2 Years in Our Home

2 years and 1 day ago, we purchased our first home. After 2 years of being married and living in a tiny apartment that Stephen had for 1.5 years before we got married, it was time. We had a hard time deciding when to buy a house and settle down but the Lord taught us me patience during this time and gave us the most perfect house.

Our apartment wasn't the nicest, sure it was newly redone but we had 1 bathroom and didn't have common luxuries like a garbage disposal or an ice maker. Our neighbor downstairs was a creepy, old man who sat outside his apartment (right next to the stairs we had to go up) 24/7 smoking non-stop; it caused all of our belongings to smell like cigarette smoke. It was tough for me. We were in a terrible city and we had no friends where we lived. I hated it and put up a stink about it more times than I'd like to admit. We were constantly looking into other jobs because we didn't know how stable Stephen's job would be - within the company and outside of the company. At one point, Stephen applied for a job, within his company, in Denver - thankfully, that one didn't pan out.

One day, we volunteered with Stephen's company for an event at a high school local to us now. We saw this area and thought it was amazing. I said I could live in Florida if we lived here. Stephen pushed back and said the commute was too long. Months later, God gave us our answer and told us to stay. We knew it was time to buy a house and decided to look in the area that Stephen said we couldn't live. We fell in love. We knew this is where God was calling us to live.

I was extremely unhappy with the church we were attending so before meeting our realtor one Sunday, we decided to attend the church we would probably go to if we were in the area. We really liked the church and most importantly, there were actual young people! People our age and that we could be friends with. We were so excited at the possibility of Christian, couple friends.

After church, we decided to drive by a house before we met with our realtor. That house needed a lot of work but it was already pending. We decided to drive around the neighborhood to see if there was anything else when we randomly ran into one of Stephen's co-workers. He was telling us how he's lived here for years and a lot of other people from work lived around here. That gave Stephen hope for his commute. He also happened to inform us that the house down the street was being flipped and we should check it out.

We drove down the house and the painter let us see the inside. It was a mess and in the middle of complete renovation. We thought it was nice but we weren't sure... it was a little too big. Still, we got the owners information and headed out to meet our realtor. The house we met at was awful and when we told her about the flip house, she was very excited. She called and got a ball park price - it was within budget!! After looking at a few other houses, we decided we should take her to look at it. She liked it but we then put an offer in on another house.

The other house was smaller, backed right up to a flood zone and needed some work. The owner wouldn't budge on his price so we said no thanks. Thank goodness. We then turned our attention the the flip house, had some conversations with the owner about his designs and decided to put in an offer. They accepted our offer within 1 day and the house was ours! We were so excited - we found out we got the house while we were visiting my BIL & SIL for their gender reveal.

The house still needed to be finished so we waited a few months before closing. The owners were the nicest people you'd ever meet and we got along so well. We were so thankful they transformed this house into our home - we did some minor updates after moving in but nothing big. After 2 years, we still love living here. It is literally the perfect location, the perfect size and we live on one of the best streets. We could not be more thankful to God for orchestrating all of this for us! He has blessed us with so much - we are so thankful to have Christian, couple friends who are all in the same season of life right now.

Phew, I did not expect this post to be this long... 2 years in a house full of memories can bring out the emotions ;)

Linking up with Jessi