Mostly I am just amazed at how very good God is to us. And I mean amazed in the pure jaw-dropping-open sense. Okay, a few months ago, in the process of house-hunting, we ended up being impressed with a certain home-builder company that was doing a new community fairly near Paul's work. Their models were gorgeous, the homes started in the 70's, the community had its own playground, and it seemed just easy and convenient. Although our salesman was really crummy and I didn't trust him at all, we decided buying there would be a good option for us. I never actually felt any peace about it, but I worked very hard at talking myself into it. Eventually we looked at the samples of carpet, flooring, etc., and were not at all impressed. Choice of color on all appliances turned into white-on-white or pay for an upgrade to black-on-white for the only appliances actually included--a dishwasher and stove. You get the idea. Every time we took someone to show them our lot, we noticed that the "available" sign had not been changed to "sold" and we told the management. Since I was not feeling any great delight about the idea of moving into it, I eventually began browsing realtor.com again. When I looked at some of the big, pretty houses with full yards that we could get for the same price that we were ending up with (which was NOT inthe 70's!), I felt like a real schmuck. We drove by one last time a week ago Sunday and saw that the sign on our lot still said "available," and I decided that was a clear enough sign for me. I started to look for something else more whole-heartedly. Paul had a really hard time with the idea of not following through on the commitment we had made and giving up the $500 earnest money. I finally convinced him that it would be worth losing $500 in order to save $10,000 to $20,000. I also argued that the company clearly had made no commitment to us whatsoever. Well, Paul decided to call the management on Friday. He ended up talking with a young woman we had met a few times, and she said that our salesperson was no longer with the company. She didn't see anything about us in the computer. Then she checked his old files, and there was a folder with our contract and check in it. He had never sent it in to the main office. She said the area manger would be coming in the next day to deal with his stuff, so Paul said, "We'll stop by this evening." So we went by and tore up the contract and got our check back! As Paul said, "Boy, God just really takes care of you."
On the way to Waco that evening, I checked the new real estate listings and saw only one thing remotely interesting. We drove by a few of my findings from realtor.com, but ended up discarding all of them for one reason or another. When we got back to Dallas, I put in a call about the one I had seen in the paper, and then we drove over to look at it. It was a townhouse with no association fees ina community where the townhouses do not all look alike (very important to me). We went to Garland Thrift store, which was very near, and I got a new wardrobe for $20, and while I was trying things on, the owner caller and said he'd be glad to meet us and show us the townhouse. SO we went and checked it out.
Goreous pergo floors and ceramic tile, a fireplace, a big living room, a little redwood deck by the front door, a small, fenced-in yard, laundry closet in the hallway, three-car garage, two full baths, each with a privacy door separating the toilet/tub area from the rest of the room, roomy closets, one whole wall of Brrianna's room is a mirror--just like a ballet studio! And, the WAY above and beyond, sliding doors off the master bedroom lead to a private spa/hot tub. The owner does swimming pools for a living, so he brought in tiles from Italy and designed this spa himself. It even has all kinds of special effects lighting! This would always have been a romantic plus, but since Paul has been going to Bally's a couple of times a day for the past month to use the hot tub for his back, hmmmm. It was easy for us to visualize our church/community gathered in the spacious living room. We said that to each other, and the owner heard us and said, "Oh, you're Christians, right? I'm a believer too." I mentioned that I had seen Biblre verses taped up to the mirrors in the master bathroom, and he said, "Yes, we do our best to live our lives according to them." We talked about leading worship in our little house church. He said, "Well, we can do even more to help withthe house." We agreed to get our loan re-approved (since it had expired during the housing community fiasco) and call him the next day. When Paul called him the next day, he said, "Okay--I'm glad you called. I'm actually showing the house to someone right now, but I will stop." So last night, we went to his new home, met his wife and one-year-old daughter, who got along great with Brianna. As we sat down to look at the contract, Daniel (the owner) said, "If it's alright, I'd like to pray before we begin this process." We spent several hours talking and penciling in everything on the contract. At one point, we were calculating the downpayment. He put it into his calculator and said, "okay, so 3 % of 73,900." I said, "Wait, I thought the price was 75,500." They smiled and said, "Well, we lowered it. We don't have time to go back over and fix that screen door that the dog tore up." So, the peciled contract goes to the title company and our lender to check today. Then we'll get together again and write stuff in ink and get things going. Our closing date is August 27. That means we'll be moving on Labor Day weekend. SO come on and give us a hand. Everybody who helps us move gets time in the spa.