House Hunters

red haired chair climber

I love house hunting - even when it isn't for me. Last weekend we visited Jud and Kara in St. Louis. It was a weekend filled with many fabulous foods and beverages. In addition we got to go on a couple house hunting visits with them and their realtor, Stephanie a Washington, Iowa native who played college basketball at Wisconsin during the Jenny Lillis at Iowa era (now the Drake coach).

We played the Iowa game with her - an offshoot of the Creston game. "Do you know so and so?" Yes, we used to lived right next door to...and so on. Nice young women. Of course. Iowa nice. Meeting Stephanie made me recall the realtors Paul and I have worked with during our lives. We have been fortunate.

Our first realtor way back in 1986, was recommended to us by Paul's predecessor at his Union County NRCS job (it was the Soil Conservation Service back then). Betty Brown knew her way around town. She showed us several properties during our trip to Creston, all while not quite 1-year-old Amy stayed with my parents in Atlantic for the day. Mom said she was happy climbing in and out of a child-sized rocking chair.

view from the north - degreened the siding to

There was really only one house that we had our hearts set on - the one we purchased. It was at the top of our price range but it was one I could be excited about, though it still needed some work. For one thing - it was all green. With some rosy pink fixtures in the bathrooms. Yippy! How very 60's. There was even flat green carpet in the kitchen. How could you?

Our first home had some wonderful qualities too. I loved the light from the large pictures windows, and the entryway. There was a recently installed hot tub in the basement. Mom had a dream that Amy was drowning in it, and she had a broken leg and couldn't rescue her. That didn't come true. Sure, Amy allowed Jud to linger under the water a bit long one time. And Moki the dog tried to turn himself into a boiled puppy once. Thank goodness no real tragedies occurred - phew.

The day we replaced the kitchen carpet - by then stained with Amoxyl pink liquid antibiotic - with oh so 90's linoleum (cream with country blue check) I was in heaven. Then I learned how grimy those little pockets in linoleum can get! Our wonder-dog Moki discovered how easy it was (where there's a will there's a way) to jump onto a chair and make his way onto the built-in desk and across the cabinets to the kitchen counter to eat left-overs. Jud's Spaghettios didn't stand a chance.

Paul and I attempted exactly one wallpaper job together. Evidently he didn't like working with someone suffering from apoplexy when the edges didn't match up well. He worked better with our friend Cheri Finken. Those two paired up to offer themselves up at auction for wallpapering job for bid at the St. Malachy auction. Cheri is much calmer than I am.

A couple times a year the bar sink down stairs would start to gurgle pretty badly when the washer drained. So I'd call Willets and Woosley to come do the Roto-Rooter thing. Soon after we moved in we discovered the furnace was pretty much shot. So we bought a new one through Carrier - and took on more payments. Welcome to the Money Pit! Our concrete block wall slowly creeped inward. After several years of that, Kirby Berry and crew propped up our house on stilts and re-did that corner of the house for several thousand $$. In the meantime we did our best to re-carpet and de-green the place.

In the driveway

We loved most (not all) of the neighbors too. Sharps lived across the street. Amy was one of our first teen sitters. Her brothers were always playing with trucks in their garden. Reicks lived behinds us - both Jenny and Jonathon went to St. Malachy and were both were sitters for the kids. I've often wondered how Jonathon is doing - he had a stroke like brain injury as a very young man. Don and Betty Tyner lived right behind us and they were like pretend great aunts and uncles, loaning Paul their truck to haul things. Betty would ask Amy to play the piano, gushing over the resulting tinkle of the keys. Jud loved watching the construction of their screened in porch when he was 3 or so. He became the builder's best (or worst) friend. "What are you doing now?" The Owens family lived just north of Tyners. Leanne liked to come play HORSE and other games with our family - such a nice kid.

The location of our first house was perfect for school. We could walk the kids one block (Moki even came along) so they could board a bus to take them right to St. Malachy. One year Jenny Reick stopped by to walk with Amy who was so proud in her Velcro Ariel shoes.

As the kids grew up we had a lot of parties there - mostly for kids. For a while the McFees would come over on Sundays and we'd split up the meal - Bobbie would say, "I've got stuff for salad and some chops." and I'd say, "We have beans and some bread" and we'd make a meal together. I so enjoyed those times.

We loved that house - warts and all. It was our first home. There was a lot of living and love there.

great patio