House Hunting

For several years Kelly and I have tried to figure out how we could either payoff our house sooner than the 30 year mortgage or sell the house and buy something that we could payoff before our kids graduated high school. This seemed an impossible dream. Then this whole motel adventure came up and there was no more talking of selling our house. We had no choice. The 4 hour commute was not an option.

We put our house on the market at the end of January and Kelly started looking for a house that we could easily payoff in 5 to 10 years. In my crazy little dream world this was not a hard task. We knew that the town was crawling with houses that were in that range for us. We knew that we would have to do some work and updating. But for some reason I had pictured in my mind a beautiful little old house with the cutest little flower garden in the front yard that only needed paint and a new stove and refrigerator. And all of that for a price that we could payoff in 5 years. Guess what. That place does not exist. Oh, there were plenty of houses that were within that price range but to say that I was getting scared is an understatement.

One day Kelly sent me pictures of a house. The outside was cute. The yard was nice. Then I saw the inside pictures. I was scared! Keep in mind that Kelly was doing all of the house hunting while I was in the cities with the kids. I was telling my sister/therapist about it and how scared I was. She said to me (and this is why she is also my therapist), "Tell me what you like about the house". And with that sentence my attitude changed. Nothing about this adventure was "normal" or easy. Why should the house be? If I let him, God would lead us to the right house. I just had to be positive and open to what he had planned for us. Well, that house didn't work and the next house was just as scary. And the house after that.

After seeing several houses and none of them working out for one reason or the other, the realtor drove Kelly by a house that had just gone on the market. At first he didn't even want to look at it because it looked too nice. He figured it would be too much money. The realtor talked him into looking at it the next day. Everything was perfect. The price, the terms. There is a huge claw foot tub in the bathroom (I have always loved claw foot tubs). Yes, the house needs work, the yard is small, the neighbors are close. But I could see the beauty behind all the wallpaper.

When Kelly sent me the pictures and called me that night to see what I thought, I told him I loved it. He said, "Good, I just made an offer on it." I knew that with a little time God would lead us to the right place. It had no cute little flower garden in the front yard but it has a huge claw foot tub. I can plant flowers!