage, and a voice loud and clear, "Trust Him" I felt so much peace come over me that all would work out. Was it still stressful? Absolutely! But there was more of a reassurance that it would work out in our favor. Sure enough it did! 

But before we even looked at this home, we listed our home on Zillow For sale by owner. Knowing we would have to list our home with Randy within 24 hours of accepted offer. We wanted to keep as much money in our pocket as possible. So we went on a limb before we even looked at the new home! It took TWO days to get an offer. Scary thing because we didnt have an accepted offer on our new home yet! So either ways, we were going to be moving. Where we didnt know! We were just hoping that things would work out!

There have been a few hiccups along the way as far as repairs go on our home to fix. Because we put in an insert in the fireplace that needed to be repaired and usable again. We had to fix insulation under the crawlspace, reattach the hose bib outside, and put in GFCI receptacles in the kitchen and garage. Our new home needs a new roof. Funny thing is though the house is only 2 years old! Something with the shingles not being good so that will be covered by the builders insurance and a new roof will be going on our home, as well as the others that were built when out home was! And he also redid the water route outside so that no water draines into the crawl space in the basement!