JOURNEY TO OUR DREAM HOUSE

Nikki at Blah, Blah, Blah Blog has sent out a challenge to show your journey to your dream house. Our trip has taken 50 years and certainly didn't end up like I dreamt it would.

This is our first apartment. We had two rooms and a bath with no closets in a basement. It really was a dump, but what did we know? We were 19 year old newlyweds, college students, and the price was right - $45/month. I made new curtains and cleaned it up; we were happy.

After a few months, we moved up town (literally), and now had two rooms and a bath still in the basement but with three closets. I made more curtains, we nested here for two years.

Finally, we were out of college and moved to the BIG city. We now had a two bedroom apartment on the second floor. We could see the sun shine again!

We began to long for a yard; but couldn't afford to buy a house, so we moved to this two bedroom duplex. I made more curtains, but we obviously didn't do much yard work!

Our big dream to buy a house came about. We were 23 years old, and paid $15,000 for this cutie on a half acre in the middle of the city.

Graduate school beckoned, and we moved back to the college town. We bought this little house for $12,500.

Now adventure was calling. We moved to Montana to a new job sight unseen. There was nothing to rent or to buy, so we lived in a motel for 6 weeks until finding this house to rent.

The nesting urge was really strong, and we found this house to buy. We became a family of three here.

A new job and an opportunity to return to Colorado. With the job came this rent-free 1898 house that the city engineer had always lived in. We were thrilled - lots of charm, but it wasn't ours. We tried to buy it, but they wouldn't sell. We became a family of four in this beauty.

So, after two years in the old house on the hill, we built a new rancher with three bedrooms, two baths, and a family room with a gorgeous fireplace. I made more curtains, but we still longed for the old house on the hill.

Two more years have gone by, and they finally decided to sell the house to us. So, we moved back to this great house with wonderful porches. We did mountains of work, stripping 9 coats of paint off of the old woodwork. It was a great house for holiday celebrations with our extended family.

A job change required a move up the road 90 miles, so we bought this typical 1970's tri level with four bedrooms, three baths, and a huge family room. It was a great house to raise teenagers in.

Empty nest for us and the old-house bug bit again. We bought this 1904, five bedroom bungalow with a huge dining room. We put in tons of money, tons of work, and I made more curtains than ever. This was a fun house to decorate and entertain in. But after two hip replacements, all of the stairs got to me and it was time to downsize. This charmer of a house sold in a flash!

So in a hurry, we bought this four-bedroom rancher because we liked the neighborhood. We didn't expect it to be our 'forever' house; and we certainly didn't dream that we would grow to love it so. Since moving here 11 years ago, we have added hardwood floors, crown molding, screened in the porch, painted and painted, and made it our own. No more curtains as I finally have interior shutters all over the house. It's so easy to live in this house, and it has become our dream house that we never dreamt about.

Thanks for going on our journey with us.

Sally