Princeton, IA- My Forever Home

So we moved into my in-laws house after selling our home in Dubuque. We planned on building our dream house on a lot that we had purchased a few years previous. A month after moving in we had been to the All American Home Dealers and had picked out the floor plan and all of the options. We had taken the final cost to the bank and though we had been pre-approved, we were suddenly running into all kinds of obstacles. Everytime we would fulfill a requirement something new would come up. Finally, the bank said that there was nothing in the area that was comparable to what we planned to build and therefore they could not come up with a value for the house. Because they could not assess the value of the house, they could not loan us the money.
Realizing that we could not use the route we had planned, we decided to check with a local builder. We checked out a home that he was building that was similiar to what we wanted to build. Again we had him put together a final cost and presented it to the bank. Because the builder had worked with the bank before they came up with an assessed value of the property. Now they told us that we would be approved if I could find employment. I had quit my job in Dubuque after my maternity leave and planned to stay at home with my kids and possibly do daycare to help provide for my family. Because I had not started daycare yet (they need six months history for the self-employed) they could not count any income for me. I had been looking for a job since moving to the Quad Cities, and though I had been on several interviews I had not had any luck finding employment. I spent several weeks sending out resumes for every position that I was qualified for, but did not get anything.
Finally, one weekend on our way to visit my family, we got into a huge argument, My husband felt we were wasting our time going to visit my family when we had things to be doing, finding a job or looking for a house. We happened to pass a home on our way with a for sale sign advertising an open house later in the day. I called my family and we went back to my in-laws to work on more resumes. Later that day, we left the kids with my in-laws and attended the open house. It was located right along the Mississippi River, which is where my husband has always wanted to live. It was very dated, but it was actually in our price range, had 3 fireplaces and had a lot of potential.