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Almost two months ago we made the decision to put our house on the market. We felt like we needed to be in Fayette to be closer to CMU for both ourselves and for Stephanie. We had already begun our search in Fayette when we put our Boonville house on the market and we quickly found a house we liked. It was priced a little high but we negotiated the price down almost 20K and found financing through a local bank who would also give us a renovation loan. This house would need 40K+ to bring it into the current century and to make it our taste. We went through several negotiations with the seller and finally agreed upon an offer. This was great news but it was all hinging on us selling our current home.
Back in the Boonville house things were going well. In the first month we had over 3 showings each week but nothing came of it. Meanwhile the house in Fayette continued to be on the market since it was contingent on the sale of our home. Enter the month of August and with it came fewer showings on our house. We even had a stretch of no showings for 10 days! We were beginning to get worried that nothing was going to happen this fall and we might have to wait until spring to get a house in Fayette.
While our house was sitting here with only a few lookers the Fayette house had a new offer presented to the sellers. They accepted the offer and last Wednesday we got the call that the 72 hour kick out clause was put into effect. Essentially it meant that we had until Friday morning to decide what to do with the house. Now you may be thinking that there was only one option…we’d have to say no to the Fayette house. But you know us, we got creative and a little crazy.
We figured out what our house payment would be on the Fayette house and we could cover the monthly payment for a bit. It was a risky thing to consider but we thought we could do it. However, we still needed money for the down payment. On our Boonville house Lucas’ parents graciously gave us a down payment (and then some) so they have money tied up in this. But if we’re getting family involved then we might as well get everyone in the mix. So last Wednesday (on my Mom’s birthday!) I called her to ask if they could give us a large sum of money. There is nothing better on your birthday than giving away your savings. :) My parents are very generous but we honestly didn’t think they would say yes. They talked about it that night and on Thursday morning my mom called to say that they would do it! Even though this was great news, Lucas and I still had to make the ultimate decision of moving forward on the Fayette house. On Friday morning, after much prayer and discussion, we decided we would take it! Call us crazy, call us stupid but we took a huge leap of faith and did it! That means on September 7 we will officially own a house in Fayette.
While we were definitely excited and happy to know we would be moving to Fayette eventually, we still had the huge task of selling our Boonville house. We had been having a few showings but nothing too serious. Then on Sunday night Lucas showed the house to a couple who seemed interested enough and it turns out they loved it because on Monday we received an offer! The price was a little low but the biggest thing was the offer wasn’t contingent on them selling a house! They were just offering to buy our house and all we had to do was negotiate a price. We ended up agreeing on a price that was $3,500 less than our asking price and we were pretty happy with that. But just to keep us in reality, since we haven’t owned this house that long, and we put in quite a bit of work, and with the crazy realtor costs we are actually loosing around $8,000. But this is a sacrifice we felt like we would make in order to be in Fayette.
So to wrap it all up…on September 7 we will say hello to this house…
And on September 26 we will say goodbye to this one…
We are hoping to get some renovations done on the Fayette house before we actually move in but who knows what will happen. All I know is we will be in Fayette at the end of September! We just praise God in all of this (even with financial losses) and we know He is guiding us as we try to follow His call.
-Shannon
I really have no idea where to start. The past few weeks have been a bit crazy for us so to start the ball rolling I’m going to list everything in bullet points. Hopefully many of these bullet points will turn into their own blog posts but we’ll see…
Let’s start at the beginning of June…
June 3 – Lucas and I travel to Springfield by way of Joplin to see his hometown after the devastating tornado
June 3-5 – We spend the weekend in Springfield where Lucas attends Annual Conference for the Missouri Methodist Church
June 5 – I drop Lucas at the airport where he flies to the east coast to chaperone a trip with high school students interested in theology
June 5-11 – Lucas is gone and my mom comes up to visit and keep the Os and I company
June 10 – Owen has a pediatrician appointment and we find out he is lead free!!!
June 11 – I go by myself to pick Lucas up at the airport. On the way home he says he has something crazy to share with me. While on his trip to the east coast he connected with several students from LPI (the school we visited on our spring break mission trip). They tell him some heartbreaking stories about college plans falling through. He feels a stirring in his heart to bring them to CMU. In the 2 hour drive back to Boonville we decide to open our home up to as many students as we can!
June 17 – Five days after feeling called to bring students here, Lucas has already raised over $45,000 in scholarship money for the students! One student is ready to come and we’re seeing about others! So this fall we will have a student living with us full time. We will be her room and board and Lucas raised funds to pay for her tuition! We can’t praise God enough!
June 15-25 – We realize that it would be best if we lived in Fayette instead of Boonville.
June 14-28 – We find a property in Fayette (a loft on the square) that could work for our situation. We visit it several times.
June 26 – We put an offer on the loft (several days later they counter with full asking price plus more earnest money)
June 26-29 – We have a work crew of my mom, Lucas’ parents and our friend Gaby who help us do several projects on the house to get it ready to sell.
June 30 – We put our house on the market!
July 1 – We have our first showing with calls for others!
July 2 – We look at another house in Fayette that would need major renovation but we could finish it how we like it.
WHEW! Do you see why I haven’t been blogging?!?! :)
So, dear friends, the biggest thing I ask from you is for prayer. We need lots of discernment during this time as we have many decisions to make especially with the housing situation. Our goal is to be in Fayette by the start of the school year but the worst case scenario is we stay in our current house a bit longer. And really we love this house so that wouldn’t be too bad. :) So there is our life in the past month.
