Blessings in Disguise- Our New House

As this summer comes to an end, I can't help but wonder where all the time went. It sped by even faster than previous years' summers. There was no time for an official vacation, and hardly any time for even small vacations. Our summer was filled with packing and unpacking what felt like a million boxes, hours on end of scouring zillow for homes for sale and lots of house shopping. These are NOT a few of my favorite things. What would normally have taken a couple of months tops, dragged on for four or five.

It all started because our contract on the house we were renting in Statham was coming close to ending. We knew we wanted to buy a house, and Doug had enough self-employment tax history for us to finally do it. We were stoked because this was a fun new adventure and we didn't have to worry about selling our home. This was going to be a piece of cake, or so we thought. We began house hunting and told our landlord we'd like to end our contract a few months early if possible, so we could be settled before Juliann started school. He gave the okay and promptly listed the house for sale. I started collecting moving boxes and packing here and there and I'm pretty sure it was almost the very next day, the landlord started asking if we could show our house. I was not ready for that. So amidst everything that was going on, including Juliann's last few weeks of school, my poor mom and I had to scrub and declutter nearly every nook and cranny in the house and make it presentable for potential buyers. And then I had to pack everyone up and get out of the way while people came and paraded around our home. (If there was a book called, "How to Stress Shauna to the Max," nearly everything that happened over the summer would have been included in this book.)

After three or four showings, the house went under contract! I was very, very relieved that we wouldn't have to worry about any more showings for a while. After a little fannagling we had gotten a pre-approval from a mortgage broker named Kyle. A lot of mortgage brokers we talked to seemed to have trouble with the way we were set up to pay on Doug's student loans in addition to the fact that we were self-employed, but Kyle gave us the okay so we began house hunting. The second house we looked at we fell head over heels for. It was beautiful, humongous and had a kitchen that would make any woman drool. It was a great deal but it was at the tippy top of our pre-approval amount. We looked at a few other houses, and then looked at that one again and put an offer on it. It was everything we had dreamed of (except for the back yard- but we figured that could be fixed eventually). We would have to switch wards, which we didn't want to do at all, but thought it was going to be necessary. The offer was accepted, we went through all the processes of paying our escrow and paying for an inspection and appraisal. Then, the day before our closing, dear ol' Kyle's bank called and basically said that they were terribly sorry, but that Kyle was fired for doing shifty things and they couldn't do the loan for us. And that was that. To say that we were devastated would be an understatement. I cried and punched the wall several times and vowed that I would have Kyle's head on a platter before the week had ended.

Because we expected to be closing on that house, our current home in Statham had sold- so we still had to be out of there. Also, we had told our ward that were were moving, and they promptly released us from our callings, which we were not ready for at all. We scrambled to find another preapproval and start looking for our second choice, but all of a sudden, all the banks were saying "No way, Jose" to us. They didn't like the way the student loans were set up- and unfortunately they were set up in the only way it was possible to have them set up. It appeared that our dreams of buying were just that- dreams.

Here entered the most stressful part of the summer. Not having a place to call home and counting down the days until we had to be out of our house, Doug tried broker after broker to try to convince them of the error of their ways for not approving us- but they each had the same answer- they didn't agree with the way the rules were regarding student loans, but their hands were tied. We began to look for houses to rent. The only problem with this was everyone wanted at least a one year contract. We were hoping to just live there for a few months until we could find a way to buy, but the answer here was always no too. One friend of my Dad's offered to let us stay at his place month to month. I was ecstatic and Doug and I drove over to check it out. We pulled up and the stench of urine and human filth filled our noses before we even opened the door. By the time we opened the door and got a peek inside, even in our most desperate state we high-tailed it out of there and decided we'd be better off living in a tent, or a cave... or a storm drain.

We explored option after option only to meet dead end after dead end. Until finally, one day we got a tiny glimmer of light. Doug spoke to a mortgage broker that assured him he did mortgages all the time for people in our exact situation. After delving into our file, by what without a doubt was nothing other than a tender mercy of Heavenly Father- we got another pre-approval! A real one this time!

The house hunting began again. We found another home that seemed to have mostly everything we wanted. I was not fond of the fact that we had close neighbors on each side and three of four houses in plain view across the street from us, but hey, at this point I'd take almost anything. We put in an offer and went back and forth several times with the owners until we reached an oral agreement. We signed our part of the contract, our realtor sent it to the owners, and then all of a sudden instead of a "Congratulations, you're under contract", we got "Oh no. I'm so sorry but the owners have decided not to sell after all." What's the word for about 4 or 5 levels below devastation? Well, that's where I fell this time. I just knew we'd be living in that storm drain after all.

I began looking for places to rent month to month again. Just anything to buy us some time. We were down to days until we had to be out of our house now. I looked at condos, teeny old farm houses with no A/C and came pretty darn close to signing a contract for a trailer. In a trailer park. Yeah. All our friends and family and everyone in our ward kept reassuring us, "Don't worry. It will all work out. Everything happens for a reason." And I wanted to choke them all. Then my angel parents swooped in and pretty much insisted that we live with them until we found something else. Nobody was really too keen on this option. Not because we don't love each other, but because it is really hard to live in someone else's house and to have someone else living in your house. (In hindsight though, my mom and I both actually enjoyed having someone split the housework and cooking with... We understand why those polygamist wives do it that way now... Don't worry- we're not getting any ideas.)

We continued house hunting and checking zillow every waking minute for new listings but just couldn't find anything we loved. It got pretty tense again as I found a house that I was ready to settle for and was intensely frustrated at Doug because he wanted to give it a little more time. Thankfully, we waited and came across a modest little home on Sunset Drive. It had been listed for months probably, but we had never been interested because there was only one blurry picture of it online- and there was basically no description at all of the house. We put it on a list of weak possibilities to look at and continued on. Til one day, Doug had a feeling that he should drive by it on his way to work and just see what the outside looked like. He called me after that beyond excited to go and see this house. He almost wanted to put in an offer on it right then and there because he was just sure it was going to be the one. We checked it out a few days later and although it was a little dated on the inside, the outside stole our hearts. It was right across the street from a huge pasture with cows and a barn. It was just over two acres of beautiful grassy yard and tall mature trees- just like we wanted. We put in an offer for the third time and after going up quite a bit from our original offer- we were under contract, again! The inspection came back clean and the appraisal came back good. The day before closing came and to our relief, we were still getting the thumbs up from our broker.

And now we live here. And we feel like it's a little piece of heaven. We could not be happier. And we got to stay in our ward, which we love so much. Of course there are many walls to paint and several light fixtures and ceiling fans to replace- but we love it. And it's ours! I can actually say now that I'm grateful for ol' Kyle's truly significant blunder, and I might even consider sending him a fruitcake and a thank you card at Christmas. My testimony of the Lord having a plan for everyone, even my little family, has been reassured and strengthened. Truly, He has a plan for all of us, even if we can't see it at the time.