We Bought a House!!!

Stephen and I are so excited to finally be able to say we bought a house (although you probably heard something about it on Friday or if you follow me on Instagram)! We closed on Friday and started moving smaller boxes and whatnot immediately. On Saturday, we had some help and were able to make the final move. We are so thrilled to finally be homeowners!

Without giving too many details, here's our story about how God prepared the way for us to become homeowners.

Stephen and I have fantastic jobs - we love what we do and enjoy going to work everyday - but the area where we live isn't so fantastic. The only reason we live here because it's as in the middle as you can get to both our jobs (my drive was 45 min each way and Stephen's is about 30 min). We began to question if this was the right place for us and where God ultimately wanted us to live. We'd been praying for about a year as to where God wanted us to live so we could finally settle down and start growing roots. We hit it hard when it came to finances and saved as much money as we could knowing wherever God sent us, we'd want to purchase a house. It was hard waiting, but God taught me a lot about patience (I always need that, but I might not always want it) and He provided!

A few months ago, God answered our prayers in the form of some amazing opportunities for Stephen at work. We decided it was time to settle down and God was telling us to stay. We knew we didn't want to stay in the area we were living so we started looking around town. We narrowed into a nice area not too far away (the drives will be about 15 min longer but the location is worth it) and decided to start looking for houses. The houses around were good not great - they were all about 10-20 years old and needed some upgrades. Don't get me wrong, they weren't bad I just didn't envision us living in a house like that. I always saw us buying new, not a 20 year old house.

We found a house that was built in 1994 and needed a little bit of work but we thought it was the perfect size and it had an amazing backyard. We placed an offer and fortunately, we didn't budge when the owner wanted more money than it was worth. The day before seeing that house, we stumbled upon one of Stephen's co-workers in a nice neighborhood that we both liked but was out of budget and he told us that there was a house being flipped down the street. The house was torn apart and we said it'd be a great 2nd choice if the 1st house didn't work out. Turns out, it was just under our budget and after seeing it again (and the 1st house falling through), we fell in love with it!

The guy who owns it, flips houses as a hobby and was half way through - everything ended up getting upgraded. It's as if no one had lived there - so I got my new build yet we're in an established neighborhood. We initially thought it was going to be too big but it'll be perfect and we won't have to move out as soon when kids start to arrive. We were able to get an offer in before the house was even on the market and thankfully, they accepted.

We just love this house and can't wait to continue living our lives in here! The Lord was so faithful to us and answered our prayers. He might not have answered them right away, but He provided. This whole story was crafted carefully by God and I couldn't be happier that we're where He wants us.

This is why I've been so absent on the blog the last few months. Hopefully once we get settled, postings will be back to normal.