In August 2003, thanks to a really great interest rate and a first-time homeowner program, I fulfilled a dream I never thought would be possible: buying a house.
My real estate agent showed me something like 45 houses before I found “The One.” She was and is a saint. Who would have thought that it would be so hard to find a house that met three criteria: three bedrooms, a full basement big enough to hold our pool table and either an extra room for an office, or a master bedroom with enough space to designate as an office.
What I found was a 1.5 story, 1100-sq. ft. house on a tree-lined street on the west side of town. Sure, it had it’s faults. Smurf blue shutters, for starters, and hideous awnings over the majority of the windows, which are plentiful. I waited a year to see how much sun hit the front of the house in summer before replacing the shutters and losing those awnings. Last fall, the emerald ash borer prompted the state to cut down all those beautiful trees lining our street.
I miss those awnings a lot now.
If I ever buy another house, there will be changes for sure. I’d go with one story, for starters. I’d still want my basement, though, because I have just enough tornado paranoia to warrant having one. Never mind that a tornado hasn’t really hit the city in decades. That just means we’re due!
In the meantime, I’ll fix what I don’t like based on the amount of time and money I have at any given moment. My current project is redoing the larger bedroom on the first floor, so that I can move in there and not have to navigate the steps in the middle of the night when I’ve had too many Bacardi and Cokes or glasses of wine. Why tempt fate when “Grace” is not your middle name?
My house may be small and short on closet space, but it’s mine. Sharing it with the others who live here is the hard part.
* This picture was taken prior to me buying the house and was pulled off our county auditor’s web site. Note the shade from the trees that are now gone. Also, the bushes out front were removed before I ever saw the house for the first time.