People need something to believe in these days. We are told of fairy tale stories that we will live our lives happily ever after. It is said we can fall madly in love at first sight. Well I fell for a house when I had lost the one I loved. I am sure based on the first picture you saw featured in my first blog you would ask “How could you fall in love with that?” I think because of where I was coming from I could relate to the broken places of this house and see beyond it’s current state of condition. I have often asked The Lord to help me see people as he sees them. I think He took it a step further and help me see that in a house too. This house had it’s faults and messes. Yet I saw something greater under all the rubble. So it began.It is almost ironic that I am writing this blog right now almost one year to the day that I first laid eyes on this house. It was Oct 30th 2011 that I first pulled up in front of the house. I had looked at some similar houses in another neighborhood that were amazing houses with a price to match them. I had looked at those houses the day before. They were great but way beyond what I could manage at the time. Especially when I still had a house in North Carolina with a mortage that I had just listed. The other reason i did not want to buy these houses is they were right next to railroad tracks. So I stood in front of these nice houses and prayed a simple prayer. Lord I love these houses. They are very nice. They are way more than I can afford. If it pleases You. Could you help me find a house like these for an affordable price? That same day I ran into Pastor Jamie from church. She suggested I look in Kingswood subdivision.
When I awoke the next morning I searched the real-estate listing and found a nice two story brick house in that subdivision. I was planning to look at house that day. When I pulled into the subdivision I saw a street that has the middle name of my son and husband. So it made me think of them having just lost my husband it made me feel like, I was being comforted. I was really attracted to this neighborhood with it’s tree lined streets. it reminded me of North Carolina it felt like home to me. There are not a lot of trees in this part of Texas and to find a neighborhood with many trees was very appealing.
When I saw the house for the first time it was love at first sight. I started looking at it and planning what I could do with it. I saw many features I liked. A quiet established neighborhood, a beautiful two story all brick home that in North Carolina I would have to pay twice the price this one was listed for. It had an attached garage and and unattached one as well. That gave me great possibilities like maybe a studio for Art and sainted glass. Which was something I had been dreaming about for years. Then there was the Pool. Yet I had not been able to see the inside yet. I need a realtor and I was flying out the next morning to go back to North Carolina. I had wanted to get a referral, because I wanted my Mom to be blessed from that. So I could not look at it now. It was also still listed at $159,000.00 that was still a bit rich for my pocketbook. So the waiting game began.I departed the next morning to North Carolina. There were more details to attend to when I got back home. Yet my heart was now torn in two places. I had met a great church in Texas, both my young adults were there, and now it seemed a house too. Needless to say once I got back to North Carolina I wanted to go back to Texas. What happened next closed the deal for me. The house dropped in price another $10,000 to $149,000.00. At that price it is now close to what I could afford. So I started praying and sought the Lord for direction. He showed me how I had enough money between two of my accounts to make a cash offer on the House. Because I knew that I had to do a lot of work on the house, I could possibly get the mortgage company to take a lower bid. That would require me going back to Texas to see the house because the rules of buying a foreclosure is that you must see the house before you can bid on it. Then you can’t blame them if there is something you did not expect or see. It protects the company selling the house. I had to do some creative travel planning because I already had a trip planned to California in Nov two weeks after I had returned home. I would leave California and just pass trough Texas then stay there a week and then return to North Carolina from Texas. That way I could get the house inspected and see it and bid on it if I felt I should go forward. The Lord confirmed to me in many ways this was a part of his plan for me. I just kept listening and stepping forward. Please come back for “Go West Young Woman…” to hear about what happened next.
