Strap's biggest dream is that one day we could actually own our own home. I also hoped that would be possible one day. But when he was dx I really felt that was a dream that we both would never realize. How could we ever own our own place with the uncertainties that we faced in regards to this disease.
We swore that this last time we moved would be it. We would be renters for the remainder of our lives. Paying someones mortgage for them and never actually having our own home. We were okay with this and actually accepted it.
Then we were forced to move once again as the landlord lost his personal home in the mortgage crisis and needed to move into his rental, our home. We understood the dilemma but we weren't very happy about moving again. We started on the hunt to find a place we could call home for a long term stay. We did find a place. It was quite a bit smaller but the yard and the layout were fantastic for us. It had a 4ft cyclone fence around front that would allow my grand nephew a safe place to play, and me enough room to grow my flowers. The landlords were awesome and we really loved that ours was a corner lot. Although it was a duplex, not having a neighbor on the left really made it seem like a house.
So we moved in. Within a few months the whole Mortgage crisis situation came into play. We were wondering what if any chances we had to actually buy a home. I also worried about the future of this disease that my husband was dealing with would worsen, how could we manage our own place.
It was Strap's dream. So for 6 months we began to concentrate on saving money for a down payment, just in case. We contacted a friend in the business who referred us to a woman here in Napa. She seemed to be very compassionate and understood our needs. We just wanted a little house with nice yard that we could work on. We have great friends and family to support us. A great friends or two that were knowledgeable in home construction. They agreed to help us with cut in labor costs.
We looked at 100s of homes. We ended up putting an offer on this home that we both had fallen in love with. But it was considered a 'short sale' which meant it could take alot of time. We decided to wait. We did continue to look for others while we waited word. Months went by and we decided to put an offer in on another home. This place had issues that would need to be dealt with prior to our buying it. The city had red tagged several areas. The seller decided to fix it but really had to at this point or it wouldn't be sold.
The areas were fixed. Our offer was be considered and we hadn't heard from the 'dream house' at this point. We needed to get this moving. So we pulled our offer, after 4 months of waiting, on the dream house. Our offered was excepted on the 2nd home.
To make a long story short, we dove in probably with our eyes closed, and we both new that it may not work out for us. Within 2 months, the house was ours. We began to work on it to make it liveable. We hired a buddy to refinish the wood floors. Another to paint the interior and we also had a tankless water heater installed. Wow! What a difference. Its looking like a place we can be proud of. All the while we both, in the back of our minds, are concerned regarding whether or not this was a wise choice for us. But we can't undo what we have done. Nor at this point in time would be choose to.
We just did our first major structural change. We put in a sliding glass door. I had to keep my eye on Strap as he tends to push himself and then he's stuck feeling the consequences. So I myself watched him and those that assisted us watched him. We made it through and now we can't imagine there was once a just a window there. Its so beautiful. The doors have the levelor blinds inside. DUST FREE hooray.
No comments:
Post a Comment