This last week I haven't blogged much because I was hoping my next blog would contain good news about a new house. But nope, not yet and I am the most frustrated and stressed yet. Last week we saw three great houses. We were outbid on sunday for the first, the next day we our realitor and us all thought we had one, there were no offers. After the offers were presented, the other realitor let more people come through and squeezed more offers out and we again lost it. This was very frustrating not just for us but our realitor was very upset with the situation. This one hurt the most. Not because it was the best house, but because we were almost positive we had it and even though it wasn't perfect, we were excited about the possibilities it had and the location was so good. I really don't like the way realitors work here. It is down right dirty and the whole bidding war thing is not putting any more money in anyones pocket because you have to go out and pay that much more for a new house. The only person pocketing the benefits are the realitors. Higher offers equals more commision.

Now we are back to square one. No good houses have come on the market, all the ones we liked sold and we have to be out of our house in 49 days. It isn't that easy just to find a place to live with three kids. I need to be close to the kids schools and I am babysitting a one year old three times a week as well.

I am finding it so hard to trust things will work out. This is very mentally draining, and I feel it is very unfair as we keep coming in second every time we go for a house. We are giving great offers but someone always puts a tiny bit more and wins. I am at a point where I dread phoneing our realitor to look at houses, and cringe everytime I see a great house because I know it is going to slip out of my hands.

I then look at the verse on the side bar of my blog

. . .trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. . .

Milestone

Aidan has reached another milestone. He is now officially riding his bike without training wheels. We had taken them off at the start of summer but he didn't do so great. We decided to wait a bit. He was very scared and everytime we asked to take them off he refused so I didn't want to push it. His training wheels were worn right down to tiny rims and I noticed the other day they weren't even touching the ground. So Steve took them off today and Aidan had no problem hopping on and taking off as though he had been doing it for ages. I am glad we waited until he was very ready and now Cassi wants to try too.....but I don't think she is quite ready.
Sorry, no pictures of him riding, maybe next time.

Another weekend flies by, busy as always. We did get a chance to see another house which we thought looked great on the internet but when we got there it was a huge disapointment. Stinky, dirty and well not worth the big money price tag. Our realitor said he would not let us buy it and thought it was way overpriced. So we will keep looking. No biggy, I didnt like the area of this house at all so it was a bit of a relief for me when it got knocked of our list.

I seem to have searched MLS over and over this weekend thinking I will find something new. Which shouldn't happen because I get all the new listing emailed to me by our realitor. There are a few houses that are a bit above our price range that we may go see, only because they have been sitting on the market a bit and the price may come down. I would sooner get a house undermarket value then thirty grand above, which was what we would have payed for the last house we bid on. So tonight we will check out three more homes. Who knows, maybe we will see something we like.

We took the kids to Kilcona Park this weekend. They needed a little break from all this. They of course had a blast. They love the 'pirate ships'. For anyone else that goes there, enjoy it now because Steve was talking to a worker there and they plan to tear it down this fall because of safety issues and may possibly leave one of the ships on a hill there just to display. Hopefully they will build a nice new one to replace it.

We managed to snap a few family pics which is next to impossible with all three kids.

No house yet. We were outbid again. No surprise on this one. We were pretty sure this would happen, and there were 10 bids. Actually, we were second highest but aren't too heartbroken. We just keep moveing along and pray something great comes up.

one down, nine more to go.....

Talking to someone recently, they told me they put offers on ten houses before they got one. So one down, 9 more to go!
We had a shot at a house last night. A great house, but a house that required a good amount of cosmetics done. It was built in 1979 and ALL original. But the layout, location and yard were awesome so we gave it a shot. We gave a great offer considering there were 3 others, we then got a called back and said if we uped it about $5 grand we would have it. We pulled. We thought our first offer was too much for the house and we knew we couldn't afford the work if we went too high. So someone got stuck with paying a huge amount for a house that is going to be pricey to fix up.
So now it is on to house #2. It takes offers in three hours. Our realitor is coming soon to draw one up. We will give the best offer we can but this house is too good to be true and could go for way to much then we could possibly imagine. It is an older home, (1960) but all done. We could move in and not have to do a thing. Yes, Steve would be bored but I am sure we could find other projects to do. I feel this house could be too much out of our reach, but our realitor still thinks we should take a shot. We would kick ourselves if it went for a great price because everyone got scared of the bidding wars and pulled out.
If this doesn't work, then we keep looking. We know we will find something. We have a good range of price to work with and something has bound to come up and we will jump on anything that does.
One last thing.....I need to put a plug in for our realitor because we are overly impressed with everything so far. This is the first time working with him. We kind of just phoned him out of the blue and he is very good at what he does. So if anyone is looking for a great realitor in Winnipeg, contact Kevin Moist.

