That is right! We are buying a house! We seriously didn't know when this day would come that we would be ready to leave our apartment, but a series of events have led us to this very special purchase.
Kyle and I are very methodical with our goals, finances, and life in general. We have tried to stick to "the plan." As we all know, tell God your plan and He'll kindly laugh and show you what's up. Now nothing really dramatic has happened that has caused us to buy a house. However, everything neatly fell in to place- God's perfect timing. Kyle and I had always imagined that the perfect time to buy a house would be dictated by a specific amount of money in the savings account. We also thought buying our first house meant buying a house that we could have several kids in- a house most likely in the burbs. Well, since our savings account wasn't up to the "magic number" and kids are still a few years away (there I go again with telling God the plan), we thought the whole house thing was still out of the picture.
Our apartment lease comes up in September. We obviously knew that we were going to have to make a decision. Should we renew our lease, find another apartment, or look for rental town homes? A house? No way! Well, for the past six months we had been doing exactly that. We would research other apartments and randomly search for affordable town home rentals, but nothing ever felt like the right move. After all, we love our current apartment, but we always knew rent was going to go up. It didn't seem reasonable for us to live at this location with higher rent and both of us commuting to work.
A couple of weeks ago we come home, and our renewal papers were wedged in the crack of our front door. Yep- the rent went up! I immediately started to freak out a little bit. I knew that we were most likely going to move, but I was kind of emotional with the reality of it. We are sentimental people, and this is our first "home" together and the only place in Houston that Kyle, my small town boy, has ever lived. Well, I channel the OCD Googler that I am and start plugging in every "good" zip code in to apartmentfinder.com and har.com. I sent Kyle a series of whiny e-mails and text messages with my mediocre results of our future residence. Kyle was feeling just as weary. I'm seriously not exaggerating- we were very upset by this, and I think the root of our concern was no other part of town felt like home. Until... Kyle called me as I sit in tears at the computer, "Al, we're going to buy a home. Why not? Start looking."
It was strange how instantaneously my worries vanished. I no longer sensed any sadness over moving. It was like I could feel God saying, "Allie, it's okay. I know the plan."
Well, the original "Allie and Kyle" plan involved moving to Katy (near Kyle's work), Cypress (near my work), or somewhere central to both. So, again, I get on har.com and feverishly research areas and homes. I infiltrate Kyle's work e-mail with all of these options. It was amazing how many homes I found that I was excited to show Kyle. However, there was something very constant- we didn't feel drawn to the Katy and Cypress homes... and we thought we would! Even though we had always imagined raising our children in the burbs, we just weren't ready to move out of the city.
We found the perfect house in the neighborhood that we have always loved. It was an adorable, tiny 1940s home, and we fell in love with it immediately. We could picture our life there... and Bailey running around in the backyard! We knew that it would need some paint and t.l.c., but we were ready to move forward. We put an offer down on the house. We were so excited... we drove by the house any chance we got and would plan and scheme all the things we were going to do to it. AND THEN... in the midst of counter offers and almost finalizing a deal, we found THE house on har.com. It was essentially the house we had an offer on, but all of the updates were already complete. It was exactly the changes we wanted to do to the other house, but we weren't going to have to do them. Again, God was there. We never would have ever found THE house if He wasn't making provisions for us to see it. THE house was much more than the original house, and it was something that we wouldn't have originally considered. But, when we saw it online, we knew... the Schielacks were moving in if we had anything to do with it! Slight problem... I was going out of town, and we were anxious to move forward. We didn't want anyone else snagging our house. :)
Well, I have a lot of faith in my sweet Kyle. He went with our realtor to see the house, placed an offer on the house, and our offer was accepted all while I was at the lake! He called in the midst of 4th of July fireworks, and said "babe, we're going to be homeowners!" I was overwhelmed with emotions- so excited and at peace. The owners had accepted our first offer. Again, God.
And, when I saw the house for the first time in person, it was exactly as I had hoped! I can see us there. And Bailey.
Stay tuned...
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