Our House-The begining

Well kids believe or not we have now been in our house 13 years!  This house is the longest house your mother and I have ever lived anywhere!  Your mother will have to comment on her time frames in the comment section but mine are below.

1. 0-8 years old-Castle Ct Albany, NY
2. 8-13 years old-Schalren Dr.-Latham, NY
3. 13-18 years old-Oakwood Dr.-Apalachin, NY
4. 18-20 years old-College
5. 20-21 years old-Gaithersburg, MD
6. 21-22 years old-Rockville, MD
7. 22-22 years old-as Taylor says "having sleep overs with your mother"
8. 22-23 years old-Arthur Ave.-Virginia Beach, VA
9. 23-28 years old-Rugby Rd.-Virginia Beach, VA
10. 28-32 years old-Thoreau Dr.-Chesterfield, VA
11. 32-40 years old-Netherwood Rd-Rocky Mount, NC
12. 40-105 years old-Little Falls Dr.-Concord, NC

Anyway this week I thought I would show you our current house as it was being built and at the end of the week some before and after pictures. 

I started working here in January of 2000 but we wanted you guys to finish up your school year so the plan was not to move till the summer.  We looked at 1324 houses that winter and everything in your mother's eyes was 2nd best as compared to this house.  The only model they had was out by Lake Norman and we really liked that neighborhood but the base prices started $25,000 above our neighborhood (where the poor people live) so we decided this neighborhood was great.  Actually there is another neighborhood by Rob & Dawn's house that was a lot closer to things but again more expensive.  Now that we live here we are very happy we choose this neighborhood!

So in February we signed the papers and were on our way.  Your mother was extremely happy because this was only the 2nd house we bought brand new so she got to pick out everything from top to bottom including closet stuff, faucets, floors, trim...etc.  The first house we bought was brand new too and we did have choices...this faucet or nothing...this light fixture or nothing...and so on.  I always tell people that are buying or building a house that when we signed the papers the lady told us that it would be 6 months...she said now you are going to come by and things will be going up left and right and you will think you can get in early but then you will come by and see things haven't changed in 2 weeks so trust me it will be 6 months and you know what she was right almost to the day!!

Ok I know I am getting long winded but I am trying to explain everything today so I don't have to write a lot the other days.

So from here your mother had to go to the place that had all the things she could choose...for some reason I really had no interest in this at all...probably because they said it would take 3 hours to do which in my mind meant it would take your mother 5 hours!  Luckily your Grandmother Clark volunteered to go with her.  What they do is give you a budget for example they say that they can put light fixtures in the entire house for $1500 but if you want something different or better then you just pay the extra...luckily you can add it to your mortgage so we didn't have to come out of pocket with most of it....remember we are broker than broke.  So they scheduled their time and off they went...as I figured 6 hours later they were calling me with what they couldn't decide on...front door because it was expensive but we did it and the fireplace.  I wanted the one we have because I thought the house looked modern and it fit it better...your mother wanted the one that had bricks on the hearth...she still brings that up.

With that done all that was left was the closets and I had to meet the guy at the house to do that...of course what they give you in the contract is the basics and to get the kind where hangers will slide all the way across is extra and to get shelves is extra and so on...unfortunately I had to write the check to this guy.

Ok we ended up selling our house in Rocky Mount to the relocation company and did pretty good...we paid $92,000 and sold it for $138,000 eight years later...BTW our payments were $800 a month on a 15 year loan that was down to 12 years and we were paying $1000 a month so if we had stayed in Rocky Mt our house would have been paid off 4 or 5 years ago...makes me sick!  I could be retired with Mr. Robinson!  I know I am getting side tracked and long winded...but now that the house was gone and all our stuff was in storage the only logical thing to do in your mothers mind was head to the lake for the summer so off you went!!

Once school started we had to stay in a hotel for a couple weeks but it was a Residence Inn and the rooms had bedrooms so cozy but doable.  It was also a memorable car week...Ryan wrecked his car while looking at a girl, Ryan ran a stop light with a camera so we received an electronic ticket and someone busted out the van's window in the parking lot of the hotel.

Ok so I have 6 blogs planned to show you from start to finish our house being built.  I will not be doing a lot of writing since I wrote a novel here.   I don't want to jinx us but the house has been a good one with very little problems and not that I know many of the neighbors but it turned out to be a great neighborhood with no crime or trouble...at least once the Hagadorn kids left!

 

I told you we were at the end of the street when we moved in...also did you notice no pine trees.