- We bought the house through the Good Neighbor Next Door program, which provided a good way for us to be able to afford a house without worrying about a large mortgage.
- GNND is a program for classroom teachers. And Aaron's no longer a teacher. We closed on the house in May & by July we realized he was going to be switching jobs. Perfect timing. :)
- We took the Financial Peace class at our church in January 2010 and really starting keeping a budget and saving intentionally for a house at that point. If we hadn't started really saving diligently, we wouldn't have been able to save up money by November, which was when our house was listed & we put in a bid. By the way, if you haven't taken Dave Ramsey's class, I highly recommend it. We loved it & it's been incredibly beneficial!
- Patience is not my strong suit. Ask Andrea, our realtor. :) I emailed her multiple times every day to check our progress. We originally were hoping to close on our house by Christmas 2010 but because of a hiring issue with the GNND program, it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. It was driving me crazy. But looking back, I'm so thankful that we weren't able to close until mid-May! Because Aaron & I both worked in the schools & had the summer off, we were able to do a lot of the work ourselves... and save money. If we'd closed in December, we wouldn't have been very useful. And we were able to save a lot more money to put toward renovations since we had almost 6 more months to save up. Because of the logistics of the GNND program, we had to pay for all the renovations out of pocket, so being able to save longer was a pretty big deal. We were actually able to do all the renovations we wanted & came in about $1500 under budget... which means if we'd closed earlier, I wouldn't have been able to put in the second bathroom... Needless to say, I'm so thankful God didn't listen to me about speeding up our closing date! :)
- God provided us time-and-time again with friends and family who helped us with our renovations! Jeff is a family member & he helped with the construction projects and plumbing. Our friend Jake helped with the electric work. And numerous people came over to help us paint, knock down walls, paint, put up walls, paint, landscape the yard... and paint some more. :) We're so grateful!!
Seeing how the Lord orchestrated all the details of our home was incredible. Our God really is great!
(PS. The Proverbs 31 devotion actually talked about Jehovah Jireh today, if you're interested in reading it.)
