If you follow this blog regularly, and perhaps my instagram account too, you may have noticed some cryptic comments here and there about some stressful times for our family as of late. While I can’t go in to all of the details because they involve other people, I wanted to share just a bit of happy news: our family is moving… and we bought a house! (EEEKK!!!)
The last few months have been incredibly hard for many reasons, and the biggest was housing/neighbour issue that has caused us to ultimately decide to move. We had spent weeks poring over legal mumbo-jumbo to ascertain our rights and then ultimately decided that the stress just wasn’t worth it. Our home’s peacefulness was stripped away, and it was no longer the type of environment we desired for our family.
In the midst of this stuff all happening in April, I also clocked in a week of solo parenting (including a trip to the ER for the toddler to get stitches – without numbing – and with tears from him and me), a broken laptop that needed replaced, and three kids with a simultaneous stomach bug. When the housing stress started ramping up last month, I began frequenting the rental listings, and sometimes hitting up the real estate sites for the starry-eyed dreamer heck of it, as I’ve done a million times before.
Oddly enough, I stumbled on an area that had a few listings that seemed decent enough, with a monthly mortgage payment of half of what we’re paying in rent. I could hardly believe what I was seeing. We had always dreamed of buying a house, but due to the direction we had been headed (overseas full-time missions), we thought it would never happen. Overseas missions is now off the table for our family (a long story for another day), and so we began to sprout some different dreams.
To make a verrrrrrrry long story slightly shorter, I’ll just tell you this: last Monday, we put in an offer on a semi-detached home with a fantastic backyard in a great neighbourhood. With much HGTV-esque drama (according to Megan, who helped hold my hand through the sordid behind-the-scenes details), it was finally accepted at around 9:30pm that evening.
We had been waiting in our car outside the house for 1.5 hours while they went over the offer (on our agent’s recommendation) and went back and forth with our agent a bit. When they finally texted that they agreed, we went in to immediately sign the offer papers.
(By the way – it was actually our fourth offer on this house, and so the anxiety levels were at nuclear meltdown levels. We had put an offer in the week before (increased twice), but it had been rejected. We thought it was gone. But when Monday came, we put in another offer… and it was ours. There is so much more to this whole crazy process that I could tell you about – it was quite the roller-coaster.)
In that moment, I felt totally numb. Did we really, seriously just do that? Did we actually just BUY a freakin’ HOUSE?!
Yeah we did.
YEAH WE DID.
(Us, about half an hour after finding out that we really, seriously got it.)
We will get the keys on July 30. The roller-coaster’s not quite over yet, as we’re likely going to move out of here early and place our stuff in storage for a month, and lay our heads in a variety of places until we get the house. That comes with a whole different stress, of course, but it’s better than staying here longer. (By the way, if any local friends have a cottage or trailer they’d be willing to loan or rent to us for cheap for about a week in July, we’d love to hear from you. For real. We’re gonna be wandering pilgrims for a month, trusting God to provide!)
We are super excited to be dreaming about the various renovations and decor ideas. Pinterest has become my BFF for a while, and we are still slightly in shock at this next step in our journey.
I haven’t had my head in a solid creative space for a few months now, but I do hope to get back into the game soon, and once we move into our new house we are looking forward to a good long exhale, as we settle in and start putting down a few tentative roots.
It’s a good life, wherever I’m with my people. My hubs + kiddos and I are gonna transform that cute little fixer-upper semi into a home, and I’m so looking forward to the years to come.
Thanks for celebrating with us.
xoxo,
Beth (Red) + Chris (Honey)
Kate
We just bought a house too!! So exciting that your subjects were off so fast?! We’ve been putting in offers and deals falling through for the last 8 months…we get possesion of our new place in 2.5 weeks, wahoo!
Naomi
Yay!! So exciting – when your home place is stressful, life is so much harder! (you can send some house finding vibes over this way 🙂 )
Alena@TheHomemadeCreative
Congratulations!! I’m sorry you’ve had drama, that stinks.
