The House Buying Experience

As soon as Mike and I moved to Montana we knew we wanted to buy a house. We knew it was time. So not shortly after our move, we began house hunting. The first house we ever looked at here seemed just perfect for us. It was so cute, was the right size, had a garage, and was in our price range. It was also in the ward we had just moved into. We SO wanted that house. Sadly, probably at the very moment we were looking through it someone else was making an offer on it. So, that boat sailed long before we even had a chance to test the waters. We kept looking. I think we looked at about 60+ houses in the course of 3 months. Some houses were really big and cheap, but older or lacking something like a garage or yard. Some were totally crazy and possibly haunted. ;) Some seemed like they would work for us. But we never found "the one" that just screamed the Bates Family. There was a 2 story yellow house we liked for awhile. It had a lot of stuff we liked and we kept our eye on it for a long time while we continued looking at other houses. Eventually Mike lost interest in it. Then we found the house we currently live in now. We liked it, but it didn't have a garage and we thought it was a little out of our price range. So we kept looking. And looking. And looking..... I think our realtor was getting pretty sick of us. He probably thought we were too picky. But if it's not right, it's not right...right? Anyway, after 3 months Mike was ready to just have a house. We took some house buying classes from a place called "Neighborworks" here in GF that was somewhat helpful. After our class we were more confident in our house buying abilities.

One afternoon after looking at about 4 CRAP houses in a row with our realtor I began to get a headache realizing there wasn't anything nice out there we could afford. Upon going to the car a dragonfly flew up to us and landed on Vessel's shoulder. Okay, I'm kind of superstitious. I learned from Christine that dragonflies symbolize change. I thought for sure it was a sign. The next house we went to look at was the blue split level from this post. Okay, it didn't have a garage (which was one of our requirements) and it was in a different ward (Mike's boss' ward to be exact) but it was newer than most of the other houses, plus it had been remodeled and was in our price range. It had it's cons (the semen store across the street, the fact that it wasn't in our ward, etc.) But overall we felt like this could be "the one."

Over time Mike got more and more excited about the house. We decided we could build a garage (not attached to the house) for cheap. We created an excel sheet to calculate the cost of the blue house and what we'd have to do to it. (new windows, new shower in one bathroom, new carpet downstairs, garage, etc. etc.)

And then the last week of August I had a small melt down. I was so frustrated that I hadn't been able to "feel" the Holy Ghost more in my life. I think that Satan was probably just discouraging me any way possible. I had been trying so hard to seek out the guide of the Spirit more in my life (especially about buying the right house because it's such a huge investment and important decision, at least for me.) Maybe not "feeling" it the way I expected to made me more impatient. I wanted to know so badly where we were supposed to live and know that it was "right," meaning the Lord had a purpose for us there. I didn't want to leave our ward because Mike and I had just received great callings and were starting to fit in our new ward. It was very stressful, but I realized that I needed to have more faith and trust the Lord more. We looked at a few more houses that week, and we decided we still liked the blue house the most. I just kept praying that I'd receive an answer about it. The whole time Mike felt fine about the house. Every night we'd pray if that house was right for us. Mike said he felt good about it. I felt okay, but never completely excited about it. I just couldn't figure it out. I trust Mike and I know that he's a spiritual guy and so for me not to feel as confident about the house as Mike did made me feel spiritually inept or something. It was a very rough time for me.

While Mike was ready to make an offer on the blue house, I was still undecided about what to do. It was driving me crazy. I needed confirmation. I didn't feel like I was asking for a huge sign from the Lord, but I needed to have a feeling that made me feel totally sure, and at that time I felt mixed up. Did that mean there was something else out there? Then I thought "but what if we wait and wait for that 'other' house only to find out that it doesn't exist?" I know I worry too much. I was just so confused.

The day before our trip to Canada I woke up early and was bound and determined to get an answer about the blue house. I called our realtor and made a plan to look at houses all day. I lined up about 12 houses to look at. Those houses were all in our price range, had a garage, at least 3 bedrooms and one bathroom. I just felt like I had to weigh my options and feel confirmation that the blue house was the best deal. Some of the houses we looked at were pretty nice, but not exactly what I was looking for. Some of them were horrible. Some of them had really desirable stuff in them like a new kitchen or a nice bathroom, or a nicely landscaped yard. But the bad things of those houses always outweighed the good things. By the end of the day I was exhausted and sick of looking at houses. Afterwards I drove over to the blue house and parked in the driveway. I turned off the car and said a prayer . I felt a warm feeling. A feeling like the blue house could be a good choice for our family. I finally felt somewhat okay about it. So I called Mike at work and we decided to make an offer on the house.

