The House

We had the inspections done on Friday the 28th, and everything looked good. Lord willing we'll be closing on the 19th of October and moving in at the beginning of November.

The husband of the couple that currently owns it said the house was originally built by a man as a wedding gift to his fiance. As he was completing the finishing touches they called the wedding off, so only two of the closets have lights that come on automatically when you open their doors. : )

We're all moved into our temporary lodgings. We'll probably be here in a furnished apartment until we move into the house. We had our first guests tonight, two couples that we've known since our formative years. All three of us couples now have one son each. We'll see if we can pull off triple daughters here next.

Here's the house, at least the outside of it (click on the picture to see a larger version):

Virginia Visit

Sarah, Alex and I flew into Reagan National Airport on Saturday afternoon. We went to good old Immanuel Bible Church on Sunday and saw many many friends that we will be missing a lot once we're back in Michigan. Since Sunday we've been hanging out at the hotel and at friend's houses getting as much time with them as possible before going back. Tomorrow morning Sarah and Lex will fly back to Michigan and I will pick up a U-Haul to bring back our stuff that was air shipped along with the things we left in storage here while we were in Australia. I'll also be bringing back a washer and a dryer that our friends are selling us.

On Friday we'll be applying for the mortgage and attending the inspection of the new house! So exciting.

Stress Relief

Sarah and I put an offer in on a house this evening and our offer was accepted. We looked at more than 20 houses in one and half days. The house we got is far and away the nicest of the bunch. It was owned for the last 15 years by and interior decorator who made it the most absolutely impeccable house I have ever seen. We are super excited and grateful.

If you are looking for a real estate agent in the greater Grand Rapids area then I whole-heartedly recommend Rod Osbeck. His knowledge, commitment and personal touch were incredible. He runs against the crowd in a lot of really good ways.

This One is for Our Friends in DC

Sarah, Alex and I will be in DC from this Saturday (Sep 22) until Thursday morning (Sep 27). We would love to see you guys. We'll be attending Immanuel on Sunday. What time is the Venture service now?

The Final Decision

Sarah and I have decided to that I shall accept an offer of employment from H.T. Engineering (my father's gas and oil pipeline engineering and consulting company) in Grand Rapids, MI. We asked Alex for some input during the process, but he just smiled really big and some drool came out of the corner of his mouth.

I had to turn down several very attractive offers for Naval Architecture positions in Washington, DC, but the chance to live near family and old friends and work for my Dad was too good to pass up. We're definitely sad that we won't be going back to our friends in DC though. It's been a hard decision to make, but we're thankful for all the options that we had.

We're now in the process of settling in; we just bought a Scion xB, and we're starting to look for a house. We're still missing Adelaide and all our friends from Holy Trinity and GCA. We're going to call you guys once we get settled in. Please keep praying for us, there are still a lot of fairly big decisions we have to make. God bless.