The ride of a Lifetime:
So my friend says “let’s buy a house!”
“Haa Haa!” I replied. “No way we could afford one. I know I”m tried of paying RENT to someone else but prices are outrageous.”
She however convinces me to go see a friend of ours in the real estate business “Just to see what our options are.” I go, I love being social and it would be fun to dream about owning a home. We have a pleasant meeting, our credit scores are great and we find out what our LIMIT is!
Now my friend always wanted to live in Camarillo - and I must say I enjoyed living there myself a few years back when we rented the Duplex. Our limit was just not in Camarillo price range. No way!
So, we leave the meeting and I think to myself, maybe in a few years we can save up some money and try again. At least I have an understanding on how much down and monthly I’m looking at.
A few weeks later I start getting emails with “homes for sale in the Camarillo area” in our price range. NO WAY!! I ignore them for two weeks. Until one day my friend and I decide just to drive by the places. No apointments, no bugging our realtor for something that isn’t a possibility, we just want to SEE where these places are.
My bro comes along for the ride and navigates as we scoop out the territory. Nice, but mostly condo type apartments (not what I wanted). The property we liked from the outside, no way would work the asking price was a bit too much.
Within a week, we run into our realtor who says “lets go SEE some of the places”. Sure why not, another fun social event and I was curious how they looked on the inside. I still had no plans on moving for at least 6 months, more like two years. I know prices have come down with the economy like it is, but were they down far enough?
First house we look at (the large one that was most like a private home) is a mess. Bank owned, no baseboards, crayon drawings on the wall, broken closet shelf, no floor in one of the bedrooms. Nice yard, big living room, but cosmetically the place just looked BAD! Poor thing needed some lovin. We spent the next few hours looking at many different properties in different areas of Camarillo.
When we said goodbye to the realtor we went out to dinner to discuss what we were both thinking. Turns out, we both had an EYE for that beat up, run down little home. Sure it needed lots of help, but it had a YARD for the dogs and a Garage for our junk (TWO very important things that NONE of the other properties had). And..we would be forced to make the place OURS. It was NOT move in ready. We could paint it though and make it perfect for us. Ok, we could dream!! The bank was asking too much. No way we could afford their asking price.
On the way home we had to stop by a friends house to pick up a “costume” for my upcoming play. We shared with her all about the different homes. She immediately said “the house with the yard and I wanna see it!”
Crazy, really? She would know …we both trust her judgement to tell us if we would be getting in over our heads or if its just cosmetic stuff! So we called the realtor and made an apt for that next morning to see the place again. Sunday morning the following day the four of us stood in that living room (after deciding we would make an offer on the place) and we prayed. Prayed that GOD would OPEN the doors that needed to be OPENED and CLOSE the doors that should be closed. IF HE DID NOT WANT US HAVING THAT HOME..we did not want it! BUT if it was the place HE called us to, than NOTHING COULD STOP HIS WILL!
That night we wrote up papers and spent the better part of the following month on a roller coaster ride. Our bid was accepted, not the other bid. (plus it was lower than the asking price YES!!). AMAZING. Many ups and downs and TONS and DOZENS of prayers later, we have the keys in hand and our journey has just begun.
We spent the first two weekends repairing walls, painting, building fences, laying laminate flooring and repairing baseboards, shelves and the list goes on and on. Our faithful friends came and worked night and day in our home to make it liveable. The third weekend more friends came to do yard work while the movers moved in our furniture. It all feels like a dream to me. So much went into creating this HOME we now live in. We aren’t finished yet. Decorations on the walls and more photos to take. But I have a home. I real HOME a Place to call my own.
I love it. It is beautiful. Not only because it is Beautiful, but because it was built by the hands of the people who love me!
