The Adventures of James and Carrie- Going on a House Hunt (part 1)

James and I have taken house hunting to the extreme...

We are literally in a race against a guy named Adam and his wife in the hunt to find a house! You see, several of the houses that we have looked at have been bought by Adam and his wife who fix them up and sell them for a much higher price (which incidently is much too high for us).

To catch some of you up to date, we put an offer on a cute two story white house about a month ago. It was a foreclosed Fannie Mae home that we both began to fall in love with. James loved the two car garage full of shelves for all of his hunting stuff. I loved the laundry/sun room with beautiful wood paneling and huge windows, and I loved this little nook upstairs with a big window (the perfect place to write). The yard had some big beautiful trees in it and the location was perfect. However, it needed lots of work in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. The kitchen looked like it was built in a closet, so I didn't like it at all. Uncle Bob said we could knock out a wall and would be able to open it up. Our offer ended up being refused because the paperwork went through to put it up for auction the morning that we had put the offer on it. Since then, no one has heard anything about the auction (including the realtor).

The next house we were really looking at seriously is my great great great Grandma's house. Her name was Carrie Little Ringer, so this house literally has my name on it (Carrie Ringer Austin). My family members have mentioned that because I'm little ( a whopping 4'11''), it really does fit... :) It has been a fiasco to get any information on this house! We went to the courthouse and talked to the judge, who sent us to the treasurer, who sent us to the ascessor, who sent us to the recorder, who sent us to the sheriff, who sent us back to the recorder... yes, like I said we are extreme when it comes to house hunting... What we found out is that a couple got divorced and both walked away from the house. They may or may not still own it... The realtor tried to e-mail the man, but we have not heard anything thus far. We drove by and it is a big beautiful two story white house, but we have not been able to see the inside. I think it would be really awesome to own my grandmother's house, but it is not looking too likely as of now.

Besides that, we drove past some houses that were supposedly on sale to find people working on them. I drove back the next day to check it out, and that is where I met Adam, and his wife, and their beautiful little preschool girl. It turns out they had just bought both of the houses and were fixing them up. They will be for sale this week, but with a much larger pricetag... Adam informed me that they buy and fix up 2-3 houses a week in the area... hmm

We were going to make an offer on another house last Friday. The price had just been reduced as a last ditch effort to sell it before putting it up for auction. Unfortunately our realtor called us Friday morning and someone had beat us to the punch and made an offer sometime on Thursday.Using my Nancy Drew skills I am willing to bet I know who got to that house... ;) Anyhow, I can't help but think that God was rescuing us from this house. I keep praying for a cute house, and this one was going to take some hard work to try and make it cute if you know what I mean. :)

We have been a little distraught by this house hunting experience. Our options keep falling through, but we keep just trusting God that has the perfect place waiting for us.

This coming Thursday we are looking at a few more houses that have been foreclosed upon, both in "Adam's territory", so wish us luck as we continue this crazy house hunt! We will keep you updated!

Lots of Love, The Austins