Just got a phone call from RedPrairie (the phone interview guys) ... the interview will be next Monday at 7:30 am, not tomorrow. I guess the guy that was going to do the interview as a deadline or something ... what's the matter with these people? Am I not the most important thing?!
Anyway, that should be interesting.
Neal
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
A light at the end of the tunnel?
Good morning all.
Just thought I'd share two elements of good news.
First, when we were all eating breakfast this morning, Timmy disappeared upstairs and then came down saying he went to the bathroom all by himself. This is great news considering he's actually been doing fairly well this week going to the bathroom in the big boy potty. Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel!! This follows up Timmy starting to take a bit more interest in dressing himself too.
The other note of interest is that I have a phone interview with a software place tomorrow morning. You can be praying for me at 7:30 am Pacific time.
Emma's frient Macy (and her older brother Micah) stayed with us last night. It was a little bit of a late night as Emma was totally psyched to have Macy here and kept both of them up until about 9p. Timmy was also excited ... he wanted to sleep in a sleeping bag too, so he ended up staying up late as well. Should make for a longish day today. Macy and Micah may also be here today after school (they both go to Moiola, Emma's school). They're staying with us because last minute Mavric (their brother who is Emma's age) was able to have the final ear surgery after previously having been told it wouldn't happen until next year at the earliest. So I guess you can pray for Mav's surgery too (I believe a couple of hours starting at 9am).
So that's the fun happenings here. Tonight is family date night and the requests for activities were painting (from Timmy) and Ruby's (from Emma), so we'll probably try to fit in both!
Neal
Just thought I'd share two elements of good news.
First, when we were all eating breakfast this morning, Timmy disappeared upstairs and then came down saying he went to the bathroom all by himself. This is great news considering he's actually been doing fairly well this week going to the bathroom in the big boy potty. Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel!! This follows up Timmy starting to take a bit more interest in dressing himself too.
The other note of interest is that I have a phone interview with a software place tomorrow morning. You can be praying for me at 7:30 am Pacific time.
Emma's frient Macy (and her older brother Micah) stayed with us last night. It was a little bit of a late night as Emma was totally psyched to have Macy here and kept both of them up until about 9p. Timmy was also excited ... he wanted to sleep in a sleeping bag too, so he ended up staying up late as well. Should make for a longish day today. Macy and Micah may also be here today after school (they both go to Moiola, Emma's school). They're staying with us because last minute Mavric (their brother who is Emma's age) was able to have the final ear surgery after previously having been told it wouldn't happen until next year at the earliest. So I guess you can pray for Mav's surgery too (I believe a couple of hours starting at 9am).
So that's the fun happenings here. Tonight is family date night and the requests for activities were painting (from Timmy) and Ruby's (from Emma), so we'll probably try to fit in both!
Neal
Monday, October 15, 2007
Weekend Report ...
Hey all,
I don't think there's anything hugely exciting to report from the weekend, but here's a short run down.
Friday I worked from home, so it was fun to be able to walk Emma to school and then go and pick her up. That day, the guy who is taking the virtual tour pictures of the house was supposed to come, but he ended up not making it. I guess that was good as it encouraged us to get the house spic and span (although I have to say we're doing a pretty darn good job of keeping it clean anyway). In the evening was Bible study at our house.
Saturday was pretty rainy, so I thought maybe we should do a craft and suggested we all make super hero costumes. Before breakfast, we made some masks for Emma and Timmy. After breakfast Emma, Timmy, and I went to get some raw materials ... plain t-shirts at the t-shirt warehouse, fabric and velcro at Jo-Anne Fabric, and then a quick stop at Target for Emma to spend some money (she had saved her $1 for ice cream Friday at school and added that to some money she has been saving). She bought herself a doll (with a 50% supplement from the parentals). She was very proud of herself. So we got back from errands and I sewed the velcro to the shoulders of all the t-shirts and then gathered the cape material and sewed the velcro on there, and viola ... superhero capes. After lunch and quiet time, we all came up with names ... Emma was "Soft Cape" (because her pink cape is crushed velvet), Timmy is Lightning Guy (because his cape has got a whole bunch of Lightning McQueens, from the movie Cars, on it), Cyndie is Flower Power (due to her flowery cape) and I'm Hawkeye (my name from when I worked at Indian Village at Alpine). We then came up with logos and decorated our shirts. We haven't gotten them back on post-decoration yet, but I'll try to come up with some photos this week. All in all, it was pretty fun on a rainy day!
