Another surprise

A few months ago, James and I realized that our two bedroom town home wasn't going to be big enough for our growing family. We began looking at houses and realized that what we wanted is currently out of our price range. I've always wanted to make sure that we could pay a mortgage payment with only one income in case something ever happened to one of our jobs and our dream houses just didn't fit that. We decided that the only way we'd ever get into a decent house was to save up a huge down payment. Now that sounds easy enough on two incomes, but with student loans, it's rather hard to save large sums of money that could go to paying off those pesky loans.

We decided the answer to our housing problem was to wait to purchase a house and in the interim to purchase a four bedroom town home about four doors down from ours. This seemed like the perfect solution: we'd have a bit more space, it was cheaper than a house, and we'd be able to save for a dream home. The only snag was that we found out the Bishop of our ward wanted to purchase the same town home. He has two kids and actually needs the space whereas, we just wanted the extra space. James and I were unsettled. We were doing what was right financially for our family, but I felt so guilty.

Last Sunday, I started looking at properties. I'm not even sure why I started looking, but as I was perusing the website, James suggested I ask a friend of ours who was building their home. I texted her and she called me back pretty quickly to tell us about a house that's being built in their subdivision. I looked it up and it was perfect. Four bedrooms, three baths, a formal living room and a downstairs family room, a two car garage, and half an acre of yard. The real selling point was the price. With what we have to put down, the mortgage will be the exact amount I was willing to take out. I got very excited about this home.

The next day, I emailed the realtor and James and I ended up meeting with the builder and the realtor that evening. We spent a couple of hours going over the plans while the builder answered all of our questions. James and I got very excited about the plans and what the builder was doing with our home. We decided to drive by the house that night. James HATED the yard. There were too many trees and a steep hill in the backyard. I was so disappointed because everything about the house sounded so good.

We decided the house was worth a second look in the daylight so on Tuesday night we drove out during my lunch break. The property looked a lot better in the daylight. There weren't that many trees and the slope of the hill was much gentler. James wasn't convinced yet but he was getting closer.

We spent all week praying and trying to decide what to do. Finally we ran out of reasons not to purchase the property. The only drawback we couldn't change was the fact that the house is in Iowa. James had a very hard time accepting that he could live in Iowa. The house is about 5 minutes from Omaha and will only add about 10 minutes to our commute times, but it is in Iowa.

On Friday, we were pretty sure we had an answer, but decided to look at one finished house just to make sure. We didn't get to look at our specific floor plan, but we did get to see the kind of work that the builder does and hear about another person's experience.  Everything about the house and the neighborhood felt right, so we followed the real estate agent back to her office and signed the purchase agreement. And like that, we're buying a house.

Upstairs floor (if you click it, it should be bigger)

Downstairs floor

I know it seems rash to decide to purchase a property within a week's time and without looking at other properties, but when something is this right, it just falls into place. We're so excited to move and enjoy a much bigger space with our very own yard. We close May 9th and hope to be all moved in by June 1st.

James and I feel so blessed to have this home almost fall into our laps. We can't wait to start our family in our new home. We have plenty of room for visitors, so feel free to stop on by!