Home Update

I'm not sure if I posted anything about our home on the blog, I don't think so. Well, let me catch you up to speed and get a little personal.

Shawn and I attended a marriage retreat back in September 2016 at Pine Cove with a group of couples from our Married Bible Fellowship class and it was a wonderful time. We actually had adult conversations together without being interrupted or falling asleep! And they were in person and not over text! Woohoo! We spoke about everything from kids to finances to spiritual to goals to daily life. It was simple things, but it was very intentional; we loved it.

During the weekend we kept going back to our budget and we realized that we needed to increase funds or decrease expenses. We have been more than blessed by Shawn's job over the last 10 years, we are not complaining at all, but we have also been hit financially with the downturn in the oil industry over the past year or two. So since that is our reality, we both agreed we needed to make some adjustments.

While cutting cable would help a little, we really needed to do something a little more drastic, like sell our home. We love our home, our neighbors, our little town, so this was not a fun or popular decision for us to make; however, this was the adult thing to do.  We have always wanted a place with a bigger backyard, mature trees. Initially we were thinking out in the country somewhere.

We came home from the retreat, starting looking for houses and getting our house ready to sell. We found a smaller home on 2/3 of an acre about 35 minutes Northwest of where we currently live and before we knew it, we were under contract. This was in October. We also put our home on the market in late October.

We were moving forward with the process and due to unforeseen circumstances, the house fell through. While we were bummed, we definitely did not want to force something that was not meant to be. We prayed and prayed some more for the Lord to guide us on our journey. In the meanwhile our house was having barely any traffic at all.

After the country house fell through we decided that we would not physically look at anymore houses until ours got a contract on it. Fast forward to the beginning of January, we decided to lower our listing price just a little to see if that would help it move any faster. That week we got a couple of showings, then a couple of more the next week and a few more the following week. Then on Monday, January 23, 2017 we received an offer. So, we are currently under contract on our home. We are still in the option period for a few more days, but as far as well know things are moving forward with the sale.

With a contract on our house we decided we better start getting serious on our house hunt since the close date is March 7th and we will need a place to live. We looked 3 different days for homes last week. I'll save you all the LONG details and give you the meat! A house we looked at on Tuesday already had a contract on it unbeknownst to us. We loved the property, but the house needed some work. Once we found out it had a contract on it, we were a little bummed. Then on Friday we received word that that house was back on the market. We went and looked at it again and decided to put an offer on it. Here is a picture of the backyard. Plenty of room for the kids to run and the trees, I love them!

Our offer was accepted and we are currently under contract and are scheduled to close on March 7th. While there are still things to be lined out and cleared up, we are excited and hopeful. And if this house is not the one, we will remain optimistic that something will work out for us. The good Lord has not failed us yet, so we have faith that it will all work out, it just may not be how we have it planned out. And that's ok.

While we originally thought we wanted country living, adding all that time onto Shawn's commute just didn't add up for us, especially at this stage in our life with kids involved in activities. We decided to move 30 minutes Southwest of our current home to Highland Village. This would get Shawn closer to Dallas and Fort Worth and even Frisco, where his office is located. I love the area and Shawn's commute will be a lot better. The home we currently have a contract on is on .44 of an acre, so it has a big yard, which is perfect. And it is a fixer upper, which is also what we wanted. And Shawn confirmed that we can have chickens...another thing we have talked about for years! And this home will benefit us financially. Shawn and I are both excited to make this house our home.

Stay tuned to what the Lord has in store for us.