No Time For Rest

If you have been here long you probably already know that we purchased an investment property just before Christmas last year. (What were we thinking!?) The property is a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom home with a large yard. It’s really a very nice house (now that we have gotten our hands on it!) but when we bought it there really wasn’t anything nice about it, other than its size.

It all started like this…

My husband was away on a business trip. We had been looking at houses and had put offers on 5 or 6 different houses, but someone else always got them (not because our offers were too low, but the bank was more willing to work with someone that wanted to live in the house rather than an investor.-We were even the highest offer by quiet a bit-so they said-on one house and were very sad when someone else got it.) Anyway, my husband is away on a business trip and at this point we are sort of thinking maybe we weren’t meant to own an investment property and maybe it’s not what God wants us to do.  While my husband is away on this trip I see this house online that I think would be perfect for us to flip. It’s large, has a large yard and a lot of potential. I decide to go take a peek at the house in spite of my husband being gone. When I am finished looking through the house I am certain that this is the house for us! I want this house so bad, but my husband is away, so I’m not sure what to do. So, what do I do? I text him some pics and tell him, “This is what I am going to offer on, you ok with that?” What does he say? “Looks pretty crappy babe, but if you think we can make it work then go for it.” Really, just like that he’s going to let me go for it? I’m nervous, but I go ahead and write up the offer and wait…

After waiting a couple of days (by now my husband is home) we hear back from the realtor…not good news. Someone else got the house, someone that was going to live in it. While I was disappointed, I realized that like the other houses, this one wasn’t meant for us. About a month goes by and we had decided we were through looking at houses and that it just wasn’t meant for us right now. And then, I have no idea why, I went online to the bank website (the one that had this house for sale) and there it is, the house! It says newly listed or something like that. I’m confused, so I call my realtor. She looks into it and explains that the financing didn’t go through for the other couple that was trying to purchase it and that it just went back on the market literally around the time I looked it up. Was this a sign? So, I bring my husband through the house later that day. And we decide to put another offer on the house,  however at this point there were 4 other investors all putting offers in against ours, so we are told to give our best offer…and we got it! Now was that meant to be, or what? I believe that God gives us things in his time, not ours, and we just need to be patient sometimes, which can be hard, but really pays off in the end if we are.

So, that brings me to why I have slacked a bit on the blog. I’m tired! In 3 months time we have completely (top to bottom) remodeled this house. I don’t have my before and after pics yet, but will be sharing them with you soon. Over the weekend (with the help of our awesome boys) we installed the hardwood flooring, re-did the steps, bought and installed a dishwasher, kitchen sink and faucet and installed carpet in a bedroom.

We also installed and finished the trim around the front door.

What do you think?

And now that the boys are on the bus and the younger ones are up, I must get ready to go to the new house in hopes that we can have everything finished by the weekend!

Have you ever taken on a project that seemed too big in the beginning?

It’s pretty rewarding when you push yourself and you accomplish what you have set your mind to, isn’t it?