We closed on our “new” home yesterday. I put “new” in quotes because the home was built in 1978, and you will see from the photos it is still like it was in 1978.

It has good bones as the Prez puts it, and our current home ironically was built in 1979. We have completely updated it over the last 12 years plus that we’ve lived here.

Speaking of our current home … God has done this! is all I can say. We already have a contract on it without ever listing it for sale. Added to that, we know the family who has offered us a contract, which we’ve accepted, and they are a wonderful Christian family who is ELATED to hopefully purchase our home in about 6 weeks. Added to that they love all of the work we’ve put into it, much of which was done the old-fashioned way … with our own sweat and maybe even a few tears! I don’t know what else to say! GOD IS GOOD!!!

But I know some of you want to see more pictures of the new place, so I’ll intersperse those in here as I type. It was raining like crazy all day yesterday, and we didn’t get out there as early as we had hoped because our closing was at 4 p.m. and our camper hitch had to be replaced … but we made it up the driveway with the camper and it is in place.

We’ll be staying in it a lot while we work on the place until Li’l Bit’s surgery. Even after that, the Prez will probably be staying out there a lot with the other 5 children, because we want to get all of the dusty demolition done before we bring Li’l Bit home from the hospital.

I took some photos last night, but I will remind you the place was built in the late 70s. The greatest features though are these: ONE-STORY ranch, split bedrooms (master is at one end of house with two bedrooms at other, FULL basement that we plan to completely finish, large eat-in kitchen, NO dining room (we sold all of our dining room furniture anyway with adoptions #4 and 5), back and front of home open level to the GROUND with no large stairs, and built “like a tank” so the Prez says).

Master Bedroom and Bath 🙂

In addition, we now own a very large barn that we have no idea what we’ll do with yet, but it is built well and LARGE. There is also a workshop that we have plenty to fill it with (already packed almost all of our shop tools and stuff on a large trailer the Prez owns and we’ll be moving it all out this weekend), and oh yeah, 15 acres plus an additional 67 the neighbors said in writing we could roam, hunt and prowl around on as well romp in the creek!

From Foyer looking into den, which is also the very first picture above

I have to share in brief (well as brief as I can be LOL), because I’ve got to get so much done this morning that we first made an offer on this home on February 25. It was not accepted after a few days, so we countered early in March with more money.

Looking down hall from foyer to master bedroom and bath area

Again we never heard back except for a brief word from our realtor that the seller’s agent said we would need to pay X amount if we wanted the place. At that time, the home was for sale with the entire 80+ acre tract (our 15 plus the 67 the neighbors purchased).

Down first part of other hall toward bedroom for girls

Girls’ bedroom

And in all honesty, the asking price was at the very top of where we felt we should be in spending and was really outside of where we felt the Lord wanted us to be, and we were hoping to find about 30 acres of land with a home, barn and workshop.

Other part of hall where younger boys’ bedroom is in addition to doorway into kitchen, mudroom and LIBRARY!!! as well as door down to basement

So, that next day, on Friday, March 8, we found out the sellers had gone to their neighbors who had previously expressed interest in JUST the land and the neighbors had made a cash offer that the sellers couldn’t refuse.

We were CRUSHED to put it mildly. We had been looking off and on for years for something exactly like this place. It is a bit hilly, but other than that it was perfect.

Other bath

Everything we wanted, and closer to our current location than we ever thought we could afford. We were devastated and just felt so upset over it all. Many of you read my detours post, which I have taken down, because of more details I may share when I have more time. My mind wandered and some of it was not accurate, and in addition to the sellers being really nice people, some of them are also going to be our neighbors! 🙂

Kitchen 🙂

Suffice it to say that the sellers had given us a fair chance, and after meeting with them one day recently and hearing their take on it we understood their position. After all, we had made two offers which were considerably less than the asking price, and so anyway, we were crushed and just felt so defeated. Why had we gone on this detour???

But did I mention, the sellers have let us come out repeatedly to bring contractors to the place and take measurements, etc. all while waiting on the closing to be finalized. I should add this was part of an estate of a really wonderful lady (a Momma to 5!) by all who knew her, and her 4 sons were selling the place as part of settling her estate. They are elated to see it go to another family. Their parents built this place inch by inch as they could afford it. It is a neat story that I hope to hear more details of, but the part I know is just special!

Younger boys’ bedroom (maybe you can see the cedar-lined closet?! ALL of them are built this way in the bedrooms!)

At the time we had hoped to make a third offer that Friday, March 8, for the ASKING price, and I had written a letter to go with it. Once we found out that morning that a contract had been accepted from the neighbor and the sellers found out our plans to finally offer the asking price, they were regretful it didn’t work out but at the same time said they couldn’t back out with the neighbor legally or morally.

LARGE mudroom with door directly outside; cannot wait to utilize this!!!