Sunday was church, then we went over to Jim and Laurie's for lunch and to hang out while the open house went on at our house. We had a nice time with them. All the kids get along pretty well which is nice (and something that used to be a significant problem). We walked over to the Foster's Freeze for ice cream and came home for dinner, a bath, and bedtime (and no day would be complete without a rousing game of "Emma and Timmy's Game").
Not anything horribly new on the kid front. Timmy is continuing to struggle with potty training. That's going to be a challenge! Emma is doing well in school and enjoying drawing a lot. She really enjoys books and being read to. I think that if she can be patient enough, she will really like reading books on her own.
That's it from us,
Neal
I don't think there's anything hugely exciting to report from the weekend, but here's a short run down.
Friday I worked from home, so it was fun to be able to walk Emma to school and then go and pick her up. That day, the guy who is taking the virtual tour pictures of the house was supposed to come, but he ended up not making it. I guess that was good as it encouraged us to get the house spic and span (although I have to say we're doing a pretty darn good job of keeping it clean anyway). In the evening was Bible study at our house.
Saturday was pretty rainy, so I thought maybe we should do a craft and suggested we all make super hero costumes. Before breakfast, we made some masks for Emma and Timmy. After breakfast Emma, Timmy, and I went to get some raw materials ... plain t-shirts at the t-shirt warehouse, fabric and velcro at Jo-Anne Fabric, and then a quick stop at Target for Emma to spend some money (she had saved her $1 for ice cream Friday at school and added that to some money she has been saving). She bought herself a doll (with a 50% supplement from the parentals). She was very proud of herself. So we got back from errands and I sewed the velcro to the shoulders of all the t-shirts and then gathered the cape material and sewed the velcro on there, and viola ... superhero capes. After lunch and quiet time, we all came up with names ... Emma was "Soft Cape" (because her pink cape is crushed velvet), Timmy is Lightning Guy (because his cape has got a whole bunch of Lightning McQueens, from the movie Cars, on it), Cyndie is Flower Power (due to her flowery cape) and I'm Hawkeye (my name from when I worked at Indian Village at Alpine). We then came up with logos and decorated our shirts. We haven't gotten them back on post-decoration yet, but I'll try to come up with some photos this week. All in all, it was pretty fun on a rainy day!
Sunday was church, then we went over to Jim and Laurie's for lunch and to hang out while the open house went on at our house. We had a nice time with them. All the kids get along pretty well which is nice (and something that used to be a significant problem). We walked over to the Foster's Freeze for ice cream and came home for dinner, a bath, and bedtime (and no day would be complete without a rousing game of "Emma and Timmy's Game").
Not anything horribly new on the kid front. Timmy is continuing to struggle with potty training. That's going to be a challenge! Emma is doing well in school and enjoying drawing a lot. She really enjoys books and being read to. I think that if she can be patient enough, she will really like reading books on her own.
That's it from us,
Neal
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Wedding Report plus "Emma and Timmy's Game"
Hey all, here's the pix from the wedding. We had a very good time, saw some people we hadn't seen for a while, etc., etc. The pictures really tell a better story, so here it is ...
The wedding was in Simi Valley, outdoors with a reception afterwards inside. Ron Merrell married them ...
The "Lopez" table ... Robin, Stephanie (Dave's daughter), Judy, Effrain, Dave, Mark, Carlie, Dan (not sure where Audry was) ...
The wedding was in Simi Valley, outdoors with a reception afterwards inside. Ron Merrell married them ...
The "Lopez" table ... Robin, Stephanie (Dave's daughter), Judy, Effrain, Dave, Mark, Carlie, Dan (not sure where Audry was) ...
