Our miracle

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I. AM. IN. AWE!!! God is so amazing that I can't even figure out how to write this post. I don't think I could even begin to adequately describe the last few days but gosh darn it, I feel like screaming it from the rooftops. Those of you who have been praying us through this will be glad to hear that God answered your prayers...the sellers chose our offer! We are officially under contract. Thank you, thank you, thank you for covering my family with your support and prayer.

How the miracle went down...

I woke up with extreme peace. The kind that can only come from God. Honestly, I have only been this peaceful a handful of times in my life. It's almost supernatural. Normally, when I'm waiting on a phone call it drives me crazy but this time was completely different. I was so good with either answer that the call almost seemed insignificant. 

Regardless, the call came. Our realtor told me one of the parties had withdrawn their offer. "Holy smokes, really?!" I thought, "Okay, God, that's the first sign." Then he precedes to tell me the sellers' agent is asking if this is our best and final offer. Our realtor was calling to see if we wanted to raise our offer. I called John and he immediately said, "I feel like we should. We have to be able to say we gave it our all." I called our lender and crunched all the numbers and it appeared to all make sense. For those of you who read my emotional breakdown post, you'll remember I was craving for John to take control and offer support. So, when he was so matter of fact with this decision, I knew it was the thing to do.

Our realtor resubmitted our offer but we still weren't offering over asking price so we knew it was a gamble. Once again, we were totally at peace. 

Five or six hours later, I got the second call. "Well, Dana, they decided to go with your offer. The house is yours!" He went on to say that the second offer is now considered as a back-up offer so the sellers' agent couldn't reveal what that number was. But, she told our agent that she "was kind of surprised they went with your offer but I feel those letters definitely had something to do with it." Our agent said as he read between the lines he sensed the other offer was definitely above asking price. Wow! Our entire family had something to do with this house becoming our home! I plan to share the kids' letters with you guys in another post...they are precious.

Now, I have a hard time calling this "our" house because I feel strongly this house isn't "ours" but rather it belongs to God and we're going to be blessed enough to live in it.

The madness begins today as inspections and appraisals are hurriedly being lined up since we're planning on closing on the exact day we need to be out of our house. How's that for perfect God's timing?

Please continue to pray for the remainder of this journey. It's not even close to being over...

I promise to post pictures as soon as I can get back up there with my camera. I will tell you, though, that there's a completely mirrored bathroom that left John feeling "violated" after using it. ;) See any projects in our future?!!

We made an offer...

It's going to take a miracle, let me just start by prefacing that way. We made a marathon trip yesterday up to Dallas and back in one day. Somewhere in the middle of all that, we made an offer on this...

It's awesome. We love it. There are 3 offers sitting on the table and ours isn't at full asking. You do the math. Look promising? No, but John and I have decided to make a faith decision. This house has been tied up for 3 months under contract and literally just became available. I was picking our lease house when our agent called and told me to hold onto my socks because he was about to blow them off. And, boy did he.

Has God been holding this house for us? I'm not sure. Our offer was placed at our highest point of comfort. We entertained changing it to full asking price until 11:45pm last night. That would have meant countering our own offer. Who does that?! We decided to stay with our original offer and let God do the rest. If this house really is the one he's been holding for us, then he's also fully capable of making the other people's offers less attractive than ours. If it's not the one he has reserved for us, then we'll be sad but totally willing to accept that path.

Our kids are in love with this property. They even wrote letters to the sellers asking them to accept our offer. They are priceless. If we end up moving in, I guarantee you they will be framed and proudly displayed.

I'm at peace and I am calm. I know God's got our backs on this one and we will find out today if that includes this house or not. But, like I said, it will take a miracle!

Oh my!

Seriously considering this today...

Wondering if I'm insane? Wondering if my bank account could support the amount of TLC this house requires? Did I mention, wondering if I've lost my marbles? There'd be no shortage of blogging material, that's for sure. 

So close we could taste it

Are you sick of house hunting posts? I am! Glad you're hanging in there with me because when we actually find a house there's bound to be fun posts to follow, but right now thanks for being kind enough to let me drag you through the mud.

So, here's the house that almost had us signing papers...

Looks nice and quiet, right? That's one of the problems. After talking to the neighbor I found out there aren't many kids in the neighborhood and "everyone keeps to themselves."

John and I walked through this house super late one evening then drove back with the kids this weekend to see it in the daylight. BIG TIP for house hunters: Make sure you see the house at different times of the day.

That wood beam was a major selling point in my book.

I could see a cozy little seating area in front of the fireplace and some open shelving on the brick wall. I had plans people...

I had to wonder if a blogger lived in this house. Everything was very on trend and the finishes were definitely of the DIY type (some good, some not so good).

There were 3 fireplaces. Too bad it's only cold enough for fires in Texas about 3 nights out of the year.

Nice neutral finishes. Looked great the first time we walked through, but the second time the seller failed to clean...big mistake. HOUSE SELLING TIP: Clean you house before all showings. Potential buyers don't like seeing hair on the bathroom floor (or the bathtub for that matter). Yuck! 

