Sunday, January 1, 2012
A Bed and Breakfast...the impossible dream?: making the impossible-possible!
A Bed and Breakfast...the impossible dream?: making the impossible-possible!: Today,January first of the new year 2012-marks our new beginning. I've missed you old friend, we've a lot of catching up to do. The summ...
making the impossible-possible!
Today,January first of the new year 2012-marks our new beginning.
I've missed you old friend, we've a lot of catching up to do. The summer just flew by, I had felt it would be a good idea to put aside the bed and breakfast idea just for awhile-seemed like we were running into quite a few closed doors(I wasn't sitting still long enough to pay attention to what God had brewing!) I kept busy with our local theater's presentation of "Music Man",decided to fall off the stage and break my ankle, you know the usual summer fun when out of the blue my friend Helen came up to me to let me know that she would be moving and was going to sell her house. It's a lovely old home and she had this brilliant idea it would be a beautiful place for a bed and breakfast, hmmm.........interesting how we can strive for things and when we leave it in God's hands He brings it back to us at the 'perfect' time.
I hadn't been in her house for awhile, actually not since Joshua had his senior pictures taken there in '07-so it was quite the bittersweet stroll. None the less what great potential this beautiful place possessed-who'd have thought we'd be able to use a place that was kind of 'in-the-family' with such great memories.
I had my friend Everette who is a contractor/builder and another friend Mike-a draftsman, come take a look at it with me to see what kind of expansion would be feasible to give us the best use of space. It only has four rooms marked as bedrooms-but a lot of unused alcoves that -if we added dormer windows-would allow for at least three more bedrooms. It will take a lot of structural reconfiguration-but we know it will be worth the work. Time to figure out how we are going to do this......do we give her an offer, do we put our house on the market? Lots to think and pray about....wow is this really finally happening?
I received a phone call from Helen I think a week or so later with a little hesitance to tell me that there is a new development, a new pastor and his family are moving here from Louisiana-and although she was trying to sell them on our house-they were drawn to Helen's. I had such a peace about it though-I told her if this house is meant to be ours then God would work out the details. But I know God works things out for ALL our good-not just mine.
Interesting newsflash....I just found out in the meantime that another beautiful old home(a Queen Ann Victorian 109 years old)is going to go to foreclosure. Very interesting...I drove around trying to find it-but there are no signs out and I'm not sure which house it is. I think it took me a few days. Wait a minute-is this it? This house that our good friends Rick and Debbie used to own I think eight to ten years ago that I coveted (not really) but so loved it-and when they moved away to Oregon they had asked us if we wanted to buy it knowing our desire to run an inn even back then. Well that wasn't the right time, it was too high for us, out of our league quite frankly-so we walked away they were able to sell it at the price they needed. But that was then and this is now and the bank now owns this baby and they need to unload it on someone-why not us?
This does seem a better fit for us and with it being a foreclosure it looks like we can now afford it....possibly!
Well-let's make an offer contingent on the sale of our home ....they said "NO". Okay-well if it is meant to be our home will sell and then we can put an offer on the Victorian if it is still available. So in one week I got our home full of stuff cleaned up and ready to put on the market.(This happened to be right before I broke my ankle thankfully. Now sit and .....wait. I think in 2 or 3 weeks 2 people came to see it. It is the lesson God is teaching me-you guessed it-patience!! Me excited enough to start packing up 15 years worth of collections, painting and fixing up the house(always the things you should have done while you were living in the house instead of when you are selling it.) But the good thing about that is that I love my home-if it doesn't sell-this is just making it more attractive if we are meant to stay.-if it does sell I definitely will miss this home-it has so much of us in it, longest I've ever lived anywhere-full of happiness and sadness joy and pain all part of our memories here.
Meantime-had a little barbecue in the back yard for some friends-and one of them approached us and asked if there would be any chance we might consider renting our home out? You know we would love it if we could afford to buy the other one without having to sell this one-so well let's put in a new offer on the Victorian without the contingency and see what happens.
Do you know we prayed with our Realtor-Kim- when we started this whole process and our main prayer was that there would be no question that this was from God and that people would see His hand in it. It was funny that in the 3 or 4 weeks it took us to get things together-there were no 'serious' offers on the incredible Victorian. Until that is-when we put an offer in-we were told multiple offers were on the table and we should be prepared to start with a higher offer. Greg and I knew already that without the money from selling OUR home we would be trying to work out where to get all the down payment money as it was-so we weren't feeling comfortable having to raise our offer.-But Kim knows what she is doing and what to expect-we trust her completely,-however the contract she worked up with the higher offer had some discrepancies-so we were sort of 'stuck'-if you will- on the original offer w/out contingency, so she decided to present the bank with that and hope that they would counter if the others were legit, to which we could come back with a higher one.
