House shopping??

What is with the buying homes ‘bug’?  Nin and Sarah and their families are buying homes.  And now it seems that my family might be in the near future as well.  No, our choice to move is not from some sort of peer pressure because everyone’s doing it.  I would like to blame this one on God and Darcy.

 When we first got married, my husband felt that for the first year, everything would remain ‘status quo’ – no major changes.  And he was right.  We have stayed living in the same home, with the same jobs, etc.   But that year is now over.  As of August 1, we entered into our second year together.  I remember thinking to myself a few weeks back, “Well, the first year is over.  When is God going to start shaking things up?”  This thought came to me with fear and trepidation.  I am a person who by nature is a minimal risk taker and likes to keep things the way they are.  Change is never very easy for me.  It’s not that I can’t deal with change – it’s just not my first choice.  My husband is much better suited to it. 

And so when we visited the Van Loon’s a few weeks back, my husband felt inspired (click here to see his post).  After that visit, he started checking out the real estate websites.  My initial reaction was wariness (I don’t like change, remember?).  But my husband assured me we probably wouldn’t seriously look at buying anything until next spring (good, I don’t have to think about change for several months).  But then this past Monday, he started talking about a particular house a friend of his had mentioned to him.  He talked about where it was located (close to our friends), etc.  So I suggested driving over and taking a look at the place from the outside.

Then everything just snowballed from there.  This week has been spent viewing various homes for sale (we’ve seen 7 now), getting pre-approved for a mortgage at the bank, and the house we saw this morning has us really interested.  We might be making an offer.

What kind of craziness is this??? 

It has been an interesting journey for me.  My husband and I have talked about owning a home since we got married.  It’s not like I didn’t know it was coming.  However, I can get really, really attached to things (like my last car – a 1993 Dodge Colt, which, ironically, was parked just down from the house we saw this morning – I know it was my old car because it has some unique markings on it).  I really love where we live and the place we live in.  It’s within walking distance to the river, the library/civic centre, grocery stores and the mall.  Our back yard is a nice size and has this great tree-shaded area at the back where we have our firepit.  It would be hard to leave, but when my husband started looking at real estate, I asked God to prepare me for moving (whenever that would be – I just didn’t think it would be so soon!).  And He has.  I have peace about moving (even though it moves me out of my comfort zone).  I get a sense that it’s time to move on (plus our rent increased this month and will be increasing again in January).

 This house shopping business has revealed a few biases in me: I am biased against ‘old’ houses; I like something that ‘feels’ new; and I am totally intimidated by the thought of renovations (mess, clutter, work – urgh!).  It’s been neat to see how God takes the desires of our hearts and either changes them or gives them to us.  The house we looked at this morning ‘feels’ new – it’s clean with nice carpets, flooring, walls; even the basement is developed.  We wouldn’t have to put any work into it at all (from what we can tell with the intial walk through).  My husband likes verandas and decks – this house has an enclosed veranda on the front and a deck off the kitchen in the back.  And the location moves us much closer to our friends than we were before.

What an adventure.  It will be exciting to see what comes out of all this.