Two of the rooms had cute little window seats that open up for storage.

Brick floors again. Love those.

So, are you wondering why we didn't pull the trigger?

I prayed for clarity before we drove back to make our decision. Both kids didn't like this house. I was shocked because they've seen others they've liked better and this one was 10 times better than those. Seeing it in daylight revealed that the pool had major problems and would have to have a complete overhaul. We also noticed several potential structural issues with the house, roofing issues and a slanted floor that may have indicated foundation issues. And the biggest question mark was the beginnings of a road expansion project that looked like it'd end up placing this house with a busy street in its side yard. No one wants to buy a house on a busy street...got to think resale value.

You may be thinking that many of these issues would give us serious negotiating power and you're right, but it's at the top of our budget. We'd have to get them down lower than they originally paid for the house to make this thing happen. Also, don't forget from my previous post that this house is an hour away from John's office. Too many factors to make it work. :(

In four weeks and one day, we'll officially be living in a hotel. Can you hear the butterflies fluttering in my stomach?!

This week in Dallas...

It's a big week in the Frieling house...we'll official be homeless on Friday. We're scheduled to close on our Austin house. With this crazy deadline looming over our head, I decided I should probably make another trip up to Dallas. 

I literally drove up this morning before the sun was even thinking about shining and now I'm sitting in a coffee shop writing a post. Think I have my priorities straight? ha! To my defense, I'm also searching and trying to make a game plan. My realtor is setting up a few appointments but honestly, there's not much to see. 

This is the only one I'm looking forward to, but it faces a busy street. Not sure if that'll put it out of the running or not just yet.

Fun floors, right?! Most of the houses have brick floors in the areas we're looking. 

The rest of the house is a bit dated, but the bones look good.

Bryn had window seats on her house wish list. These should do the trick!

Okay, so this is the part where you all start praying that the busy street isn't an issue!!!

We're leasing our house back from the buyer so we have 5 weeks to make the magic happen. I'm not so confident so I'll also be checking out apartments and houses to lease during this trip too.

Our House hunt continues...

We survived our first house hunting trip to Dallas with the kids. I was a little anxious about how this would play out since neither Frieling friend is looking forward to the big move. I asked our realtor/friend to keep the day light so the kids could get a taste of what's to come without having to endure a full day of hunting. Well, our realtor LOVES his job and doesn't know the meaning of a light day. We were at it for a full 6 hours!

Much to my surprise there wasn't even one single complaint muttered the entire day. Your prayers worked, friends! I ended up learning so much from our kids during this process. It was incredible.

The market in Dallas is hot right now and finding a house is going to be a challenge. Three of the seven houses in the last post were under contract before we even made it to town. We're really at a disadvantage trying to do this long-distance.

I had to kiss these doors good-bye before I even managed to step foot through them.

Some of the homes we walked through were doozies. I'm talking avocado green stairs paired with orange patterned carpet. Oh, and did I mention the mold growing on the wall? Yikes! Not to be outdone by the house with fire engine red sinks and a fully mirrored bathroom. Floor to ceiling, friends, and all 4 walls. Wowza! I really should have snapped pictures so you could fully appreciate the beauty but we were feeling the heebee jeebees and couldn't get out of these places fast enough. Pass the hand sanitizer please.

These doors gave me a little hope though...

Then, after we returned, this house popped up on the market...

Remember my love for trees?! We've never had a tree this large in our yard.

And here's what's just beyond the fence...

Our realtor promised to swing by and preview this house to see if it's worth another trip up. I have a sneaky feeling we're going to need a new car when all is said and done. Lots of miles between Austin and Dallas and our car has 180,000 miles on it already. Hold on, Betsy!

So, staying true to John and Reed's hunting adventures, not every hunt ends with a prize. This just helps build the anticipation in hopes that the next hunt will yield the trophy.

You won't believe what we promised the kids...

On my most recent house hunting trip to Dallas, I found a lot (as in land, not tons) that had potential. It had a creek view and I'm drawn to that since we have a boy who'd go c.r.a.z.y exploring and being one with nature.

Then, I found this design by Austin architects, Furman + Kiel, and instantly decided that lot had lots of potential (pun intended).

{Furman + Keil Architects}

Here are several shots I snapped while snooping a peek into the neighbor's backyard making sure a house and pool could fit on the lot. Did I mention John and I made the biggest mistake ever?! Out of pure guilt and as a means to stop the flow of tears when we shattered our kids' hearts told the kids we were moving, we promised them a pool! Now who's c.r.a.z.y? Go ahead, point the fingers, we deserve it.

Bryn and Reed have shared their visions for our new place and Bryn has added "a tree house" to the ever so long list of requirements. So, I'm thinking that'd be a great DIY daddy/daughter project, right? 

 We'll see how bad she wants that tree house once she realizes there's manual labor involved!

Aren't Texas trees gorgeous? NOT. But, keep in mind it is technically still winter so things are a bit bare. And, it beats the heck out of looking into your neighbor's bedroom window!