Weekend Wrap-Up & A House Update!

First and foremost...

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!

To recap: We made an offer last Saturday, then they counter-offered on Monday. We waited until Thursday to counter offer which gave them until 6pm Saturday to accept/counter/deny. I was shocked and amazed when I got an email from our Realtor on Friday afternoon with their counter-offer...then I read the email and went from shocked and amazed to jumping up and down excited. Seriously, I jumped up and down and did a little dance. That's right; in my cubicle. Don't judge me.

I assume you can gather from my happy dance that we accepted their counter-offer. If not, we did!

Our plans were to get out of town asap and head to Lexington, Kentucky but that changed once we found out that we needed to meet the Realtor and sign the purchase agreement. Not that we minded altering our plans at all, I mean we got the house after all!

After signing on a couple dotted lines we were on the road for Kentucky and so excited. I think we talked about the house for the first 2 hours at least. The details that we love, the improvements we hope to make, the meetings this week to secure financing, the flowers I want to plant, the garden Stephen wants to plant, paint colors...you get the idea, we talked about it a lot!

The drive to Lexington was farther than I thought but before hitting our hotel at 11pm we made a stop at Orange Leaf for some heaven in a cup frozen yogurt. It was delicious!

Saturday morning we were up fairly early for the rest of our trek to Eastern Kentucky for Brooke and Preston's wedding. It was so great to be able to see Brooke and her family.

 Our friendship has grown so much since our meeting on a cruise years ago. Brooke is such a sweetheart and was a beautiful bride in every way. Here are some pictures of her big day:

Aside from seeing Brooke and he family, the highlight for me was the candy bar. A-M-A-ZING! Umm hello Sweet Tart jelly beans, nice to meet you! The chocolate fountain was delicious also, though I admit I was terrified of spilling melted chocolate all over my dress!

The newlywed couple is on their honeymoon cruise now and Stephen and I pray they have a great time and just enjoy relax in paradise! I know what a relief it was for me when the wedding and all the planning was over! Oh and Brooke, you better email or call me when you get back :)

After the wedding we hit the road back to Indiana. We had intentions on making it to church Sunday morning but I honestly never even heard the alarm go off. I think Stephen work up and decided trying to wake me was not worth the effort so he shut it off and went back to bed. We ended up sleeping in until 11 and it was wonderful!  Aside from missing church, our Sunday routine was pretty normal. We started laundry and then got some lunch before driving around our soon to be town, North Manchester. It had rained a lot on Saturday and there were some minor floods everywhere. We drove through water over the road coming home Saturday night several times. I was able to snap a few pictures on Sunday during our drive:

Just to give you an idea, the top two pictures of of a field. That's right, it is a place where normally there is no water. Strange how it looks like a pond or lake! The third picture is just of a ditch full of water. I was amazed at how fast the water was moving, though you can't see that too well in the photo. I was trying to be positive about the floods and pointed out that some people instantly have water front property, so in my mind that greatly increased their property value with one big rain storm!

That was our weekend :) Hope you had a great one too!

House Update!

Let's recap: we placed an offer on Saturday. The seller's had until 6pm Monday to make a decision between the two offers (ours and another family). I got a phone call...a bit confusing phone call...from the Realtor on Monday a little after 5pm. They have countered our offer and are not going forward with the other offer. Yay!

Since Monday we have been deciding what to counter offer their counter offer with and also have been able to get out to the house and inspect the roof. The roof passed all the necessary tests and looks great! There are some area's of the house that need attention, such as the chimney's (there are 3).

I was finally able to get some sleep last night because I feel good about where we are in the negotiations. I have a good feeling...there, I said it!

We are meeting again with the Realtor on Thursday to counter offer and then we are leaving for Kentucky on Friday! I am so excited about both :)

That's about all of the update I have at this time, but will let you know as soon as we know more!

Keep us in your prayers!

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,

who have been called according to his purpose."

Romans 8:28

Weekend Wrap Up

Warning: incredibly log and picture heavy post...continue reading at your own risk!

I am not even sure where to really start with this weekends wrap up. It has been a long, emotional and overwhelming weekend to say the very least. I suppose I will start with cupcakes, because they are good, and yummy, and just make people (or maybe just me) happy. Okay?

Okay, here goes!

