On Hold

I've been writing about how we'll likely move sometime in the near future for a little while now. Well, we're putting that plan on hold for the time being.

The first house that is in the same town as we currently reside doesn't look promising any more. The guy was supposed to close on his new house this month, move out next month, and we'd be able to move in in March - it was a done deal. Or, at least that's what he told me when he told me about it last year. We've tried to set up appointments to see it in person (we've seen the outside and he's described the inside. He's the same guy who renovated our house for us, so I never worried that it would be horrible on the inside), but every time it comes time to do it, it gets postponed. Now he's saying that he's waiting on a large sum of money to come through before he can close on the other house and it may not even be to until this summer. It just keeps getting more and more fishy. He also wouldn't price match what the other house was listed at.

The second house that my friend told me about doesn't seem to likely work either. We've tried contacting the owners and they've just never gotten back to us. Plus we drove by there to find that it's within spittin' distance of a bar. I asked my friend about it and she said it wasn't a rowdy college student party bar, but a quiet place to stop by after work. It still made us feel uncomfortable though, so I think we're throwing it out.

We can stay here easily for the next twoish years, until we have another child after Tony. We're planning on having our kids about two years apart, so we have two years to really embrace our home and see where we are then. By staying where we are (it has a lower monthly payment than either of the two defunct house possibilities) we'll be able to set aside a lot of money to pay off debt and save up for when we will move. I'm all about saving. Then, we may not have to compromise and really get what we want instead of getting out of where we are.

I really don't want to rush into getting a house now just to have one in time for the summer for Audrey to play outside. Especially considering I have business to wrap up and a baby to prepare for. I need to focus on my family rather than finding a new home and settling for something that isn't what we'd want. We still have the same issues (crazy animals outside, drafty, no storage, no fenced in yard), but have decided to focus on how blessed we are and how much we really do love our house and make the best of it. There are so many homeless people out there right now who would keel over to have this house. We really are blessed.

We're going to dig through everything and donate a lot of stuff (I dropped off three huge bags of items at the Goodwill this morning) and organize everything we want to keep. Rearranging the house last night actually made a huge improvement. I can't believe that such simple actions can really make a difference, but it's crazy. I really wish I had done it sooner. I'll take pictures later when Audrey gets up from her nap. We also plan on saving up to buy a kitchen island from a local craftsman to help with the insane lack of storage and counter space in our kitchen. We've decided that we won't buy anything new from big box stores and try to buy used as much as we can. But kitchen islands are hard to come by and there are a lot of fantastic carpenters out here that we wouldn't mind supporting.

As far as the crazy animals, I'm hesitant to call animal control because if the lady sees them at my house going under it looking for animals, she'll know I'm the one who called the shelter on her "precious babies." But I'm inching closer and closer to doing it with every sleep deprived night. I'll just have to get off my behind and take the kids to the park to play outside. And, of course, Audrey's grandmothers want to give money to buy her a play house for her birthday next month. We're just going to put it in her account and get her one later.

We have our space heater and will just bundle up extra in the winters to combat all the drafts. Having all of us sleeping in one room while closing the doors and running the little heater has been wonderful. We stay warm, heat isn't too wasted, and the bill stays low. It's been a very cold winter and we haven't had any issues so far, so I think we'll survive.

So, long story short, unless God opens up a crazy door and makes it evident that we are to move, we are embracing this house. We had been hesitant for preparing for Tony because we were sure a move was imminent for the past few months. Well, now we can really embrace turning this into a home for a family of four. Both my husband and I have peace about it. Especially when we think of how much we could save for when the time comes to actually get a new house.

There we are. If God sent us an angel and provided a Gideon moment, I'd consider moving. But, unless that happens, we're staying put and just praising Him for His provision. He hasn't forsaken us yet, and I doubt he'll start now. It'll all be okay.