Two years ago we made a big gamble. At the time, we were a family of 9 living in a 3 bedroom/1bath home. We were starting to feel pretty cramped. I know bigger families have made do with less square footage, but we were dreaming of a larger house anyway!
Our sleeping arrangements were a little strange with four children in one bedroom, two in another, a baby and all the toys in the third. My husband and I had converted the family room into our bedroom/office/storage room with everyone's dressers. We couldn't imaging putting the house on the market to sell with arrangements like this. So we gambled.
We started construction on a new house in August 2006. We found a builder, a longtime friend, who worked wonders for us. We got to see and pay every invoice ourselves so we were able to keep our costs down. Here are Rose and Leroy on the day the basement was dug. We walked over there from the old house. Can you believe how they have grown?!
Shortly after construction started we found that we were expecting a baby in May. What a wonderful gift...a new house and a new baby to go with it! Our plan was to move into the new house and take several months to clean and fix up the old house to sell. No problem, right?
The weather in Fall 2006 was great for construction. Very dry. The next photo shows most of the framing done about a month after the basement was dug. Most everything happened according to schedule and we moved in on December 22, 2006. Just in time for a happy Christmas.
We worked on the old house occasionally that Winter. But, not much. James was travelling a lot. I was teaching. He would have time off after the baby came and school was out. We would finish up the old house in May.
When Ralph was born a couple of weeks early, in April, the bottom fell out of our world. I slept at home maybe 3 times over the next 7 weeks. I couldn't bear to leave the hospital. I HAD to know what was going on at all times. I found that they like to do things while mom is not around, like intubating and extubating and such. James took care of everything else at home and managed to keep working to an extent.
This "old house" has been hanging over our heads ever since. I have had many wonderful people come to help over the last year - roofing, painting, cleaning, yard work. I can't thank them enough. But, we could never get it finished enough to put on the market.
Now here is exciting news - we hope to have a sales contract on the house this week!! An acquaintance of ours has rental property in the area. He didn't know that our house was available until we ran into him last week. He walked through the house with his wife the next day and they offered to buy it!
Here is the best part - he has people who fix things. He is going to bring in his own people to finish the little piddly things that we didn't. We don't have to work at the old house anymore and we don't have to feel guilty about it.
OK, we don't have the contract yet. I guess there is still room for something to go wrong. I'm a bit of a pessimist anymore. Would you hold us up in prayer, that the sale will not fall through and that we can find a trustworthy professional to look over the contract for us and that we would be relieved of the burden of two house payments?
I know, we gambled. And it didn't go as planned. But here we are, very thankful for all the blessings in our life. Things go wrong. Things go right. Praise the Lord.
Our sleeping arrangements were a little strange with four children in one bedroom, two in another, a baby and all the toys in the third. My husband and I had converted the family room into our bedroom/office/storage room with everyone's dressers. We couldn't imaging putting the house on the market to sell with arrangements like this. So we gambled.
We started construction on a new house in August 2006. We found a builder, a longtime friend, who worked wonders for us. We got to see and pay every invoice ourselves so we were able to keep our costs down. Here are Rose and Leroy on the day the basement was dug. We walked over there from the old house. Can you believe how they have grown?!
Shortly after construction started we found that we were expecting a baby in May. What a wonderful gift...a new house and a new baby to go with it! Our plan was to move into the new house and take several months to clean and fix up the old house to sell. No problem, right?
The weather in Fall 2006 was great for construction. Very dry. The next photo shows most of the framing done about a month after the basement was dug. Most everything happened according to schedule and we moved in on December 22, 2006. Just in time for a happy Christmas.
We worked on the old house occasionally that Winter. But, not much. James was travelling a lot. I was teaching. He would have time off after the baby came and school was out. We would finish up the old house in May.When Ralph was born a couple of weeks early, in April, the bottom fell out of our world. I slept at home maybe 3 times over the next 7 weeks. I couldn't bear to leave the hospital. I HAD to know what was going on at all times. I found that they like to do things while mom is not around, like intubating and extubating and such. James took care of everything else at home and managed to keep working to an extent.
This "old house" has been hanging over our heads ever since. I have had many wonderful people come to help over the last year - roofing, painting, cleaning, yard work. I can't thank them enough. But, we could never get it finished enough to put on the market.
Now here is exciting news - we hope to have a sales contract on the house this week!! An acquaintance of ours has rental property in the area. He didn't know that our house was available until we ran into him last week. He walked through the house with his wife the next day and they offered to buy it!
Here is the best part - he has people who fix things. He is going to bring in his own people to finish the little piddly things that we didn't. We don't have to work at the old house anymore and we don't have to feel guilty about it.
OK, we don't have the contract yet. I guess there is still room for something to go wrong. I'm a bit of a pessimist anymore. Would you hold us up in prayer, that the sale will not fall through and that we can find a trustworthy professional to look over the contract for us and that we would be relieved of the burden of two house payments?
I know, we gambled. And it didn't go as planned. But here we are, very thankful for all the blessings in our life. Things go wrong. Things go right. Praise the Lord.
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