No need-they accepted our offer-wow-ours,and they didn't even try to counter with any of the other offers to get people to start a bidding war-. We later found out that one of those offers actually came back on their own with a higher offer and raised it-to no avail. The bank honored our offer above the higher offer-incredible.-do you know it doesn't stop there!!!! Any of you that have ever bought/sold property-well it isn't what you would consider a 'fun' process-it puts your whole being to the test. Prayer continually on our part and from friends-helped to keep everything in perspective. We would have to remind ourselves often that God doesn't bring people so far then drop them to fend for themselves. We know without a doubt that we are meant to run a bed and breakfast-We are trusting God for the right time and place-and are learning to let Him carry the burden-He has the whole plan mapped out-and when we remember that-it can be so liberating!
That being said-knowing that nothing on this earth is or ever will be perfect, we had some neglect on our mortgage brokers part which led to Kim having to ask the seller for an extension. Ok-they were amenable to it-though being bank owned-they want it quick and problem-les. No harm no foul-uh-wait-what? Mortgage broker messed up again? And we need to ask for yet ANOTHER extension"God is in control-it will be alright-God is in control-it will be alright(find a happy place-find a happy place!)...." This is not a good scenario -we found out that the people that put in the higher offer are waiting on the sidelines still wanting the house and hoping for our offer to fall through so they can come in a put their offer back in.....and we also learned that it is a full cash offer. Do you know what that means to a bank who has so many foreclosures in their inventory and with the state of today's economy they need to sell them as quick and hassle free as possible-and yet-they are still honoring our offer. And again-a third blunder-yes from the same place as the first two- and yet God is bigger than all of that-they accepted a THIRD yes you heard me right-THIRD extension-(I'm leaving out a lot of gory details )
Living in limbo-always stressful-but if we can learn the lessons that come with it-it's part of our growth-It's all about the journey-so why not enjoy the ride, bumps included!
Am I too far off the path, let's see where was I....oh yes third extension.
Well a little bit of detail here-oh yes we musn't forget we are not the only ones involved here-there is the matter of our friends who are going to rent our house....hopefully. They have to be out of their place by the end of Sept. And before the series of extensions, our plan was to close the new house with enough time to clean it, remove old carpet, fumigate-and whatever else needed to get it move in ready. Then move all our stuff over and scrub the 15 years of grease and grime from the old house to make IT move in ready -well this was all good in theory. As you already know-things don't always go the way I plan it. By the 3rd extension they weren't even giving us a date for fear that they couldn't live up to it once more-so we are now faced with a couple of choices-
1:make them get a hotel for their whole family including animals and put their stuff in temporary storage
2:allow them to start moving their stuff over into our garage
3:figure out a way to move our stuff out not knowing how long it might take and pray that the sale doesn't fall through...
Here we are again Lord-learning to wait on You -it's all good!(get emotions out of it!!)
Well I'm not the sort of person who likes to leave someone hanging-but it's way past my bedtime, so I'm going to have to say ..."stay tuned -same bat time same bat channel!" and I will get you current to 'real time' What a joy it has been -yes even the bumps!
I've missed you old friend, we've a lot of catching up to do. The summer just flew by, I had felt it would be a good idea to put aside the bed and breakfast idea just for awhile-seemed like we were running into quite a few closed doors(I wasn't sitting still long enough to pay attention to what God had brewing!) I kept busy with our local theater's presentation of "Music Man",decided to fall off the stage and break my ankle, you know the usual summer fun when out of the blue my friend Helen came up to me to let me know that she would be moving and was going to sell her house. It's a lovely old home and she had this brilliant idea it would be a beautiful place for a bed and breakfast, hmmm.........interesting how we can strive for things and when we leave it in God's hands He brings it back to us at the 'perfect' time.
I hadn't been in her house for awhile, actually not since Joshua had his senior pictures taken there in '07-so it was quite the bittersweet stroll. None the less what great potential this beautiful place possessed-who'd have thought we'd be able to use a place that was kind of 'in-the-family' with such great memories.
I had my friend Everette who is a contractor/builder and another friend Mike-a draftsman, come take a look at it with me to see what kind of expansion would be feasible to give us the best use of space. It only has four rooms marked as bedrooms-but a lot of unused alcoves that -if we added dormer windows-would allow for at least three more bedrooms. It will take a lot of structural reconfiguration-but we know it will be worth the work. Time to figure out how we are going to do this......do we give her an offer, do we put our house on the market? Lots to think and pray about....wow is this really finally happening?
I received a phone call from Helen I think a week or so later with a little hesitance to tell me that there is a new development, a new pastor and his family are moving here from Louisiana-and although she was trying to sell them on our house-they were drawn to Helen's. I had such a peace about it though-I told her if this house is meant to be ours then God would work out the details. But I know God works things out for ALL our good-not just mine.
Interesting newsflash....I just found out in the meantime that another beautiful old home(a Queen Ann Victorian 109 years old)is going to go to foreclosure. Very interesting...I drove around trying to find it-but there are no signs out and I'm not sure which house it is. I think it took me a few days. Wait a minute-is this it? This house that our good friends Rick and Debbie used to own I think eight to ten years ago that I coveted (not really) but so loved it-and when they moved away to Oregon they had asked us if we wanted to buy it knowing our desire to run an inn even back then. Well that wasn't the right time, it was too high for us, out of our league quite frankly-so we walked away they were able to sell it at the price they needed. But that was then and this is now and the bank now owns this baby and they need to unload it on someone-why not us?
