Genesis 22:14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
So we had been mulling the idea of putting our home up for sale for quite some time. The end of 2021 we hit our main goal of paying off a student loan, with only a couple days left in the year. This was a goal that I had mapped out in the basement office when I worked at Uspiritus. I had us paying off the loan in the summer of 2021 so it wasn’t totally accurate, but fairly close! We had talked about president Biden possibly moving on student loan forgiveness and waiting a bit to see if that forgiveness would occur. But, after almost 1 year had passed into his presidency, I was pretty sure that was a pipe dream and not going to happen. So we paid it off. $13,452.51 I believe was the amount. Praise be to God that we were able to pay this off!
This cleared the way for our next goal: moving homes. We moved into our current home roughly 7 years ago. Built in 1952, 4 bed 2 bathroom home on a $71,250 loan after closing costs came out. The first 4.5 years had its difficulties. I recall in our pre-marital counseling, we had to give examples of something we disagreed on. I honestly can’t recall what my gripe was, but I remember my wife’s example was that she didn’t like that I didn’t clean our dog Toby’s poop off the back deck. Man, those were the days! If only our issues remained that small.
But with a nearly 70-year old home, other issues reared their head. The sounds the original HVAC made when we first moved in both resembled and sounded like a rocket ship every time it kicked on. I checked the tag that was nearly faded which told the date the system was installed and I want to say it was 1991. So that made it 24 years old at that time. That was the first major expense, a new HVAC system. Then the issue was taken upstairs where there was no HVAC duct work. So long about May-August, it would be unbearably hot by the time you hit the 6th step going upstairs. The heat just smacked you in the face instantly. So we also fixed that by adding ductless mini splits to both upstairs rooms and saved about $10,000 in the process, but they were still a pretty penny to install. Add to that, the downstairs bathroom was an eyesore. Functionally, it works, but when you have the original wood window seals…in a bathroom…mold comes to the forefront.
Yes, indeed, it is time to move. Our home provided lots of memories in 7 years. We tend to point out the negative; what was unattractive or unappealing. But there’s lots of good memories, too. It was the home that we came home to as husband and wife on a hot late-July night to spend our first evening together before heading off to G-Burg the next day. It was where we held a mini funeral for Theresa’s grandpa with about 10-12 of her family members. Where we had a couple big birthday gatherings. Where we brought our baby boy home to and learned how to be parents in those first really difficult months. It’s where we put Toby to rest. It’s where we hosted a couple of small groups. Where we removed a tree that fell over in our front yard. Where we chased a raccoon out of our attic. Where we’ve walked the sidewalks ALOT! Where our boy learned to crawl and walk and climb and run and eat and talk.
We began talking about listing our home, initially thinking about April 1. But then we began to see homes pop up more and more that caught our eye. Whereas from early January-late February, we didn’t really notice a whole lot of homes available. So we looked at our first home last Friday 3/18. It was okay. Not quite the open concept we were hoping for. Then we moved on to another home on Saturday 3/19. It was super nice but came with a decent price tag with 6 other offers to contend with; made our first offer but didn’t get it. Fast forward to this week, our home was listed Monday morning around 11 am on 3/21. We had 2 showings immediately that evening. Took 3/22 off due to my wife becoming super ill (had 5 showings cancelled). I guess those 5 moved to the next day 3/23 and by the evening of 3/23 we had received our first offer. We cancelled the 5 showings for 3/24 and 2 showings for 3/25 and decided to move forward with that offer, primarily due to the crazy ‘in and out’ nature of having to show our home.
We also looked at 3 homes on 3/23 and 2 homes on 3/25. Add that to the 2 from last week and we viewed 7 homes total to this point and decided to put in our 2nd offer for a home in the southend of Louisville late this evening 3/25. We had initially thought about moving closer to my parents and our church/preschool. But the more we thought about it, the southend seems to be where we are called to be. Preschool will last for 2 more years, tops. And with that, the likelihood of not needing my parents to watch Jackson as much once he starts elementary school.
I acknowledge that I am writing this after we just proposed our offer about 3 hours ago. There’s no 100% shot we will get it. I do feel more strongly about this offer than our 1st offer. But just as the above-verse points out, the Lord will provide, regardless. Our confidence must be in God because life is full of ‘what-ifs’ and home-selling and home-buying are rife with ‘what-ifs’ as well. Homes generally last about 5 days before accepting final offers, at least homes that have real move-in potential. I wouldn’t necessarily consider our home to be a nice home, and it sold in just over 2 days. So with the market the way it is (and has been the last year+), you have to ‘trust God on the go’, so to speak. You have to make quick decisions. You try and listen to other wise voices saying ‘take your time’, but when you know what you’re looking for and you have a range of price you are willing to pay with a limit in mind so that you don’t blow a ton of money, I would define that as ‘trusting God on the go’. One home, the limit might be $305,000. Another home, the limit might be $255,000. The overall goal, of course, in the home-buying process, is hospitality. Not to impress others, but to share life first with our family and to share life with others neighbors and friends and believers. To make space to share life with others.
Sunday we attended membership class at Highview that we had been meaning to attend for months. But we did it! I was still coughing pretty bad but we did it. Thursday, we returned to Highview but this time to the academy for our son’s preschool interview and all went well and he was immediately accepted. Tucked in between that was viewing 5 homes this week, all the while my wife has been super sick and our son has been a trooper through a very different-looking schedule this week.
And now, we await the next step of selling our home with inspection set for 4/2. And on the flip-side, we await to hear about the offer we made on a home by 3/26. I hope this will serve as a place where I can come back to and see God’s hand of provision at work and give him praise and glory and begin to foster a growing faith that trusts Him fully in every season and situation of life.
The War Within 