The Journey to Finding Our House

Five years ago we were frustrated and just DONE trying to buy a house.

We had been looking for over a year and we were on our second real estate agent.

After moving three times within our first three years of marriage… I was oddly picky. I didn’t want to move again any time soon!!

The deal that David and I had made with each other was that we would either get a repo at a low, low price to renovate and sell, or we would find our dream house within the max of our budget.

NEITHER of those were working out.

1. We both had things we DEFINITELY wanted and none of those (probably 100) houses fit the bill.

Examples: land, close to our church, 3+ bedrooms, character, a front porch, not in a neighborhood but…. in a neighborhood

2. We had started out with a garbage credit score and it was taking what seemed like forever to rebuild. Every time we would think we had it together, it wouldn’t quite be enough.

This was SO frustrating!

I had started the journey by asking God to just totally shut down any prospects that weren’t good for us in the long run and He was taking full advantage of building my patience.

Finally, I told David to just forget it. It seemed like it just wasn’t our time. I was mentally and spiritually exhausted.

We decided that we would keep renting, wait another 6 months to a year and try again. I called Lizzie (our realtor/friend) and told her we officially didn’t want to see anymore houses. We were done for a while.

What a disheartening moment, but it also felt so good to just turn it over to God and forget about it!

I would say that within 2 weeks? Lizzie called. She said, ‘Look I know ya’ll said ya’ll are done, but I’m at this conference and I’m sitting next to a fellow agent who just got word of a new repo that’s not even on the market yet. Whitley, I think this is the one! You HAVE to go look at it TODAY before someone else makes an offer!’

All she had was an address, but I had a good feeling! So I drove over to this house and basically just started crying. It was EVERYTHING.

My phone call to David probably sounded like a giant run on sentence.

“This house is so creepy looking but it has a porch, and a big lot, and the street is so quiet and spaced out, and there’s a mother-in-law suite, and it has a long driveway and I just think THIS IS IT!”

Sidenote: It was also pink just like my FAVORITE childhood home! Which is so random 🙂

So he came after work for us to take a tour. After discovering it basically had every tiny detail we wanted, we put in a bid. Magically, at the same time our credit fell into place!

Over the next few months we won the bid at a steal of a price, signed papers, and began the process of updating it!

Now this house has been filled with 5 years of wonderful memories. 🙂

This year we plan to begin RE-restyling most of our house! So stay tuned for decorating, renovating, and DIY posts to come!

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Have any of you stumbled upon older houses and updated them? Or have you ever looked back and seen how God was putting the pieces together in a situation?

Tell us about your experiences in the comments below! 🙂