A house story.

Once upon a time, there was a family who started the process to sell their house in about January of 2011. They loaded a POD, had the house painted, put in new carpet and tile, as well as new lighting fixtures. They got it all spiffed up and finally put a "for sale" sign up in the front yard.

Then they prayed and  waited and cleaned and prayed and  waited and cleaned and prayed and waited and cleaned and prayed and cleaned and waited and prayed some more. And there was plenty of moaning, groaning and complaining in there too.

Well, after 5 months of this passed, they had waited enough and are now...drum roll please........
Under contract!!!!

It is pretty awesome, really. Here is how it all has happened. The buyer saw the house on a Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday the 13th to be exact. I went to my friend Sharon's Tastefully Simple party, and received a call from a realtor who wanted to show the house. I left and flew home with Landon to clean up more-the house was in ok shape, but I wanted it to look even better. Well, only after I stopped to get the much cheaper gas:) So I cleaned up a lot and they can toward the latter end of the time slot they had given. I was very relieved for that. We saw them as we were leaving, so that is why I know which ones they were. Two men. Not sure the relationship, though. 

So a couple days later our realtor's assistant calls and tells us that we had a realtor who said an offer would be coming. I was, of course super excited. I waited and it came a couple days later. It came in on a Friday. We sent back a counter offer on Saturday, then we heard back on Sunday and ratified the contract that night. 

Needless to say, I was totally thrilled. 

In the mean time, that Saturday we went out house hunting with Steve again. We had a list of about 5 houses we wanted to see, just to make sure we really liked the one in Lorton-more on that later. So Janna watched the kids for us and off we went. Complete waste of time. The houses were all awful. I knew in my heart that I wanted the house in Lorton. So when we knew we had a contract on our house, we decided to go see it, plus one other one very close to it, on Monday night. The minute we pulled into the driveway and the kids got out and ran around the yard, I know it. I wanted this house. So we showed the kids the play area, and went inside to look more with Steve. 

But I already knew it-this was our home. I loved it and it felt so right to me. 

When we left, we set up a time to go to Steve's office on Tuesday to make an offer. It was nice, though because Steve had been in contact with the agent for a couple weeks and let them know there was a very high chance we would be making an offer. He got a bit of info on the people who live in the house, etc. We made an offer on Tuesday and finally heard back I think by Thursday. We hadn't signed the papers, and Steve called and told us they were going to make more revisions to it, so he and the other agent had more talks. I guess they originally marked the washer and dryer, but then the wife said that the father in law had given it to them, so they wanted to take it.

Oh yeah, in between all the stuff with getting the new house, we had the inspection on our town house. I cleaned for about 6 hours straight and prayed about every half hour that they wouldn't ask for crazy expensive things. Well it went extremely well, and they are only asking for very minute little things to be done to the house. Darin told me in the car on the way to a store, and I think I shed a few tears. We also passed the HOA inspection on the outside of the house.

Whew, Whew, and Whew again!!!!!

Back to the new house.....We went back and forth for a couple days, one of which our realtor could not get a hold of theirs. Finally he called the buyer directly, which he says he rarely does. He again got more information. They did not want to convey the patio furniture we wanted because, again, the father in law gave it to them for a gift so she did not want to offend them. I guess I can totally understand that.  But Steve reassured us they are still interested and that we would very soon have a contract.

Finally on Saturday, amist our million activities we had going on, I was driving Jordan to a birthday party and decided to check my cell phone. I had it on vibrate so it wouldn't ring during one of our many activities. There was a message from Steve, who had the paper work to sign..

Once again.....I think I may have shed some tears in the car.

Looking back, getting such good news in the car may not be the safest thing ever.....

So we have a contract on an amazing house that we really love. We will close on out townhouse on October 27th and the new house on Nov 1st. We will plan on moving in to the new house the weekend after we close. So just a little over a month away. 

I am just in awe at how the last couple of weeks have been. What I also must say is this:

Prayers are answered. 

The week our buyer looked at the house, Darin was in Denver and he would call me at night and tease me "did you sell the house yet?"  We had been having a lot of showings, so I began to pray that we "would have a contract by the weekend." We were official by Sunday night. I prayed that our inspection would go well and that they wouldn't ask for a new roof or a new furnace. Check. 

When we pray, we are heard. Things happen when the time is right.

So I am sitting here overwhelmed with gratitude and am so excited. In the end, Heavenly Father has prepared the way for us to have a wonderful new home for our family to grow in. If we had sold before this particular time, we wouldn't have found this amazing house that I love sooooo much.  All the months of work and stress will have been worth it once we move into our new home.