Trip Down Memory Lane

I'm not the most sentimental person, so I was able to close the door on our Oak Mountain house and not look back. {It probably helped that we had such a nice place to look forward to!} But just for kicks, let's take one last look at our first home!

 

The House Chronicles - Volume 9 - Moving Day!

Right before we closed, we had gone over to the house one more time (I guess to make sure we still wanted it?? We did.) While there, we saw quite a few things were left behind on the walls and in the garage. Some of the stuff we were okay with (like cabinets and a work bench in the garage). Some of the other stuff...notsomuch. So at the closing, I asked the previous homeowner if she wanted us to box up the remaining items for her to come pick up. She said she intentionally left the things behind because she wanted to "leave some Scripture around the home to bless us." Sounds sweet, right? Until I show you what was left...

I'm not sure what Bible she's reading, but I have yet to see that in Scripture!
Luckily the Marilyn Monroe bottles were easy to take down. The scissor rack is liquid nailed to the kitchen tile, so it's here to stay as a lovely memento.

Moving day went very smoothly, mostly because we hired movers. {Best. Decision. Ever.} I'm a firm believer that helping people move ruins friendships. We had a lot of church people offer to help us move, which we greatly appreciated. But when I would say we hired movers, the relief on their faces was quite visible!

Besides hiring movers, another great thing I did (Braggy McBraggerson over here! That's not how I meant it to sound...) Anyway...I'll let you be the judge of the greatness: I created floor plans for each room in the new house. From our last moving experience, I knew it was hard to always be present to tell the movers where to put things as they brought them in. And if there's one thing I don't like, it's doing things twice. I didn't want us to have to re-move things (especially big items like beds and say...baby grand pianos). I had a floor plan posted outside each room and the movers did an exceptional job at putting everything just like I wanted!

The House Chronicles - Volume 8 - The Closing

Finally, finally, finally, we made it to closing! Not without hiccups, of course. We wanted to close mid-July, but because we were dabbling in international business {we're so fancy} the paperwork details took awhile longer. So we ended up closing on August 1st. Oh, happy day!

Here we are at the title office with our wonderful realtor, Pam:

And a shot on our new front porch! 

{It looks a little hazy because we were floating on cloud 9!}

The House Chronicles - Volume 7 - "Craigslist Creeper"

At one point during the experience, Pam sent me a text that said, "Call me. Something crazy has happened."

Insert long pause.

"...something good crazy? or bad crazy...?"

"Just crazy. Call me."

Insert fear.

It turns out that some guy (known around our house as the Craigslist Creeper) advertised our house on Craigslist as being up for lease. He pretended to be Pam and stole the pictures of our house off HAR (the Houston real estate website), but had his e-mail address and contact information. A couple had contacted the Craigslist Creeper and said they were interested in leasing the house. Creeper made up some long, detailed story (still pretending to be Pam) about how "she" was a realtor and was moving, but wanted to return God's blessing to someone else and that's why the house was being offered at such a low price. We eventually saw this e-mail and it was riddled with grammar & punctuation mistakes. That would have been a red flag for me! But apparently this couple likes that in a realtor? Creeper asked them for all sorts of information and had them fill out an application. The couple obliged. They hadn't been in the house and the guy said he couldn't show them the house because he had already moved. Darn the luck, right? But he said they could move in at the beginning of August. All they had to do was send the first month's rent and a security deposit and he would be sure to send the keys. It seems so obvious to me...Have these people never seen a Lifetime movie!?

At some point, the couple decided to call "Pam" to ask a few questions. The Craigslist Creeper answered; the guy asked to speak to Pam. Creeper pretended he was Pam's husband and could take the call. For some reason, that didn't sit right with the potential lessee. He decided to google Pam and realized she worked at Remax and her contact information was not the same as what was listed with the house on Craigslist. He called Pam and explained the situation. Eventually all the pieces to the perplexing puzzle came together. 

Fortunately the couple hadn't sent any money to the Creeper. What's so strange to think about is that this couple was packing up and preparing to move into our house! Can you imagine showing up with the moving truck and realizing the place you think you're moving to actually isn't for sell or lease? You'd be homeless! Apparently this situation happens more than one might think. Lucky for this couple, they figured it out before something truly terrible happened and they didn't lose any money. And we didn't get any unexpected roommates showing up on our porch!

The House Chronicles - Volume 6 - "Patience, Grasshopper"

Once we got the offer on our house, I was itching to put in an offer on the other house! But Pamcake (obviously the expert) said no. So I waited and asked again...

