It’s been a while since we talked about our housing situation out loud. When we first broached the subject publicly, it was actually very freeing and relieving. While I was worried that people would think we were just looking to milk Brady’s paraplegia for an upgraded home, your feedback left us feeling validated and understood.
There are many reasons why our house is not a sustainable home for Brady. I know many of you will remember most of them, but I’ll do a very speedy recap.
We have three staircases. A small entrance. Our bedroom is the highest point in the house. Brady can hardly enter our main floor bathroom. All door frames and entrances are too narrow for him to actually wheel through without beating up his knuckles. He cannot reach the microwave without standing. He cannot get into the pantry. Laundry is downstairs. The breaker box is downstairs. Much of our food is stored in the garage or the basement. The stairs off the deck are too tall to get Brady into the backyard safely that way, but going around is a very long route. Brady cannot answer his front door himself.
All of these things can be managed. For now. But likely not forever. And waiting until he cannot actually live his life well is not the ideal. We are really hopeful to be in a different housing situation before we reach that point.
The last time we investigated housing, we didn’t have an income. Understandably, we were a big risk. We tried every avenue possible, but it just wasn’t going to happen. And we understood. We thanked the Lord that Brady was still strong enough to get around in our house, and waited. Since then, Brady has picked up a full time job that he truly loves. Another very clear gift from God! He went from part time to full time to a salaried employee. Our first salary situation! With that guaranteed number, we took to the internet for mortgage calculators!
And YIKES. It looked awfully hopeless! We have a good chunk of projected equity in our home currently, and even throwing ALL of that at a new home, the calculators were approving us for about 250K. Which, if you know the market, you know is nothing. I won’t go into all of our financial information on here, obviously, but while our numbers aren’t perfect, they certainly are better than it seemed the internet believed! So we went to our broker.
I can tell you she gave us a LOT more hope! We were quickly pre-approved for a much higher number than the internet had suggested.
So. Some of the details.
Firstly, we pretty much cannot get a builders mortgage. Those are harder to get in general, so while it may be possible, it would be really really hard and probably cost a lot more up front than we are willing to fork over. We could buy a house that already exists, which is definitely something we would happily consider if anything that suited came on the market. And we have yet to find such a home. There are a lot of bi-levels and two storeys! So we are ideally looking at building a home through a builder like last time, where we would give them a deposit, and then they would carry the mortgage through the build, and we would take it on upon completion.
Fun fact about building houses these days! The cost of materials is SO MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE than it was when we built our current home.
You may have heard mortgages are a lot different these days, and a lot harder to get. So there are loopholes. The biggest one beiiiiing…
We would have to sell our house BEFORE we could begin our build.
😅
So that would be a hurdle to jump/plow through before we could really lock anything in place.
Which will, ironically, leave us displaced!
With five kids.
And a wheelchair.
Could be verrrrry interesting! *finger tenting*
Even with this detail glaring us in the face, and some decent odds stacked against us, I’ll admit, Brady and I are feeling more hopeful, and like this build is inevitable down the road. How soon, we don’t know, but it feels more possible.
We are actually allowing ourselves to talk about it. To think about it. To dream about it! I have began a list of details that are important to change about the next house. Doorways widened, with clear swing hinges. Flooring that won’t warp. Recessed cabinets under countertops so Brady can get closer. Backing for future grab bars and railings down the road. Higher outlets. A shower that isn’t hard to step into. A wall oven with side swing door. Fewer stairs. Main floor laundry. Main floor freezer. A larger pantry that Brady can roll into. A mud room for the wheelchair to drip off its water and muck. A second main floor bathroom, offering some security. The entire property being landscaped to flow smoothly, barrier free, from the front walk, through the garage, into the house, and out into the backyard. A front door that is accessible to all 💜 These are just a few of the things on my list.
The goal to build our absolute forever home is on. God knows what we need, and He always takes care of us. We trust it will come together when its meant to! In the meantime, if you have some great idea of where we could lurk during a home build, please throw ALL your ideas at me! I’m confident things are going to have to get creative to make it all happen!
Good thing God is an artist!