House Hunting

As we began to pray and ask God where He wanted us to go we began to look for homes in that area. We knew that God was calling us somewhere in the 4B Area. The 4B Area is the area from the Southside of the Beltway to the Beach in Galveston and the Bay to the Brazoria County line. Over 500,000 people are living in this area and over 50% of them claim "none" as their religious affiliation. This is an area that God has put on my heart as well as the heart of our church. Heritage Park (along with many other churches in this area) wants to take responsibility for this region and that is why we are going to plant in this area. So, all we know is that we wanted to go somewhere south of Heritage Park, but where exactly?!?!

What we knew was God had clearly given us a few values as a family and we have learned our lesson on trying to fudge any on those values. These values were:

• We want to live in the area that our church is located
• We want to live in a diverse community
• We want to be able to publicly educate our kids

So, we began to lay this template on top of the region that God was calling us: somewhere near I45 and South of League City & Dickinson. 

I do not know if everyone looking for a new home does the same thing as we do, but we spend hours and hours on Zillow and HAR. What did people do before? I mean, this was so helpful. We currently live in a 4 bedroom house with a playroom. We like having a guest bedroom, so we began to narrow our search to houses that had at least 3 bedrooms and possibly an office since I will be officing from home. We wouldn't mind downsizing slightly, but really want a house that works for how we live. Like any couple, Kacee had a couple of things on her wish list and I had a few of mine. 

We began to look in South Dickinson. As we began to look at homes we kept clicking on new homes. The market is such that the price of a new home and one that is 5-10 years old were very close in price. Sweet! Let's build a house. I didn't know how helpful this process would be in understanding the area. We looked in a couple communities and met with a few builders, but they did not have very many lots left. One community was finishing up their last phase and another was not sure what the future looked like for more lots. Hmm. 

That was weird. We began to wonder, where is the next development going to be? We would rather be the first people on the block instead of the last people in the neighborhood. So, we went a little farther south and found the community of Lago Mar. DAAAAAANNNNNNGGGGGGGG!!! This community is amazing. It is a master-planned community that is looking at building 4,000 homes. Now that's a lot of people. They have over a dozen different builders, so we began to do our research.  

Some of the builders were so far out of our price range we didn't even bother them. Others did not have the floorplans that we were looking for. We began to narrow our window to a couple of different builders and specifically a couple of different floor plans. As we were meeting with them all we would enter the model homes and be in awe. They are upgraded to the nines. They were normally so far out of our price range that we were not even looking at them. Then we met with the Long Lake people. We met Mike. He is super sweet and so easy to work with. Rowan loved the model home, but we were talking to them about a different one. We walked around the block and got to see a few of the houses that we were interested in and went back to the model to talk some more. When we got back Rowan wanted to hide. She loves to hide and have us say, "Rowan!!! Where are you?!?!" She begins to giggle and then we tickle her and we all laugh together. Well, this house was big and we could not find her. As we were looking, Mike said something in passing that changed our future. He said, "The crazy thing is that this house is only $25,000 more than the one you are looking at, and it is over 1000 square feet bigger." 

Well, after we found Rowan, Kacee and I began to talk. We loved the model home, but it was at the top of our price range. BUT the price per square foot was so cheap it made us think about it. The more we thought about it the more we saw what God wanted to do through us in this home. Are we crazy- Yes. BUT we trust the Lord in all things, even to buy a bigger home than we originally were planning on to be able to do the ministry that he has for us in Lago Mar.

As I am writing this a few months later we have signed a contract on our new home and will be moving into a new street where we will be one of the first people on the block. How awesome is God!?