Saturday, September 12, 2009

Yep - We're homeowners now.

The 7 month saga is over. April and I are officially homeowners as of Wednesday the 9th at 8am. We bought this amazing house from Jeff and Eugenie Lilley. Jeff is the former Executive Director at Hume, and recently accepted a position as President of Seattle's Union Gospel Mission.

It's pretty funny, because we started joking around about buying their house way back in May and early June, but that's all it was... joking. There was no way we'd be able to afford what the house was worth, and no way they'd want to come down to our level. The funny thing is... things started moving with Jeff's new position in July, and he gave me a call and a first chance at the house before he listed it with a Realtor.

We actually turned him down, more out of fear than anything else. That night, April and I sat up for an extra hour talking through it and started to recognize several things:
  1. We've put offers down on 6 other houses, all of which were rejected. This one was coming to us. Could that be God?
  2. In 2003, when I was doing my pilot training in Fresno, I'd stay in their house every Tuesday night. It became like a second home to me. I definitely had a cool connection with the house.
  3. With the Lilley's needing to move quickly, they were willing to drop the price quite a bit in exchange for getting the money quickly and being able to get into a house in Seattle.
  4. We could do it without a Realtor and save 6% off the potential asking price.
  5. We knew what we were getting into - one owner, great shape. It just seemed like the perfect match.
  6. It was the kind of place we'd want to live in someday.

So, 6 weeks later, here we are. We own the place now, have a bunch of debt, and are excited for what is to come. We truly have a desire to honor God with this house, that it would be a blessing to those that come through its doors, and that it would never become an idol to us. We originally planned on renting the entire house out, but the more we've thought about it, the more we'd love to hang on to it for occasional use. Of course, it's impossible to make the payments on my salary, so the current idea is that we'd rent a couple of rooms out.

Two people could live in a nice sized house at rent far below an apartment, have lots of room, a yard, garage, and live in a great neighborhood. We'd hang onto a couple of rooms and be around every once in awhile, but for the most part would stay out of their hair. So if any of you out there know anyone that would like a setup like this, please drop us a line. We're praying for the right people that God would lead to this place!