This does seem a better fit for us and with it being a foreclosure it looks like we can now afford it....possibly!
Well-let's make an offer contingent on the sale of our home ....they said "NO". Okay-well if it is meant to be our home will sell and then we can put an offer on the Victorian if it is still available. So in one week I got our home full of stuff cleaned up and ready to put on the market.(This happened to be right before I broke my ankle thankfully. Now sit and .....wait. I think in 2 or 3 weeks 2 people came to see it. It is the lesson God is teaching me-you guessed it-patience!! Me excited enough to start packing up 15 years worth of collections, painting and fixing up the house(always the things you should have done while you were living in the house instead of when you are selling it.) But the good thing about that is that I love my home-if it doesn't sell-this is just making it more attractive if we are meant to stay.-if it does sell I definitely will miss this home-it has so much of us in it, longest I've ever lived anywhere-full of happiness and sadness joy and pain all part of our memories here.
Meantime-had a little barbecue in the back yard for some friends-and one of them approached us and asked if there would be any chance we might consider renting our home out? You know we would love it if we could afford to buy the other one without having to sell this one-so well let's put in a new offer on the Victorian without the contingency and see what happens.
Do you know we prayed with our Realtor-Kim- when we started this whole process and our main prayer was that there would be no question that this was from God and that people would see His hand in it. It was funny that in the 3 or 4 weeks it took us to get things together-there were no 'serious' offers on the incredible Victorian. Until that is-when we put an offer in-we were told multiple offers were on the table and we should be prepared to start with a higher offer. Greg and I knew already that without the money from selling OUR home we would be trying to work out where to get all the down payment money as it was-so we weren't feeling comfortable having to raise our offer.-But Kim knows what she is doing and what to expect-we trust her completely,-however the contract she worked up with the higher offer had some discrepancies-so we were sort of 'stuck'-if you will- on the original offer w/out contingency, so she decided to present the bank with that and hope that they would counter if the others were legit, to which we could come back with a higher one.
No need-they accepted our offer-wow-ours,and they didn't even try to counter with any of the other offers to get people to start a bidding war-. We later found out that one of those offers actually came back on their own with a higher offer and raised it-to no avail. The bank honored our offer above the higher offer-incredible.-do you know it doesn't stop there!!!! Any of you that have ever bought/sold property-well it isn't what you would consider a 'fun' process-it puts your whole being to the test. Prayer continually on our part and from friends-helped to keep everything in perspective. We would have to remind ourselves often that God doesn't bring people so far then drop them to fend for themselves. We know without a doubt that we are meant to run a bed and breakfast-We are trusting God for the right time and place-and are learning to let Him carry the burden-He has the whole plan mapped out-and when we remember that-it can be so liberating!
That being said-knowing that nothing on this earth is or ever will be perfect, we had some neglect on our mortgage brokers part which led to Kim having to ask the seller for an extension. Ok-they were amenable to it-though being bank owned-they want it quick and problem-les. No harm no foul-uh-wait-what? Mortgage broker messed up again? And we need to ask for yet ANOTHER extension"God is in control-it will be alright-God is in control-it will be alright(find a happy place-find a happy place!)...." This is not a good scenario -we found out that the people that put in the higher offer are waiting on the sidelines still wanting the house and hoping for our offer to fall through so they can come in a put their offer back in.....and we also learned that it is a full cash offer. Do you know what that means to a bank who has so many foreclosures in their inventory and with the state of today's economy they need to sell them as quick and hassle free as possible-and yet-they are still honoring our offer. And again-a third blunder-yes from the same place as the first two- and yet God is bigger than all of that-they accepted a THIRD yes you heard me right-THIRD extension-(I'm leaving out a lot of gory details )
Living in limbo-always stressful-but if we can learn the lessons that come with it-it's part of our growth-It's all about the journey-so why not enjoy the ride, bumps included!
Am I too far off the path, let's see where was I....oh yes third extension.
Well a little bit of detail here-oh yes we musn't forget we are not the only ones involved here-there is the matter of our friends who are going to rent our house....hopefully. They have to be out of their place by the end of Sept. And before the series of extensions, our plan was to close the new house with enough time to clean it, remove old carpet, fumigate-and whatever else needed to get it move in ready. Then move all our stuff over and scrub the 15 years of grease and grime from the old house to make IT move in ready -well this was all good in theory. As you already know-things don't always go the way I plan it. By the 3rd extension they weren't even giving us a date for fear that they couldn't live up to it once more-so we are now faced with a couple of choices-
1:make them get a hotel for their whole family including animals and put their stuff in temporary storage
2:allow them to start moving their stuff over into our garage
3:figure out a way to move our stuff out not knowing how long it might take and pray that the sale doesn't fall through...
Here we are again Lord-learning to wait on You -it's all good!(get emotions out of it!!)
Well I'm not the sort of person who likes to leave someone hanging-but it's way past my bedtime, so I'm going to have to say ..."stay tuned -same bat time same bat channel!" and I will get you current to 'real time' What a joy it has been -yes even the bumps!
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