A whole lot of catching up

I know I haven't updated my blog for a while, time is going by so fast and I feel like there is just never enough of it. We've had quite a few changes in the last few months. For starters we finally closed on our house at the end of August, YAY!!!!!!!! The whole process was such a nightmare and it drug on and on for months.

First off we were going to build a house in Harper Valley so we were trying to find a good sized lot to actually put a house on that would fit our family. If you look in Harper Valley right now at the empty lots, they are really small and awkward shaped and expensive. I have never designed a floor plan before-it's not really easy and the one we wanted would make it to where we would not have had much of a backyard at all. Things were not coming together very well and the house we wanted to build was just going to cost a lot for something that we weren't overly thrilled about.

So frustrated, and still living with Wes' parents we started looking for a house again. In May Wes went and talked to Mark Duncan to see if he knew of any houses for sale in the area. That was a good day, he knew of a house in Harper Valley that was a 'For Sale by Owner' and had just became available. It was built in 1984 and had not been well taken care of by previous renters. So we contacted the owner and we took a tour. I think my mouth fell open when we walked in the door. The inside was trashed, the flooring was all taken out, the walls looked like they had not been painted for years and there were the ugliest, dirtiest pink curtains in the living room. The owner had renters for a while that did not take care of things. He knew it was trashed and he insisted on selling it "as is." So we went out to the backyard and it was huge, one of the biggest lots I've seen down here and he gave us a price. I think my mouth fell open again, his price was so low, and we were able to talk him down even lower. He was just wanting to get rid of it and not deal with renters anymore.

So we prayed about it and decided that we could really fix this place up because we were anticipating a house that was going to cost a whole lot more and the lot size was exactly what we wanted. We decided to talk to our mortgage company to get things rolling and have it appraised. This is when the headache really began. The appraisal took about 3 weeks to complete and come back to us, it's a very frustrating process. Then on top of that the bank would not give us a loan for the house in "as is" condition. There had to be flooring and the walls had to be painted. Well that was fine but the house was not officially ours yet and the owner said he did not have the money to fix it up.

After thinking about it we decided to take the plunge and hope that they would give us the loan after we put a lot of money into fixing it up. It took about 1 1/2 months to finish everything and then the bank said we had to have it reappraised again and yes it took another 3 weeks to get back to us. About to lose my mind and I'm sure my inlaws were about to lose theirs we finally got word back that we were approved for the loan and because of all the trouble the owner came down on the price another$5000 which was absolutely amazing. So we closed at the end of August and we moved in.

So after 7 years of living in the NMSU campus housing and 1 year living with the in-laws, we finally have our own home and I absolutely love it. I love having my own space again and the house looks 100% better on the inside. I wish I would've taken pictures of the inside before we started renovating, you wouldn't even know it's the same house. So we'll start fixing up the outside next year and eventually add on. But we are so excited about it and know that Heavenly Father knew our needs and blessed us with and incredible house that we got for a sweet deal. Thanks to all of those who helped us in any way, we appreciate all of you.