Within 30 seconds of walking into this house, Shawn announced, "We need to make an offer." The white kitchen with new appliances, the brand new hardwood floors, the space, the price. It sold us. We did make an offer later that day and moved in three weeks later. While we'd love to purchase a fixer upper someday in the future, now's not that season. So to have a house with very few updating needs was a huge blessing.

The house is split-level, and the following photos are of the main level. If you go upstairs, there are three bedrooms and two bathrooms. If you go downstairs, there's a partially finished space that functions as my craft room and a play area for Liam, as well as a large unfinished space with laundry and lots of storage.

The one major update we've done was to have the walls on the entire main floor painted. The kitchen used to be a baby blue (see photo below), and is now Benjamin Moore Gray Owl. The living room and hallways are the same color, just lightened by 50% (though, honestly, you can hardly tell a difference between the two colors). I love this color. It doesn't reflect blue or purple or even beige. In most lights, it's just a pure, light gray. Exactly what we were going for.

Before:

After: 

The kitchen is my favorite we've ever had. It's bright and airy with three large windows that look out onto the street, so I never feel closed off in a corner while I'm scrubbing dishes. (And it's so fun seeing kiddos walk to school every morning.) The only downside to not having any shades up yet is that, at night, it feels like a fishbowl where everyone can see right in. Eventually, we'd also love to buy a breakfast table for the nook in the corner that's begging for one.

While there's still lots I'd love to do - mainly photos and art on the walls to make it feel a little more personal - I love living in such a simple, serene space. It's easy to keep clean because we just don't have that much stuff to find places for. (Liam's toys either stay downstairs, in his room, or hidden in the crate in the living room. We use a Bumbo-type seat strapped into one of the dining room chairs for his highchair.) And because buying two houses in one year is expensive, our decorating budget was $0, so I'm thankful the things we already had fit the space nicely and naturally.

 PS - I'm happy to share sources for all of our furniture and accessories, but when I thought about it, 90% has been thrifted, purchased from Craigslist, or given to us by friends. But if you have any questions about where we might have found something, please leave it in the comments and I'm happy to point you in the right direction!

Tips for selling your own home.

When we decided to put our first house on the market a couple months ago, our main reason for doing so was financial. We needed to cut our mortgage to prepare for a second baby, and because of that, a friend suggested we try selling the house without the help of a realtor. "For sale by owner." I was very hesitant at first because I just wanted out of the house as quickly as possible, and we'd never sold a house before. But the more we researched it, the more we felt right about at least trying. We'd save as much as 3% by not having to pay a realtor, so we felt it was worth a shot.

Going in, we decided we'd give it two weeks on the market. If the house didn't sell in two weeks, we'd turn it over to our realtor to show and hopefully sell while we were out of the country.

I should also make this disclaimer: we have several dear friends who are realtors and I definitely don't want to devalue their work. I just think many people (including us) don't even consider trying to sell the house themselves - and in our situation, it ended up being the right option.

If you haven't followed our story, since October 2013, we've now bought two houses and sold one. We definitely didn't plan to do this, but we've learned a whole lot along the way. So if you're thinking of going the "for sale by owner" route, I thought I'd share a few things we learned.

Know the market. First, know whether or not to try selling it yourself. From the outset, we knew the real estate market in our area was extremely active at the time. Just walking out of our house, I was stopped twice by passersby who handed me their information and asked, "If you know anyone who's selling or renting soon, will you give them my information?" We knew there would be plenty of interest in a house that needed no fixing up, was on a dead-end street, and was in a desirable neighborhood near a park and close to downtown. Had we doubted that our house was sellable (i.e. slower market, needed fixing up, etc.), we probably wouldn't have tried to do it ourselves.

Secondly, know how to price your home. We ended up pricing ours quite a bit higher than we'd originally paid, but only after extensively researching comparable houses in our area. We settled on a price and then determined a slightly lower price that was our cut-off - we wouldn't accept anything lower, especially in the first couple weeks on the market.

Declutter and de-personalize. This rings true whether or not you're using a realtor. Our house wasn't cluttered before as we'd lived in it less than a year, but I was still able to box up two full car loads of stuff and bring it to a friend's garage to store. The boxes were full of framed photos of our family and other personal items. You want to make sure that when people walk into your house, they can picture themselves living here - not you. At the time, all of our wall colors were very neutral. Had they been something brighter, we would've repainted to make sure the house appeared move-in ready.

