House Pictures!

So we went out to the house tonight to take some pictures. We are waiting to get the final contract back from the seller, while working on completing mortgage stuff. There is so much more work involved in this than I ever knew. The thought occured to me this evening that it might be worth it to never move again in order to avoid all this loan garbage! Anyways, here are some pictures.... Enjoy and keep praying!


Front of the house, from the street (Greystone Lane) - Notice the mountains in the back!




Back of the house and the pretty deck :)




Living Room, taken from edge of dining room




This is the ceiling in the master bedroom. It is called a tray ceiling. I had never seen this before I saw this house, but the finished product is beautiful!




Kitchen-- Living Room is to the right, and french doors to deck are just to the left.

Housing Article

Just found this article on CNN about the slow down in new home sales... which helps bring the prices down. Good news for us!

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/26/news/economy/new_home_sales/index.htm?cnn=yes

House Update

So they did not accept our offer. Basically, there is no room for negotiation because of how well the houses are selling in that area. However, we are still going for it. We suspected from the beginning that they would not accept our offer as it was. We thought maybe we could squeak a little bit more out of them, but that's okay. We were prepared to pay full price.

Every Sunday, we go to Mom's after church, and we always look at the Sunday paper. Well, today in the paper, there was an article about how new homes in the area are so underpriced right now. I think it was a number somewhere around $5,000 to $20,000 or something like that. They said that now is the time to buy a new home. So I think it was kind of a confirmation for us. All along, I've been hoping that God would make it very clear to us the right thing to do. Up to this point, I felt like we hadn't really "heard" from God on the matter. It kind of seemed right because it was a wonderful home for us for such a great price, and we hadn't found anything else that could compete with this home. But that article in the paper today just felt like a word from God directly for us. It just feels right. The mortgage we can get from Navy Federal is about $100 cheaper a month than anywhere else, so it seems like we are having many open doors at this point.

So we told Bobby-Anne that we want to go for it. She should be getting the updated contract from the other realtor tomorrow, and then we will go from there. Next week, we are going to be in Virginia Beach to spend the week with Anthony's family, so it seems like it would be great timing for us to sign papers and such, since they don't have a branch in this area. Thank goodness Anthony kept his account with them open!

Anthony's mom said that when they have bought houses in the past, that God has always made it perfectly clear to them what to do. I have to be honest in saying, that I doubted that it would be that way for us. O ye of little faith, right? As always, God has once again shown himself to me and strengthened my faith through it. Thank you for your prayers. I'll keep everyone updated. :)

We Made an Offer!

Hello-- thought it was about time for an update. Well, we put an offer on the house in Northwood! Hopefully we should hear back in the next couple of days. We also were preapproved for the loan from Navy Federal Credit Union that we were hoping for. It looks like that is the one we will go with. It has no mortgage insurance, which is really great. We actually went to the house yesterday with Bobby-Anne and marked where we want cable outlets and phone jacks. I meant to take some pictures but forgot. I don't expect that they will accept our first offer as we asked for several different things, but hopefully we can at least get a little something out of them! I will keep you posted as we hear back from them.

Also, we help with the Awana Trek group at church, and today they had Bible Quizzing and Awana Games. Our group of quizzers came in 3rd and we came in 1st in the games! Here is a picture of the kids on the team and Tony Beard who was the coach.

We all had a lot of fun. It brought back great memories for me since I did those things all the way through school. I was asked to coach the Quiz team this year, but I decided not to do it, since I didn't know how much work school would be at this time. In retrospect, I wish I had coached them, but plan to do it next year!

So please pray for us this week as we wait to hear back about our offer! God is faithful and has brought us this far, and we know he will continue to guide us in this process!

House Hunt Update!

Just wanted to give a quick update about our home search. We went out again today with our realtor, Bobby-Anne, and we are going to try to put an offer on the house in Northwood! We went to the house again on Saturday with Bobby-Anne, and then I brought my mom and dad out there yesterday to see it. We really love the house and can absolutely see ourselves there. We are going to try to negotiate to get hardwood floors put in the living room for no extra cost, and maybe for the seller to cover more closing costs as well.

We are still working on finding out where our best option for a mortgage is. We have been preapproved by DuPont Community Credit Union but we're not sure we want to use them. We are waiting to hear back from Navy Federal Credit Union with what sounds like a great loan... we're keeping our hopes up for that one.

We're really excited and hoping that this will work out for us, all the while trusting that God knows what is best for us. So please keep us in your prayers this week as we pursue this house!

House Hunting!

Hello all! Just wanted to share with you all about our house hunting efforts. Well, our lease is set to end on May 31 and of course we want to get in a house so we don't have to lose another year's worth of rent and so we can soon start to build our family! As of today, we officially have a realtor, Bobby Anne Wood, whose company, Landmark Realty, owns and operates our apartment complex. One of Mom's good friends is friends with Bobby Anne and told us that she would be great for us. So she is officially our realtor as of today! For the past few months we have been casually browsing the market on the MLS system online. On Sunday we went to 3 different open houses and fell in love with the first one we went to. It is a new construction on the north end of Waynesboro in a subdivision called Northwood. The awesome thing about it is, that if we were to act fast, since it is still being built, we could pick the paint color, flooring, lighting, etc.

Now... while I am in love with this house, it is definitely at the very highest end of our price range, and I know there is so much that would have to happen for us to even have a chance of getting it. But I am just really searching for God's will on this. I have prayed that he would shut doors if this is not what he wants for us, and I am ready for that to happen. Anthony has also been on the phone and emailing much of the day with mortgage companies. We are trying to find who can give us the best deal and a plan that will really work for us. I am learning fast how complicated this stuff is! But I'm thankful I have a husband who is strong and confident about the process. We plan to take a drive with Bobby Anne on Wednesday and do some comparing. Here is a picture that is very similar to the house we like:

So we would love it if you would pray for us, that God would direct us in the way we should go as we continue our house hunt. We'll keep you updated!

Turning Over a New Leaf

Well... here we are. I have been wanting to do this for a while. I constantly check the blogs of people I don't even know (friend of a friend kind of thing) and I am just fascinated and completely drawn in to the world of blogging. So here I am. I thought it would just be a nice way to keep everyone updated on our lives.... if anyone cares. :)

It's hard to believe it is March already, but here is some of our life from February. February brought Valentine's Day of course. It ended up being really good, because we had a snow day! I ended up with 3 snow days that week and Anthony with 2. It certainly was fun, and I was really in disbelief that they cancelled two of those days. The downside is of course that we have some make-up days now. But that's okay, I'll take it.

Also, Anthony's birthday was February 24, a Saturday. Well, his brother Jeremy and Jeremy's best friend, Jed, came for the weekend from Liberty. They came on Friday night. Then Anthony's mom came on Saturday morning. For his birthday, we just celebrated here, and my mom, Ashley, and Zoe came over. We had pizza, cake, and ice cream, and fun was had by all! Here is a picture of Anthony opening his gift from me.....



Red Sox @ Orioles baseball tickets!! He has never been to a Red Sox game, so I was really excited to buy them for him. The game is in August, on a Friday, so we will make an overnight trip to Baltimore. I am really looking forward to it. Anthony had a very nice birthday and really appreciates everyones gifts!

Also, one more pic before I finish this... because I know Amanda likes us to share pictures of the little ones!

She is really into everything these days, and she had gotten into lotion in Mom's bathroom when they found her here. Funny little thing! Gotta love her.