Tim and Judy ... Tim didn't look like he'd aged a bit since I last saw him. He told me he just gave up Roller Hockey (it had been his goal to play until he was 60). They both seemed very happy and doing well. I also talked with Alyssa a little bit. She seemed to be doing well to. Bruce (her husband) is now the senior pastor at Simi Cov. They said hello to everyone.
Harriots ... they said a special "hello" to you Laura.
Judy and Cynthia Merrell. Cynthia is now living in Carlsbad, so we're going to try to get her to come up for dinner some evening. I should also note that these two were dancing queens, on the dance floor all night! Cynthia called Cyndie and I old fogies because we didn't dance more!
Cutting the cake ...
Us with Ron and Anna ... we had time for some good conversation. We're hoping to spend some time with them when we drive out to WI.
That's Ron and Anna's youngest (born Sept 14th) ... Brodie. They also have a 2 year old Braddock.
We stayed up in Simi Saturday night, so it was nice to be able to sleep in and relax a bit. Emma and Timmy stayed with a young couple from church that just got married this summer. They had a great time.
I made a game recently (Emma & Timmy's Game) with some help from Emma. The kids really like to play it. You roll a die and go around the board. You can land on yellow spaces to draw a card, and some spaces tell you to do things. There are things like "everyone go sit in the suburban" and "eat a piece of candy" and "drink some water". Timmy's favorite is probably "dance a jig" and Emma, being the health conscious girl she is, probably likes the water one best! Anyway, it's been a fun thing to do together as a family.
I even made a box for it! We're going to get the board laminated so we don't destroy it.
So that's about it for now. Nothing really new on the house front to report.
Neal
Monday, October 1, 2007
Updates from the West Coast
It's Monday again, so I'll drop the line on what's going on with the SoCal/Wildwood DeVries.
As you are all aware, the buyers with whom we were under contract on our house pulled out of the deal on Thursday. We (and our realtor, Gwen, as well) were very surprised it happened. The reason they gave was that they didn't think the house was big enough in the end. This was just a day after they had gone and had the house inspected (there were no real issues from the inspection). We met them at the inspection and they seemed very nice and excited about the house. I'm not sure they fully understand the market around here, because I don't think there's anything much bigger around here in the same price range, but whatever. Anyway, we were in morning for a day, but have come to grips with it and are moving on! At least God is in control, even if he doesn't check with us first!
Friday we had a realtor open house in the morning. Emma had school, and I took some time off and took Timmy to Mile Square Park while Cyndie ran some errands. Saturday we went to church to help with some landscaping work. Then afterwards we went to a pool party for a kid we know from the park. Sunday was church, then another open house. We received a call from our realtor at 11:30 (for a noon open house), "I just smashed my finger with a hammer while I was putting out signs for the open house. I'm going to go get stitches, but I'll be back for the open house as soon as I can". Anyway, she ended up having a pretty successful open house with what she thought were a few good leads. We spent the afternoon over at the Zones and had a good time hanging out with them. We all walked over to Emma and Maddi's school to play late in the afternoon, and then to Stonefire Grill for dinner after that. We got home just at bedtime. The whole family was in bed pretty early.
Lately both of the kids have been getting up during the night and Timmy has been getting up early in the morning. Last night Timmy didn't go to bed until around 10 (he was up and down a bunch). Anyway, I think it's probably a combination of the tension of the coming (and going and coming) move, some allergies/cold type symptoms, and (in Timmy's case) the compounding of the first two elements such that he's again sleeping in the afternoon (making him not sleepy at night). Anyway, they both seem to be doing a bit better now, and Cyndie is going to try to make sure Tim doesn't nap today, so hopefully tonight will go a bit better.
Emma seems to be doing better as school (after a rough week or two where she didn't want to go), so that's a good thing.
That's about it on this end.
Neal
As you are all aware, the buyers with whom we were under contract on our house pulled out of the deal on Thursday. We (and our realtor, Gwen, as well) were very surprised it happened. The reason they gave was that they didn't think the house was big enough in the end. This was just a day after they had gone and had the house inspected (there were no real issues from the inspection). We met them at the inspection and they seemed very nice and excited about the house. I'm not sure they fully understand the market around here, because I don't think there's anything much bigger around here in the same price range, but whatever. Anyway, we were in morning for a day, but have come to grips with it and are moving on! At least God is in control, even if he doesn't check with us first!