Meet with someone who's gone the "For Sale By Owner" route before. We had several friends who had successfully sold their homes without a realtor, and their wealth of knowledge was invaluable through every step of the process. It really helped to get their advice, especially when it came to negotiating a contract. It may also be helpful to have a friend in the real estate field (realtor, closing attorney, etc.) look over your contract to make sure there are no red flags. (And offer to pay them, of course.)

Borrow or rent a lock box. A friend let us borrow a lock box like this one to hang on the front door. This way, we didn't have to be present for each and every showing to let the potential buyers in the door. We could simply give the lock box code to the buyers' realtor, set up a time for them to come, and they would let themselves in and out. Much more convenient, much less awkward for all parties. If you have potential buyers who don't have a realtor (we didn't), I'd definitely suggest staying at the house and letting them in and out yourself.

If you don't feel comfortable staging and photographing your house, ask someone who does. Since Shawn and I both had experience in staging and in real estate photography, this part was fun for us. But just remember that pictures sell houses. Or at least get people in the door, which sells houses. Don't skimp on this part. If you don't know anyone who has a good camera with a wide angle lens, hire someone who does. It will be money well spent.

Put together a brochure. Maybe. I only say "maybe" on this one because I kind of wish I hadn't spend the time and money making one when our house sold so quickly. I had dozens of flyers left. But if you have ideas of where you could post these - or even hand them out to friends who may have friends that are looking - it may be really worth it. There are tons of templates online for professional looking real estate flyers.

Buy an MLS listing. For us, this was absolutely worth it. These run about $200, and whenever you post the listing, it goes up on all the major real estate websites immediately - Zillow, Trulia, etc. We used Select Premium Properties to do this, and they were so helpful to give us a step-by-step of how to go about this. They even had a portal where realtors could request a showing and we could "ok" it from our phones or email.

Know that it will feel like a full-time job. That's why realtors work full-time and often around the clock! There's so much paperwork and so many deadlines that you have to treat it like the main gig in your life. You'll spend lots of time fielding calls, scheduling showings, answering emails, scouring Google with questions, and driving around the neighborhood so your toddler will take a nap while people look at your house.

When all was said and done, we had 7 showings on the first day and 1 offer, and we accepted that offer the following morning. It was as stressful as can be, but very much worth it. And we don't plan to do it again for a very long time.

Only Him.

This week turned a major corner when Shawn came back in town earlier than expected. Whew. You single moms and moms with husbands who are deployed - I wish I could give you a big hug and a few hours of free childcare. Making big life decisions alone just isn't easy. 

This morning, we had a chance to see the house we just purchased - which we had only seen for about 15 minutes up until now - and we fell in love with it all over again. God has already answered so many of our spoken and unspoken prayers when He brought us to this house: tons of natural light, all new hardwood floors, extra space for Liam to play, a guest room, a fenced back yard, a partially finished basement with a wood burning stove and so much potential, a brand new kitchen with a gas stove, and oh... cutting our mortgage in half. 

When we decided to move, our #1 criteria was that we cut our mortgage in half. But the Lord was sweet to provide an even better-built house (so said our inspector!) that has more space, has been completely renovated, and is in a safe neighborhood. All of those things feel like huge bonuses when we expected something smaller and not as nice for as much as we were willing to spend.

We met one of our neighbors today who said, "We love this neighborhood because it's so diverse. A Vietnamese family lives over there, a Mexican family on the other side, black people, white people - we've got it all!" It sent shivers down my spine. God just knows the desires of our hearts and fulfills them without us even asking.

This lousy photo from my phone is all I've got to show you so far, but it's one of my favorite parts of the house: a kitchen with lots of windows and all white cabinets. I cannot wait. 

Yesterday, I spent some time meditating on one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture: Titus 3. It's basically the truth of the gospel in a nutshell. 

"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." - Titus 3:3-7, emphases mine

So what does this have to do with a house? 

This passage is such a clear-cut reminder that anything good that comes in my life didn't come because I was so righteous. Because I made good decisions or behaved well. This house wasn't given to us because we saved our money and made wise choices. He gave us the house because He is kind. He is merciful. He loved us and saved our souls even when we were dead in our sin and completely worthless to Him. 

That kind of love just astounds me - and when I hear that our neighborhood is super diverse and I see a backyard that's perfect for our son and I learn a hundred more things that just fit our family so well - I can only see His fingerprints all over it.

Today.

A totally unrelated picture... but one of my recent faves. I only wish he'd stay this still without the "pone" in hand.

You know those days that just don't turn out at all like you planned them when you envision them first thing in the morning?