We’ve felt kind of nervous sharing our plans with others because to be honest it’s a bit crazy. But we feel God’s leading in all of this and we’re doing what we feel called to do. It might not always make sense but when did Jesus say following him would make sense? I’m sure there will be many more posts to come about all of this stuff but at least now we have it all out in the open. More updating to come…
-Shannon
I am so thankful to the people who lived in our house before us. They took the time and effort to plant a million different kinds of plants/flowers and I get to reap the benefits. Recently I took a quick walk around our house and took picture of everything that was blooming so get ready for some flowers!
The roses just blow me away! They are so beautiful and smell so wonderful! Unfortunately these blooms have gone away but new ones are already replacing them.
-Shannon
It turns out we do a lot of things in the evening. :) Most of the time this is because Owen is asleep and we can get a quick project done as in the case of re-grouting our fireplace. These pictures aren’t the best but you’ll get the idea. Lucas worked with the grout and filled in all the areas he could.
Then I came along as the clean up crew and wiped the excess away.
The pictures make it hard to tell that the new grout made any difference but to us we could tell. The top part of the tile hadn’t been done and the bottom had…
No new grout…
New grout!
It’s the little things in life that make me happy!
-Shannon
Over the past few months Lucas and I have completed a number of random jobs around the house. Some have been big and some small. This falls on the small side but it has made a big difference in the appearance of our home. The front door…ok really it is the front screen door…looked like this…
I actually like the wood coloring but Lucas didn’t. He didn’t think he popped enough and wanted to try painting it. I agreed that it didn’t pop but I still liked the wood color. We began to think up color ideas. I suggested black and he wanted a dark, hunter green. He won and we tried green.
In all fairness this wasn’t the perfect shade of green we were envisioning but nonetheless the green just didn’t go it. It didn’t help that the door was so weather that this paint went on more like a stain. The door just soaked it up. I only painted one coat and Lucas decided black would be better. So a few weeks later and voila!
We are both really happy with the outcome and it makes the front pop! Plus it ties in with our mailbox, house numbers, etc. So here’s to our newly painted door.
-Shannon
I know the saying is “April showers bring May flowers” but around our home it seems to be that April showers bring April flowers! And I couldn’t be happier! The owners before us planted so many wonderful plants that our yard will now have something blooming until October. I remember last summer I could simply go outside and pick my own flowers to make beautiful arrangements. What I didn’t realize is that the flowers start blooming so early. We weren’t in the house until late May of last year so I wasn’t sure when/what would pop up.
A week or so ago I took these pictures and have been enjoying the irises ever since. We’ve had them on our dining room table constantly and I couldn’t help but show them off (not that I had anything to do with them). :)
Our little garden gnome…
We’ve also enjoyed looking out our front windows to see the dogwood tree blooming.
And I had to include one shot of these guys…
Spring has reminded me of one of the reasons I love this house so much…the flowers!
-Shannon
This morning we woke up to this…
Plans for today…spend the day snuggled inside with my two boys.
Hope you have a wonderful Merry Christmas!
-Shannon
Welcome to Christmas inside our house! I have loved decorating although in this “much-bigger-than-a-one-bedroom-apartment” house my Christmas decorations only go so far. In the process of decorating we also decided to move around our living room furniture to accommodate our 8+ foot tree. We both love the new arrangement and plan to keep it this way and add a reading corner where the tree is.
And when I originally posted about our dining room we didn’t have the buffet or the piano. So I figured a few updated shots would be nice.
This is probably my favorite Christmas area.
In the kitchen I added this teeny, tiny tree.
Another of my favorite Christmas touches…lighted garland up the staircase. It just feels so classic to me. And the bonus is you can see it from outside.
We have one more tree in the study that I covered with as many colored lights as I could find! I love it! And when taking this picture I realized I never put the study on the house tour. This will be rectified soon. :)
I hope you enjoyed our glimpses of Christmas as much as I love seeing them every day. Here’s to twinkle lights and holiday candles!
-Shannon
If I loved this house before, I love it even more with Christmas lights all over it! Thanks to Lucas we have lovely lights all along the roof line. And for the tip top part he had to put a ladder on the second floor “porch” and climb up to the top. He then practically hung over the roof to get the lights up. And keep in mind we have a metal roof so it gets a little slick at times. I’m just glad he made it through alive.
We’ve been enjoying the lights ever since and I hope the neighbors have too. The lights shine so bright they light up our section of the block! And don’t think Lucas did all the work. I put the lights in the bushes. :)
And one of my favorite things about our house is that you can look in and see our Christmas tree! Don’t worry, there will be an inside Christmas tour soon. Until then, enjoy the light radiating from our house…
-Shannon
Well in this case I’m a woman. :) When my parents recently came up they brought with them one of my favorite things in the whole wide world…my childhood piano! I originally got this piano when I was around 10 years old and my parents paid something like $200 for it. It has always been in my parents house but with us having our own space we definitely wanted a piano up here. So my dad built this elaborate brace for the piano to sit in and he hauled it the 4+ hour drive from West Plains to Boonville. Thankfully we had Lucas’ family over to celebrate his birthday and we even paid a student to come down and help us move it.
After all the hard work it now sits in our dining room and fits perfectly!
It’s so nice to have a piano again and especially one that I love so much!
-Shannon
