The House That Almost Was

This Summer, we looked at a few houses. We really want to move. We love our townhome, and have loved the fact that all the yardwork is taken care of and the driveways are plowed, but we are ready for a home with a yard and some more space.

You know that feeling that you get when you walk into a house, and you can actually see yourself living there? We stepped into this beautiful 1940's home, and I was already mentally moving in my furniture. The thing that took my breath away was this window (actual window pictured above). The way the light fell in such a beautiful pattern on the floor. I pictured my couch, my favorite mug filled with hazelnut coffee, a book, and pretty autumn leaves shadow-falling across the floor. It was perfect.

It was perfect, and yet it wasn't. It was the home I had always dreamed of, almost the exact floorplan I had thought up. And yet it had some quirks. Some possibly major, money-costing quirks. After the walk-through, we sat in Caribou with our realtor, coffee, and a squirmy baby and were ready to make an offer. I turned to Josh and said "If we don't get this house, I will throw the biggest adult-tantrum you have ever seen!" Yeah, not my proudest moment. But I really, really wanted to move into that house and bake pumpkin bread in that kitchen.

I wanted the house, yet there was something inside that just didn't feel right. I could see the way I would arrange the living room, but I could also see our weekends getting filled up with necessary projects. The upstairs hadn't been lived in in about 40 years (it was like a time-capsule, which is another reason why I loved it so very much), and needed a major overhaul. Could we really do that? We've done a few DIY projects around our house, but nothing that major.

By the time we pulled into our driveway that evening, both Josh and I knew that it wasn't the right place for us. It was hard. I may have shed a few tears. But after we sat down and watched Dave Ramsey's video about buying a house, we knew we had made the right decision. We've used some of his tips to get to an almost debt-free place, and the feeling is absolutely amazing. Once we pay off student loans, we will have no debt except for our mortgage. It is an incredibly freeing feeling, and we don't ever want to experience the slavery of debt again. As much as we loved that house, we knew deep down that it was going to be a money-pit.

So, we said no to our "dream" house. But, in saying no to that house, we said yes to many other things. We said yes to financial freedom and security, for us and for our daughter. We said yes to saving up some more and having an even lower mortgage some day. We said yes to that house that we know God will provide for us someday in the future. My heart still aches a little bit when I see that picture, but I know that God has a plan for us. And I don't ever want to settle for a lesser plan when I know that He has something better in store.