The light at the end of the tunnel?

I was watching one of those HGTV shows today where they follow first-time home buyers around. This guy had seen over 60 houses and was still looking. His realtor told the camera that if he didn't choose the next house she showed him, she was dumping him as a client because her time was money. Yikes!

My next thought was, "jeez, I hope Bev doesn't feel the same way about us!" you know, since we've been house hunting for a whole 3 months. lol

Well Bev emailed today to say our offer on the BID #5 house was accepted and will be submitted to the bank in the next day or two and that we are the only people the bank will talk to about the house; nobody else will be considered unless we back out.

O-M-G! Really????? Are you serious????

Could this really be our new home?

Bid number 6

Directly across the street from this house

is another house that is exactly the same. Well except it needs to be pained on the inside, the carpet needs to be replaced, as well as most of the blinds, the carpet in the dining room must be ripped out and replaced with tile (seriously, why do people have carpet where they eat?), and the yahoos that lost the house broke up all the concrete on the small backyard patio. So that will need to be replaced too. Oh, not to mention there's nothin' but dirt in the back yard...well along with all those pieces of concrete.

It's not a short sale so within a couple of weeks we should know if our bid was high enough to 'win' (like it's ebay or somethin').

What happened to this house? The silly seller's realtor came back with a counter offer. She hasn't even taken our bid to the bank yet. Last thing she told our realtor was that there weren't any offers but now all of a sudden there are other offers. Why is it that my realtor is the only one with integrity? Love my girl...soooo sick of all the others!
Anyways, we're stickin to our guns. We'll see if that money-hungry, er silly realtor likes them apples.

Loved this

For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.
—1 Thessalonians 2:4

The story is told of a missionary couple who was preparing to retire after many years of service in Africa. The ship they had boarded to return to the U.S. also happened to be carrying President Theodore Roosevelt, who was returning from a hunting expedition. When they reached their destination and the passengers were disembarking, a crowd of admirers waited to meet the president as a big band played in the background. But when the time came for the missionary couple to step ashore, not a single soul was there to meet them. Discouraged, the husband buried his head in his hands and groaned, "I didn't want a parade, but at least someone could have come to welcome us home!" His wife turned to him and replied, "Honey, we are not home yet."

Harvest Daily Devotional

Our fifth bid is for...

this baby. (Hard to believe we've put in five bids.) Anyways, this house is out in the sticks (the wayyyyyy southwest) but we've found that we can get more house for less bucks out there. So we're meeting up with Bev at church tomorrow to sign the bid papers. I know I've said this before, but Bev thinks we have a great shot at this one.

It's a beautiful house on the inside: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, split wing, with an office (aka playroom), and I love the kitchen. I didn't take my camera when we went to see it so I have no pics of the inside to share.

So stay tuned. We'll see what happens next...

All on his own

My four year old (well he's nearly five - in about 6 weeks) did this all by himself during snack time. He bit the pretzels to make the letters then arranged the letters to spell a word...all while I was busy with other things. And he asked no questions...no help.









Little smarty pants. Why he chose to spell 'fat' I'll never know.

All brown

My thumbs, that is.

"Care instructions: Basil is tough, don't worry too much about it. Keep the soil lightly moist, and expose your plant to as much light as you can. As long as you leave the bottom two leafs on a stem, the stem will continue to branch and grow new basil Bon Appetit!"


What the heck?!?

Oh, and did I mention that my cacti are dead too?

I give up.

The best house yet!

UPDATE: We can't afford the house of beauty. Well, we could IF it was in Ventura or Santa Barbara counties since those counties have a $15,000 forgivable grant for first time home buyers. But I suppose if the house were in one of those counties, then the price tag would be well over $179k, ya think?

We'll know tomorrow, hopefully, if we are able to afford this house. It's a house that we'll probably never move out of. Unless, of course, the Lord tarries and the kids move out. The pics are out of order, of course. :)

Front of the house.


Front porch


Staircase


Back patio


Back fence.


The breakfast nook. The kitchen is on the left, family room behind and the dining area is through that door. Oh, and the wall on the right doesn't go all the way to the ceiling. I thought that was different and kinda cool!


kitchen


Here's a great view of that wall I was telling you about. Kitchen is on the left, staircase on the right.


upstairs bedroom #1


the jack & jill bathroom shower. I love that shower wall! It goes about 3/4 of the length of the shower. It rocks!


Upstairs bedroom #2


Part of the master bath


Downstairs bedroom - I love the chandelier.


Backyard view from the big kitchen window.


I like the artwork on the walls in the family room.


This is the front porch. So cute!


This is the front door and living room. I was standing in the dining area.


There's a door connecting the dining area to the kitchen. I was standing in the doorway. The kitchen is on the right. The family room is straight ahead. Through that doorway behind Jeremiah is the downtairs bathroom as well as the only downstairs bedroom.


the raised grilling area is on the right.


I seriously can't believe they don't want more money for this house! But we can only afford it if the rumor of gov't funding is true. We heard that for first time home buyers, they gov't (I think it's the gov't anyway...they seem to have lots of money to give away) pays for a 20% down payment. It that gets paid for, then our monthly payments would be less than $1,000/month (I think).

I'm excited and nervous and I don't want to get my hopes up cause I will be sooooo sad if we don't get this house. If God is cool with us living here, then we'll get it. If we can't afford it, then we'll find something else.