leg #9, the final one, Spokane, WA to Seattle, WA

Wow, last leg!!! We arrived at our new home last night around 7, local time. We were able to go through the house as we waited to meet our new "landlord". We discovered this house after a Peak7 board member emailed Ethan about an available home her sister rents. We had our list of "ideal, but not necessary" and then our "necessary" list. We had quickly realized that we weren't going to get our ideals and were okay with that. Then came the email about this house. It was all our our ideals and the sister was willing to allow us to do some work to it for reduced rent and she wanted to tithe the difference as she felt the Lord was telling her to rent it "to a man of God". So that was it, she wanted to rent it to us if we wanted it. I had said that my one request was not to move into a house sight unseen, but it seemed apparent to me that this was where we were to be, so that didn't really matter to me anymore. We accepted it sight unseen.

So, all that to be said, there was an understandable amount of excitment and anxiety in seeing our new place. The house is great, but it definitely needs a ton of work, much more than the owners ever anticipated. The previous tenants had pretty much wrecked it and didn't do the repairs. However, our new landlors have been so gracious to us. They went in and tried to do a ton of the clean up themselves. We were there at the house all day today and they were there yesterday and part of today as well. Then they are returning tomorrow for the weekend and intend on doing everything they can to help us. They have graciously provided giftcards for us above what they already said they would pay for to make sure it "feels like your own home" and that we "get to do what you want to do". So hopefully before our moving truck arrives, we'll have a remodeled house.

Ethan is there now actually, refinishing the hardwood floors and tomorrow will be laying laminate floors, painting, landscaping, etc. We will be picking out new vanities and some light fixtures and some other things that need to be replaced. So hopefully in just a matter of weeks, it will look like a completely remodeled home. We look forward to blessing this family by getting their home back in the condition that it was when they lived there as a family.