After a month long break...

I'm back and there really were 28 things to love about February, but I'll have to update you on those later.

We have been exploring our options in purchasing a home this spring and we think we have found one that we like.

We have actually made an offer on the home and may hear back from the seller today or tomorrow. I'm excited and scared at the same time. This is our first home purchase ever and all the forms and fees can be intimidating, plus all the unknowns. We are trying our best not to get in over our heads and yet, we really feel that it is time to move into our own home now that we are expecting our third child. A desire of my heart has always been to own my own home and to give my children and our family a secure place in which to thrive and grow. A home with room to homeschool and room for many children.

This home is located in the center of the city, right off of Meridian St. We love being close to everything and about 30 minutes away from any suburb around Indy. As our church grows, I'm confident this will be a great advantage to us and the people in our church. The home was built in 1916 and has a beautiful fireplace in the living room.

The dining room has tile floors:

The masterbedroom has hardwood floors and a small room attached to it that will be a perfect nursery for the baby.
Including the unfinished basement and the attic, this home has somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000sqft! There is a lot of potential for additional bedrooms/school rooms if we should need them. There are 3 bedrooms on the second floor and an office space on the first floor for Jeremiah. We're thinking of using the attic as a playroom/schoolroom.

The neighbor with whom we may share a backyard goes to Alan's preschool and has a little girl six months older than Alan. She told us the history of the house:

This house sold for $50,000 to a retired man several years ago. He refinished the floors and woodwork, rewired the electricity, restrung the windows and much more. He was fixing the house up, intending to convince his wife to retire there, but she insisted on moving to Florida. He was able to sell the home for $140,000 (before the economy went bad) and made a good profit! The couple that bought the home, unfortunately lost it to foreclosure through a series of terrible events. When we first looked at the house a week ago, the bank was asking 79,900. We offered $50,000 on Tuesday and they countered with $62,000 on Thursday - a great price, less then half of what it sold for just a few years ago! We countered with 57,000 and they rejected. Then we found out that closing costs were going to be much more than we expected so, we revised our offer and we are resubmitting it today, offering $64,000 but they are to pay $2,000 towards closing costs. If they accept, we'll be closing May 5th and moving out of our apartment May 31st. Meanwhile, they have lowered the price on the home in the listing to 69,900.

There are several projects that we will need to do. The kitchen needs a lot of work and there are no appliances included. The house needs a new roof. We need to add storm windows and there is no garage. On the plus side, we will be getting an extra $8,000 tax credit for buying a home next year when we file our taxes. That will definitely help pay for things!