Zimmers

Well, its the news you have all been waiting for and we have been hoping for: we are in the process of buying a house here!

Yep, that's right, we are in the midst of contracts and mortgage applications and all that fun stuff. :)

May I tell you a bit about our journey to fining our cute little house?

We arrived in Pampa at the end of August and settled into our apartment here at church smoothly. We began to look at different houses in the area, just getting our feet wet, while trying to prepare our hearts for the fact that our condo in Chicago might not sell for awhile. Our Realtor, Judi, was so patient with us as we looked at, seriously (not even joking), countless houses, some of them more than once. Both Brad and I are pretty decisive people - we know what we want and we go after it. Never ever have we had such a hard time making a decision as we did deciding which house to buy.

In an effort to help the situation, we decided to make a list of things we really wanted in a house, so we could both be on the same page - we had already talked about this topic and had a pretty good list going in our heads, but nothing on paper. Here is our list:

• Garage or car port (we hear there is a lot of hail in the spring here)
• 3+ bedrooms/2+ bath
• Open floor plan (Kitchen open to at least one living space and hopefully the dining room)
• Fireplace
• Yard large enough for play-set and fun (Brad wants to throw a ball around with our kids - and hey, maybe I'll learn to catch one of these days. :) )
  
• Two living spaces (so the kiddo(s) can have a place to play/be during bible studies, get togethers ect.)
• Needs work (We would love to be able to fix up a home to improve it's value and make it ours)
• Lowish taxes/Low price (striving to be wise stewards)

There was this one house - let's call it M.E. - that we fell in love with the moment we stepped into the door - it had an open floor plan, large kitchen, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 5 (!) living spaces, a formal dining room, wonderful outdoor spaces and a double lot. But it needed a lot of work. Also, because it was on a double lot - M.E's taxes were astronomical. It was a foreclosure and as we sat, waiting for our condo to sell, we watched the price drop lower, and lower, and lower. Because we loved M.E. so much, we had a hard time loving any of the other houses we looked at - we were even about to put in an offer on Zimmers (another house that we were considering), but then decided against it. Our love for M.E. changed the week before Christmas, when we took Brad's family to see the two homes that we were deciding between: M.E. and Zimmers. It was so weird walking them through the houses, I felt so apprehensive walking through M.E. - "this-isn't-our-house" kept repeating in my head. But then we went to go see Zimmers - and I couldn't stop talking about all the dreams we had for it to fix it up and make it our home. I don't know what caused the change of heart - well, yes I do, we had prayed that God would make it clear to us which home He wanted us to buy, and He did. After much prayer, conversation and reality-checking - we decided to take the step, and make an offer on the Zimmers house. And you know what - it has all of the above characteristics! :) And our offer was accepted. :) Yippee!!!!

Wanna see it? Want to see what it looks like? Ok - fine, if you insist. :)

So much potential! New bushes, a light (that doesn't have two different bulbs - maybe this one) and front door (that will let in some light - maybe this one, painted a fun color) and the removal of those diamond things on the windows will really freshen things up - also, my first order of business is to take down those curtains in the front living room, they make the window look so tiny.

Here is an aerial view of the house (taken from Google Maps):

Blurry, I know, but you can see the good sized yard - the family room (see below) was an addition, seen above on the top left. And there is a storage building in the back yard (bottom left) that we are excited about too (a one car garage doesn't leave that much room to store a lawn mower or other yard tools).

As some of you know, there are a few blogs that I follow religiously (maybe to a fault). And in two of those blogs, the authors have recently moved/had accepted offers on homes - and both of them have laid out, using www.floorplanner.com, the floor plan of their new/soon to be homes. So I decided to do the same. :) (If you would like to check out their blogs here are the links: Young House Love and Bower Power)

Hopefully the floor plan will help those of you who can't come see it in person any time soon (although we would LOVE to have you!!!) It is not perfect - the hall isn't that big and the M. Bath, although small, isn't that small :)

There is nice carpet (we were surprised at how nice it is) in all the bedrooms and both living spaces and laminate wood flooring in the dinning room and hall. The bathrooms and kitchen have laminate tiles. (Eventually we would like to put hard wood flooring in the living room, dining room, kitchen and hall - and knock down the wall separating the living room from the dining room - to open things up a bit.... but all that is a little bit down the road). The laundry space is in the garage and there is a step down from the dining room to the family room. Let me know if you have any questions - I don't mind talking about this house. Not at all. :)

Oh, and possibly the best news of all - the current owners are believers! He is a youth pastor! I got so excited when I heard this news, the house will continue to be used for God's glory - to Him be praise for all His goodness!

We will keep you updated as to how the process moves along - we are so excited!

(I think I said, "excited" about 100 times - can you tell I'm excited?)