We went shopping and came back with ....

...one of the highest ticketed items any consumer can buy. How about a new house? Yes, hard to believe. This is totally shocking for us too. Remember in a previous blog, I said that "other things were brewing"? Well, Patrick and I have been praying about whether or not to upgrade to a single family home in this market with the historically low interest rates.

It started out by meeting a new couple for dinner who lived in this BEAUTIFUL planned new community called Greene Mill Preserve that was on a 330-acre conservancy site filled with ponds, trees, hiking trails, tot lots, butterfly gardens. The homes were the most impressive though--the exterior was this colonial kraftsman style house with big wide porches and the inside offered a spacious, open, floor plan with all of these luxury upgrades that they call standard.

To name a few: stainless steel appliances, double ovens, granite, hardwood, rain shower heads, tons of recessed lights, and the list goes on. When we found out the price, we couldn't believe that it could be within our reach. We went home and talked some more about it, and punched in some numbers (if you know Patrick, it was A LOT of numbers!) and surprisingly discovered it was MORE beneficial to move now. The time is now.

So, we spent the last two weeks really preparing our house to sell and exhausting our search looking for all the builders and models in our price range in Ashburn. With lots of prayer, our house goes on the market THIS Thursday (open house is Saturday) and we already put down a contract last night (sat through paperwork for 2 hours) on an amazing house to be built in late August. It is Stanley Martin's Eliot model. Patrick loves this design out of all the floor plans we've seen!

And I gotta tell you-- it's been an incredible God thing. In addition to the already low price, with recent reductions and incentives they've thrown at us (that we didn't even know to ask for), they've reduced $60,000 from the original price, allowing us to add an entire loft space under our budget. We're awaiting to see if they'll accept our offer. We think they may decide against the $7500 premium fee we asked to be waived for the corner lot. We should find out tomorrow. Stay tuned.

p.s. Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. You obviously know what's been keeping me/us busy.
p.s.s. To mom (Patrick's) - thank you for being available again to watch our boys for so long!!!