Home

We did it.

For the first time since 2005, we own a home.

It was a long journey back to home ownership. A long and winding road back.

The first experience was ideal.  We purchased a starter home.  Two years later a new job beckoned and we put it on the market.  There was an accepted offer within two days.

That's how it's supposed to work, right?

House #2 didn't follow the blueprint.  It was a lovely Victorian style home that dated back to the middle of the 19th century.  Leaded and stained glass.  Hardwood floors  Oh, it was also a fixer-upper.

In retrospect, that should have been a clue.  During my AAL years, it was a home and an office.  The job was going well, we liked the house and figured with a few improvements it could be home for a very long time.  So, we invested in the house with an addition.

A master bedroom and bath was the planned addition.  Yet, when the project began, we learned the first floor couldn't support a second.  Very quickly, the plans changed and an additional basement, kitchen and garage were added to the plans to go under the bedroom.

Yikes, it cost more than originally planned, but it was finished in 2000.  We loved it.  We thought it would be home for years and years.

That would be a no.

An unexpected job change in 2005 led us to Indianapolis.  The house went on the market.  It never sold.  No accepted offers.

The bank got it back.  We became renters.  For the next ten years we rented a house about half the size of the Augusta place.  Then an apartment a little smaller than the rental.

Two apartments later we're back in a home of our own.

Space of our own.  No grass to cut and little snow to shovel since it's taken care of by the association.

More space. Three bedrooms, or one bedroom and two "offices."  A basement.  And windows on more than one side.

During the past ten years I grew comfortable with life as a renter. Since fix-it projects leave me shaking and confused - the idea of needing to do more than changing a light bulb now and then is disconcerting.

But, I hear there are people you can hire to take care of mysterious sounds and things that go bump in the night.

It was built in the late 20th century, not 140 years earlier, so there shouldn't be a lot of fixin' required (hopefully).

We're about to find out.