Holy cow! We bought a house! And it is such a great God-story that I just have to share it…
While we were preparing to return to the US from Ecuador last year, we began to look at real estate sites from our home town. We ran across a 5 bedroom, 3.5 bath house that had a great layout and would be ideal for our family. The only problem was that it was slightly out of our price range. That and the fact that we weren’t looking to buy. We were only interested in getting an idea of what may be available for rent in the area.
We weren’t interested in buying, because we didn’t think we’d be staying long in the US. We thought we’d be returning to Ecuador as soon as our oldest graduates in May 2015. But God… Well, He had other plans.
Somewhere in the transition back to the US, we decided to begin the adoption process to add a sibling group (from Ecuador) to our family. And in deciding that, we also decided that it would be best to stay in the US for a while after the completion of the adoption. And we’re not quite sure since we’re not that far into the process, but it may be a legal requirement as well since there are 4-5 post-adoption reports required in the first 2 years post-adoption. Anyway, once it was decided we’d be here for a while, we decided to look into buying a house.
In October 2014, we began searching local real estate sites again and came across a listing for the house we had seen online last summer. This time, the price was right (for us), but it just couldn’t be right! The house was now listed for at least $20K less… Holy cow! Something had to be wrong with the house, right?
The Mr. called a real estate agent friend and got the scoop. The house had been foreclosed on. Ahhhh, that would explain the lower price, so we decided to take a look.
WOW! The house was huge, but everything in the house was outdated. We knew if we bought this house, we’d have a lot of work to do. Fortunately, the Mr. is a pretty good handyman, and I’m not afraid of a little hard work.
So we took the plunge. We made an offer, and it was accepted, which is a whole other miracle since we were not the only ones making an offer on the house, and the bank that held the foreclosure set a deadline for offers less than 24 hours after we made ours… Talk about a close call! But we got the house, and for the past 3 weeks we’ve been working to update and upgrade all the stuff that needed it–which is like, the whole house.
Here are a few interior ‘before’ pictures. I can’t wait to show you the ‘afters’!
Here’s the foyer, or at least that’s what I’m calling it. It’s actually in the middle of the house. The doorway directly in front leads to the living room, the hallway to the right of the doorway leads to the front door. Say ‘goodbye’ to that wall. *wink*
This is the den with built-in bookcases, a fireplace with gas logs, and grungy carpet. This one only needs new floors and a fresh coat of paint. The bright light through the windows is actually a sunroom.
Below are two pictures of the kitchen. Outdated hardware on the cabinets, outdated peach wallpaper, chipped and broken countertops. We’ve got great plans for this room. Stay tuned!