Friday we had a realtor open house in the morning. Emma had school, and I took some time off and took Timmy to Mile Square Park while Cyndie ran some errands. Saturday we went to church to help with some landscaping work. Then afterwards we went to a pool party for a kid we know from the park. Sunday was church, then another open house. We received a call from our realtor at 11:30 (for a noon open house), "I just smashed my finger with a hammer while I was putting out signs for the open house. I'm going to go get stitches, but I'll be back for the open house as soon as I can". Anyway, she ended up having a pretty successful open house with what she thought were a few good leads. We spent the afternoon over at the Zones and had a good time hanging out with them. We all walked over to Emma and Maddi's school to play late in the afternoon, and then to Stonefire Grill for dinner after that. We got home just at bedtime. The whole family was in bed pretty early.
Lately both of the kids have been getting up during the night and Timmy has been getting up early in the morning. Last night Timmy didn't go to bed until around 10 (he was up and down a bunch). Anyway, I think it's probably a combination of the tension of the coming (and going and coming) move, some allergies/cold type symptoms, and (in Timmy's case) the compounding of the first two elements such that he's again sleeping in the afternoon (making him not sleepy at night). Anyway, they both seem to be doing a bit better now, and Cyndie is going to try to make sure Tim doesn't nap today, so hopefully tonight will go a bit better.
Emma seems to be doing better as school (after a rough week or two where she didn't want to go), so that's a good thing.
That's about it on this end.
Neal
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Latest on the Move
Not a huge amount to report, but here's the latest ...
Yesterday morning was the inspection for Deodar. It went pretty well. There were no significant issues that came up. At this point, we're just waiting to hear from the buyers regarding their "demands" for what they want us to fix, then we'll negotiate on that. We were expecting to stay at the house the whole time, so we had to scramble a little when our realtor suggested that we make ourselves scarce so that the buyers could be there without anyone looking over their shoulders. We did meet the couple. They're younger, probably a few years older than us, with a 15 month old and another due in February. They seemed very nice. The wife was very friendly and outgoing and the husband a bit more reserved. Anyway, after meeting them and their agent, I definitely got the feeling that the agent is the one who has been agitating things a bit (and creating all these annoying counter offers with minute details being nit-picked!). Anyway, as I said, the inspection went well. We should hear back from them today or tomorrow regarding what they'd like us to fix.
The inspection on Wildwood is Friday. Dad will go to that, along with our realtor out there. We've also got our lender in place for that loan, so we're moving right along.
We created a big 4 foot by 2.5 foot calendar of the next several months so that we could get all the things that will be happening in place and start trying to figure out things like when we'll actually be leaving here, when Emma's last day of school will be and her first day on the other end, etc., etc. As of now, the important dates are the removal of all the contingencies on Deodar (next Thursday), the closing of Deodar (Oct 24), and the closing of Wildwood (Nov 9). We'll have three days to move out of Deodar after the closing (out by 8p Oct 27), so will probably leave the next morning, travel across the country seeing people, and arrive in the Lake Geneva area a few days before the closing. We're working on details with moving the stuff (probably UPack).
Anyway, there are lots of happenings going on!
Neal
Yesterday morning was the inspection for Deodar. It went pretty well. There were no significant issues that came up. At this point, we're just waiting to hear from the buyers regarding their "demands" for what they want us to fix, then we'll negotiate on that. We were expecting to stay at the house the whole time, so we had to scramble a little when our realtor suggested that we make ourselves scarce so that the buyers could be there without anyone looking over their shoulders. We did meet the couple. They're younger, probably a few years older than us, with a 15 month old and another due in February. They seemed very nice. The wife was very friendly and outgoing and the husband a bit more reserved. Anyway, after meeting them and their agent, I definitely got the feeling that the agent is the one who has been agitating things a bit (and creating all these annoying counter offers with minute details being nit-picked!). Anyway, as I said, the inspection went well. We should hear back from them today or tomorrow regarding what they'd like us to fix.