They had given their word and that was that. The neighbor didn’t want the home or the outbuildings. Let’s just say the neighbor has plenty and this home would not be something he would most likely ever use, but he wanted the land because it bordered his 300-plus acre farm. So, on Sunday night after much prayer and reflection, we sent the letter anyway to our realtor and asked her to please ask the seller’s agent to give it to her clients with one last plea to please reconsider and be sure there was no way to get out of contract with the neighbor. Really, we had little hope b/c on paper it looked impossible. How could we compete with a CASH offer and why would the sellers want to entertain our offer at that point anyway?

BUT GOD!!!

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Our library or “one-room schoolhouse” complete with wood-burning stove. this room is 30×15 y’all (450-plus square feet!!!)!!! I have big plans for this room; it will be one of the first we completely renovate!

By Tuesday afternoon of March 12, it became clear the Lord was working in ways we couldn’t even imagine! Our realtor called me because we had told her we were done and we just couldn’t take the emotions of it anymore. We knew the sellers had to honor their contract with the neighbors, and we weren’t interested in looking ever again because we had lost our dream property.

Back down hall with kitchen on right and basement door on left.

But our realtor asked us to please “wait upon the Lord and allow Him to work” (because we wanted to retract our final offer for the asking price). She explained they were going to their neighbor and hoping to “work something out”, and so we prayed that the Lord would do His will and we hoped it would be for us to get that place.

More closets; there are so many we’ll be taking some out and putting in a water closet for the girlies accessible from their room and the bathroom

That night at about 10 p.m., our realtor called with an offer from the sellers to us to purchase PART of the original 80+ acre tract along with the home and other buildings. It was much more feasible for us financially, the neighbor got the land he wanted, the sellers got much closer to their original asking price, and the realtors were not cut out of the deal (as they would have been had the neighbors bought it all).

It has two covered porches out back, one off the library and one off the den. Did I mention a HUGE selling feature for us is both the front and back open out level with no big stairs; this is very RARE around here with a basement home; and we love it!!!

It didn’t take us long to know this was the Lord’s doing and by morning, we had emailed our realtor to say YES we will take it! The neighbor even gave us privileges on the other land for hunting, fishing, exploring, and from all accounts he is just that way anyway. On March 14, Thursday, we met with one of the sellers at the place after signing the new contract. He told us so many details about the place and his parents who built it all, and he will be our neighbor down the street! He and his wife have 7 grandchildren and love children, which is nice! They are excited about us moving into the place. BUT GOD!

The workshop

Just look at all the goodies they left in the workshop! I have some ideas for some of these old cabinets and doors (I didn’t even get pics of all of them due to a little mouse that appeared–I better get used to that the Prez says, but I plan to give Dori and Ninja (our cats) marching orders on the mice)!!!

And the Prez says there is a lot of good stuff in here too, like this wood-burning stove!

But basically, the sellers went to their neighbor after reading my letter and asked him if he would consider another option. The neighbor didn’t have to think long on it apparently, and we are just very, very and incredibly humbled. We know the sellers are fellow Christ-followers. We don’t know the neighbors, but we’ll hopefully meet them soon enough! We can’t wait to thank them in person. They didn’t have to do this, but they did, and we are just incredibly grateful.

This bath will be made a full bath and updated and the older boys will use it, and any of us will while in the basement.

The area past the stairs will be made into two bedrooms for our oldest two boys. As they move out, the next two boys can move down here and the girls can have their own rooms during the teen years LOL! The bedrooms will be 15 x 15 to give you and idea of the enormity of this space.

Storage room or the “potato room” as the original owner called it

There are 12 spaces like this space the kids are spanning. Again, to gauge the enormity of it; it is hard to believe it.

The basement is roughly 2700 square feet by our rough measurements, and the home above is 2900 square feet approximately. The basement alone is the size of our current home excepting our bonus room. I hope this doesn’t sound bad; it is just that we are humbled the Lord has given us this and at a price that is so unbelievable and sold our current home already without listing it; we are just so humbled. There is another reason I’m just not comfortable sharing, but the basement is something we look to the future and feel such a peace about for our family.

Headed out to see the barn, which our kids had not seen yet

The downstairs

And upstairs! It is huge!

It was surreal hearing the pitter-patter of the rain last night on the metal roof of the barn!

The back of the home looking down from the workshop

We are all elated to finally have closed, and we can’t wait to live in the country. This is a dream the Prez and I have shared since long before we were even married. It feels surreal that it is coming about exactly 25 years after we first met (in April of our freshmen year of high school!). I need to scan a picture of us from way back then! We went on our first “date” on April 16, 1988, with another couple from school. We couldn’t even drive yet! And now here we are on April 12, 2013 with a new little farm in the country and 6 beautiful children to go on this adventure with us!

GOD IS INCREDIBLY GOOD!!!

Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will praise you forever;
from generation to generation
we will proclaim your praise.
Psalm 79:13