Some GREAT news!

It won't look like this much longer!

I've been wanting to blog about this for awhile now, but didn't want to jinx our chance by talking about it and getting my hopes up. We have been planning on re-siding our house, getting new windows and making a bigger dining room since the beginning of the year. We had someone come by the house back in January(it was funny when they came b/c we had our friends three kids for date night along with ours and I was very pregnant, I had to tell her we were just watching some of them) talking about this grant that the city was doing. We signed "intent to apply" and didn't think much of it until we received a letter back in late April. It told us to go to a meeting at the end of May to hear more. We were not even going to go to it b/c we thought that it was a far shot we'd be able to get this grant. We had our loan application for the bank all filled out and I was planning on running it to the bank the day after the meeting, but Brent went to the meeting and came home feeling like we might have a shot, so we sent our application in the next day. The city is giving grants for 8 houses for repairs and for energy efficiency. Eight houses! I am pleased to say that we received a letter today saying that we are one of them!!!! I am so excited about this!! This is a HUGE answer to prayers. The max a person can have is $20,000 and of that $20,000 we only have to pay 15%!!!!! So for about $3,000 we will be getting $20,000 worth of work done!! Also, they require licensed contractors to do all the work, so WE DON'T EVEN HAVE TO DO IT!!!! I'm not sure I know what that is like! The more I think about it, the more I feel God is really blessing us. We could have found out about this next year and we'd have had it all done, or we could have not even tried for it and been stuck with a huge loan that would have maxed us out. We're not going to be able to do everything that we originally wanted but I don't care b/c this is great and we'll be able to do those things eventually. I'm so excited to get new siding and windows!! Our goal was to have a more efficient house anyway, and this grant is all about that. We'll be getting contacted within the next few weeks to get going on everything. I'm so excited!!