The inspection on Wildwood is Friday. Dad will go to that, along with our realtor out there. We've also got our lender in place for that loan, so we're moving right along.
We created a big 4 foot by 2.5 foot calendar of the next several months so that we could get all the things that will be happening in place and start trying to figure out things like when we'll actually be leaving here, when Emma's last day of school will be and her first day on the other end, etc., etc. As of now, the important dates are the removal of all the contingencies on Deodar (next Thursday), the closing of Deodar (Oct 24), and the closing of Wildwood (Nov 9). We'll have three days to move out of Deodar after the closing (out by 8p Oct 27), so will probably leave the next morning, travel across the country seeing people, and arrive in the Lake Geneva area a few days before the closing. We're working on details with moving the stuff (probably UPack).
Anyway, there are lots of happenings going on!
Neal
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
What a ride!
Well, I will say one thing ... when you are following God's path for your life, you are in for quite a ride!
I won't go into all the details of the last six months, or even the last month, but needless to say, God has been active in our lives. As you all know, we have sensed God's leading us to Lake Geneva for several months now. At each step of the way, as we have acted and taken a step of faith, He has been faithful to open doors and provide for us. It's really very exciting to see Him working so obviously in our lives at a number of different levels. Things which used to be mundane and which were not a priority, such as reading the Bible, have become exciting things! Very cool!
So enough rambling, on to the details of the last several days with the house(s). Let's just start by saying that a week ago Wednesday was not a good day. Cyndie and I were both feeling a bit down in the dumps for a number of reasons and really felt under attack from Satan. Two specific issues we were dealing with that day were a plumbing problem which meant that we didn't have any water in the house and our WI realtor calling to tell us that the house we liked in Lake Geneva had had an offer from a different buyer put in. Over the previous month or so, we had been struggling with the concept of God's will, and wanting to be sure that we were not just taking steps that we thought were right, but that those steps were part of God's plan. I think during that time, we had also gotten away from taking steps of faith in God, and making Him our number one priority. Anyway, that morning, I read Philippians 4 (verses 1, 4, 6, 7 here, the bold is mine):
1 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord.
...
4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!
...
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
I showed the verse to Cyndie when I got home that day (early so that we could have time to talk about the WI house issue) and we were both very struck by how appropriately it fit our lives. "Stay true to the Lord", as I said before, we hadn't been making God the number one priority in our lives, and so this was a very direct exhortation to us to get our behinds in gear! "Be full of joy in the Lord"; we didn't need to be in the dumps. God is the reason for our joy, not our current circumstances. Again, a direct exhortation to us. "Don't worry ... pray ... tell God what you need ... thank him for all he has done". Wow, great guidance. We had been praying a lot, but again, we needed the kick in the rear. He has done so much for us over our lives, and specifically in the near past, we needed to acknowledge that. "Then you will experience God's peace ... (and it) will guard your hearts and minds". Totally what we needed when we were feeling so attacked. The comforting reminder that God will protect us from those attacks!
So anyway, we ended up praying, and then making an offer on the Wildwood house. Due to the competing offer, we decided to make a non-contingent offer. The next day (Thursday ... we had given them until Sunday to respond) the offer was accepted! Suddenly we had a house under contract, and one we still owned! We were not horribly concerned about this since we still have a bit of cash on hand from selling the Iowa house, but it did get us moving on getting our house out here on the market.
So Friday, we met with the realtor, Gwen, to list the house. We were pretty disappointed in the comps she showed us. We were hoping to list for $850k, but everything comparable that had sold in the last 6 months in south Fountain Valley was in the $700s. We had a few upgrades, but she told us that, due to the buyer's market, those upgrades really weren't counting for much these days. So we ended up listing for a range price (to get visits from folks shopping at both above and below the $800k line) of $799k - $829k. We were a little disappointed in the price, but were really leaving it up to God. Basically we told him, "If you want us there, you'll get us a good price, and provide for us what we need." We were really praying that he would bring the right family to buy the place that would just have to have it and would make a good offer, one that would show us and anyone we told that God's hand is on this move, and that He is much bigger that real estate markets and the economy.
