Aren’t Y’all EVER Going to Buy a House in Texas?

We haven’t bought a house in over a decade, since we were transferred to Chicago. (That’s when we lost everything invested on the last house we actually owned. It was Dec 2008 - can you think of a worse financial time this century? Me, either.) Before we got here to Texas, we moved too often to make anything other than renting practical. Then when we immediately fell in love with Texas, we *knew* we wanted to buy; but every time we got ready to pull the trigger, something happened: oil & gas tanked, then JB switched jobs, then that job was a nightmare, etc. God threw up a stop sign every time we were ready to get serious about pulling the trigger on buying here. To be honest, I was starting to give up on it, because I thought there would always be a reason not to; and in the last two years, I truly made peace with our rental house. It is too small to have people over comfortably – it doesn’t flow or make any sense for a gathering – but our landlord has never raised our rent in almost seven years. What a blessing! Plus if anything is broken or a little messed up, I don’t freak out about it, because it’s not really my house. :-P

On the flipside, we know we ARE staying here forever. JB has never wanted a resale – he wants new construction to be able to make all the builder choices. That is his house dream, and I’m sooo good with that – I 100% prefer new construction, too!!! The problem has been that the last neighborhood where we wanted to build (where we got the most serious about buying...right before the last oil & gas crisis stunted the job that brought us here) was officially built out & completed ~2 years ago. There has been no place here, close to our same area, where we wouldn’t have to change our normal routine significantly where we could build since then. If you want to build, you have to go about 20 minutes west, which is not what we want to do. We know Houston is expanding, and in 10 years, that 20 minutes west will be completely developed & an amazing part of the suburbs; but for the next 10 years, we don’t want an extra 40 minutes added on every drive when we need/want to go to work, the gym, cheer, etc. Our friends who live out in those areas now have said that the additional drive is significant, and it’s their only drawback to living there. So all this to say, we felt no desire to get serious about looking, again, because nothing seemed to be a perfect location/availability fit.

Until last fall: there was a gorgeous pasture with cattle that I drive by every time we go to cheer...

For years, that pasture made me sooo happy every time I saw it – there was just something about the nature, the cattle, the flowers a good portion of the year. I have always paid attention to it since we very first started going to our cheer gym... And then this last summer, one day the cattle were gone, and the land was cleared. I was heartbroken!!! ;-( I was going to be sooo mad if they put a nasty strip mall in there!!!!

Nope: turned out it’s going to be a small new neighborhood (the exact size we prefer! too many mega-neighborhoods here = not us) on almost the last available tract of land that can be used for housing development in the whole zip code where we want to be!!! They put a sign up in September, and miraculously it’s exactly in our price point, too. Not prohibitively expensive + not so cheap that we would have the most expensive house = perfect real estate sense! We started researching right away, contacted the builder listed on the sign, and were told that they planned to begin selling early 2019. MORE PERFECTION: no psycho time rush, which is ABSOLUTELY NOT NORMAL HERE! (Even in economic downturns, the housing market here is fierce! If there’s something available you want, you usually have hours, not weeks to secure it.)

We prayed for God‘s will, for discernment, clarity, & provision re: this for over 4 months. Our rental situation is stable, so we didn’t want to make an extreme change like this, if it’s not exactly what God wants us to do. We prayed daily that He would make it clear, if it’s the right thing...

Y’all, God gave us the green light this winter! We are really, really, finally doing it!!! *This* is the big news we wanted to wait to share until everything was actually ready to go. :-) We had our official pre-build meeting to go over all of our specific house plan modifications with the builder last Thursday, and they’re looking to start on the house in about 2 weeks.

Sunset sold sign!

Elevation:

(But our brick is darker, along with our accent paint on the shutters & louvre.)

Brick:

It’s hard to get an accurate photo - it’s so different in person. Here’s an example from the brick company on another house:

Inside tile, carpet, countertops, & cabinet colors:

And the pièce de résistance: we’re turning the study into a home gym & yoga studio!!! When I earn my 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training certification, I’ll even be able to offer professional private and *virtual* classes online! Talk about dreams in the making... Pray for us!!! That God’s hand continues to guide every single step of *ALL* these big, new life moves!