We have some big news!!
If you’ve been following me on INSTAGRAM, I’ve hinted that we have some big news to share. I didn’t feel comfortable sharing the news until we had all of our ducks in a row, but I’m finally able to share that…
We bought a house!
Yup, I’m sure you are shocked. To be honest, I’m still in shock as well. 😉 Many of you know that we SOLD OUR HOUSE in March, and moved into a TOWNHOME while we BUILD A HOUSE across from my twin sister’s house. Well, plans have changed.
For us to build on the property, the 40 acres needs to be developed. Originally, we thought we’d be able to get around that, but unfortunately we can’t. Also after receiving some bids back, we are noticing how much higher the pricing is for the same size of house we built before. Lumber is $40,000 higher, and sheet rock is about $10,000 higher. I was already getting anxious, and that’s only 2 line items! Building a similar house and paying so much more didn’t make sense to me.
After the whole traumatic TRAIN SCARE that I experienced April 26th, my mindset had shifted. I didn’t want to put any stress on myself with things I couldn’t control or things that didn’t really matter at the end of the day. I want to just live a simple life. A simple joyful life.
In my head, that also meant questioning our living situation in the townhome. If we weren’t able to build until the land is developed, that meant we’d have to be in the townhome a lot longer than expected. It’s a tight squeeze for our family of 6, but it’s not the size so much that bothered me. We’ve made do, and I’ve really enjoyed decorating the townhome so far. What I’m not a fan of is having to whisper and constantly tell the kids to be quiet even when they’re laughing and having a good time because I’m afraid we’re going to get a noise complaint. It’s pretty sad when the kids have a friend over and we’ve even had to tell them to quiet down. The noise complaints our first week in the townhome set the tone and so now I’m just paranoid. The thing is it’s a great townhome, our land lord has been so great to work with, and the location is amazing right next to the school and in town.
A few days after the train scare, Blaine and I were in the vehicle and I randomly said: What if we just bought a house instead of building a house? We don’t need to build a house just to build a cool new modern house. I feel like God is pulling me into a different direction. We can build when financially and the timing makes sense. I don’t even care what house we buy.. it doesn’t matter the size or what it looks like. We can make it a home.
I wasn’t sure what Blaine was going to say but he was on the same page!
I was at a bible study 4 weeks ago (Wednesday, June 2nd), and I told my friends that we have been looking at buying a house instead of building, but there were no houses on the market in the town we live in. The only ones online were lots to build on. The ladies had mentioned that there was a house that had just put up a for sale sign. I was shocked and knew we had to jump on it quick! As I slowly drove by on my way home, I took a quick pic (without looking like a total creeper..lol) and texted it to my friend, Lindsy Baker, who is a realtor (and has been great to work with):
It wasn’t even live online yet when I took that photo. I looked at the house on Monday, June 7th with Lindsy. Blaine didn’t come because he was on appointments out of town all day. I told him the place literally looked like what it did in the photos. He told me to make an offer if I liked it. I’m so glad he trusts me. 😉 We put in an offer that day and finalized the pricing agreement the next day. What are the chances, I come across this house the night of the Bible study before it went live online?! Love God’s perfect timing!
Here are the photos from the realty website.
It’s a 3 bedroom and 3 bathroom house, but we’ll actually be adding a 4th bedroom in the basement.
Move in date is July 23rd. We are all so excited! Plus, we are hiring a moving company this time because we are sick of moving..lol! I’ve made a list of things I’d like to do to the house to make this a modern home. You know me… I can’t resist. 🙂 Make sure to SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss the house updates!
I’m not sure when we’ll build the house. I’ll keep plugging away with putting together mood boards & picking finishes for the new house. Then by the time we get the ok to build on the land and when pricing is not so outrageous, we’ll be all ready and organized!
I legit thought this year, I’d be sharing the house building process with you all and that we’d be living in our new custom house. Well, this curveball is definitely not the plan I had for 2021, but I know God’s plan is better than mine so I’m super excited and am here for it!