Jenna
Totally understand about the lacking creative mindset during stressful times: My parents announced almost two years ago that they’re getting a divorce (STILL not finalized, by the way) and it’s taken me this long to get back into blogging and pattern-writing. Seriously, nothing has ever rocked me like that. Just take all the time you need, and don’t feel guilty about it! Let yourself heal, and believe me, the rest will follow when you’re ready (I’m seriously going to town with the creativity now…even re-building my blog from scratch, which will hopefully be ready at the beginning of next month).
Congratulations on the house!! Such an amazing, big step!! You’ll love being a homeowner. Not that it’s all sunshine and fairy tales of course, but there are so many amazing things about it that (to me) it’s worth a lot of sacrifice.
Lisa Suit
Yay!!!! So exciting!! Huge congratulations to you and your family! 🙂
Erin Long of Home & Grace
Congrats, Beth! As someone who also *plans* on being overseas for the long term, and thus owning a home is nowhere on the radar, I can’t even imagine how excited you must be! What a great adventure.
Praying the time of transition will go well and so glad you get to be in YOUR OWN HOME!
Life Breath Present
That is Incredibly Awesome news! Here’s to wishing you all the best in the various semi-moves up until the BIG DAY!! Congratulations on the house and also on being able to plan for the future without the stress of the neighbor(s) 🙂
Andrea Gardner
Woah! That is a lot to deal with! Bless you! I can attest living out of a suitcase is no fun, but sometimes worth it. We have had all our belongings in storage since January but we have been blessed with a temporary home during this time so we haven’t been wanderers. Currently the husband is in a different state, starting a new job, and looking for a forever home for us.
I pray you can get out of your crummy situation fast! Best wishes and congratulations on the new home!!! Yay! Praise god!
Anjanette
*hug* Our toddler went in for stitches last week after hitting his head and I was so so so thankful that my husband was able to come straight home from work!! Three kids in that ER for 2 hours would have been so stressful!!!!
Beth
I actually dropped my older two off at my parents’ house, which was good… but it was stressful in that all 3 of the kids were awake until midnight when we got home! Eek! 🙂
Kelly @ The Nourishing Home
SO excited for you and your family! Wish you were moving here cause I’d definitely have you come stay with us! Prayers and blessings are with you!!! xo
Elsie
That sounds intense! I don’t know why, but sometimes things just happen all at once like that–in a concentrated, we-can-barely-keep-up kind of way. And in my experience, it’s almost always in the spring! This is exciting. Your kids will have fun playing in the backyard all summer long(: Enjoy making it your home!
Nichole
Congratulations Beth! What a huge change for your family – but obviously needed! Sending lots of good vibes your way during this crazy transition you’re in!
Belle
How exciting!! praying for God’s amazing provision and boundless excitement as you begin this new chapter 🙂
Megan Tietz
THIS IS ALLLLLL SO HUGE!!!!! Hooray!!!!! Love you so much!
Michael Nand
I stumbled upon your blog through another blog a few weeks ago and added you to my bookmarks bar straight away, over the next couple of days I went about reading your old post (when my boss wasn’t looking) and now come back every other day and get your emails. I love your blog!
I just wanted to say a massive huge congratulations to you all! I’m sure owning a home will be an amazing experience for you all (and I look forward to reading about how you do you home up – as I have just moved in with my partner and we are doing up our place!)
My parents are christian missionaries in Canada (they moved in February – for a year, but I think my mum wants to stay!!) You should go for a mini break!
Heather F.
Congratulations! Such an exciting time for you and your family. Enjoy every minute of it!
Rachel @ Mason Jar Values
Yay for buying a house! Definitely praying for a smooth transition, even wIth whole-family couch surfing. 🙂
And boy do I get neighbor issues. Too bad for us that we bought so we’re stuck here for awhile. I’m praying the city gets around to our complaints eventually but until then my hubby is making plans to build a 10 foot concrete fence. At least I get to cover it in grapes and hops!
Nicole S.
Wow, congratulations on home ownership! That is a dream of ours, too. We plan to buy in a couple years or so, since that is when we will have to move out of our current amazing house+neighborhood. A stressful but joyful time for you all; good luck!