We bought a house once before when we lived in Lynchburg, Virginia. The whole thing started out as a joke when we saw the house next to one of our closest friends, the Aronsons, go up for sale. Who wouldn't think it would be a dream to have amazing friends for your neighbor? We spent so much time with each other that we said we should have just built an underground tunnel from one house to the other. Those were some good times.
Anyway, when buying that house we dealt directly with the buyers who we kind of knew and after a little bit of negotiating the house was ours. They even let us move in early and didn't charge us rent.
Okay, so that's not the typical home buyer's story and I knew it wasn't going to be that easy, but really, four signed contracts in three months? And the hurt and emotional stress was unbelievable.
But then came the house, the one that felt right the moment we walked in the door. The house that David and I both agreed felt like a home, not just a house. All the other houses had really good qualities about them (amazing kitchen, lots of house for a lot less money than it was worth, unfinished basement with tons of potential, etc.), but none of those other houses had the instant feel of home that this house did.
The house is an older house and has so much character. Plantation window shutters, stained glass window in the foyer, french doors in the dinning room, saloon doors between the kitchen and dinning room, an attic with a walk-in cedar closet (I can just imagine the kids having so much fun making this a secret club house). And all of the house is immaculate and spacious. It cries out to be filled by frequent guests, which we eagerly agree to.
I love the family room that was added on...
And one of my favorite parts is the backyard and the beautiful tree who lives there...
We loved the tree that was in front of our current house, but storms did the tree in and it had to come down. Seriously the kids and I were devastated. Benaiah kept saying "Put the tree back mommy!" So after being blown away by the inside of the house, when I saw this tree in the backyard it was a done deal. Later that day Emerson said, "Mommy, if we don't get this house I am going to be so sad because I love that tree."
The thing that I love the most about this story is that God's timing truly is perfect. We wanted to find a house as quickly as we could so that we could move out of the resident house and the middle school director and his wife could move in. We started the search back in February. If we hadn't gone through the process that we did with the other houses or hadn't been waiting on our most current short sale, we never would have found this house (which had been on the market two days when we put in our offer).
You would think that I would know this by now. Things don't always make sense. Sometimes you seem to be going in the wrong direction or what seems like the best thing doesn't happen. But in the end, there are times when you can see the purpose behind it and in some way you have grown. I thought I wanted a new house with a much more modern look, but God knew what my heart needed. My plans are never as good as His. This has been my life story and now it is my house story.
Looking forward to making this house our home and having lots of visitors!!
