we bought a house. (!!!)

It has been quite the week.

We bought a house! Well, sort of. We have an accepted offer. We don't own it yet but the pending sign in the yard is there because WE are going to buy it. Ah. I think i'm still slightly in shock that we have an accepted offer...I thought it would never happen. But 3rd time is a charm. Or something like that.

It's actually quite the God story.

When houses came on the market and looked slightly-semi appealing we would call up our Realtor and go see them. By now he could basically read my mind..."you want to take out this wall here", "put an island in here", "tear this out".......you get the idea. With what we could afford and what we desired we knew we were going to need to buy a fixer-upper. And we were really excited about homes with "potential" (that's the nice word used for homes that really aren't that pretty looking).

So a little over a week ago I got an email from our Realtor about a house that had just come on the market...that day. The description said "tons of potential", sold "as is", "charming", etc. I figured we needed to see it to either check it off of our list or maaaybe fall in love with it. I texted Seth and then our realtor and like that we were meeting in a couple hours to go see it.

We walked in the front door and liked what we saw. With each room we went in we went "hmm, this is neat" "hmmm, I like this" "hmmm this could be...." and the excitement caliber kept rising as we walked around. "Oh I know!...we could tear down this wall", "Oh, I love this!", "Oh imagine this...". The wheels were turning. And we found plenty of "potential".

It was far bigger than anything we looked at. Not to mind there is no air conditioning, the bathroom and kitchen are complete gut jobs- and that's not just me being picky. The deck is falling down and there is not flooring in some rooms. We really *liked* it when we left...but we didn't want to say love yet. Because with all the work it needed and the price it was at, we couldn't afford it.

We took Seth's parents to look through it and got their ideas and advice. We talked about it and then just let it go for a few days. Almost like we had forgotten about it. Partly because I think neither of us thought it was realistic.

We decided to put in an offer last Thursday. My theory was this: What is it going to hurt? The worst thing that happens is we get rejected...it's not like we haven't been through that before. Seth mentioned a couple times "Is it even worth it? I mean our offer is so low it's really not even realistic". But I really felt like we might as well try it...what could it hurt. And he agreed. So we went in with an offer we realized was barely acceptable and we knew the house was definitely worth more than that but this was what we knew we could afford.

And then we waited. That's the part I hate the most about this, the waiting. The funny thing is, both of us woke up the next morning and had completely forgotten we put in an offer. We had tried so hard to stay detached this time knowing that our offer wasn't going to get accepted. But deeeeeeep down there was still that grain of hope.

Then we heard back from our Realtor at 12:00 the next day...there are multiple offers, come with your highest and best by 2:45. Ouch. Again? Unreal. This is exactly what happened on the previous house we offered on. We knew we couldn't compete in a bidding war. We knew our initial offer could have even been considered offensive so how were we going to compete in a bidding war? We came up with our highest and best and laughed as we decided it saying to each other "there is no way they will accept this". I mean it. We truly did not think it was really a possibility...the only way would have been a miracle.

We hung up and then I remembered that I wanted to write a letter to the homeowners to send with our offer. No, not one pleading and begging and saying a sob story but a simple-this-is-who-we-are-and-this-is-why-we-love-your-home letter. So I called seth back and he sent the letter with the offer.

We got a text that evening from our Realtor saying they liked the letter and were meeting that night to discuss it. Are. you. serious?! We are actually still in the running?! Praise God!
Oh we of little faith, though, kept saying to each other to not get our hopes up and to be prepared not to get it. I would say things like "when we don't get it...." and on and on.

And then we got the call.

They accepted OUR offer. OURS. Not the other two offers. OURS. It would have been a miracle if it was just our one offer and they accepted it. But the fact that there were two other offers on the table and they accepted ours...only God.

It is way larger than we thought we would ever be able to get. It has all the "potential" that we have been dreaming of. It has a yard. A garage. A basement, projects to last a long long time...

Yes initially we were shocked and then excited. But more than that were completely humbled. So humbled by God's grace.

Earlier that week we were in some ugly tension and we were being ugly people with each other. We didn't deserve this house. We don't deserve this house. It's not and it will never be about deserving it. God is incredibly gracious and merciful. Saturday morning we sat raw hearts, humbled and soaked in the grace and goodness of God. He is always these things- good and gracious and faithful. He just used a tangible thing like a house to remind us.

We prayed this when deciding to offer on this home: "God please don't give us this house if we can't handle it. But if we can handle it, please do give it to us". So we are stepping out in faith that He heard that prayer and that this list of renovations isn't going to overtake us. overwhelm us. get the best of us. We might get squirrely at each other at times...in fact, i'm sure that we will. But we prayed that prayer on the way to putting in the offer. And on the way to putting in the offer we saw a double rainbow. It's a reminder that God is faithful. And the thing I love about this whooooole house buying process- looking and looking, getting two rejected offers, etc is that God arranged it all so that undoubtedly it all would be pointed at Him and His perfectness. And He would receive glory from it.

SO here we embark on a house renovation project. In the midst of planning an event. In the midst of the holidays. In the midst of marriage and parenting. And all the other stuff.

So if you follow me on pinterest and there have been billions of pins lately, i'm sorry. There might be for a while.

I read a quote this week that I want to remind myself through this process: "Someone else is happy with less than what you have".

Yes. Let us keep perspective through this whole thing.