Over Labor Day weekend while we were in Canada we were so excited about it and just hoped all would go smoothly. When we got back we received the seller's counter offer and accepted it, got a home inspector lined up and was looking to close the deal. The home inspector said the house was in pretty good condition. Although he told us some things we didn't want to hear. The roof would need replaced within the next year or two, the water heater would need replaced, the furnace would need replaced and rain gutters would need to be put up. The biggest problem was that the house tested high for radon and would need a mitigation system installed immediately. We didn't think the seller would be willing to take care of those problems for us. She was kind of snooty from the get-go and told us up front she couldn't afford to do anything else to the house so it would be entirely up to us. We would've had to put a lot of money into the house and that's something we weren't in the market to do when we first started looking at houses. But after all the ones we looked at, the blue one still seemed to be the best one for us.

Then the day after the home inspector looked at the house, I received an email from another real estate agency about a new listing. This particular house was a split level too, but it had a garage. It had a lot of stuff we liked and then Mike and I became very torn about our decision. So we fasted that weekend in hopes of finding out from Heavenly Father what to do.

That Sunday after church Vessel would not take his regular nap for some reason and would not stop screaming and crying. It was very frustrating and eventually Mike thought it would be a good idea if we took him for a drive. At first I didn't want to go but I realize now that Mike was probably inspired because not only did it put Vessel to sleep, but it gave Mike and I a chance to talk about things that were on our minds. We were able to open up about a lot of fears and stress regarding the whole house buying situation. I broke down and told Mike I had been struggling so much with trying to feel the Spirit and receive answers to my prayers. I admitted to him that I never completely felt good about the blue house. I decided the "answer" I got that one day was just kind of like an "Okay, whatever" from God. It wasn't some big revelation. It was almost like I was FORCING it and theLord finally just said "Fine." Perhaps the Lord was trying to tell me that the blue house COULD be a good house for us, but maybe not the best choice in the end. I think that Mike was a little bummed out that I felt that way because he liked the blue house so much. But it was good to finally get things off our chests.

That night some friends from our ward invited us over for dessert. On our drive home we went past a house that we liked 2 months previous to that. It was like the 3rd house we ever walked through. We liked it a lot but we took it off our list because it didn't have a garage. Then I started thinking about how the blue house didn't have a garage either. Realizing that we were going to build a garage ANYWAY if we bought the blue house, I got very excited after seeing that brown house (the house we live in now!) I just couldn't stop thinking about it for some reason. I couldn't go to sleep that night because I kept thinking about it and wanted to go look at the inside again RIGHT THEN!

The next morning I asked our realtor to take me to the brown house. I felt so good walking through it. And I realized that I liked it much more than the blue house. I convinced Mike to go look at it again with me after he got off work. He agreed and felt good about it too. We then decided to go over to the blue house to compare. We both felt like the brown house was better. I got really excited. Well, we were both excited. So we told our realtor that we wanted to back out of our buy/sell agreement with blue house due to some problems the inspector dicovered. That very same day we made an offer on the bown house! We offered kind of low and the sellers ended up coming down on the price quite a bit. So we accepted their counter offer. We were lucky and got locked into a better interest rate so even though the house was a little more expensive than the blue house, we are actually paying less than the blue house in the long run.

So we had the inspection done on the brown house (btw, inspections aren't cheap, it really sucks...) The house is good and there were no major problems. We were very excited. I feel like the Lord really did answer my/our prayers. I do feel like we were guided to this house. Mike told me later that he had a feeling that if he drove down that road I was going to comment on the brown house. He was right. It all worked out in the end. The whole house buying experience strengthened my testimony. I got really frustrated at times, but I just kept having faith and I did finally get an answer. And it's not that I doubted Mike's ability to receive an answer. Because for him, maybe the blue house could've been an okay house for us. We could've probably lived there and liked it. But obviously the brown house was a better choice for us. And Mike received the same feeling as me as we walked through it. I'm glad we were on the same page in the end!