How it came to be

As a little girl I remember my Mama driving me into Nampa during summer mornings to attend Bible School with my second cousin, Alyssia.  I remember the dew on the grass and the intoxicating smell of mint fields on the drive from Boise to Nampa.  To this day the smell of a mint field reminds me of those dewy summer mornings.

Fast forward to this year, at the beginning of each year my Husband and I like to lay out what we hope to accomplish in the coming months, these mainly include how we hope to see our business grow and personal goals for our family.  Always at the top of that list is "buy land", past years have come to an end and we would find ourselves still in our suburban subdivision with an HOA that wouldn't stop bugging us and storage facilities spread across town housing our business' equipment.  Something felt different this January though and I told Dusty more than once that it is going to be a good year.

One day in May, I had dropped Radlee, our 5 year old, off at preschool and headed to Costco for a few things.  The way to Costco was the same rural route I've traveled most of my life, past mint, potato, and corn fields.  On this particular day I noticed a for sale sign, as I often do.  The sign was posted in front of a building that has always intrigued me but I kept driving figuring that the same set of excuses would fall into place "too much money" "not enough property" "too much work" etc. etc. etc.  I gathered my things at Costco and headed back to get Radlee from pre-school, I was ahead of schedule and the building filled my thoughts so I pulled into the loooong driveway.  I took note of the agent's name and phone number as well as the address.  The building was rough and neglected but there was something magical about it.  I arrived at pre-school, still ahead of schedule, and put my phone to work googling the address.  It had been a church (I knew that) but before that, a school house, built in 1905, on 2.5 acres and better yet, it was affordable.  At this realization my mind began to race, and the possibilities consumed me.

My day of errands led me to the job Dusty was working on where I casually mentioned that "you know that old church, out on the highway?  It's for sale, and in our price range"  He raised his eyebrows at me and shrugged, I know the same set of "excuses" played through in his head.  That night I pulled up the virtual tour and showed him.  He wasn't immediately sold, and I'm sure his thoughts quickly moved onto something else.  I couldn't let it go.  The next day I called a lender who confirmed it was a commercial building that would require commercial financing and that was the end of her ability to help.  I let it simmer for a day or two and then, on an impulse, called the agent.  He explained some other financing / zoning options and offered to show us the property that weekend.  I set an appointment.  At this point Dusty was only slightly more convinced.  Having not been in the position to buy land for quite a while and having been told "no" several times made him more than a little remiss.

We took the boys and met the agent, who turned out to be someone Dusty knew.  He let us into the building and I was taken back by the overall condition of the interior, the years of neglect that dominated the outside were not present inside.  Sure it was old and vacant and dusty and dirty but overall, it was in good condition.  I explored all of the rooms, the kids made themselves at home and Dusty chatted with the agent.  If I wasn't smitten before I was then, I came home and started to sketch floor plans and make notes of possibilities.  Dusty began to share in my excitement but continued to tell me "don't get your hopes up".  Too late.

We figured out financing, made an offer, and waited.  We had an official grown-up only vacation planned the first weekend of June that we considered canceling "if we got the house".  By the time we were supposed to hear back we hadn't heard anything, the agent explained that this wasn't the usual seller and that it had to go through a local pastor, to his bishop and on to the board of directors for the church.  We expected a delay in response but had no idea what we were in for.  We went on our vacation sure that we would have news by the time we got back.  Nothing.  We waited more.  On our 8th wedding anniversary, June 25, (3 days after the proposed closing date on our original offer) I emailed the agent and asked for a last minute anniversary present of good news, he had nothing.  The following week we received a counter-offer to our original offer that had been submitted over a month earlier, we agreed with a few minor changes and prepared to wait.  The bishop left town. for two weeks.  We waited.  We ran a gamut of emotions during this time, excitement, anticipation, frustration, and at times even anger.  We felt our hands were tied, while we could have walked away at anytime because of the ridiculous amount of time it was taking we didn't want to, we wanted this property.  We had plans drawn and visions just waiting to be executed, we just needed them to say "yes".

One Wednesday in July the boys and I were at a park for play date, the agent called but I let it go to voicemail.  When we left the park I listened... "Annie, patience must be a virtue - they said yes!"  He had called back two minutes later "I can't even believe it,  I just had to call again".  He was as excited as we were.  I called Dusty immediately and we quickly celebrated on the phone.  I spent the rest of the afternoon working out details of the closing and beginning to think about actually moving.

Over the next 2 weeks we continued to hold our breath it wasn't ours until we walked out of closing, I tentatively packed boxes and purged closets, we would drive to the property but not get out of the car.  Closing Friday came, I was like a kid on Christmas eve - so excited that I couldn't sleep.  We dropped the kids off with Grandma and went to the meeting, everything was signed and paid we headed to breakfast while the title company waited to get the sellers document's back from out of state, the final puzzle piece to receiving the keys.  When I went back to check in after breakfast I was told that the Warranty Deed was never sent so it wasn't signed by the sellers and we wouldn't record that day.  I was so upset, as was Dusty, it was a total let down.  We had big work plans for that weekend, but we had already waited almost 10 weeks so 2 more days wouldn't kill us.  Monday came and we received word it was officially recorded and ours at noon, by 12:30 I was there scrubbing the inside and Dusty was outside with a tractor scraping weeds and clearing brush. The agent showed up at 1 and joked that we had wasted no time.  I'm sure he realized, as we did, that it was just the beginning of the work we will do.