That night we received a phone call to set up our first visit the next day. The next day we dutifully turned on all the lights, turned on the jacuzzi, left the fans running on low and did all the "show your house things" you are supposed to do and left the house at 11 the next day so the potential buyers could come for a visit. We heard later that day from Gwen that the folks were interested and were going to make an offer, but she had the impression something would be "wrong" with the offer so we didn't get our hopes up too much.
Sunday we did church and had one other visit in the afternoon. We hadn't heard anything from Gwen, so we just figured the offer didn't come through. We were a little disappointed that we'd only had two showings thus far (on a weekend nonetheless). Gwen had anticipated more like 3 or 4 showings a day for the first week or so.
Anyway, when we were at the park finishing up our late picnic before we were going to go to KidWorld, Gwen called and told us she had an offer in hand. So we met quickly before KidWorld to look at the offer. It was very good! No contingencies, above asking price ($845k), etc. We were excited! We ended up countering Sunday night to clear up some details about who was paying for what, they countered yesterday afternoon, we countered yesterday evening, and by 11pm last night, we had a verbal agreement! This morning the office signatures were in place. Tomorrow is the inspection. Things are moving very quickly. The next big milestone is 10 days from contract, all contingencies must be removed (they need their loan in place, the inspection has to be done, etc.). Once that passes, we get to keep their $20k earnest money if they back out without a really good reason.
So, now we've gone from hoping we wouldn't have to carry the Wildwood house too long while not living there, to actually requesting to close earlier! God is good! He has totally provided. There is a couple our age buying the house (Vasillios and Jennifer Mavros). They have a 15 month old and another on the way. They are moving down from San Jose to be nearer to her family in Huntington Beach. So we've really been praying that the house will be a huge blessing for them, like it has been for us.
The other really cool thing that God has done is at church. As we've let people know we're moving, we've experienced kind of what we expected ... "We're happy for you and excited for you, but bummed you are leaving, you will be missed." We figured that would be the general response. So we have been praying that God would bring two new families in to the church to replace us and to serve as an encouragement to the church body. Well, over the last month, two new young families have been attending, and appear to be becoming "regulars". So we thank God for Steve and Cindy (amazing!), and Al and Alicia.
So that's the story, and its much longer than I anticipated it would be. There is still a long road to walk in the next month or so, and our realtor has warned us several times that in today's market, housed fall out of escrow all the time. However, we're confident in God. His hand is on this. And either way, we know we're following Him which is all that really matters in the end.
More later as things develop!
Neal
I won't go into all the details of the last six months, or even the last month, but needless to say, God has been active in our lives. As you all know, we have sensed God's leading us to Lake Geneva for several months now. At each step of the way, as we have acted and taken a step of faith, He has been faithful to open doors and provide for us. It's really very exciting to see Him working so obviously in our lives at a number of different levels. Things which used to be mundane and which were not a priority, such as reading the Bible, have become exciting things! Very cool!
So enough rambling, on to the details of the last several days with the house(s). Let's just start by saying that a week ago Wednesday was not a good day. Cyndie and I were both feeling a bit down in the dumps for a number of reasons and really felt under attack from Satan. Two specific issues we were dealing with that day were a plumbing problem which meant that we didn't have any water in the house and our WI realtor calling to tell us that the house we liked in Lake Geneva had had an offer from a different buyer put in. Over the previous month or so, we had been struggling with the concept of God's will, and wanting to be sure that we were not just taking steps that we thought were right, but that those steps were part of God's plan. I think during that time, we had also gotten away from taking steps of faith in God, and making Him our number one priority. Anyway, that morning, I read Philippians 4 (verses 1, 4, 6, 7 here, the bold is mine):
1 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord.
...
4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!
...
