The Journey of Parenthood…

House News

I’m interrupting my regular chronological order of blog entries to update all you faithful followers on our house situation. I have put a couple statuses on Facebook about it and I know you’re just dying for details…

I posted less than a month ago about our decision to put our house on the market in order to build a home and lock in the low interest rates going on right now. It was a tough call and a hard one for me as I do adore our house and it’s scary to think about owing so much money on it. I have really just sat back and trusted in the Lord during this process. We figured we’d put the house on the market and maybe get a couple looks but we never expected an offer this quickly!!!

Our house was on the market for right at a month and we’re already under contract. When I went to Atlanta a couple weeks ago a realtor called me and said he had a couple who wanted to see our house the following day. We’d had one look before (who actually ended up buying a 4 bdrm down the street) but that was it so I was pretty pumped! Since I was out of town Zach got everything cleaned and ready for them and took the dogs over to Mrs. Charlotte’s. Then the following day they called again to see it and they made an offer that Wednesday. It’s all kinda fast ya know? They offered us $3,000 less than our asking price, plus they want us to paint a bunch of the rooms (kinda heartbreaking) and pay all closing costs. We countered back saying we were willing to paint and pay closing but asked for our original asking price. They came back and said they’d do it for $900 under our asking price (plus paint and closing obviously). Isn’t that awesome?

So on Friday our house officially became “sale pending.” We had planned to go to the beach that day with Ashley and Garrett but Garrett had to work on Saturday. We ended up just canceling the trip as we figured we’d need that weekend to get moving on things since we close on our house (and have to be moved out of it) on JULY 15th!!! Um, that’s pretty soon. And we have to paint a LOT. And we have to have a TON of money at closing…not enough time to save up for it like we’d thought we’d have so it looks like we’ll have to take out a small loan so we don’t have to completely gut all our accounts (I looked through it all though and if we did gut all our savings we have enough which I think is pretty impressive!).

This morning a bunch of people came for the inspection and the man buyer came to look at the paint. He agreed “just” to have us paint ALL the lime-ish green color (but leave the brown on the bottom) and our master bedroom. I was kinda surprised they didn’t want Kye’s room painted but whatever less work for us! They are going to let us know Friday about what paint color so we can get started on that. And now that they are done coming over until July 15th we can start really packing and moving. They are a military couple from NC and actually close on their house up there on June 30th so we feel okay moving stuff but don’t want to actually start painting or building our new house until after they close on theirs. 

Yes, we’re building a house. And yes, we have to be out of our current house in like a month. So duh, we have to have a place to live while our new house is being built (we’ll be having to move twice…awesome). At first we thought we had it solved because Ashley and Garrett have a house that was basically given to them that they are in the process of fixing up but won’t be moving into until January. I thought it was God’s plan for us, but it wasn’t. That was really the first hard thing for me to accept because I wanted it to be His plan as it would have worked out so perfectly. I tried not to stress or freak out when it fell through and just prayed for another option.

Well on Friday we found one. While I get annoyed at Zach being from Valdosta and knowing everyone, it does have its advantages. A cousin somewhere down the line has a trailer that his brother lived in before he passed away (and no, he didn’t pass away in the trailer) and he’s willing to let us live in it for free while our house gets built!!! It’s right next to Mr. Rusty’s farm land and super close to Zach’s grandma’s so we feel safe and hello, it’s FREE, so that’s our plan. Zach is very excited as he says that I need to experience trailer living. Great…can’t wait. It’s a single-wide and I had my reservations about it (for obvious reasons) but it’s not as small as I was expecting. Kye’s room will be about the same size as it is now, as will our room, it has 2 bathrooms, and a pretty large kitchen and living area. I mean it’ll be a mega tight fit but we can make it work for a couple months right? I just will keep whispering to myself: “pool…pool…pool” and I’ll survive 🙂 

The no dishwasher thing will be a pain as will the old oven/stove combo but many years ago Mr. Rusty told us we could eat at his house for free EVERY NIGHT and with the trailer house being like 5 min away from them we plan to take him up on that offer! I also plan to go over to their house to lay out (sadly my topless sunbathing days are over until we get in the new house) and stay there when Zach travels. Get ready for some fun blog entries about our trailer adventures for sure!

