So we had made an offer on this house Thursday night the 11th. Friday morning Natasha sends me a text picture of a bag of scorpions from one of her co-workers houses. She knows I am paranoid about scorpions [not that I have ever seen any since living here, but have heard stories]. Well after some back and forth of the counter offers as previously described, we got the news of getting the house Sunday evening.
Then last Tuesday our realtor comes by and drops off the clue report from the owners of the house we are buying. It states on there..."A few scorpions over the years, but mostly in front near the neighbor.." Well I was not happy to hear of that news but it didn't end the deal for us, as we know it is AZ and it could very well happen in any house we get. Well we go to the bank, schedule the appraisal and inspection. Then on Wednesday morning I am glancing at the clue report again and see it is faxed from Natasha's work. I get sort of excited as I figure if we have a connection with the people then maybe they would be willing to let us pre-posses...rent it until our loan goes through to avoid a double move. I also wanted to ask them a few questions about preschools in the area, etc. So I send her an email to ask if she knows this person. She calls me back about an hour later and says she knows this guy and he works in her department. [Good news so far...] Then she asks me if I got that text picture of the scorpians...and those are from the guy selling the house. Ugghhh... And did I mention there were like 14 scorpions,which he brought 'live' in a sandwich bag to work to show. And apparently this was not the first time either. So then we hear they are both inside and outside the house...so we think these are way more than just "a few over the years". After doing some research with pest control companies, we decide it is a bigger battle/risk that we are willing to take.... so we cancelled our offer.
But to see how this string of events came about...it could only be the hand of God...as what are the odds of all the happening. I don't believe in coincidences. So we are back to square one.
Nearly half of our house belongings now reside in storage. I am feeling the disconnection from this house, as it no longer is our home, but rather a house filled with boxes and piles of stuff. It is sad as it has been a wonderful home and we have so many memories here, yet I know there will be something great in store for us one of these days :)
Monday, June 22, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
An Exciting Weekend of Answered Prayers
We had such an exciting weekend that it still sinking in. I'll start with the most amazing and meaningful thing...Ricky and Natasha got baptized on Saturday night. It was nice that both our families came to share in the experience and meant alot to us all. I have a couple of videos of them that I will try and post in the next few days. Nothing compares to an experience when the Lord has touched and moved so much in someone's heart.
In other news our prayers have been answered in our quest for a new home. We had made 5 other offers over the course of the last 6 weeks and been getting pretty discouraged over the whole ordeal. On 3 of the houses, we offered well over $30K than asking price and even would have the highest offer in a case or two, but then someone would step in and pay cash for the house, which would be accepted over our higher offer. While it was discouraging at times we continued to trust in our faith and accept it as a sign it was not meant to be.
A few weeks ago I woke up in the night after having a dream and thought, what about that house on Kilarea?? We had seen it, but thought it was overpriced so moved on--yet still kept it saved in our favorites on our real estate search site...just to keep an eye on it. Well we had been talking about making them an offer for $15K less than asking price to see if they would bite...yet we didn't...we kept checking what was new on the market...along with all the other real estate vultures [you should see how people swarm to the new houses...it's crazy...three cars may be there at a time checking it all out] Well after putting a few other offers out that fell through, we decided to revisit this one. Just as God would have it, they dropped the price on the home last week. So we decided to make our offer and after some back and fourth counter offers actually got the home for $20K less which seemed more than fair for all parties [depending on how it actually appraises which will be in the next 10 days or so...].
Yesterday afternoon when we were to submit our counter offer, Ricky starting stressing over raising it. Our realtor did advise us that we were competing with a cash offer but if we raised our offer $5K then they may consider. I was in a happy/faithful mood and said "In the whole scheme of things when you are talking about so much money, it seems like such a small amount...Let's make the offer and leave it in God's hands. If it's not meant to be, then I am sure they will accept the cash...as it's way easier for them anyway...no appraisals, no waiting for our loan to close, etc."
It's funny...we found out about 9 last nite that they accepted the offer...but neither Ricky or I got super excited because we were so used to being disappointed that we stopped getting our hopes up, yet we were happy as it was an answer to prayer. I think it starting sinking in more later and it will be nice to just focus on getting packed and moved rather than packing for the unknown.
