We had an interesting turn of events today. The attorney called Kory this morning to ask if he had gotten his e-mail yesterday. We hadn’t. The e-mail said that by today at 11:45am, the insurance company that owns The Sinking Houses wanted a letter of commitment from the bank to show that financing is guaranteed on the houses, or they will be sold to the next highest bidder because that bid expired today. I checked my spam folder and sure enough, there sat the e-mail somehow marked as junk mail, so it didn’t come to my inbox yesterday (this has never happened before with any e-mail from the attorney). As it was, Espen (one of Kory’s bosses) had already scheduled a meeting with the bank this morning so he was sitting at the bank when the attorney called Kory. Kory called Espen to tell him if they wanted to buy the houses, the attorney needed that letter immediately. There was a bit discussion down at the bank, trying to figure out what to do, since the appraisal hadn’t been completed and now there was this added pressure of losing the whole deal if a letter wasn’t produced. So, at 11:15 the bank finally said they just couldn’t do it, and the deal was lost. At noon today The Sinking Houses were officially sold to the next highest bidder, which we found out shortly thereafter, was the Ålesund Kommune. We were so surprised by that as we were sure it was some other builders that came by months ago to check them out. So all we can do is shout HALLELUJAH because we know that “God works all things together for the good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose” – and that includes us!
Kory has met with Jonathan and Espen several times these past weeks to help them work through the process of buying these places. It was looking like we were going to go into a partnership with them, but I was feeling less and less comfortable with the whole thing as the bank kept requiring more and more and things were starting to not pencil out as easily. For instance, because Jonathan and Espen have their own building company, they would NOT be allowed to do any repairs on these houses unless they get paid for the work. Their construction business would have to bill their rental houses for the work done (so that all the proper taxes can be paid.) The government here doesn’t allow any builder to do any work for free – ever – even on their own home. So when we started to find out little oddities like that, and then had to factor in the costs for all the repairs because they couldn’t do them for free, it started to make less and less sense to buy the houses. I just kept praying that somehow God would close the door if this whole thing was a BAD idea, and today, he unexpectedly smacked it shut in front of all of us, so we say HALLELUJAH! We love it that God knows the future and we can count on HIM to direct our steps and a closed door is just as good as an open one as far as I’m concerned. He closed the door once, he closed the door twice, and finally, Kory is accepting the fact that the door is really CLOSED. So now, we’ll see what the Kommune does.
We expect we will soon get a notice from the insurance company that says we have 30 days to move out, but everyone is pretty sure the Kommune will rent to us because Kaleb goes to school in this neighborhood. I’m not at all worried because I have “Fred” (that’s the Norwegian word for “peace” - how funny is that?) We think it will take time for the Kommune to get the other houses livable so we might not have neighbors for a month or two (it’s so quiet here – which is one of the things I love the most). The attorney says the Kommune bought them for low income housing – single moms with kids perhaps – so we shall see. The attorney did try to get the insurance company to give us even just two more days to wrap up the paperwork, but their hearts were hardened and they stuck to their guns. So when looking at it, we can see how we had every opportunity for it work out, but it didn’t, so we are more than thankful that God is our guide.
On another front, we got massive snow fall today and it’s just as gorgeous as it can be outside right now. It looks like someone spread marshmallow creme all over everything. The snow is pure powder and so fun to play in. Kory and I had a nice walk over to Odd and Turid’s tonight to tell them the news about the houses and Odd nearly shouted Hallelujah as he has been against us buying them from the start. Kaleb got his homework done in record time and was able to play with Tobias for a several hours today so he’s shouting Hallelujah as well. God is good – all the time.
Kory has met with Jonathan and Espen several times these past weeks to help them work through the process of buying these places. It was looking like we were going to go into a partnership with them, but I was feeling less and less comfortable with the whole thing as the bank kept requiring more and more and things were starting to not pencil out as easily. For instance, because Jonathan and Espen have their own building company, they would NOT be allowed to do any repairs on these houses unless they get paid for the work. Their construction business would have to bill their rental houses for the work done (so that all the proper taxes can be paid.) The government here doesn’t allow any builder to do any work for free – ever – even on their own home. So when we started to find out little oddities like that, and then had to factor in the costs for all the repairs because they couldn’t do them for free, it started to make less and less sense to buy the houses. I just kept praying that somehow God would close the door if this whole thing was a BAD idea, and today, he unexpectedly smacked it shut in front of all of us, so we say HALLELUJAH! We love it that God knows the future and we can count on HIM to direct our steps and a closed door is just as good as an open one as far as I’m concerned. He closed the door once, he closed the door twice, and finally, Kory is accepting the fact that the door is really CLOSED. So now, we’ll see what the Kommune does.
We expect we will soon get a notice from the insurance company that says we have 30 days to move out, but everyone is pretty sure the Kommune will rent to us because Kaleb goes to school in this neighborhood. I’m not at all worried because I have “Fred” (that’s the Norwegian word for “peace” - how funny is that?) We think it will take time for the Kommune to get the other houses livable so we might not have neighbors for a month or two (it’s so quiet here – which is one of the things I love the most). The attorney says the Kommune bought them for low income housing – single moms with kids perhaps – so we shall see. The attorney did try to get the insurance company to give us even just two more days to wrap up the paperwork, but their hearts were hardened and they stuck to their guns. So when looking at it, we can see how we had every opportunity for it work out, but it didn’t, so we are more than thankful that God is our guide.
On another front, we got massive snow fall today and it’s just as gorgeous as it can be outside right now. It looks like someone spread marshmallow creme all over everything. The snow is pure powder and so fun to play in. Kory and I had a nice walk over to Odd and Turid’s tonight to tell them the news about the houses and Odd nearly shouted Hallelujah as he has been against us buying them from the start. Kaleb got his homework done in record time and was able to play with Tobias for a several hours today so he’s shouting Hallelujah as well. God is good – all the time.
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