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
I showed the verse to Cyndie when I got home that day (early so that we could have time to talk about the WI house issue) and we were both very struck by how appropriately it fit our lives. "Stay true to the Lord", as I said before, we hadn't been making God the number one priority in our lives, and so this was a very direct exhortation to us to get our behinds in gear! "Be full of joy in the Lord"; we didn't need to be in the dumps. God is the reason for our joy, not our current circumstances. Again, a direct exhortation to us. "Don't worry ... pray ... tell God what you need ... thank him for all he has done". Wow, great guidance. We had been praying a lot, but again, we needed the kick in the rear. He has done so much for us over our lives, and specifically in the near past, we needed to acknowledge that. "Then you will experience God's peace ... (and it) will guard your hearts and minds". Totally what we needed when we were feeling so attacked. The comforting reminder that God will protect us from those attacks!
So anyway, we ended up praying, and then making an offer on the Wildwood house. Due to the competing offer, we decided to make a non-contingent offer. The next day (Thursday ... we had given them until Sunday to respond) the offer was accepted! Suddenly we had a house under contract, and one we still owned! We were not horribly concerned about this since we still have a bit of cash on hand from selling the Iowa house, but it did get us moving on getting our house out here on the market.
So Friday, we met with the realtor, Gwen, to list the house. We were pretty disappointed in the comps she showed us. We were hoping to list for $850k, but everything comparable that had sold in the last 6 months in south Fountain Valley was in the $700s. We had a few upgrades, but she told us that, due to the buyer's market, those upgrades really weren't counting for much these days. So we ended up listing for a range price (to get visits from folks shopping at both above and below the $800k line) of $799k - $829k. We were a little disappointed in the price, but were really leaving it up to God. Basically we told him, "If you want us there, you'll get us a good price, and provide for us what we need." We were really praying that he would bring the right family to buy the place that would just have to have it and would make a good offer, one that would show us and anyone we told that God's hand is on this move, and that He is much bigger that real estate markets and the economy.
That night we received a phone call to set up our first visit the next day. The next day we dutifully turned on all the lights, turned on the jacuzzi, left the fans running on low and did all the "show your house things" you are supposed to do and left the house at 11 the next day so the potential buyers could come for a visit. We heard later that day from Gwen that the folks were interested and were going to make an offer, but she had the impression something would be "wrong" with the offer so we didn't get our hopes up too much.
Sunday we did church and had one other visit in the afternoon. We hadn't heard anything from Gwen, so we just figured the offer didn't come through. We were a little disappointed that we'd only had two showings thus far (on a weekend nonetheless). Gwen had anticipated more like 3 or 4 showings a day for the first week or so.
Anyway, when we were at the park finishing up our late picnic before we were going to go to KidWorld, Gwen called and told us she had an offer in hand. So we met quickly before KidWorld to look at the offer. It was very good! No contingencies, above asking price ($845k), etc. We were excited! We ended up countering Sunday night to clear up some details about who was paying for what, they countered yesterday afternoon, we countered yesterday evening, and by 11pm last night, we had a verbal agreement! This morning the office signatures were in place. Tomorrow is the inspection. Things are moving very quickly. The next big milestone is 10 days from contract, all contingencies must be removed (they need their loan in place, the inspection has to be done, etc.). Once that passes, we get to keep their $20k earnest money if they back out without a really good reason.
So, now we've gone from hoping we wouldn't have to carry the Wildwood house too long while not living there, to actually requesting to close earlier! God is good! He has totally provided. There is a couple our age buying the house (Vasillios and Jennifer Mavros). They have a 15 month old and another on the way. They are moving down from San Jose to be nearer to her family in Huntington Beach. So we've really been praying that the house will be a huge blessing for them, like it has been for us.
The other really cool thing that God has done is at church. As we've let people know we're moving, we've experienced kind of what we expected ... "We're happy for you and excited for you, but bummed you are leaving, you will be missed." We figured that would be the general response. So we have been praying that God would bring two new families in to the church to replace us and to serve as an encouragement to the church body. Well, over the last month, two new young families have been attending, and appear to be becoming "regulars". So we thank God for Steve and Cindy (amazing!), and Al and Alicia.
So that's the story, and its much longer than I anticipated it would be. There is still a long road to walk in the next month or so, and our realtor has warned us several times that in today's market, housed fall out of escrow all the time. However, we're confident in God. His hand is on this. And either way, we know we're following Him which is all that really matters in the end.
More later as things develop!
Neal
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