Mr. Rusty and Mrs. Charlotte have been pretty great…they are letting us store our attic stuff in their attic, our furniture and things in their big barn, and anything we don’t want to risk getting damaged in the heat in Zach’s old room! They said we can consider his room our storage unit and just pack stuff in. Isn’t that awesome? Hopefully we won’t have to pay for a storage unit at all! Our goal right now is to move stuff over there everyday if we can and not have to have an official “moving day” to move to the trailer. I know it’s a LOT to ask friends and family to help move and we only want to have to ask ONCE (that one time being when we move into the new house). So far it’s going great and we’ve got a ton of our attic stuff in their attic already 🙂

We have decided on a builder for the new home and he’s actually Crissy‘s dad! He’s super nice, builds a great house, and is a Christian. To me, the Christian thing trumps every other qualification. He attends church with Matt and Robyn and I know he will build us the nicest home he can. I have looked at one of his finished homes and I LOVED it so it makes me very excited! Plus Scott and Satrina (with Exit In Touch Reality) highly recommended him and we trust them completely so we feel really good about it. Mr. Steve, the builder, has given us a fabulous quote and we are going to draw up the blue prints for our house tomorrow! 

Also tomorrow we are meeting with the bank to get the ball rolling with the construction loan and learn about all that kind of stuff. We already met with them once and know we qualify but I still don’t fully understand how the whole process goes. Sometime tonight I’m supposed to hear from a guy about a pool quote. We know we are doing a pool but we are still undecided about the type (fiberglass or gunite) and size and such. We’ve gotten some good quotes but the guy today comes highly recommended so I’m hopeful that he will be in our price range. 

Yesterday we went looking at lots with our builder and we found the one! I go walking in our neighborhood on most mornings so I’ve looked at all the lots a million times. My hope was that we would be on a cul-de-sac as I grew up on one and LOVED it and I want that experience for my children. There are a couple of cul-de-sac lots available still but they are pretty small and have a LOT of trees and brush to clear. Instead we found the biggest lot that’s left (it’s 1700 sq ft bigger than the cul-de-sac lots…20,000 sq ft total) and the asking price was $10,000 less than the cul-de-sac ones (and $20,000 less than the lots the neighborhood still owns!). It’s a corner lot (which will save us money on driveway) and the only negative for me is that it’s on the corner of one of the “main” streets. But I figure with a HUGE backyard and a pool we’ll mostly be playing in the back yard anyway ya know? We walked it yesterday and plotted out the house and everything and it’ll fit great. We will have to bring in about 15 truck loads of dirt but luckily Mr. Rusty knows a guy who can get us some at a reasonable price. We will also have to cut down one of the pecan trees. I’m so sad about that but at least we get to keep the other one and it’ll be in the backyard which will be so nice for shade while the kids all play!

view from the road, this is the tree we have to cut down 🙁

from the side…the tree on the right we get to keep! yay!

While it’s not my favorite location I do like that the lot beside it is a LOT of woods. While someone may build on it someday they will have to do a TON of clearing and bring in a butt load of dirt so I’m sure it’ll be awhile. Which means we’ll have a house behind us but not one beside us 🙂

We made an offer on the lot last night and today the guy (who actually goes to our church!) from the bank who owns it said they’d take it! It was foreclosed on so we are getting a GREAT deal from the bank which makes me know that this really is God’s plan. We are getting the lot at about the same price we would have gotten one in the other neighborhood we were looking at. I’m beyond excited, as it Zach. We just can’t get over how amazing things go when you put your full trust in the Lord!!!

Life will continue to be busy, busy, busy at least until we get moved into the trailer but I will do my best to keep everyone updated. I know I’ve heard that building a home is one of the toughest things on a marriage so I’m thankful that Zach and I are on the same page with everything and pray that things will continue to go as smoothly as they have been so far. Thank you for your continued prayers as we enter a new journey!

Emily Parker
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