I posted a photo today on my Instagram page announcing that we bought a new home! We have been keeping it off social media because of the uncertainty of everything with us needing to sell our house, and not wanting to “put it out there” until we knew it was official. To be honest, the last six weeks have been absolutely crazy for us. On May 16, we signed the contract for our new home in Eastmark which is located in Mesa, Arizona.

Our journey, however, started over a year prior.

My husband’s parents live in this same neighborhood and we had fallen in love with it ever since they moved there. Last spring, we went to look at a few of their models. It was nothing serious at the time; it was more like just dreaming of “one day…maybe”. Of course, we found one that I loved. I knew when we walked in that I wanted this to be my house one day. We toured probably twenty different model homes in this area, but I had found the one. We walked away wondering how we could make it work, and at the time it just wasn’t possible.

Every time we would drive out to Austin’s parent’s house, we would pass the house that I loved, and even if we were in mid-conversation, I would stop and say,

“Look, there’s our house!”

I would admire it from afar, and wonder what life would be like if we actually lived there. It is definitely farther out, and as a bonus… it’s closer to some of my favorite photo locations like Phon D Sutton, Usery Mountain Park,  and Lost Dutchman!

There were so many factors though… We already had a house that would need to be sold. The timing would have to work out. The monthly payment would have to be right.

A few months ago, we noticed the prices of houses in our area were selling at a rate that would return a good profit to us, and we both felt that this was the peak moment for our current house. We drove out to Eastmark again, walked through the model again, and imagined our life fitting into to this community. On May 16, we made the decision to sign the contract for our new home. (Side note – our house is a spec home, which means the builder actually chooses all of the features and upgrades… by the time we signed for it, it had already been framed so we were actually able to walk through it and see the lot it would be on!)

Even beginning with this initial meeting with our builder though, we didn’t know the journey we would have ahead of us.

For whatever reason, our builder didn’t realize until this moment that we had a house to sell, and that the purchase of the new one was contingent on the sale of our current home. We sat in their office for a long thirty minutes while the agent got approval to still continue with the contract. We were mentally preparing to have to walk away for the time being.

The agent came back in and said the only way they’ll continue with the deal is if our current house is listed on the market within 5 days, under contract within 30, and closed within 60. I immediately felt the pressure. We ended up signing the paperwork that day and giving them the first round of payments on a house that we didn’t know if we would actually get to call home. It was a huge risk.

And I am NOT a risk taker.

We are smiling in this photo, but honestly, on the inside I was freaking out a little. Ok a lot. We prayed on the drive back home, and then we begin the tedious task of getting our house ready for listing. It was this day, from the beginning, that I realized I should not get super attached to our new house, the one I’ve had my eye on for over a year. I just did not want to be disappointed.

May 16, 2018 – New house already at the framing stage!

Our house was listed on the market by the next weekend, and within 24 hours we had multiple offers. I was truly blown away by how quickly it happened. I am the type of person where uncertainty will eat away at me and consume my thoughts. It is hard for me to get my mind off of it until it has been resolved. We were actually headed out of town on vacation when we officially accepted one of the offers, somewhere between Arizona and California. I am convinced that this was the Lord allowing us to have a relaxing time away without having to worry about our house selling. I say that because on the day we were driving home from our vacation, we got a devastating call that our buyer had dropped out. We had some issues come up during our inspection, and it was just too much for the buyer. At this point in the process, I thought all hope was lost. We didn’t want to pay out of pocket for the repairs. Who knew if another buyer would come along. I knew we were on a time crunch in order to meet our builder’s time frame, but we still had 21 days to find a new buyer. Luckily, we were able to go back to one of the other offers and ask if they were still interested. I was relieved when we found out that they were and would re-submit their offer to be full asking price!

May 28, 2018 – New house; Two days after going under contract with buyer #2

So we went under contract now with this 2nd buyer. We made a few of the minor repairs suggested during the first home inspection, but I was holding my breath because we now had to go through a 2nd one. Of course, the bigger ticket repairs still came up. Our buyer wanted us to pay out of pocket to repair them, which would have totaled over $12,000. It just wasn’t something we were able to do, and so we had no choice but to counter with a lower amount and hope they would take it.

June 9, 2018 – New house with siding & roof tiles loaded!

On June 13, three days before our builder’s deadline of needing to be under contract, we received news that this 2nd buyer had now dropped out. I can’t really describe the feelings I felt in that moment, but my husband and I were just looking at each other in shock and tears started filling up my eyes. I didn’t know what we were going to do. We had three days to now find a new buyer, and we would likely have the same inspection problems yet a third time. It all seemed really surreal, like a really bad dream. I remember saying, “I just don’t know how this is going to work. I think it’s over.” I was trying to prepare myself and cope with the fact that we would lose the money we put down on our new house, and that we would not see it come to fruition. I am going to be honest, I had no faith. No faith that it was going to work. No faith that God would come through. It all just seemed impossible. Austin kept saying, “No, it’s not over. Let’s just think if there is a solution. Something will work out.” Even though I couldn’t see it, I am thankful that he had enough faith for the both of us. I am thankful that his head was clear enough to think about the next steps, because honestly I couldn’t. My thoughts were cloudy and blurred.

We got some counsel from Austin’s parents and grandparents, who happened to be with us at the same time we received the bad news. My husband’s family are major prayer warriors and they totally surrounded us in prayer in that moment as I am just bawling my eyes out. After thinking about it for a little while, Austin was exhausting all our options, and had the idea to ask our realtor if there was any chance of recovering this buyer.

She said yes there is a chance, but that we would need to decide what we wanted to do quickly.

After about an hour of going back and forth, we landed on a negotiation with the buyer. We had brought them back to the table. It honestly is not the most ideal of situations, as we had to cut in to our profit that was going to be used towards our new house, but we were out of options and I am at the place now where I am ok with it. We are set to close on our current house on July 5, and I am excited to share some of our home building process along the way.

This journey has been an emotional roller coaster from day one. Everything has been so up and down.

But I know God was never once worried or concerned. He was never once fearful of the future.

This is how I know I need Him. Because on my own, I feel all of those nasty emotions. This process has made me never want to sell or buy a house again (although I’m sure we will at some point down the road in our lifetime ha). It has been super overwhelming, exhausting, and stressful. But God was in control the whole time. He was seeing the big picture; I was down in the mud seeing all the imperfections. If I’ve learned anything in this process, it’s that He is truly greater and He doesn’t want me to feel all the crazy emotions that the world can bring; He wants me to feel His peace instead. I am not perfect, and I think this journey made me realize that even more but in a good way. He is teaching me that He is the God of miracles, the God of making a way when there seems to be no way.