What Would Mike Holmes Do?

AHHH!!! Mike Holmes might go nuts with our house... maybe... maybe not.

We're learning... bed-bugs, a broken furnace, a broken fridge, a broken stove, a lock that doesn't open, paint peeling from the walls because of the condensation from the steam cleaning... ha. That sounds exhausting. Oh well.

7 of us live together, 7 of us stick together, 7 of us combined have 1,000,000 connections to help us get through all of these crazy times, 7 of us have bank accounts that can help all of us, 7 of us pray together because we are on the edge of frustration, 7 of us are still laughing... occasionally.

We got a sweet gift certificate for a great restaurant and we're going out for a fancy supper on Friday. Yay!

At Last

Finally it is ours. Months of planning, negotiating, waiting, and decision making and at last we got our house. We are partially moved in and of course hit a few snags along the way. One of our fridges doesn't work, a ceiling is peeling off, and then of course the gas leak. Only 2 days in and we are sure lots of surprises to come but we did it. I am proud of us all and I am so happy to finally be living in community. Don't worry a housewarming party is already in the works.

In case of breakdown...

On Earth is a community of friends, but it is also an incorporated company. It was an easy legal structure to get done what we wanted to get done.

I just finished preparing our unanimous shareholder agreement. A large part of it speaks to what will happen if things go wrong. If someone dies, if someone becomes incompetent, and if some the shareholders want other shareholder out. It's hard to imagine being in a place where we have to go to arbitration because we can't come to a consensus or a place where we have to force someone to leave.

I really don't think we're really going to need the USA (famous last words?), but it's wise to have it place.

Some people say that a prenuptial agreement takes away the romance. Does a USA put doubt on the quality of friendships?

We Got The House

We move in less than a month!

Here we go again...

Thy Kingdom Come

Enough of this house stress.

B-Rock's blog reminded me about our name and got me contemplating:

Your Kingdom come,
Your Will be done,
on earth,
as it is,
in Heaven

Eugene Peterson translates it as:

Set the world right;
Do what's best -
as above, so below.

I'm drawn mostly to the idea of God's kingdom here on earth; about setting the world right. (And those of you that know me, know that I'm not interested in it in the sense of a theocracy, of imposing so-called biblical morals on all citizens.) I'm interested in how we live our lives in a kingdom way.

I googled "thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven" and found this blog post (and having read only this one post, make no claims as to the quality of the rest of the blog) that got me thinking some more.

I have more thoughts on this, but I want to hear what some of you guys think about our name sake.

Assess This, Mister

I have come into this housing business with a guarded heart. I have wished for it for so long, and knew that it might not turn out as I wish. Yesterday was closing day. Yesterday we found out that the bank assessed the building for a lot less than we were going to pay for it. Yesterday, we managed to negotiate a later closing date to get a second assessment. Yesterday...

I am already learning more about what its like to live in intentional community. I am going to live with beautiful people with beautiful lives who are way different than me. Way different is an exaggeration. Indie rock. Crushes on boys. Christian. Social justice. Etc. Those things are quite similar. The differences are how we relate to indie rock, boys, Jesus, social justice, etc. I need to/choose to guard my heart pretty much all of the time in all situations. I was excited about the house, but I didn't want to talk about it too much, and when I did I liked to frame it with "we don't have it yet, hold your congratulations until closing". My lovely friend Becky, as demonstrated in her last post, loves talking and getting people excited. Thank you, dear Jesus, for making us all different. Thank you for the diversity in our sameness. Thank you for teaching us through each other. Thank you for helping us like different boys. 

Connections

I was so excited about our house today; I told everyone at church.

While I was talking to one lady, her husband approached and I started the story from the very beginning. As I was re-telling our exciting story I realized that the man that I was talking to has his own window installation company. We're going to need new windows within the next few years.

This afternoon I went for a motorcycle ride with my dad. As we were driving down Old Fort Road there was a very slow Harley Davidson in front of us. When we finally reached a fork in the road he pulled over and I looked back at him to say (with my eyes), "You're on a motorcycle! It isn't a horrible thing to go at least 5 km above the speed limit!!" Before my eyes could say anything, I realized it was John, from church. Dad, John, and I went to Timmy's in Ft. Saskatchewan and as we were talking about the house I realized that John is a roofer. We're going to need a new roof ASAP.

I was excited about these connections and when I was watching another movie with some friends they said, "Sometimes it's better to get someone who isn't a friend to do the job so that you can just get mad and say 'DO THE JOB!'" These friends have had the worst experience ever with home renovations. They might be right though.

We're going to have to be careful of who we choose to do the job.

Please give us money

Inspection done - check
Price reduction - check
Large ass deposit - check
Capable lawyer - check
Improving mortgage broker - check
Sassy real estate agent - check

House we love - check!!!!!

Now please give us a mortgage. We are down to the wire. Monday is d-day hopefully all goes as planned and it will be ours.

First Time Home Owners

We're buying a house.  We knew this would be a big deal, and that there would be some hiccups, but some hiccups have manifested in unexpected ways, at least for me.

We really love our real estate agent, she's great.

We're less than thrilled with our mortgage broker.

The lawyer is untested thus far.

The home inspector, apparently, knew what he was doing.

The television reporter smiled a lot (doesn't every home buyer have one of these?)

We're to release our conditions, and release a lot of money, in a few days.  There's still an outstanding issue, but we're hopeful.

And, we're excited.

Right guys?

We Have Arrived!

On Earth is on the internet! Look out world wide web! Look out!