Plan B is Really Plan C....and on to Plan D??

SIGH......just when I think things are on a definite path I can count on, comes yet another fork in the road!!

First, to back up before I could even think of starting a home planning chronicle -- our original plan when we bought our acreage was to build a log house....a rustic little "cabin in the woods". Lack of finances prevented that or any other improvement in housing for many years. By the time we were able to realize our dream of a cute, modest, respectable home, for expediency's sake, we decided on, first, the stick-built home we selected earlier this year, and then, the new manufactured home we fell in love with a few weeks ago. So, if you want to get really technical about it (and I do), I have mislabeled my chapters on this blog to this point. The log cabin was Plan A. The stick-built home was Plan B, and the home I described in the last few messages of this blog is really Plan C. Now that I cleared that up, I haven't added to my chronicle for the past couple weeks due to a stall in the process regarding financing. The first financial institution our mortgage lady presented our package to instantly rejected our app for a strange reason. They apparently won't even look at loan packages for mobiles that don't have a garage or carport attached. The reason they gave is that they did a study that showed there are more foreclosures on loans for mobiles that don't have a garage or carport. Even if this is true, it doesn't make sense that they would not even look at a loan for that reason alone. We purposely omitted the garage to save on the total expense, figuring it can be added later if we decide to. But that was their answer - and then our mortgage lady went on vacation for a week. She apparently IS going to ask that lender to take another look at us and also has others in mind. For now, we continue to wait - and I continue to realize that even if we do obtain the financing, the payments for this particular home will be a real stretch, likely leaving nothing left for even short vacations or any other extras. But then, a few days ago, came the fork in the road.

A real estate agent who is still in the office Rex worked in and who lives two blocks from us learned from a fellow agent about a still-unlisted 8-year-old mobile, from the same manufacturer as the new one we chose, in great condition. It's on leased land and would need to be either offered as a rental, or purchased and moved. Considering the fact that I felt we had found the home of our dreams and that God would somehow make a way for us to have it, my initial reaction to this alternate option was not pleasure. But I agreed to at least look at it. I realized the monthly payments for this used mobile would be more affordable for us and possibly mean the difference between being "house poor" and never getting the mortgage paid off, or having a little money to spare each month and maybe getting it paid off. But having gotten my heart set on the home we chose earlier this month, it hurt to think of having to settle for less. Rex said that if I didn't like it, we wouldn't even consider it an option and would continue attempting to obtain the home we really want but admittedly will have trouble affording.

We saw the gently used mobile ("Plan D") yesterday. I admit I liked it very much and don't feel it would mean "settling for less". I was able to picture Rex and me living in this home. It was really cute and very well-maintained. It had the open "great room" feeling of the models we had visited. The kitchen was long and fairly narrow, without room for a center island. However, it had a lot of nice counter space, and a large number of nice cabinets that appeared to be oak and had very pretty stained-glass look doors. There were also nice touches such as a built-in shelf for collector plates and another open area for collectibles. The master bedroom and its closet were not as large as the new home, but still adequate, and the "me room" and "his room" were a similar size. The utility room has a side door rather than a second front door like the new home had, which is an advantage. The home has dark teal carpeting throughout, which is a color I like, and the kitchen and bathrooms have dark blue-green (a bit greener than the carpet) countertops, which will actually go with the red kitchen items I've bought so far (a nice contrast) and the navy towels I bought for the second bath. If we do go with this home, I expect we would paint all the walls a warm beige, since the light sage I originally envisioned would clash with the teal. The outside of the home is two-tone beige and white with aqua trim, and it even has a cute little front porch, which we wanted on the new home but would have had to add afterwards. The square footage is close to 1,300 as opposed to close to 1,800 for the new home, yet it is quite space-efficient and doesn't feel that much smaller. The main places the size difference is noticeable is that the new home would have the cute little separate TV room where we wanted to have our TV and recliners, and the main closet is not nearly as big, but is probably big enough considering that the two smaller bedrooms also have closets. The place did have a very nice overall feel, and considering it is just the two of us and our pets, it would do everything we need a home to do and be much more affordable.

So, Rex will meet with our agent friend tomorrow and "crunch numbers" to help us decide what to do. If the cost of moving the home adds enough to the cost that it would get close to the price of buying a similarly sized new model we saw, then maybe we will look into going that way instead (so I guess we really have Plan D-1 and D-2 to consider in addition to C). I still admit I very much want the home we walked through in Vancouver a few weeks ago and spent hours the following week picking out just the right exterior, carpet, tile and counters. Part of me doesn't want to think we will not be able to have that home. The other part of me does really like the more modest but still very nice little home we saw yesterday and feels somehow that we are supposed to have it. So.....the uncertainty continues, with the only certainty being that we WILL have better housing soon, housing that I can take some pride in and have guests visit without cringing, housing that will be a refuge to come home to after a long day at work. God knows what that housing will consist of and what day He will let it be a reality. When that mystery is made known to us in the coming days and begins taking shape, I will continue reporting on the progress right here. Stay tuned!

(By the way, don't tell my hubby, but I won the eBay auction for 8 place settings of "Sheraton" by Oneida. Because this is a somewhat bigger purchase than the towels, bath accessories, bedspread and kitchen items I purchased to date, I hid the flatware away and will consider it an early Christmas present to both of us. It really is beautiful! I will post two pictures below. )