Here's today's tally:

1 out-of-town, outside-of-cell-signal husband
1 visit from the plumber
1 repainted wall (after Liam drew on it while I was writing a check for the plumber)
1 dozen eggs dropped at Trader Joe's
1 piggy bank dropped and shattered on the kitchen floor
1 minor but very traumatizing car accident (a hit and run, no less)

and finally...

1 new house purchased

Seriously, I'm not sure today could've been much fuller or much worse, all with a husband out of reach. Our half-packed house is a complete wreck, and Liam and I could both use a bath.

At some point in my life, I probably would've told myself, "God doesn't give us more than we can handle." But actually, I don't find that to be true at all. I don't even find it in Scripture (it's a misquoting of 1 Corinthians 10:13 - a great article on that here). Today was much, much more than I could handle; it felt like a lot like drowning.

The truth is, in those moments of suffering that are far too much to handle, He is with us. When someone told me, "I think you need to just take a deep breath, take a shower, and thank the Lord that He spared you," it all hit me and the tears came (again). He spared us today. He protected us today from anything worse happening, and we were mere inches from so much worse. He is so good, He never left us, and I'm pretty sure tomorrow can only be better.

Moving. Again.

Tomorrow, we'll be putting our little yellow house up for sale. 

I write that and the reality stings a bit, but the sadness is so quickly outweighed by relief that the hurt can't linger long. (First things first, we aren't leaving Raleigh - just moving across town.)

We've been making it work, the ministry salary + working-from-home salary + mortgage and string of home repairs that we can afford if we both work hard. But when we take a look at our schedules and acknowledge that I'm working during every nap time, every evening after Liam goes to bed, and we have very little family time that's not laden with guilt that I really should be working - we realize that something desperately needs to change. We knew this setup wasn't going to work forever, but didn't realize how quickly burnout would come. It has come.

The change we need to make is obvious: our house. As first time homebuyers, I think we had in our heads, "How much can we afford?" A few months into the experience as home owners, we're thinking: "How little can we spend so that we can really feel financially free?" When there are townhouses or other homes a little further out that are the same size and half the price, that means we'd be cutting our mortgage in half, which means I would potentially have to work much less, if at all. These other homes may be completely carpeted, have dated kitchens, or not 100% our taste - but the fact that we would be enjoying much more time together and not worrying about our house payment makes that all so worth it. (And we can always pull up carpet and paint kitchen cabinets.)

I actually love to work, as I've written plenty about before. Right now, though, I feel like a full-time worker and a full-time mom. With 8-10 hours of childcare per week, working 30+ hours requires a lot of sacrifice. I'm ready to be a full-time mom and a part-time worker. These years are short and so fleeting, and I don't want to spend them in guilt that I've put Liam in front of his third episode of Daniel Tiger so I can finish sewing an Etsy order before the post office closes.

So, clearly, this is a bold step. We're actually going to attempt to sell our house ourselves (without the help of a realtor), which is even bolder.

That's where you come in.

We covet your bold prayers.
Prayers for stamina in keeping our house clean (with a tornadic toddler around) and opening it for showings again and again. And prayers for energy to move yet again. This will be the fourth time we've moved within one year and it's just plain exhausting.
Prayers for wisdom in negotiating a contract.
Prayers that it will sell quickly and that the Lord will provide something else just as quickly. We're open to renting, but Raleigh is not cheap, and it looks like buying something else will actually be a less expensive option.

I feel most sad when I think about leaving our beloved neighbors. It feels so unnatural to have only been here 8 months when we all expected years.

Otherwise, though, I only feel relief. Relief that I'm not going to have to sit behind the sewing machine or the computer for literally hours a day in order to pay our bills. Relief that we might even have disposable income again. Brighter Day isn't going anywhere. I really do love it. I just don't love how much we've had to rely on its income and, in turn, how it's consumed too much of our lives.

This process is humbling and stretching and exhausting. But we pray that through it, we grow in faith, in wisdom, in character, and in empathy when we see others who are walking the same road.

Thanks for sitting beside us, on the edges of our seats, in anticipation for what our good God plans to do.

Thankful today...

One warm afternoon last week, Liam woke up from his nap, heard our neighbors' kids' happy cries outside, and rushed over to the door, begging to join them. It happens most afternoons, but this time, Shawn was home to join us and I savored it from behind my camera lens.

