We found a home! An even BETTER home!

Normally, I keep my faith opinions & comments on my other blog, but I can't share this story without giving God full credit, so just bear with me, it's a great story!
I planned on checking out the apartment from my last post at 1 o'clock Tues. afternoon. Being in a hotel about an hour away, my plans were to leave the hotel no earlier than noontime, then run a few errands on the other side of town. That morning I couldn't stay put. I felt like I just had to get out of the hotel and head over towards the apartments. Maybe I'd stop into a few of the places on my list before the appointment instead of after? Anyway, I had to go.

That morning, my Facebook post was simple. Just that I was going to look at a place, wish me luck. I get a call from a friend I haven't talked to in 2 years. She's rarely on FB these days, but happen to be home recovering from surgery and was on there, and happened to see my post. She let me know she had a place for rent (since when did her family own rentals?) and it was becoming available in a matter of days. She called me during my drive but for some reason, I didn't hear my phone ring at that time. Instead, something made me take out my phone at a red light and see that I had a call from about 15 minutes earlier.

I called her and she mentioned a house, not a second floor, 1000 sf apartment, but a house for rent. I asked her where it was and she said it was off THE VERY STREET I WAS DRIVING BY!!! I couldn't missed her call. I could've called her back earlier or later. But the timing was absolutely perfect - that's how I know it had to be God's timing & plan and not my own. I've learned to pay attention to these things over the years.

Anyway, she and her husband were kind enough to allow us to move in for what we were going to pay for the apartment, which has to be anywhere from $200 - $600 below market value, depending on if they did work on it or not. In exchange, we'd move in with the understanding that it's "as is" and has some minor cosmetic issues - like funky paint colors, a few rugs that were removed but cement was never finished or painted, etc.

The house is perfect for us! It's only 2 to 3 blocks from everything and everywhere we need to be. It's got over 1600 sf. The Master has it's own bathroom, there's a good sized yard for entertaining and some beginning gardening space. It's at the end of a cul de sac. What more could we ask for?

Here's the best part - had I gone into the apartment interview without knowing about the house, I would've been devastated. It was the last place we could afford without being 30 miles from church in a very bad west-side neighborhood. I went in and within 5 minutes, they'd told me they had no 3 bedrooms in their mile-long complex and there was already a waiting list for them. We wouldn't have been able to move for another 6 to 12 months, if there at all. I would've spent the rest of the week compromising our family's safety and taking a place we hated, that was way too small, miserable. Instead, God gave me the confidence that it would all work out with the house, so when she said they had no vacancies, I smiled, got up, and left thinking, "it's okay because I don't want to live here anymore."

Life can be so good.

Finding a home

Here I am, bright and early on a Monday morning, ready to look for a new home for our family this week. Granted, the reason I'm up early is because I'm in the lobby of the hotel that messed up and I'm here waiting for their next available room to open up.

Anyway, on to better things...there's a place we hope to qualify for - it's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment, in a complex that a lot nicer than where we used to be. It's got lots of grass, palm trees, 4 pools (2 heated), basketball courts, street hockey rinks, playgrounds, free bikes to borrow from the office, a fitness center, a beautiful clubhouse, and it's in a very convenient location for everything we could ever need.

So why am I still in the process of "finding" a home? Because we're not sure we'll qualify yet. My husband has just switched careers, he's in orientation & training for the next 3 1/2 weeks - then he'll be a solo truck driver. The pay is promising to be enough to qualify, but we had to declare bankruptcy and lost our home in a foreclosure 2 years ago. We're not sure if that will disqualify us or not. We also don't know if they'll need months of paystubs first, or accept the first few to see what a typical workweek pays.

Should we not get into this place, we have no real backup. That's why I'm here. By the time I leave in a few days, I'll know better where we stand, if I have to look for a new place or not, and I should have a better idea of when we should be able to plan our move.

We can also house-sit for friends here in mid-June for about a month at no cost - so if our move is delayed longer than we originally planned, that'll be okay because we'll still have a mini vacation to break up the tension.

Wish me luck this week!