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Like many others I'm sure, my conversations with God could be more frequent. I tend to only pray when I need something. It doesn't make it right, but it's the truth. It's not that I don't feel like I need to speak to him any other time, I just don't think about it until I'm upset, or until I feel helpless with an outcome.
That being said, after Graham and I were married last October, we started saving for our first home purchase together. Living in company housing while he worked on the farm definitely made that part of the process much easier. We were able to sock away a good chunk of money into our savings. It didn't take long and we had enough to put down on a house and cover our closing costs.
Graham was offered his new job in March, but we were in the middle of saving for a new house so they agreed to hold the position for him until he could make his move. Time trickled on and we continued to save, save, save. In May he started getting a little antsy, nervous that the new position wouldn't be available if he took too much more time.
We started looking at a few houses that were on the market. After talking about it with some of the guys I worked with, I found out that one of them had a property that they were about to list with a realtor. We made arrangements to see it that night. It was a big, 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home on just shy of 2 acres on the outskirts of town. We were excited! Not only were we going to be making our first home purchase, but Graham would finally be able to start his new job! We slept on it and made an offer the next day.
The next few weeks were a whirl wind as I went about getting the financing going for our new purchase. I came across a lender that would work with modular homes (the type that property was) and quickly got all of our paperwork to her. Not too long after, we realized that the home would actually be considered a manufactured home because of the type of frame it was on. I've lived in a few trailers in my day, but that wasn't what we were told the house was. I started having doubts that it would be a good purchase, but we kept truckin' along.
When we signed the contract with the seller, we listed 6/28 as the closing date, which gave the lender almost a full 60 days to get the loan funded. The end of May rolls around and we (finally) get our pre-approval letter for the home... now to work on getting the property approved. Long story short, the week of 6/28 comes and our lender hadn't even ordered the appraisal, allowed us to order the home inspection, ordered the structural engineer report, or did a well inspection. Nothing had been done and she kept giving me the run around.
I was furious. I know that the mortgage process is more strenuous than it used to be. I know that I've never bought a home and that there is a lot that goes into the process. I also know when someone is lying to me and just not doing their job. After waiting for nearly two months, getting nowhere, and seeing Graham nearly go into full panic mode over the possibility of him losing his new job; I knew that we had to take a different route.
When the contract expired on the date that we should've closed on the home, we decided not to renew it. We spoke to the seller and let them know the situation. They were upset, but it was just something we had to do for us at the moment. We figured we would just cross each bridge as we got there, starting with his new job. Once he started his job, we could start searching for another home again, which is where we are now.
Looking back, I really feel like it was God slamming that door shut. God knew that house wasn't best for us and that's why we couldn't get anywhere in the process. While I was mad at the time, I know it had to happen that way for me to understand it was just the way God intended it. He had something better for us, even if we didn't yet know what that might mean.
There were so many things about that property that made me uneasy about the whole thing, but I tried to stifle those feelings. I tried to tell myself it was just cold feet, even though I knew it wasn't the case. Truth be told, I was only going forward with it so he could start the next chapter of his life sooner.
*We would've had to share a well with the neighbor. Although that would mean that we could split the repairs when the time came, it also meant that we weren't in control of the situation... which I don't do well with at all and could potentially cause some major problems down the line.
*We would've had to re-carpet the whole house, re-tile the bathrooms, re-face the kitchen cabinets, and paint every room. I don't mind doing a little work to any house we come across, but with it being considered a manufactured home, it was highly unlikely that we would ever recoup any of the money we put into the home when it came time to sell it. And we knew that it wouldn't be a property we would likely stay in forever. We were treating it as a starter home. It just didn't make sense to go forward with the purchase.
I'm so thankful God intervened and didn't allow us to go forward with what we thought we wanted whole-heartedly. It's so true that God knows us more than we know ourselves.
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