Now the topic of where we were going to live most often ended in an argument, but what more can you expect from an up north loving’ boy & a city livin’ girl who fell in love, got married and decided the struggles were worth it?
One day, it seemed as though God had placed the nudge we needed right into our lap(top). Our lease wasn’t up for months but I just had to start looking and there it was — the perfect first home and it was in Stillwater none the less.
The steps that followed lead our hearts to realize, this was not the perfect home for us. It was a beautiful neighborhood and adorably put together but it was way. too. small. Like smaller than our apartment, small.
So although we felt underwhelmed and overly disappointed, we had the itch & the push to start an official house hunt.
We got in contact with an awesome realtor (Olé) that helped us flush out the wants vs. the needs, the potential for location and even had the patience to deal with all my creative vision (that I inserted into every single home we looked at).
It took 8 showings to find the place we now get to call home. Even Olé knew that our house was going to be our house.
When we stumbled upon the listing, we knew. But it was a short sale and those can get tricky, so we kept our minds open as we walked through a few other houses before getting to ours.
The second we walked in the door, I couldn’t keep the words inside — “This is it. This is our house.” Adam didn’t even need to say anything for me to know, he agreed.
As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed something by the door way. The only thing in the entire house was a ball cap that said ‘Bemidji, Minnesota’. It was a sign, I was sure.
So we started the process. And it was a process,.
Step One » Sign a bunch of papers.
Step Two » Wait to hear back from the sellers.
We had wind that there may be another offer on the table, scary. Shortly after we signed the paper work we found out that the HOA wouldn’t accept their loan type — a win for us!
Step Three » Have our first victory dance.
Step Four » Wait to hear back from the bank.
A short sale process can take up to 90 days to even hear back from the bank to take the next step. For those of you who know me well, patience is not my strong suit.
Step Five » Learn the bank is going to submit the offer to the final step in the process.
Step Six » Wait some more.
Unfortunately, this is where it started to feel like our dream was falling apart. The bank had come back with a counter offer that was $10,000 HIGHER than our offer and $5,000 over listing price. WHAT?! We had some serious consideration to do.
Step Seven » Have our…my… first (and only) break down.
Step Eight » Counter.
Step Nine » Wait.
At this point we had become very good at waiting. Or at least, we were pretending we were good at it.
Curled up in front of the fire place, watching HGTV at our cabin when my phone rang, I was taken completely by surprise, when Adam asked me if I was sitting down, I thought for sure the news was bad. But instead tears of happiness made their way down my cheeks because the house was officially ours!
This journey was a test of patience, faith and commitment — like most of our journey’s are, but in the end, it was worth every happy dance, sad tear and dollar.
We are movin’ on up people.
xoxo,
alymae