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Well, it’s actually God’s and he’s letting us use it, but our name is now on the deed! It was a rather expensive deal…on Monday we signed the 2″ thick stack of papers that say we will pay back much more then we are borrowing. It is extremely exciting and I’m also pretty stressed since our monthly financial rhythm is changing pretty dramatically. We get the keys on Sunday, and from then until the end of the month we’ll be doing several repairs including painting, carpet cleaning, replacing the main bathroom, kitchen cabinets/countertops, and maybe the kitchen floor. Here are some tips that I’ve learned so far:

-Craigslist is a great place to get free stuff if you’re patient, and cheap stuff if you’re not.

-Use a local mortgage broker if you can, although Amerisave.com seems pretty good too. I used a different out-of-state broker (’cause his rates were great) and I ended up having to cut a $1600 dollar check at closing even though 30 minutes before closing I was told by the broker that I wasn’t paying anything. He had mis-calculated the property taxes that we would owe since Oregon does them much differently then most other states. I even asked him to double-check this weeks ago, and he did, but he mis-read the document that was sent to him. Grrrrr. I’m thankful though that it was due to taxes, since it’s not like someone was just making more profit off of that extra $1600.

-Buying a house feels great. It’s great to know that this will be an investment that will grow and we’ll be able to write off the interest. God has really blessed us to enable us to do this, and I’m very thankful for that.

That’s all for now…

Joel

We’re buying a house.

We’re closing on September 12th (our apartment lease ends on September 30th). There are still some things to do, such as the home inspection, and finalizing the loan. We’re really excited about this, and I’ll be glad to stop sending away the rent check every month. It’s sure a huge purchase though. We found a killer deal - 3 bedroom, 1.1 bath, fireplace, 2 car garage, decent yard, for a price that we can afford (with some changes in our spending). The downside is that it needs some work, like a new roof, and lots of updating.

Some good news regarding my job at Freewire. It looks like we’re going to break even for the first time this month. That’s a huge deal for a startup company.

Joel

We are PREGNANT. The estimated due date is around Feb 21st. We feel so blessed that God is creating this new life in our family. I’m excited that I get to celebrate this father’s day!

As a side note, one thing that we want to have as we go through this exciting time is a video camera so that we can record our great memories on video. If you want to contribute to the video camera fund please visit the donation page I set up (thanks to Bob’s macbook project for inspiring me).

Donate here

Please pray that the baby is healthy, and that we would be great parents who bring up our child to glorify God.

Check out the baby page for monthly updates, and to see the cool ticker that shows the progress of the baby’s growth

Baby page

Joel and Natalie