What Happened!?

Well that was crazy :) Over the past four months we've been all but consumed by buying our new home. It was a short sale and quite a hassle so for memories sake and to put in writing just how amazing God's timing is so I can remember it in the future here is the run down of how our experience with the short sale process went.

Our short sale timeline;
-Late August Levi stumbled upon an interesting real estate listing so we went to look even though we had plans drawn up to add onto our place and were pretty set on staying there forever
- early September we put in our first offer and the long ride began!
- we were mis-informed of the property line and potential for subdivision so we revised our offer
- we selected a loan officer to work with and he gave us an amazing loan so we revised our offer again... yep, three offers :)
-October we found out there was a lein on the property and so we went through the negotiating process to determine a settlement for that while we waited on our offer's approval.
- mid- November the offer was accepted by the bank AND the seller (for whatever reason we had to keep the bank and the seller in the loop)
- our first closing date of November 26th quickly approached and we realized it wasn't going to happen with holidays and the complexity of the lein etc. so extension #1 happened and we got slammed with a hefty penalty
- The week of thanksgiving we listed our home for sale and caught a stomach flu! We had three showings the first week; two to the same people and one other person.
- One week after listing our home we got an offer and countered and by the next day we were committed to sell contingent on our purchase with a closing date of December 18th, a mere three weeks away
- December 18th quickly approached and again we were at a standstill waiting and waiting for things to happen. We had inspections done on our house and our new house and realized we'd have to extend again
- Sure enough extensions happened and we praise God that there weren't more penalties
- Our new deadline was December 31st because our buyers had to close by then and we needed a place! Also the bank working on our new home gave us until December 31st and then they were going to put the house into foreclosure which would have meant we most likely would have lost it.
- We now had 8 people in the loop of communication to deal with all of the stuff associated with our purchase; a Realtor, a short sale company, our loan officer, the seller, her ex-husband (who lives in another state and also had to sign everything), the bank that owned the property, the lein company and us. Every piece of paper had to run through ALL parties... UG UG UG!
- With all of the holidays things went SLOW finally on December 27th with two hours notice we loaded in the car to race to Eugene to sign on our new home and put down our down payment... that was a fast trip :) We were promised keys by 3 o'clock on the 28th, a Friday.
- December 28th at 10 am we went to sign over our house and had to be out by Monday the 31st and we began to pray that we would in fact get the keys to our new place that day or else we'd be moving on Monday (giving us 8 hours to move out) because the offices were close for the weekend.
- I took Willow in for her 1 year check up that day and found out she had near pnuemonia so we went to the hospital all the while waiting for the call that our keys were ready... it was 4 pm, only one hour till the realtor closed!
- Levi called at 4:45 and said he was going to get our keys whatever it took :) He did it!!
- Willow got x-rays and she was okay so off we went to start moving!
- Bill, Kay and a bunch of amazing friends helped us move on Saturday and we got most of it done! We stayed our first night in the new place camped out on the floor, it was SO fun!
- Sunday we had more friends help us move the rest of our stuff
- Monday we cleaned the old place said goodbye to the chickens that we left for the new owners and left the keys on the table!

I still can't believe we live here! After months of coming over to visit and just peaking around outside we are finally in here and its SO amazing! The house was vacant for 6 years and we thought there would be a lot of things to fix but God is SO SO good and everything, well most things are working perfectly. The water is good, the roof is keeping water out and all of the toilets are functioning! We've got a looooong list of home projects but who doesn't? We're so excited to live here, looking at God's amazing creation every night and morning and knowing how hard the journey was but how rewarding that journey has been. Ah, its truly great! We've been in three weeks nearly and have already made lots of progress! So without further ado, here's the tour... well as far as I've got pictures taken :)

A little before and after; this is our front room. So far I've painted the paneling and the fireplace and done the obvious furniture arranging

Another before and after; there was some seriously dated wall mirror tiles that Kay so graciously took down and repaired the BLACK glue spots and sheet rock holes that hid behind the mirror. I painted and got a cool chalk board wall art thingy from caravanshoppe.com for $5 (download) then had it economy printed at staples for $7! So $12 for a 3x4 foot wall art! Not bad :)

Willow enjoying the new barn that was COATED in rat poo... I had the priviledge of cleaning it the first round and found two little bats that the kids got a kick out of. Then Levi cleaned it again and found another bat but he didn't save it to show the kids :)

That sunshine feels GOOD!

First canoe ride in Harris Cove!

Our view from just about every room in the house!!

First of many drift wood forts... we own a driftwood farm practically! There is a TON

We've got plans to remove the brick including the planters, redo concrete, new windows, new siding, paint and make some nice pillars

back of the house

busted up old greenhouse that may be mighty helpful come gardening season!

We have since pruned all the trees, thanks Kay!, cut out a bunch and cleared it thoroughly. This was taken when we looked at it the first time so that would have been in September last year

I love this :)

Happy to be canoeing!!

Levi found some shrimp in our mudflat! And we have a nice strip of sandy beach too!

Willow started walking about a week and a half ago! On the back patio the overlooks that amazing view which you can see in the reflection on the door

Super man LOVES that stairs :)

A little crazyness on the patio!

Well there is lots more house but I'll wait until I've re-done a few more things before I show you! Thanks for all of the prayers and help getting our little family into this house. It is a huge blessing and we can't wait to see what God has for us here!