About a year ago, we decided we wanted to buy a house. But
because Christian is self-employed, we needed to wait a while so we could show
2 years of income. Over the past year of looking and praying, a few things have
stood out to us as our major needs.
1)
A place for the boys to play. Safe, open places
for them to play and explore outside.
2)
A place for Christian to park his work trailer
and store his gazillion tools. This means many neighborhoods wouldn’t work
because of lot size and HOAs.
3)
A place to entertain. I have struggled with
reciprocating play-dates, hosting parties, and just inviting people over
because of our current set-up with the house and no place to put the dog.
4)
More space! We have definitely been feeling
cramped in our current house, and with another Anderson on the way, it’s only
going to get tighter!
After months of looking, thinking, praying and making one
offer, we came to the conclusion that we should do something different. Christian’s
work is still not always consistent as the business is still new and
construction can be spotty. It is also really our only income, since I only
work 2 mornings a week. We also started feeling like we were going to have to
compromise on things that were really important to us and our way of life (like
giving up yard space, having to move farther away from family/work, or spending
more than we felt comfortable with).
There is a vacant house pad on the ranch, where my aunt and
uncle’s house used to be (it burned down in the 2007 wildfires L). This was the house
my mom and dad built when I was just a baby (they moved in right before my
brother was born). The hill has been vacant since that awful fire, and we began
to wonder if that might be part of a solution for us. All the utilities and
permits were existing there, so we talked to the family to see if they would be
ok with us putting a manufactured home there. My family is amazing and blessed
us by agreeing to let us do it!
So we drove out to lovely, lovely Hemet and started looking
at new manufactured homes. We started the process in early April and it has
been moving right along! We had a few issues with the County not being able to
find all the permits, but thanks to my mom’s record keeping back in the 80’s,
we were eventually able to resolve it all. We finalized and submitted our order
this week and it be ready in a couple months or so.
Each and every one of our needs is being met at this spot. Acres of room for the boys to roam,
plenty of space for Christian to park his trailer and store his equipment, and
lots of space inside and outside to entertain. We were able to choose just the
floor plan we want to fit our needs and I am so excited about the extra rooms
and space! (Not to mention the fact that our monthly payments are going to be
just a fraction of what they would have been with a regular home purchase.)
Also, because we ordered the home from scratch, we were able
to choose all the colors, finishes, cabinets, etc we wanted. This process was a
lot harder than I thought it would be. When we went in we thought we had a
pretty good idea of the colors/styles we liked, but it was overwhelming when
they showed us tiny samples of paint colors, countertops, flooring and we had
to pick what we wanted. But I think we are happy with what we chose – hopefully
we like it when we see it all put together!
I can’t even tell you how excited I am for my boys to grow
up in the same spot where I spent the first 8 years of my life. For them to ride
bikes down the same hill I did, pick veggies from the same garden, dig in the
same dirt. It is seriously makes me tear up just thinking about it!
I am so grateful for the way God is caring for us and our
growing family. He took our plans and schemes and (on his schedule) led us to
the perfect situation. Perfect. For our family.
