In December of 2012, we bought our first home. (Though I didn't get to live in it until we were married.) Buying a home in Austin right now is quite the process. Your dream home can go on the market one day and be sold the next. You have to be quick. Ultimately we knew that we weren't in control, and that the house and neighborhood we were supposed to live in would all work out in God's timing.
One Sunday afternoon I was looking through all the houses on the market in the areas we wanted to live and stumbled upon this beautiful house. I thought there's no way that could be our house, but what's the harm in going to look at it. I remember driving up to the house and loving it immediately.
This house had been on the market for over 30 days, gone off of the market, and come back on at a lower price. We were very hesitant as to what would cause this with the housing market the way it was. Once we looked through the house it was pretty clear there was one huge turn off….One pink master bathroom. I am not just talking about the walls. This bathroom had pink from floor to ceiling. Tile on the walls, tile in the shower, tile on the counter, and all of it pink. My heart sunk knowing that as this house was at the very top of our budget, there was no way we would have any money leftover to redo a bathroom.
So we went home and continued looking at other houses. Then we considered the possibility that maybe we could make a low ball offer to see what could happen. We put an offer on the house and waited anxiously for the next 24 hours. It seemed as if they were going to accept our offer, until someone else put a cash offer on the house. It was back to square one. We looked at the some houses, but didn’t find one we wanted to buy. About a week later I was looking through houses on the market and noticed that little pink bathroom house back on the market. I immediately went to husband to discuss why in the world this house would be back on the market, and why no one would have told us. We got word from our realtor that the person who made the cash offer didn’t actually have cash and once the owner found out the deal was off. Moral of the story is there are some crazies out there who would do anything to get a house, even lie about having cash. Who does that?
Well, we decided to make the most of it. We placed a second offer on the same house. This time our offer was even lower than the previous one. It was accepted! Then began the 10 day option period. The inspector pointed a few little things here and there but nothing huge. Our realtor suggested we get a plumber to do a sewage test. The plumber came out and said that the pipes failed. He thought it would cost about $2,000 to get them fixed. Once the owner found out, they wanted to get their own plumbers opinion. At this point, I was so ready for the process to be over. I was frustrated that they wanted their own report, and worried that their plumber would say nothing was wrong. Those are the moments I need to learn to trust my good and faithful heavenly father. Their plumber didn’t say nothing was wrong. In fact he said it would be even more expensive. He estimated 15,000 to fix pipes, and without hesitations the owners came down that much more. 20 days later we signed for our beautiful home!
And we even had some money leftover to turn that hideous pink bathroom into one we can enjoy for years to come. (It's really hard to get pictures of our bathroom since it's small and the door is the middle of it.)
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Our tiny tub turned into a 4' by 4' stand up shower[/caption]
Praise the Lord. He is good!
James 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."
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