Building our first home pt. 1
The beginning of this story always cracks me up because I’m truly a drama queen. I guess it doesn’t bother me as much because I can keep my cool when there’s an actual serious problem, but this started with a very dramatic Yohanna lol. Let me back it up a little bit to a few months before we started this process.
My husband and I were looking at potential builders in January 2021 and the two we looked at were busts. This is very important to our testimony because both houses were going to be significantly cheaper than our current house. Not as great, at all… but significantly cheaper and both builders said we didn’t qualify. We saw both and went through the pre-approval process during the first 21 days of the year and that’s when we complete the Daniel Fast. My prayer was that whatever came from it, I want to be okay with it. God knows exactly what we need and whatever that is, I desire to truly want it. I’ve spent a long time just trying to believe it, but I prayed for a complete change of heart and if we got denied, I wanted to be okay with it because I knew it wasn’t for us. Well, they both denied us and my heart was at peace.
A little bit later in the year (maybe summer?), I got an email from Toll Brothers and they were starting this brand new neighborhood with 3-story townhomes really close to most places we frequented often. I’ll be honest, this was gentrification at its finest, but their plans to change that area are going to bring up property values significantly. My husband and I talked and while we did not want a townhouse, it would have been a smart financial decision. They were within our budget and they were set to start building in the fall of 2021 — with our lease ending on June 2022, we figured there was a chance for everything to line up.
Here is where the drama queen enters the chat… we had been watching their website like crazy waiting for them to announce that construction started but nothing. On September 11, 2021, I was at home hanging out with my sister in law when she mentioned that I never showed her the floor plans for the townhomes. I got excited to pull up the site and talk all things home until I saw a significant price increase (around $75k) — I was done! I was already not happy with the idea of paying that much for a townhome, but now that it went up before anything even started, I refused to go that route. I started saying I’m going to rent forever and that apartment living was apparently it for me and that there was nowhere else for us to live… #dramaqueen 🤣
She calmed me down and told me we should just browse other builders/areas. I pushed back but she wasn’t having it lol so we got to browsing. We came across our current neighborhood and while the homes were over our initial budget, they were cheaper than the townhomes and way bigger/nicer. I perked up again, picked out 2 potential floor plans, and waited for my husband to get home so I can update him. He was disappointed because he had his heart set on the initial location, but said we should at least visit and see if it’s a good move. The very next day (Sept. 12) we came to see the neighborhood and completely fell in love — we knew this was home.
We were received SO well and all of our questions were answered. One of the model homes was our #2 choice (a 4-bedroom 2-bathroom house) and we could definitely see ourselves living in that house. Our #1 choice was the next floor plan (4-bedroom, 2 flex rooms, and a loft) but there was no model home for it, and of course, a price difference. Since one of our priorities was to not renew our lease at all, we wanted to leave there knowing next steps. I asked for the cheapest lot they currently had and that was going to cost us $40k. We left the sales office feeling so excited that this might actually be happening. I was a bit apprehensive because, as I said earlier, this was a lot more than the 2 houses we tried to get pre-approved for and didn’t. However, I told God whatever He has for us is what we will get; as long as we do our part and trust Him, it’ll all work out the way it’s supposed to. I actually truly believed this and what a difference it made.
The next day, we got in touch with their financing department and started the pre-approval process. The person we worked with was extremely helpful and so nice — he walked us through everything to ensure this was something within our reach and sure enough… it was! Getting pre-approved just 8 months after getting rejected by 2 builders was a reminder that we just need to trust in God’s plan.
Fast forward to Wednesday, September 15 and I get a call from our sales consultant saying they’re running a promotion on all lots and our lot was now $25k instead of $40k. I was very excited, but immediately thought about how that lot was right next to the corner lot (which is huge) so I asked how much that was going for. When he told me $30k, I told him I’d call back in 5 minutes lol. I talked to my husband and it was a no brainer! We were getting the corner lot. That night, we attended a private event at Epcot and had the best time, just enjoying ourselves and getting used to the idea that we were about to be homeowners.
As we were heading back home, I remembered the floor plan we really wanted was $13k more than the one we settled on and with the savings from the lot, we could afford that one. I pitched this idea to my husband and he was on board… it made total sense and we’d each have our own offices. I called our sales consultant first thing Thursday morning and updated him on the changes; he asked us to come in the next day (Friday) to go over everything, so we headed over there after work. Quick note: I hadn’t actually seen the lot in person, only on the little sitemap in the office, but I knew it was obviously bigger and better.
We get to the office on Friday, September 16 and he has a contract for us. I’m not sure what I thought we were there for, but seeing that made it so real! He first reviewed everything we were about to sign and answered some questions we had. By the time we were done reviewing everything, he excused himself and then came back with a “sold” sticker for us to put over the sign on OUR lot! We looked at it in awe lol it was truly an overwhelming week with big decisions to make, but it was all beyond worth it. It meant everything to have our baby boy with us to experience that moment.
After leaving the office, we drove over to our lot and finally saw it in person… it was everything and more! This is just 6 days after thinking we weren’t going to be able to get a house anytime soon, and now we were putting the sold sticker on the sign for OUR LOT. It was truly a testament of God’s faithfulness, His favor, and His love for us.
