My Story…Part 16

     We lived in a 2-bedroom one bathroom apartment for a year. We honored our lease, but we looked for somewhere permanent to live. Something to own.

     I had talked to real estate people, mortgage companies and my dad and her parents. The housing market was very intimidating. I didn’t know how I was going to afford anything for my family on my meter reading wages. I thought that we would never move out of that apartment. I thought we would have to renew the lease. I was really stressing out.

     But fortunately we found a condo that an old lady was selling so she could move to Texas to be closer to her son. We offered her much less for the place than her asking price. The story we got was our real estate lady and her’s, along with her son, talked her into selling it for the price we offered. She accepted. It was easier to just get rid of it to the first offer. Plus we were a new family and she was willing to cut us a break.

     The condo was a 2 bedroom, 1-1/2 bath two story attached to other units in one building. It was older, but it was perfect. We stayed there and updated it.  Two years later, my wife at the time, got pregnant with another baby. We were better prepared for this one.

     The only problem was the condo was too small. So after having the second baby in 1996, we moved into a house for a killer deal.

     My dad had remarried and moved into my stepmom’s house. The house he was living in needed to be sold. The deal was that he was going to sell it to us for exactly what he bought it for. He didn’t want to make money on me. He just wanted to get rid of it.

     So now, in 1997, I was married for 4 years, had 2 daughters and was on my way to moving into our third place. Strangely enought, I was moving back “home”.  This was the house where everything started happening for me. Where I had come home to from college, met my first wife, and was now going to move my family in to.

     It was cool in a way, but also made me want to get back out. I felt grown up, responsible, and wanted a real place of my own. This house would do for a while.

     We updated alot of the interior and cleaned up the yard. We invested in a new roof and new garage doors all in the ultimate plan to sell it and build a new house out in the country.

     This all worked to a tee! We executed it beautifully and 1-1/2 years later we were sitting down with a builder, planning out floor plans for our brand new house.