Our neighborhood has caught us by complete surprise. Moving to a new city and becoming first-time home buyers at once, I'd say we rushed the process. We knew the general area where we wanted to land, understood our basic price range, and were otherwise pretty desperate to feel more settled than the basement apartment where we were staying. After walking through a handful of houses, we landed on one we loved, drew up an offer, accepted the counter, and waited rather impatiently to close. We loved the size and character of our little yellow house, but the charm of a dead-end street whose neighborhood kids basically live outside? We had no idea. Living just minutes from the Greenway and downtown Raleigh where we take family bike trips every weekend? No clue about that either.

As I watched Liam play, I took a grateful inventory:
... For kind neighbors with little kids who are close enough that we can yell from our front porch, "Do you have any extra infant Tylenol?" They do, we meet at the curb to get it, and our teething babe (and his parents) sleep so much better because of it. Heroes.
... For new neighbors who closed on their house on the day of this photograph, and invited about 10 of us inside to take a tour. "Welcome to the street! We're very neighborly," we attested, as if they couldn't tell while our six kids made themselves at home.
... For diversity. Our neighborhood is both economically and racially diverse (something we really desired), and Liam is often the only child of his color on the playground. I'm thankful to see him interacting with so many different kinds of people from the start. Healthy and wonderful.
... To live in a warm enough climate that our garden is exploding and our boy spends his days outdoors for months on end.
... To live 6 minutes from Trader Joe's (it must be mentioned).

We truly feel like the Lord has handed us gift after gift to slowly unwrap as we discover this beautiful neighborhood surrounding our little yellow house.

Starting point.

Every new home has a starting point. 
Every new home has a starting point.

It's what I keep trying to remind myself when I see mini blinds, former tenants' paint color choices, and no rugs.

Still, here's a glimpse of where we're starting. The photos are very low light, as that's what we've had to work with. We've had one sunny day since moving in. It's terrible for pictures, but so incredibly cozy for living.

Overall, we feel the weighty privilege of owning our first home. We don't take it for granted for a second that we were able to buy this sweet house in Raleigh. The fact that this home is a blank slate for whatever our minds (and budget) can come up with is so, so exciting.

Humbled.

via Instagram @whitneynewby

The prospect of the next few days could be daunting: hundreds of boxes to unpack, an 11-month-old who's keen on unpacking everything himself, and Shawn leaving town today for a wedding in Texas.

Amazingly, though, the body of Christ has wrapped their arms around us and so lifted our burden that it doesn't feel daunting at all.

... My parents had our house cleaned from top to bottom just after we closed, sparing me from wiping down baseboards, scrubbing bathrooms, and taking down cobwebs while trying to wrangle Liam.
... My grandma is helping us have the house's interior painted so we can really move in and feel settled.
... Shawn's parents are helping us with a washer and dryer set. I will jump for JOY when we have more than occasional access to laundry, which has been the case since we've been here.
... Our brother and sister who live down the road have shown up at the drop of a hat with snacks, Chipotle, help with Liam, and a million other things. They've been amazing.
... My mom is flying in today, very last minute, to help me while Shawn is gone. She cancelled several things on her calendar to be here, including giving a devotional to a moms' group. Instead of talking about being a great mom, she's choosing to be one. I couldn't be more grateful.
... I have Bible study friends who are pitching in left and right in the most creative ways: helping us unpack, taping off walls for painters, and taking Liam to the children's museum for the afternoon.
... We have other friends who have brought delicious, gluten-free meals.

And all this in a place we've only called home for 2 months.

Never have we felt so loved by a community of believers, so helped, so supported. Our burden has been so lifted by these dear friends and families of ours, and we are humbled and encouraged by their many, many acts of love.

Our first home!

via Instagram @whitneynewby

Yesterday, after what felt like a year of living out of a suitcase (but was really only 4 and a half months), we closed on our first house! We're no longer homeless! Today, our furniture and boxes arrive from Nashville. We haven't seen any of it since May, so it's going to feel like Christmas.

Walking into the house yesterday with our own set of keys was an incredible feeling. We took some time to walk into each room, praying God's blessing over it for as long as we call it home.

Summer talked yesterday about cashing in God's promises (such a great post), and today, I'm cashing in this one (which is #1 of her 50 promises memory verse cards):

"Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." - Psalm 31:24

There's still so much to do to make it feel like home, and with a very curious little guy around, it isn't the smoothest or quickest process. Still, we are so, so grateful to own a home - one we really love - and to hopefully sleep there for the first night tonight!

Some more "before" of our Raleigh house.

The living room, looking into the kitchen and dining room, with the guest bathroom right behind me.

