The Curious Caves: Which House Would You Like?

Shortly after Tim and I got married, his parents approached us about buying a house from them. They own a few rent houses and wanted to gift a house to Tim's brother and sister-in-law and a house to us. The gifting process means that we take over the mortgage at the price that remains on the house instead of paying full price for it. This means the downpayment is in the equity of the home and we are able to purchase the home way sooner than if we continued to save for a downpayment. So basically they are giving us our inheritance now as opposed to... later.

We had two houses to choose from and picked based on location and size. One of the houses was too big for us and too far away from everything that we do. The other house is located really well for us and just about the right size, oh, and 50 years old. But then the question was, "Are we ready to buy a house?" In my mind, if I own a home I can't just spontaneously decide to move out of the country with no strings attached. I told you, I like adventures. A more realistic consideration, I suppose, was our finances. We are currently both working full-time jobs but we have made our budget to live only off Tim's income. We chose to do this early on because we knew I would be staying home once we started having kids. I guess I'm jumping the gun a bit with the whole staying home thing. My salary is being saved for adoption. (Guaranteed future blogs on this subject!)

We certainly recognized how amazing this gift would be for us, and after crunching numbers, seeking counsel from our parents and other wise Godly people we know, and lots of prayer, we decided now is the time! We are so excited to see how the Lord is going to use this place for His glory. Our prayer for the house is that it will be a place of Truth and Peace. We want everyone who enters to hear Truth and experience Peace.

We haven't actually bought the house yet because our closing date has been pushed back to May 24th. We were scheduled to close on the 8th, but something happened with some paperwork somewhere so that didn't happen. My father-in-law simply said, "Welcome to the world of real estate." I know very little about these things but I'm learning plenty. In spite of the closing date we are already working on the house since it is currently vacant.

So let's talk about the house. It is really old and needs LOTS of work. My goal is to show before and after photos and the progress we are making. This is the front view of the house. Brick painted white with the lovely green trim. The colors probably aren't that bad alone, but together they are a really stark contrast. This, however, is not top priority. You might have noticed that the left corner of the house looks like it's falling off. It is. We have some pretty bad framing damage of the roof which will eventually be corrected. We are waiting until the roof needs to be replaced, though.

Here's my first set of before and afters. Aside from all the stuff and refrigerator being gone, do you see what's missing? I didn't realize this would happen so quickly, but all it took was me saying, "Sure, I think we could take out those cabinets," and Tim's dad showed us how. It was pretty exciting to see something get done right away. I love that this space is more open now. The picture was taken from the dining area.

We also took a sneak peek at what's under the carpet and were pleasantly surprised! We are going to paint first and then remove the carpet, but I'll let you peek, too. :)

This past week has been full of working on the house, but all work and no play...
So here are some pictures from our latest date night. It was something new for both of us and we loved it. Tim took me to the Arboretum on Thursday night for a concert and picnic. Beautiful gardens, great food, and amazing weather!