Boy have I wanted to write this post for ever! Ever since Thomas and I got married in November of 2014 we have been trying to figure out where and how we want to live. During our engagement we looked at several apartments, but being engaged for just four months didn't really give us much time to settle on a place that made sense for us. We got hitched, moved in with Thomas' parents and planned to build a tiny house... Well that dream was put on the back burner fairly quickly as we found out that it's super complicated to build tiny houses(and actually live in them...) in Richmond.
So we started looking for a house. We figured if we could buy a place and rent it out when the tiny house dream finally comes true that that would give us a lot of flexibility for traveling and extra income. We looked for a year before we found anything in our price range that was even sort of close to where we wanted to be.
I remember sitting on the computer one day this past summer looking at houses and feeling hopeless(a common adjective to fall in and out of when nothing is happening but you also believe that God's will is set in place for you); I picked up the phone to call Thomas and right when I did his name appeared. He was calling me. We both needed to comfort each other. We were both at a breaking point and needed to chat about how hopeless we felt. We needed to not feel so alone.
Thomas was talking about possibly finding a place to rent just to get out of the in-laws and be on our own when a new house popped up on my screen. I didn't get my hopes up because at this point I was an expert at that. I clicked on the listing and I looked at the first few photos and I stopped my husband mid sentence and told him that I think we might have found our house.
"Uh..ok?" said the husband. I made him hang up and look at the house. We saw it as soon as we could and immediately put an offer on it. And...!
We didn't get it. Yep. We were so upset. This was the perfect house! It had double the bedrooms we were looking for, a huge back yard, a fire place, lots of trees, and even a huge workshop for Thomas! But more importantly it was in our price range and in a area we like. It was perfect. And I was starting to get really down on my faith that we'd ever find something better after all this time looking. When we first saw the house and were deciding what to bid with our agent Thomas and I looked at each other and said "we really really want this house. Our agent replied and I quote "God will put in this house who he wants in this house". Ugh, thanks a lot agent. Because now when we don't get it I have to be a good person and be happy for someone else.
So we kept looking and actually put an offer on another place, one we really didn't love but was doable, and when we didn't get that one we actually softened up. We started to accept that this was just a daunting process that would take "forever". But even then I kept looking at the "pending" listing of our dream house. I decided to take a moment to pray over the house. I asked God to put in that house who he wanted in that house and for me to have peace about that.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, It's another day, husband goes to work early and I take a shower and plan to keep the search going. I come into the bedroom all wrapped up in a towel to find my phone lit up on the bed. "CALL ME" from Thomas. I called and there was a pause.. "Hey hun! So..uh..we got a house!" I'm stunned. And confused. I asked him what happened since we had just put an offer on this last house. He said it wasn't the last house we got, it was the dream house! The other family backed out due to how long the process with all the repairs would be and we were the next highest bid!
I don't have a monumental point to this story. I'm not building up to anything mind blowing. I just want to share about this journey with you because we all go through daunting, stressful, draining and oh so long periods at some point in our lives. I want to share because for so long we didn't understand why God wasn't seeming to give us any clarification towards our future as far as a home. We were stuck in the middle of nowhere for so long with no path in sight. But we realized that we were on the path of waiting and that eventually we would raise our slumped Charlie Brown heads to find that a new path was right there waiting for our arrival. God doesn't do what we want him to. He does what is right for us, always, and that lesson is what we need to remember every single day.
So with that friends, welcome to our little house!!
Disclaimer: There are some weird things going on in this house. The previous owners had some issues and really left the place in bad shape.
But Thomas and I are thrilled to bring it back to life and give it the love it needs!
We are all playing an awful game of Chutes and Ladders. Often times we are two spots from winning and we roll a one and get sent back down to the beginning of the game. It feels like we will never get there. But it's just a game and we all finish eventually.
Whatever you are waiting for, as terribly cheesy as it sounds, remember that you'll end up where you need to be. It's a process. And it's not fun most of the time. But getting there, the feeling of radical relief, is so amazing.
That's it! Our new little home! It's definitely a fixer upper. We are hoping to be moved in by February but we honestly do not have a clue how long some of the renovations will take. We have SOOO much to do...But we are very excited to start!
will be documenting our process so keep visiting the blog for updates!!