Moving Part 1: The Setbacks & Blessings of Owning Our New Home

Some of you may have known that we moved into a new home, exactly two weeks ago. As with any big move, there are always many things to be done. I want to share a little of the blessings and setbacks we encountered as we strove to own this new home.

Let’s start with the Setbacks (get the negatives out of the way):

1. We were set to close on our old home July 28 and close on our new home in the same day. Well, as always, something has to go wrong right? Our buyer’s deal went through and she closed on the 28. However, we had some setbacks with our bank and could not close on our new home. Two days before we were supposed to close, the bank needed a whole bunch of other paper work. What! Where were we supposed to go now. The buyer of our home was no longer going to extend her contract (she was eager to move in and had scheduled all her moving sources for the 28). She was ready to move in since July 7 – a no no because our new home was not ready for us yet. The sellers still had to move out! Moreover, our extended family do not live close by. Hubby’s grandma does, but in a nursing home. All of our other family members live faraway. Needless to say, we ended up in a hotel.

Here is a previous post about owing our first home and our home decor and organization posts here. Below is a photo of our old little home – we sure miss it it! But we will eventually get used to the new.

2. We had to pay separate storage to keep our belongings.

• We only had 3 helpers from one family when we moved out; a mom, and her son and his wife. It was a Tuesday afternoon so people were busy with work. Hubby could not do much as he already had a bad knee. In any event, they stayed up until 1 am helping us clean and move things to the storage. At one point, they had hubby go check us in the hotel (the kids and me) while they stayed back and finish up.

3. We stayed in hotels from the day we closed on our old home (July 28th) until August 18th. Yes, three (3) whole weeks.  During that time:

• We skipped around in 3 different hotels hoping to save money.
• Hubby had surgery on his left knee (he had torn his meniscus 3 weeks prior).

4. Staying in hotels are not cheap. I do not want to be another hotel for a while. Seriously! They are supposed to bring fun memories, but not this time. The hotels themselves were nice places but just the stress of not knowing when our house was going to be ready, did not help. I told hubby that we should get a hotel far away and call it a vacation. That did not fly because we had to stay around to deal with the bank paperwork and all that buying a home stuff!

• In some ways, hubby was able to get some rest by staying in the hotel. See photo below.

The blessings (they always seem to outweigh the negatives): 

1. Our old home (a duplex type home) went on the market June 1, 2014 and was literally on the market for ONE day. Yes, you heard me right, ONE day! That was Sunday. The following Monday, we had SEVEN (7) showings. With more scheduled showings for Tuesday and Wednesday. Albeit, we had to cancel those showings because a contract went on our home that very Monday. Our Realtor reported that there were 3 or 4 bids on the home. People were actually bidding on the home. And some were very disappointed they did not get it. That in itself was a blessing that it went under contract so fast.

• You see, that area is a highly developed area and very quiet. It is well sought after by retired people. I remember when we moved in 2 years ago, one of the younger families were delighted to have another young family nearby:)

2. My hubby had prayed and we had hoped that the house would sell for a certain amount. And sure enough, the one bidder (who now owns the home) paid the exact amount not knowing what we had hoped for. This was an Act of God!

3. We are in our new home now; this is a true blessing! It is located in a neighboring city to our old. Just down the road. So we did not have to change shopping areas, church, post office, and our regular happenings. Ha Ha, we are now two minutes from a huge shopping area (Walmart, Target, Ross, Kohls, Big Lots, Sams, Dollar Tree, and all kinds of other stores). It used to take us about 10 minutes to get there now we are two minutes. Not good for a shopper like me!!!!

4. The home is slightly larger than our previous. We wanted a bigger place (3rd baby on the way)! In addition, it is a single family home so we can do whatever we desire with it – maybe add some more rooms if we desire. “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”. (Proverbs 3:6, KJV).

5. Many of our church families live in the surrounding areas. We found that out after we purchased. Hopefully, lots of play dates for our little ones!

6. The sellers were moving back to Kentucky and wanted to sell some of their stuff. However, they had me go over to choose what I wanted to keep for FREE. Of course, I chose the furniture below. I was delighted to have a second set of couches for the Family room. Previously, we only had a living room and just one set of couches. Photos to come in another post!

7. So thankful for a fenced backyard and a few parks near our home (there is one directly in front the house) where the kids can run around and play! Pictures to come in another part of this post!

8. When we moved, Hubby could not “lift a finger” (doctor’s warning). Thankfully, we had enough willing people from our church to help move us in. They were done in about an hour or less.

So that was some of the setbacks and blessings of owning own now new home. Part 2 of this post explains some of the issues we had to deal with when we moved in.

We were weary and kind of felt homeless but God heard our cry and gave us our new place of habitation. “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” (Psalm 107:1-8, KJV).

Have you had moving setbacks or blessings you would like to share? Sure would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!