The House Hunt

Yes.  This is a VERY VERY long post. 

I'll post pics of the move ASAP!!

November 2010-Ron took a job in North Dakota with the possibility of us living in a 5th Wheel Trailor in "The Middle of Nowhere, North Dakota!"

December 2010-The job got put on hold.  He got antsy waiting and tired of hearing "next week" you can start.  He gave up and went over and started jump driving (filling in for other drivers to sleep/take vacation time).  Until someone got him in touch with Weston (whose actually from our area).

January 2011-I packed everything except the neccessities! Did some online looking for places to rent. We were trying to decide if we should rent or buy.  Renting anything durring an oil boom is rediculously expensive and hard to find!  A mortgage payment would be less than rent per month! But our plan was to only be gone 2-3 years.  Long enough to get out of debt and save enough to come back and farm.  Buying a house for such a short term didn't seem resonable.  We didn't even know where the best location would be.  I wanted to be in Minot or close to it to be able to give the kids more oppertunities and be in a ward rather than a branch. I left the kids with Ron's mom and took a spur of the moment trip over there to find some housing!  NO SUCH LUCK! Everything available for rent was run down and not maintainted and they were still asking an arm and a leg for anything!  Anything nice was going to be $1200-$1500 a month!  We weren't ready to cough that up just yet!  We went looking in Minot.  It felt too lonely and far away from where he'd be working.  Imagine driving semi for a 12-18 hour shift then turn around and have an hour drive home.  That didn't seem worth it either!  We did find an older OLD (built in the early 1900's) 5 bedroom house for sale in Stanley.  I fell in love with it!  It had character and was recently remodled.  However, it was bigger than we needed, still need some updates, and it just didn't seem right. Needless to say I came home pretty disapointed!

February 2011- We came to the conclusion that if we wanted anything we were going to have to buy.  That was going to take time.  But where do we buy??  The company is ALL over.  Stanley, Killdeer, Minot, Williston, Dickinson?? BUT...our goal was to be debt free not spend $250,000 on a house! Besides  where ever we go I want it to feel like our home and I'm going to spend money to decorate how I've wanted to the last 6 years!  The bigger the house...the more to decorate...the more I'll be spending!

March 2011-Back and forth...do we buy or do we rent? Or we could build a house in a new subdivision going in Stanley! Then Weston told Ron he wanted him to sign a 5 year contract and stay in North Dakota for 5-10 years to build the business.  Not what we were looking forward to, but having a job is more important than not, especially right now! (He never ended up having to sign a contract...but it got Weston's point across and now understand Ron's oppertunities)

April 2011-The kids and I took a couple trips over there to get something done with housing!  We looked at a few houses.  One was in Stanley.  The outside wasn't bad, but it needed at least $20,000 in updates and maintnance to make it liveable! Two were on the Indian Reservation...not to fond of the idea.  We only looked at the outside of one. It actually didn't look bad at all...except for the fact that the side yard ended at the railroad tracks! We drove around some cities, Burlington and Brethold.  We had no luck in Burlington, but we ran into a man in Brethold.  He talked to us for half an hour about some possibilities! A guy had a house that he didn't want bachelour oil workers trashing, a trailor that would be for sale soon, and possibly a house from a divorsed lady.  It gave us some hope since everything hadn't worked out yet!  While I was in Salt Lake Ron was able to get some numbers.  We were #8 on the list for the house to rent and the trailor house was going for twice as much as we expected!  Ron talked to a guy who knew of a guy that was thinking about leaving in Burlington.  We went and looked at the apartment it was old, but not run down like everything else and HALF the price of everything else.  It took a week to get the number for the manager, but they didn't know anything about it.  They said to call back on Monday.  No luck there.

May 2011-We spent weeks calling on apartments with no luck.  Either there wasn't anything available or if their was and as soon as Ron could get in to see them they had been snatched up, just like that!!  We decided we need to get an apartment ASAP and to start working on the process of building a 4-plex in Stanley.

June 2011-Well, should we just buy? It looks like we'll be there for about 5 years. B&B Heavy Haulers (Ron's company) will be switching to work under Missouri Bassin instead of Gold Spur. Which will give him an 40 mile distanc eone way to get to the fartherest location indeast of 300-800 miles of driving per DAY! Meaning: We can finally zone in on the WHERE!  Then, the main boss for Gold Spur said he had the best luck using IMM Reality (Renting in Minot).  We checked it out.  UH...yep, NOTHING.  Then came the floods!  Minot flooded TWICE this summer!  The second time up to roof tops!  VERY grateful we have been "patient".

July 2011-We got preaproved.  Found a house.  Started the buying process!! All in the first week of July! It felt like forever waiting for the apraiser. The banker went out of town for TWO WEEKS!! On the 22nd we finally got word the appraiser would be 6 to 8 days out.  The seller would be moving out the 5th of August so we could close any date AFTER! Then seriously 5 minutes after I updated this, Ron informed me that it could be 6-8 WEEKS waiting for an appraisal!!

August 2011-We waited and waited and waited. Six to eight weeks is a LONG time!  Especially when they order the WRONG APRAISER that isn't FHA approved.  So six to eight weeks turned to seven to nine.  THEN an amazing lady Marilyn who catered a dinner for B&B was talking to her best friend who mentioned they might want to sell their house and 2 shops (?) that sits on 10 acres of land.  She knew B&B was looking, gave her friend the number, the friend called, then Ron and Weston went and looked at it.  They are going for it! BUT B&B really doesn't need the house.  Yes, the owners would like a place of their own to stay when they come up, but not THAT much of a house! The house is TONS nicer than the one we are working on.  The top floor is bigger than the top and basement combined in the first house.  I haven't seen the "new" house, but Ron would much rather have it.  So for now...we are buying house number one, with intentions of maybe living in house number 2!

September/October 2011-We still waited and waited.  BUT they said we would be able to close by September 30th. It came down to the last 2 weeks.  Appraiser after appraiser cancelled on us.  No one wanted to drive all the way to Stanley.  SERIOUSLY...that was the excuse!!  It came down to the wire.  We got it appraised on a Saturday.  Finally got word on Wednesday the 28th.  The boss brought his trailor on Friday and we were packed and loaded to the nuts by Monday.  Ran errands (ultrasound, goodbyes, dinner...) on Tuesday.  Then took off in our car the by Wednesday.  We expected to get there Thursday, sign the papers, and move everything in on Friday.  WHAT A JOKE!!  Thursday morning, we get a phone call from the bank saying we needed to have our down payment/closing costs 24 hours before we close. AND the appointment wasn't scheduled till Friday afternoon.  She didn't have the exact amount until that day and its takes 3 days for a check that big to clear the banks.  GAH!  We tried wiring the money...we missed the cut off time, we ended up having to get a certified check.  Got it to them ONE hour before the appointment.  Went to lunch with the kids.  Signed the papers. Got groceries.  Came home and the truck was unloaded! Over the weekend we, when I say we I really mean THEY (Weston, Stephanie, David, Nadilyn, & Stockton), got everything moved in and situated!  All I have to do now is unpack the boxes!!

I can't believe its finally here!  We are in our own home.  We still have TONS to do and orgnize, but its live-able and we can function!  I can't stop counting my blessings!!