Now?

No.

Now?

No.

...Now?

No.

{In my best Borat voice} Pause, pause...Now?

Yes.

FINALLY!

I understand Pam was trying to protect us from moving too quickly and getting into a bind, but I was so impatient. I didn't want someone else to swoop in and take our house! Pam had to create us an online account to track showings and what not. That little smarty pants made my password "patience."

It all worked in our favor (of course--God knew what he was doing) because the seller just happened to lower the price about $5,000. If we had put in an offer when I wanted to, that wouldn't have happened!

We went back and forth a couple times, but ultimately, we came to an agreement that made both parties happy and we were on our way to officially getting the house!

The House Chronicles - Volume 5 - "Off The Market"

7 days.

7 days is how long our house was on the market. It took us a week to get it on and it took a week to get it off. I can work with those numbers.

You might have noticed the timeline didn't really make sense for when the showings were and when we got the offer. That's because we got the offer before the showings even happened! How? The offer came from a French investor who had seen the house online and wanted to buy it sight unseen.

Now I know what you're thinking: scam.

I know you're thinking that because that's what I was thinking, too. But Pam did her due diligence, checked the guy's company out, and realized everything was kosher. Or whatever the French word for kosher is.

Cue the celebration!

Kind of...

One minor detail: we may be able to sell our house, but can we get our forever house? Which was the whole reason we were doing all of this! We didn't know if there were other offers on it or if they would accept our offer, so there were still many things up in the air.

You probably already know we got it, but just for the sake of the story, pretend you don't and read Volume 6 to find out!

The House Chronicles - Volume 4 - "ON the Market"

So we met Pam, love at first sight, Girl Scout Cookies, Dr. Pepper, etc. etc. We obviously chose her to be our realtor (it was a little awkward to break the news to the other lady...particularly since we still had to work with her to buy our forever home...) Within a week, our house was on the market. I was beyond excited. We had renovated almost everything in our house and I thought it looked goooood. At least compared to what it originally looked like. There were still some things that needed to be worked on, but we thought it was nicely priced to reflect the completed renovations while still leaving wiggle room for the stuff that still needed work. Anyway, I don't know what I was expecting when the house officially went "live" on the real estate website...Actually, I do know what I was expecting. I was certain everyone in the greater Houston area was going to see our house, immediately fall in love and ask to come see it. Any sane person might could have imagined this would not be the case. But I've never claimed to fall into the "sane" category. Ergo, I was expecting the phone to be ringing off the hook. Alas, no.

I waited...and waited...the house went on the market on a Friday. We left Sunday to go to a summer camp where Justin was leading worship. And still, I waited...and waited...Come Wednesday, there was still no word from Pam and I was really discouraged. That day, we were going golfing with some other guys from the band. While on the golf course, I was having some inner dialogue with myself about my disappointment. I felt this really compelling urge to pray about it. This might seem natural and it probably should have been for me, but it's probably important to note here that I had been going through a little prayer drought. And by "little," I mean years. I had no desire to pray. So this sudden urge was very strange. But there was a little voice inside that said, "Just ask me. All you have to do is ask." So...I gave it a shot. What could it hurt, right? So I prayed that we would get a showing for the house. And...when we got back in the car, I checked my phone and had a request for a showing! Let me pick my jaw up off the floor. I was so excited! And it intrigued me a little that I had asked and received. But the drought wasn't over. Having that prayer answered was more like a little mist. Refreshing, but not long-lasting.

The next day, we got a request for another showing. More excitement! We got home from the camp Thursday and Friday I prepared to get out of the house while it was being showed. My sister and kids happened to be in The Woodlands, so I was going to play with them at their hotel pool. It's about a 45-minute drive to get there. On the way, I was anxious about the showings and again--I felt that little voice inside that said, "Just ask me. All you have to do is ask, remember?" I did remember the prayer that had been answered, but was still a little skeptical. But I figured it was worth a shot. So, in my car alone, I prayed out loud, "God...I asked for a showing and you gave it to me. Now I'm asking for an offer on our house."

Would you believe me if I told you that my phone rang that instant with a call from Pam? I don't care if you believe me, that's what happened. You might can guess what she had to say..."We have an offer on the house!"

The only phrase I could get out of my mouth was "Shut. Up." Eloquent, I know. But I was in awe of what God had done. So much for a drought! I think my tears took care of that!

Stay tuned for the next edition of The House Chronicles titled "OFF The Market!"