Looking to Buy

It has been a gorgeous week here in Nebraska .... lovely weather for outdoor walks, playing in the park & looking at houses!

About a month ago, we decided to get on r.e.a.l.t.o.r.com's website to look at what was offered in town so we could get an idea on pricing.  We watched houses come and go for about a month and decided there were a few on there that hadn't been sold ... they were probably a good deal ... we can get them cheap.

Wrong!  Oh-my-goodness, there are definitely reasons that those houses didn't sell!!!

Hideous wallpaper floor to ceiling (spend the next year removing it ... no thank you!).

S.u.p.e.r. tight bathrooms (crawl over the toilet to get inside).

Narrow, steep stairways with sewer pipes protruding into them & no head room to even stand up when you get to the top.

Rooms that lead to rooms ... that lead to rooms ... that lead to rooms ... that lead to outdoor balconies & some rough looking steps that lead to the ground floor, but you're not sure you want to even try the steps ...

The question I want to know is:  How did people EVER live in these houses before they were sold?

Makes NO sense to me!

After looking at quite a few houses (about 20 ... most with a wiggling, screaming toddler wanting to run everywhere), we found our "final four."  After touring them all back-to-back last Friday evening, we discussed on the drive home which one we liked the best and worked for us.  We called our realtor and decided to meet again to view the property we liked the best on Sunday night, and invited our entire families to visit the property with us.

Ummm ... it was organized chaos.  Luke was running everywhere (thankfully everyone was really good about watching (I mean catching) him.  We had comments, questions & conversations galore.  It was really good to have everyone there to look things over & help us decide whether this house was the one we wanted.

At the end of our visit, DH & I decided to go for it.  We put in an offer, got a counter-offer back, renegotiated & upped our price ... and they went for it!  We've bought ourselves a house!  We are signing paperwork tonight and have a projected closing date of August 12th.  Hopefully things will go smoothly and it will pass with flying colors (or at least give us a heads up on some issues).  It is an older home, moved to it's new site 11 years ago, so there is a new foundation (hooray!).

What I loved about it (and kept to myself when we found the house online) was the street name.  Our new address is on ST. JOSEPH Avenue!  This fits in with our Luke Ethan JOSEPH and my love of St. Joseph to ask for his intercession for Luke's adoption.  Also, I work at the dead-end intersection of 1st and ST. JOSEPH streets (yes, I will now work down the road (and across the train tracks) from home).  I've considered St. Joseph to be our family's patron saint during Luke's adoption, but there is no clearer visibility of his patronage than now.

St. Joseph, thank you for your intercession in our lives & fulfilling the desires of our hearts!

Here is a picture of our new home:

More pictures to come as we move in & make the house our own.

I'm excited as this new chapter in our lives unfolds ... but gosh, I hate moving!  Several other ladies are also feeling the hatred of excitement of moving as well ... here's to you Kat, Perfect Power in Weakness & Barbie!  I will be thinking of you as I pack & move.  We can do this!