I made these cupcakes last week (Wednesday, maybe?) because I felt like baking. Imagine that, right? I had seen a recipe for chocolate cupcakes and wanted to give it a try. Interestingly enough, they were super moist and delicious. Maybe the cup of coffee contributed to their moist texture...I am not sure, but I know that Stephen and his co-worked loved them!

Made an orange buttercream frosting to top them with...I seriously could have eaten it by the spoonful. I love oranges. I love buttercream. Put them together and...oh my!

Friday evening we met with the listing Realtors again and toured the houses once more. I had taken advantage of HGTV and printed a checklist that was 5 pages long with things to check on each house. We checked everything from doorbells to foundations and wiring. It was a pretty intense checklist but I am glad we had it! I took some pictures of the inside of both houses to my family in Florida could have more of a visual. Here you go:

House #1

Dining Room

Living Room 

Picture taken from the living room, looking into the dining room and into the kitchen.

Kitchen. I LOVE this kitchen. The cabinets are nice and all appliances are new-never used!

We also love these full length windows upstairs-they go all the way down to the baseboard!

Stained glass window upstairs...

Stephen standing in the half bath that was added; it used to be a closet. It is tiny if you can't see that!

Stairs go down into the dining room-they are carpeted so they do not creek but they are STEEP!

New siding outside

Another feature we really like, the wraparound porch!

 House #2

Dining room-already red! :) I love the light and the stairs that turn and come into the dining room. Also to the right (you can't see in the picture) is a beautiful bay window! Oh, and the wood floors are pretty too!

Living room with fireplace. We really like the tall windows and higher ceilings. The fireplace is not functioning because the chimney is in bad shape but I like what it adds to the room and the chimney could be repaired at a later date.

I don't think Emma knew I was taking a picture...the stairs  are wood and carpeted. I love how they turn!

Full bath upstairs that is HUGE.

Vanity

Down stairs half bath and laundry room...appliances stay!

I love the kitchen in this one too! The cabinets are dark and so pretty! There is also a large pantry on the other side of the refrigerator.

After doing house tours and checklists we headed to church for family directory pictures. Our photographer was a trip...I am thinking that maybe Olan Mills gives their employees joke books or something. Wow. The process took some time and we ended up with 1 good picture out of like 10. Those odds are not that great for a professional photographer. Just sayin'...

Saturday we headed back to North Manchester. We had a meeting scheduled for noon with the listing Realtor of the red house but we were early. We headed over to Peabody Retirement Community to take in their tulips. Each year they plant hundred and have a festival. The festival was a couple weeks ago I believe but the flowers were still beautiful-even in the gray and rainy day!

 

After looking at pretty flowers we headed to meet the Realtor.

AND...

WE MADE AN OFFER ON HOUSE #2!

However, someone else made an offer on the same house Friday. His offer was being presented at the same time as ours...more on that later!

At this point we were starving so we walked across the street to Zook's Cafe for some lunch. Thankfully no one else was in the restaurant because after we ordered we started praying. We prayed for the house, our offer and the decision that the now owners have to make by 6pm today. At that point I had peace about the decision we made to offer a little higher in hopes of having a chance. I also have peace that this may not be the house for us. We are trusting it to God's will...and I am finding that is a little bit easier said than done!

Okay, onto lunch:

Stephen got Hawaiian chicken salad on wheat and I ended up eating 1/4 of it. It was so yummy. I could close my eyes and pretend I was in Hawaii again...yum!

I was so excited because they had pulled BBQ pork. I have been craving some BBQ!

The rest of our Saturday was pretty typical. I had an appointment to get my hair cut and Stephen when to our niece's softball games until they got rained out. We got dinner in North Manchester with his parents and sister's family for Mother's Day before we headed home to watch the movie of my choice! :) I will admit, I was pretty excited about getting to pick the movie!

Sunday, the weather was beautiful here! The sun was shining and if the breeze stopped blowing it was warm enough to feel the rays! After church we decided to head back to Peabody and see the flowers while the sun was out and shining. What a difference the sun made! The flowers were beautiful and so bright! I might have gotten a little picture happy:

 

 

Sunday night we were home and ready to watch Extreme Make-Over Home Edition because it took place in my hometown and was the volleyball coach from my high school. It was really great to see the community come together and help build a beautiful home for her and her new family. I really enjoyed watching it! :)

And that friends, is the end of our weekend.

Please keep us in your prayers today as we wait to hear from the Realtor. My nerves are getting to me!