***OK, for the super cutest part of the story.... ****
Every night the past couple months I take Derick to bed, I tell him we need to pray for our new house. A typical prayer might go something like:
"Thank you Jesus for Mommy, Daddy, and Derick, and all my family.
Please help us find a house and please send me a baby brother sister together*. Amen."
So this morning I was telling Derick I had some good news for him. I asked him if he remembered that house he had found the choo choo train in the yard and played with it on the slide... he said "Yes I do remember." I told him that was going to be our new house and then he said... "And I am going to have a baby brother and sister together in that house and I am going to be so nice and share all my toys with them in that house." I smiled and said "I sure hope so...I hope God will send you a baby brother or sister soon."
[*Footnote on the above 'baby brother sister'... I think they maybe since Dora the Explorere has both a baby brother and sister who are twins , Derick thinks he will have one of each at the same time too ;-) ]
And in other good news since the last post, I am happy to report that Derick is fully potty trained, even at night... It has been so nice....at least one way I am happy to see him grow up!
In other news our prayers have been answered in our quest for a new home. We had made 5 other offers over the course of the last 6 weeks and been getting pretty discouraged over the whole ordeal. On 3 of the houses, we offered well over $30K than asking price and even would have the highest offer in a case or two, but then someone would step in and pay cash for the house, which would be accepted over our higher offer. While it was discouraging at times we continued to trust in our faith and accept it as a sign it was not meant to be.
A few weeks ago I woke up in the night after having a dream and thought, what about that house on Kilarea?? We had seen it, but thought it was overpriced so moved on--yet still kept it saved in our favorites on our real estate search site...just to keep an eye on it. Well we had been talking about making them an offer for $15K less than asking price to see if they would bite...yet we didn't...we kept checking what was new on the market...along with all the other real estate vultures [you should see how people swarm to the new houses...it's crazy...three cars may be there at a time checking it all out] Well after putting a few other offers out that fell through, we decided to revisit this one. Just as God would have it, they dropped the price on the home last week. So we decided to make our offer and after some back and fourth counter offers actually got the home for $20K less which seemed more than fair for all parties [depending on how it actually appraises which will be in the next 10 days or so...].
Yesterday afternoon when we were to submit our counter offer, Ricky starting stressing over raising it. Our realtor did advise us that we were competing with a cash offer but if we raised our offer $5K then they may consider. I was in a happy/faithful mood and said "In the whole scheme of things when you are talking about so much money, it seems like such a small amount...Let's make the offer and leave it in God's hands. If it's not meant to be, then I am sure they will accept the cash...as it's way easier for them anyway...no appraisals, no waiting for our loan to close, etc."
It's funny...we found out about 9 last nite that they accepted the offer...but neither Ricky or I got super excited because we were so used to being disappointed that we stopped getting our hopes up, yet we were happy as it was an answer to prayer. I think it starting sinking in more later and it will be nice to just focus on getting packed and moved rather than packing for the unknown.
***OK, for the super cutest part of the story.... ****
Every night the past couple months I take Derick to bed, I tell him we need to pray for our new house. A typical prayer might go something like:
"Thank you Jesus for Mommy, Daddy, and Derick, and all my family.
Please help us find a house and please send me a baby brother sister together*. Amen."
So this morning I was telling Derick I had some good news for him. I asked him if he remembered that house he had found the choo choo train in the yard and played with it on the slide... he said "Yes I do remember." I told him that was going to be our new house and then he said... "And I am going to have a baby brother and sister together in that house and I am going to be so nice and share all my toys with them in that house." I smiled and said "I sure hope so...I hope God will send you a baby brother or sister soon."
[*Footnote on the above 'baby brother sister'... I think they maybe since Dora the Explorere has both a baby brother and sister who are twins , Derick thinks he will have one of each at the same time too ;-) ]
And in other good news since the last post, I am happy to report that Derick is fully potty trained, even at night... It has been so nice....at least one way I am happy to see him grow up!
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