Besides becoming a mother, the only wish I have had since I was about 20 has been to be a home owner. For as long as I have known my husband, we have always shared a passion for mid century modern design and home improvement. Our old house we rented, and despite it not being ours, we poured a lot of TLC into it. It was a true Cinderella transformation lol.
My husband and I have had a lot of set backs and have traveled a rough road to be where we are today. We both view it as adding salt to our lives and has given us new perspectives as well as thankful hearts for all we have. My husband had a great job when we had lived in Burlington, NC and out of the blue he was laid off. It was a very scary time. After spending over 6 months looking for work in Burlington, we decided to leave and move back to Wilminton, NC. Grey now works on restoring Land Rovers (a passion of his) and I have been working full time with my photography business. Because we are self employed, we knew we would have to patiently wait at least 2 years before we would be able to be considered for a home loan (you have have to have 2 years tax returns).
2013 brought the moment we waited for! We finally were able apply for a loan and begin looking. It turns out it took us over 4 months to finish this process!! We did have one house we bid on, but we lost it to a cash bidder. That was a disappointment, but then we found our house. It is in a wonderful neighborhood, it’s 5-10 mins from Grey’s work (as opposed to 30-50!!), it is about 2 minutes from our church, and it has a great yard! Not to mention new HVAC, Roof and windows! Even though there was another house (over 100 years old) we would have loved to tackle, we knew that our new house was a wise choice and perfect for our first house.
The house hunting took maybe a month, so it was a enjoyable experience and we learned so much about houses from that experience. But then the nightmare: our loan! The problem that we were facing is that the market if flooded with foreclosures right now. Apparently back in 2006/2007 anyone with a pulse could buy a home and now buyers today are having to suffer the consequences of the poor judgement of the mortgage industry. To compensate for their mistakes, they are now overly cautious. To add to that we are self employed, so we had to provide a lot more proof that we are secure. We spent every day for the past months, up to the closing day getting told, oh just one more thing to sign/prove/write a letter of explanation for. We had even closed and we got a text saying, “sorry one last paper that we forgot to sign”.
We are so glad to have all that drama behind us and to more forward into the great adventure of homeownership! We have a lot of improvements planned and I can’t wait to share our progress! I am really marveling at God’s timing. This whole experience has strengthen my trust in Him. My faith has grown because time after time in my life I have seen my prayers answered. Grey and I have experienced so many miracles over the years. I feel so safe knowing He takes care of all my needs and that his timing is perfect. Faith does not mean that you hope or wish for something. It is a firm stance. You declare that you BELIEVE that God will do what He promises. To claim his promises and even though you have no idea how He is going to do it, you say it will happen because He promises. God is so good and faithful!
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” Proverbs 3:5
Check out this Vine video I made of us signing the mortgage, getting the keys, and going to the house for the first time as home owners:
https://vine.co/v/blYlF6jl5BD
{Berlin playing hide and seek in the cabinets, cactus flowers in my new garden, their new favorite place (the home improvement store)}
