Gosh, it’s been a busy time! The holidays, putting our current home on the market, and … dum, dum, dum, dum….

We have a house under contract!

My husband was surprised that I didn’t write about this already – I’ve been trying to write this post for over two weeks. I have a lot of resistance to sharing about this, but here goes!

Over the last few months I’ve written about being honest with myself about what I want (integrating more nature into my daily life), clarifying what it looked like and moving toward that vision. It culminated with us making an offer on a home that seemed to have been drawn to us magnetically (seriously, no hyperbole intended). Then the house was pulled off the market.

This entire process has been very spiritual and expansive for me, as I’ve consciously had to allow for shifts in my way of being.

It’s been take action and let go, take action and let go, take action and let go. Much more letting go than taking action, actually. That isn’t historically my strong point. No, I tend to hold on with my fingernails dug in, thinking that something should happen the way I want it to happen, just because I want it. (Can anyone relate? :))

So this letting go has been really powerful for me because it’s taken a lot of conscious releasing of my will on a continual basis, and trusting that G-d will take care of things better than I can, so I can let Him do what is best without trying so hard to make it happen.

Alright, let me get to what has happened as a result of all of this letting go because I know that’s what you want to hear. 🙂

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After the house fell through, our motivation and commitment to make the move took a big hit.  My husband and I agreed it would be helpful to keep us emotionally connected to the idea of living there if we did something active towards that goal.

When we had an opportunity to be in that general area, I suggested to my husband that we might as well go spend a few more hours there and look at some other properties.

We contacted the agent and made plans to check out a few interesting properties. He set everything up and we agreed to an approximate time to meet. When we checked in with him a half hour before our arrival, he asked us to call him once we were there and ready for him to pick us up.

Since the car accident a few months ago when I was rear ended, I have some symptoms that make traveling taxing for me, so I arranged to stay in a friend’s guest room to rest before looking at properties. That’s where I was when my husband went to call the agent, and as I stood by the window that happened to overlook the house that we had made the offer on, a strong feeling went through me.

“That’s my house.”

Now this wasn’t logical since obviously it wasn’t our house; we had detached ourselves from that as an option and were moving on by looking at other properties. But it wasn’t a matter of logic; it was more like an instinctive knowing flashed through me.  Which of course I immediately dismissed, because that’s what I do – I ignore illogical things and give them logical names like wishful thinking. But it wasn’t wishful thinking.

My husband came back in a few minutes later with a strange look on his face, and announced, ‘I just spoke to the agent.’

Well, since he had gone out to call the agent that was no surprise, but the look on his face was. I said, “Okaaaay, but why do you look like that?”

It turns out that just before my husband called, the agent had been on the  phone with the seller of the first house.The seller announced he would sell his house to us if we would agree to a higher price to match an offer he got from someone else.

With suppressed excitement, my husband asked, “So what should we tell him??”

Feeling more irritated than excited, I responded with very measured tones, “We’re going to look at the other properties because that’s what we came here for. Very nice that he’s ready to sell all of a sudden but that doesn’t mean that we’re ready or interested; I’m not interested in him yanking our chain and playing games with us.”

We agreed to set aside the first house mentally and to consider it only after looking at the other properties scheduled.

Off we went to look at other homes. There was one that was particularly interesting and financially would have been a really smart move, but there wasn’t enough air and light for my preferences, and no view from the first floor. If I were moving to better my situation financially it would have been perfect but I want to upgrade my quality of life and that house didn’t match in that regard.

When we finally finished looking at all the properties, we sat down to analyze the ins and outs of each one. They were each interesting in very different ways, and clarifying how each one fit into our vision was very important.

Finally, we agreed that even at the higher price point, the first house would still best meet our needs and would be a good value for us.

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Our new home is now under contract, with the closing scheduled for March!

What’s the house like? A reader who got the early scoop in a private conversation asked me for more details, and was hoping I would share pictures. Honestly, the house isn’t too exciting to look at, especially since it’s been split into two apartments and rented out. (Remember I said in a past post that I’m good at seeing behind the mess?)

Here’s the quick story behind the picture above. When my husband wanted to take a picture I thought, ‘This is going to be my house one day and then I’ll appreciate a picture of the first time I was there.’ Yes, that was my thought before I ever walked in!

Here are the basics – it’s a nice sized house that we can easily convert to a single family. We’ll have additional bedrooms for hosting our married couples (we have no guest room right now). It has what in many cities in Israel would be considered a large yard; at 350 meters, it’s massive compared to my current garden of 28 meters! (It’s about 1/12 of an acre, so it’s a very small yard by US terms!) Right now it’s a mass of dirt and weeds. There is a porch upstairs that is smaller than my current porch, but at 40 meters is still a very good size.

(I’m sharing a video we took but it automatically uploaded in a much larger format and I don’t know how to change that. If it’s too frustrating to watch it, the most important part is what you hear (the wind and animal sounds) – or don’t hear (traffic)- in the background. :))

It’s centrally located and a short walk (6 minutes) to the synagogue and supermarket, which is important to us since we have a child who is a reluctant walker and that has been very limiting.

There are renovations we plan to do to make the space work better for us (obviously in addition to general sprucing up and updating). I kept looking at the video we took of the kitchen when we walked through and saying, something doesn’t make sense about this layout – why in the world did they put the kitchen here?!?

I decided we would move the kitchen to a different area and what do you know? When I  got a copy of the building plans I saw the kitchen was supposed to be built right where I want to move it! Its seems the contractor decided it would be more cost efficient to dump it into a small awkwardly located area that the front door opens directly onto. (When looking at the picture above, it’s located on the left behind me. We plan to move it to the right, where the four windows are.)

Are you wondering you wondering why I felt pulled to this house in particular?

Location, location, location.

Since it’s the last house on the block, it has lots of open space all around. (Pic taken by agent in the early summer when everything was still green.) You can see the palm grove running along the side of the house.

Looking out the front door we have this beautiful view.

Where is it? This is located in a small district in northern Israel called Yavne’el.

When are we moving? We plan to move when the school year ends; this is somewhat flexible and could be a bit earlier depending on the buyers of our current home.

So it’s really happening! It’s been so amazing to watch this stage of our lives unfold and I’m continue to look forward to how other pieces fall into place!

Avivah