Relief. That is what i felt when the realitor FINALLY phoned us later monday night that the house was officially sold.
We had started showing the house last wensday and had about 20 people through. Monday night we took offers. Our realitor though at least two were coming but the one pulled out and the other people picked out a different house. There was also someone who pulled out because they didn't want to get stuck in a bidding war. So, we were stuck with one offer. Which was fine. It only takes one person to buy anyways.
So it is sold for what we wanted. We are out in two months. Quicker then we thought but I know things will work out. God worked out our last move so I know this move will work out too.
We are very surprised this house went for as much as it did. Considering we bought it for cheap only a year ago. This house has the trap door basement thing, it is built in 1914, a busy street and small yard so that scares away alot of buyers, so we knew it could be a hard sell so Praise God we were able to sell it in the first week. Maybe we could have gone above list price if we were in a better time year but all that matters is it is done.
As well, this was a cash deal, so we don't even have to wait for financing.
.Now, it is finding a house. We need to upgrade and as much as i really really don't like bungelows, that is what we are looking for. We like that bungelows have big basements, so hopefully we can find a good sized one with full basement to give us alot of room.
I will keep you all updated in the house search. We aren't picky. We just want good bones and a good lot and of couse good area, cosmetics can be changed and aren't expensive. We are looking up in North Kildonan, that way we can be close to Aidan's school
Now since we were kicked out all weekend, here are some pics of the things we did to keep busy

SOLD

The house is officially sold. I will update the blog with the whole story when I get a chance. We are off to find a house tomorow! We have to be out by October 15 so you can pray that we find something in time.

Home Sweet Home

We are home! We left Calgary late friday afternoon and drove to Swift Current for the night. We then got to Brandon about 12:30 in the afternoon and spent the afternoon there and got to Winnipeg saturday night. We are all tired and yesterday was spent doing laundry, unpacking, and of course last minute projects on the house that had yet to be finished.
The trip went really good. Liam did excellent on the drive. He kept occupied with movies, music, toys and of course lots of food. As long as he was eating, he was happy. The last hour was the hardest for him and we had to make a pitstop for smarties just to get through the last stretch.
We arrived sunday night to our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn which is near the airport. The hotel was very nice, not a hotel we would have stayed at if we had to pay for it, way out of our price range. So that was a nice treat. The only thing was we had to drive to stores and stuff since there was not much within walking distance, except for Tim Hortons. There was a nice bike trail that led right to the airport and a treadmill in the workout room so I was able to do lots of running. I must say, Calgary has alot more hills then Winnipeg!
The week consisted of Steve working from 8 - 3 sometimes he was done earlier. I did stuff with Liam in the morning. We went to the Zoo, the museum, a few malls, Prince's Island park, paddle pool, Ikea and walks to the airport. In the evenings we hung out with Steve and hit Ikea again one night, and spent an evening in Banff. We had borrowed Steve's parents GPS for our van. It was amazing and literally lead me to any place I wanted to be. This was probably the only reason I was able to expore all these places, drive downtown, etc..... since I am very scared of driving in cities.

Here are a few pics from the zillions I took. On this trip I decided I didn't just want a new camera, but I needed one LOL!! My camera is great and all but I am ready for an upgrade and have been eyeing a certain one for a while now.

Liam playing on the road.
Relaxing on the bed in the hotel.

The view from our window

Wensday morning we went to the Zoo. I haven't been to the Calgary Zoo in years as well. I didn't realize how big it was. I must say it is an amazing zoo. We spent over 4 hours there and could have stayed longer if Liam wasn't getting tired and cranky. Aidan would have LOVED the prehistoric park with all the dinosaurs.

We don't have giraffes at the Winnipeg Zoo so Liam thought these guys were pretty neat!Wensday evening we headed into Banff. We went with the group that Steve is working here with. Banff was a little disapointing. It had been a few years since we have been here, the last time Aidan was a baby. They were ripping down mainstreet so the sidewalks were cramped and the views weren't too pretty. It was too bad for the people who came with us since most of them had never been here before.

Thursday morning we went exploring. We found this cool park called Prince's Island Park. It is right downtown and has some great walking paths.

We found a paddling pool here so Liam had a little dip in his undies

Enjoying our picnic lunch.

Our hotel was close to an airplane museum so we walked there one evening to take a few pictures. Liam just wanted to climb the fence! Friday morning we checked out the Telus World of Science Museum along with the Children's museum. Honestly, I wasn't overly impressed with it but Liam liked it

I was also able to meet up with Jamie and Erik for lunch on friday before we headed home. It was so good to see them, especially after all that has happened. I couldn't believe how big Keziah was. She sure has grown. Liam and Micah were a little shy at the start but were playing great at the end.
Now it is getting ready to sell the house. It is on MLS and we start showing on the 8th. Click HERE to see it. You can also view it on our realitors website HERE