We had the chance this past week to see our house empty for the first time. It's been rented for the past 6 years, and for every showing we've had, it's been covered from floor to ceiling in the tenants' stuff. (For one showing, the tenant actually sat on the couch the whole time while we looked around. That was interesting.) So it was refreshing to finally be able to picture it as our home. To think about paint colors, where furniture will go, and do some dreaming.

The house looks pretty big in these pictures, but the whole thing (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms) is 1300 square feet. We like little houses with smart design, and this one feels just right.

We're hoping to have almost every interior wall painted before we move in. It's currently a warm beige/yellow color, and for the most part, we're wanting a cooler shade of very light blue/grey throughout.

Hall to master bedroom 

Master bedroom, with the door to the back deck

Master bedroom, looking toward the front of the house

Master bathroom - I don't mind the color in here, so it may stay.

Dining room, with doors to the back deck

Living room, with our realtor. Hi Amy!

The future home of Brighter Day. We're picturing bright white paint in here. 

Liam's room

Guest bathroom

Kitchen (and dining room to the right)

So the immediate changes are just to paint. Our next step will be to redo all the kitchen cabinets. We'd love a white, more modern look. We aren't sure if we'll paint them ourselves, have them painted, or go a completely different route. I would also love to add some white beadboard on that short wall around the kitchen. We do love the black granite that's already there. 

Besides that, there are little cosmetic changes to make here and there, but really, we just can't wait to make it our own. Lord willing, we'll be all moved in by the end of the month!

The humble beginnings of our new home.

It's a terrible picture, but it's just about all I have of our soon-to-be house in Raleigh. I'll definitely be taking plenty more "before" photos as soon as we have the keys.

This is taken from the open living room at the front of the house, looking into the kitchen, and into the dining room at the back of the house. We're thankful that even though the house has the charm of a home built 60 years ago, it was completely gutted and redone just a few years ago, so there's not that much to be fixed up. We'll be having the interior painted before we move in - it's a soupy beige/yellow throughout right now - and eventually painting the kitchen cabinets, too.

I've been careful not to succumb to scouring Pinterest for hours as I have to remember this whole making-a-house-a-home thing is a process. With our limited budget and time, it may take a few months (or years?) to get it to where we really love it, and that's ok.

But here are a few ideas of what we're going for...

Love the paint color and airy feel of this living room (thank you, Kelli, for reintroducing me to The Lettered Cottage!):

Source

I love this bathroom wall (in my dreams!):

Source

These simple bookshelves for Liam's tiny room:

Source

These chicken wire cabinets:

Source

This bedroom (and pretty much everything from this blog):

Source

Also, I adore this home tour:
Kalli's home tour 
Kitchen & dining room
Rest of Kalli's house

Do any of you have paint color suggestions? We're looking for a very light grey that leans toward blue/green more than toward beige. Any ideas?

Can you tell I'm excited?! We've been in boxes since the end of May and in transitional housing (including my parents' house and now a basement apartment) since then. Our stuff from storage will arrive just a few days after we close, and I'm sure it will feel like Christmas. Maybe even better. Two more weeks can't come soon enough!

Our new neighborhood?

This morning, we are submitting an offer on what we hope will be our first home. For any new homeowners out there, you know that it's such a twist of emotions: excited, hopeful, scared to death. We now begin the back and forth as we negotiate with the seller, which we hope will not be painfully drawn out.

Throughout the whole process, I've felt pretty calm and (purposefully) emotionally detached. Well... as emotionally detached as you possibly can be when you're living in a basement and desperate to plant roots in a new community. I've tried to picture our family in each of the houses, but only to the point of functionality. I try not to picture first birthdays and candlelit dinners and bringing babies home from the hospital. As we were looking at the house again last night, I did feel as objective as possible. We looked in closets and at baseboards and at appliances and felt peaceful. If we got the house, it would be wonderful. If not, God had something better.

But then came a moment I didn't expect: a moment that I knew I wanted this house. Bad.

As we walked out of the house, we were discussing what we might offer and some concerns we had, and we walked to a city park close by. We looked out into the park and saw a big group of kids involved in a community program playing in the park. We saw young families with strollers taking their evening walks. There were several races represented, all coexisting happily together, and that's when I knew: I want to be here. I want us to raise Liam here. I want us to be able to walk a few steps to the park and see diversity and culture. It was a little taste of heaven for this city/culture/diversity lover. And it all suddenly made sense why we would sacrifice more space and newer properties in the suburbs for a place like this.

We will see what the Lord has in these next few days and weeks. In the meantime, we would so appreciate your prayers for peace and wisdom.