How We Came to Buy Our House Part 1: Coincidence or God?

As I mentioned in my previous post, God worked in some pretty interesting ways to bring us to this house.  There is no way that I can deny His involvement and I am very thankful for it!  The story of how we bought the house we are flipping actually starts almost 6 years ago.  I know, I know, you're wondering, "Ashley, how many parts are there going to be!?".  Don't worry, not that many!

So 6 years ago we were living in a historic one-room schoolhouse in Lowell:

  

As a newly married couple with no kids this place actually worked quite well for us. The main room functioned as a kitchen, living room, dining room, music room, and office with the bedroom and bathroom being more recent additions.  It was a small space but it was fine and some kind Christian missionaries were giving us a great deal on rent so we were thankful. 

In the fall of 2009 a friend from church tipped us off about a nice house for sale between Lowell and Ada and curiosity got the best of us.  Unfortunately that house sold before we actually ever saw it, but it helped us decide to start the process of purchasing our own home.  While it was definitely a buyers market at that time we were sad to realize that Lowell was still a bit too expensive for us.  We settled on Ionia, which was halfway between Grand Rapids, where I was working, and Lansing, where Will was working.  

After perusing houses for sale online we picked a few to see with our realtor.  And guess what? The very first house we looked at in Ionia happened to be right next door to the house we're flipping.  And here's the kicker!  As we drove away from looking at that first house we drove past this house and saw people eating dinner up on the rooftop patio.  There were tiki torches and twinkle lights and a canopy covering the trellis up there. And not only that, I was completely charmed by the Victorian exterior of the house.  I remember telling Will, "Oh man, I would LOVE to live there someday!!". He agreed that it was a pretty nice house but based on it's size, style, and age we assumed that, were it ever for sale, it would be significantly out of our price range.  

From time to time over the next year I would remember that house but as we began to settle in and remodel our first home, and then as we added children to it I forgot about it.  Until late last fall that is...  And as I have said all week long to the kids I taught at Neighborhood Bible Time (our church's version of Vacation Bible School), "If you want to hear the rest of the story you have to come back tomorrow" or whenever I have time to write up the next post.