Visions of the future

While we were in Houston house hunting, we went to a local mall. We had left our stroller at the hotel room, so we rented an alligator stroller with a steering wheel. This is a look into the future, and one that I know will come all too soon.

New home pictures and other things that may interest a few of you

If you would like to see pictures of our new home GO HERE!!!

Of course, we still have to finalize everything, but I think its all going to work out.

Its hard enough to close on a house locally, but its even more complicated to try to close on a house four states away!! Trying to find an insurance agent, finalize the mortgage lending requirements, and making sure all goes smoothly is a rather exhaustive task, but we'll make it, nonetheless.

Update on my car:

Still not fixed. Apparently, while we were gone last week to house hunt, they shipped the wrong hood to the body shop two different times. Also, two of the dashboard lights came on, and now we have to wait and see if they came on due to the tree falling on the car. They have to prove it was the tree's fault. My question is, how do you prove it wasn't the tree's fault? They didn't come on till after the tree hit the car!

We are having a MOVING SALE this weekend at our house. We're selling furniture such as two audio/video towers, a full size bed with frame, mattress, headboard, and a couple of chairs.

We're also selling a surround sound system, a slightly used Bowflex, books, clothes, a 27 inch tv in great condition, dishes and much more! We have to fit all our stuff into one 26 foot truck!! If you're interested in any of this stuff, let me know.

Hopefully it will be a good sale. We're having it in the parking lot of the Guntersville Church of Christ. Come on by and visit.

House Hunting update

Well, here's the update on the house hunt:

Monday, we went and looked at about 40 homes all around the western side of Houston. It was all rather overwhelming. Some of the homes were wonderful, some were not so much. Josie was a little trooper, getting in and out of her car seat over and over again. She had a wonderful time! She loved looking at all the homes (except the really gross ones!)

There was one home in particular, about midway through the day, that we really loved. It was a smaller home, and at the higher end of our budget, but it was the home we kept comparing the rest of them against. But, being at the higher end of our budget we were unsure whether or not it would be a fit for me.

After looking at all the rest of the homes for the day, we decided to sleep on it, and go back to the one we liked the next day. After we looked at it a second time, we knew that it was the home for us. We had a few things we had to consider and factor in, however.

First, I had to call my CPA and ask him to rush my numbers for what I would need to set aside for taxes the upcoming year. When he told me what my take home pay would be after taxes, it had us falling short about $150.

Second, we called our mortgage guy, and asked him to run the numbers based upon what we were offering for the house. After he ran the numbers, believe it or not, it ended up being $150 less per month than what he had initially told me. Bingo, that's what we needed to hear. We made the offer, and they accepted!!

However, yesterday, at the home inspection, we learned that the house's roof was at the end of its life. We were nervous that they might not take care of that, since we had asked them to pay our closing costs. However, they realized that if they didn't replace it for us, they would probably have to replace it for someone else.

This morning, I'm meeting with our mortgage guy, and then I'll go back over to the Realtor's office to finalize everything, Lord willing.

Say a little prayer for us this morning, that all will go well. Thanks for all the prayers so far!!

House Hunters

Hey everyone. Kristen and I are spending the week in Houston, house hunting. Some markets are great, affordable and safe, but those markets are an hour commute from the church.

Other markets are at the tip top of our price range, and would make our budget tight, but is in a very safe area, 20 minutes from church, and has a high resale value.

We have been praying hard, and we're asking all of you to do the same, so we can get in the best home for us. Its a huge decision, especially when you only have a week to make it!

We'll keep you updated, if you promise to pray.

If a tree falls on your car, and no one is around, does it crush a car?

Yesterday was not a good day. At around 3 in the afternoon, our doorbell rang. I was holding Josie, trying to calm her down, and Kristen had gotten up to put some laundry away. Kristen came in to open up the front door. Living next to the church building, we get a lot of "can we borrow your keys" moments. That is what I was expecting on a Sunday afternoon.

What I heard was a "Is this your white Honda Accord out here?", and then a "OH MY GOODNESS!!!" from Kristen. I got up, and discovered this:

So, anyone know a good body shop guy in Guntersville?

I was going to say that this is the worst time for this to happen, but the more I think about, is there ever a good time for a tree to fall on your car?

Now I'm on the phone with AT&T, trying to get someone to come out to fix the phone line that came down with the tree. We're also waiting for the Insurance people to call. I don't mind things happening like this, its just all the seeming bureaucracy that one must go through to get things fixed.

This too shall pass.

And to top it all off, the letter "p" key on my keyboard just popped off.

Sigh.