House Hunting
Everyone ought to have a house hunting/house buying story, right?! Of course right. So here's ours.
We had been married for 13 years, our oldest (of six) child was 12 years. There was a contractor in the ward (David Gill). We talked with him. He had a set of house plans that we could use. He would work with us and let us do sweat equity. Then we found a piece of property. We put our tax returns down as earnest money on the property (off of 4th South in Springville) and then started working with a bank to get a loan.
The property owner had to make improvements on the property before we could break ground-this according to the lending institution. He drug his feet. Several months past by.
Three major things were going on at this point. I had adopted an exercise routine (jogging five miles/day), I was working at ZCMI, and we were trying to get into a house. Finally, when it had almost been a year and the property owner had still not done his part, and when my baby (now almost three years old) and my oldest child weren't handling me working it was time for me to quit my job.
As soon as I quit work, we no longer qualified for a loan and then, according to the agreement, the property owner had to give us our earnest money back. We put that money in the bank.
Within a month I had torn the plantar ligament and fascia of my right foot, we hit a deer with our beautiful Mercury Marquis station wagon (jarring seals in the transmission causing it to leak) and General Conference came around.
In General Conference came the counsel to buy a house, if you can. If you have one, pay it off. Good counsel. Knowing that every blessing (buying a house) is dependent on obedience to a commandment, I, in faith, prayed. What commandment do we need to keep to qualify for a house? The answer, "Pay your tithing."
We had been paying our tithing, faithfully, with a full and open heart. So I asked (oh be careful-sometimes you get answers), "Why haven't we been able to get into a house before now?" "You never asked." Duh!
So first we had relied on the arm of flesh (found the contractor, arranged for a loan, acquired house plans, found the ground) and that got us nothing. Then we began the praying process, relying on the arm of God. I prayed for a house and added the details of: something that will fit our needs (You know our current and our future needs), a sloped driveway (so the snow can melt and run off), an east facing front door (when Christ returns He will come from the East), and a fireplace or something close to that (maybe a place for a wood burning stove) would be nice.
I don't remember who found it (which means it probably wasn't me) but there was a listing in the Shopper's Guide (later the Utah County Journal, now defunct) for a house in Salem. We were a one car family. Dove worked 7 miles south. The house we were considering was 10 miles further south. So he called the Realtor, they met at the house and did a walk through, and he was given permission to come back later, after work and bring me to see it.
It was a house. Simple. Nothing grand. There were holes in a lot of walls (which the FHA inspector required be repaired). The carpet was a very dirty brown (because windows had been left open and weather, dust and rain had dirtied it), and the basement was one large, stark-naked cement room. The house had sat empty for nearly two years-in foreclosure and so owned by the bank.
Hmmm... Without me working. We were able to qualify for our home. We've been here since our baby was 3 and now he's 25.
We had been married for 13 years, our oldest (of six) child was 12 years. There was a contractor in the ward (David Gill). We talked with him. He had a set of house plans that we could use. He would work with us and let us do sweat equity. Then we found a piece of property. We put our tax returns down as earnest money on the property (off of 4th South in Springville) and then started working with a bank to get a loan.
The property owner had to make improvements on the property before we could break ground-this according to the lending institution. He drug his feet. Several months past by.
Three major things were going on at this point. I had adopted an exercise routine (jogging five miles/day), I was working at ZCMI, and we were trying to get into a house. Finally, when it had almost been a year and the property owner had still not done his part, and when my baby (now almost three years old) and my oldest child weren't handling me working it was time for me to quit my job.
As soon as I quit work, we no longer qualified for a loan and then, according to the agreement, the property owner had to give us our earnest money back. We put that money in the bank.
Within a month I had torn the plantar ligament and fascia of my right foot, we hit a deer with our beautiful Mercury Marquis station wagon (jarring seals in the transmission causing it to leak) and General Conference came around.
In General Conference came the counsel to buy a house, if you can. If you have one, pay it off. Good counsel. Knowing that every blessing (buying a house) is dependent on obedience to a commandment, I, in faith, prayed. What commandment do we need to keep to qualify for a house? The answer, "Pay your tithing."
We had been paying our tithing, faithfully, with a full and open heart. So I asked (oh be careful-sometimes you get answers), "Why haven't we been able to get into a house before now?" "You never asked." Duh!
So first we had relied on the arm of flesh (found the contractor, arranged for a loan, acquired house plans, found the ground) and that got us nothing. Then we began the praying process, relying on the arm of God. I prayed for a house and added the details of: something that will fit our needs (You know our current and our future needs), a sloped driveway (so the snow can melt and run off), an east facing front door (when Christ returns He will come from the East), and a fireplace or something close to that (maybe a place for a wood burning stove) would be nice.
I don't remember who found it (which means it probably wasn't me) but there was a listing in the Shopper's Guide (later the Utah County Journal, now defunct) for a house in Salem. We were a one car family. Dove worked 7 miles south. The house we were considering was 10 miles further south. So he called the Realtor, they met at the house and did a walk through, and he was given permission to come back later, after work and bring me to see it.
It was a house. Simple. Nothing grand. There were holes in a lot of walls (which the FHA inspector required be repaired). The carpet was a very dirty brown (because windows had been left open and weather, dust and rain had dirtied it), and the basement was one large, stark-naked cement room. The house had sat empty for nearly two years-in foreclosure and so owned by the bank.
Hmmm... Without me working. We were able to qualify for our home. We've been here since our baby was 3 and now he's 25.
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