Story of the House: Part Two
One of Raquel’s and my favorite things to do when we have downtime on a weekend is to get in the car and drive. Sometimes we’ll go exploring places within a couple hours of here to see new things. But most of the time, we like to drive around the housing subdivisions and communities in the area to get ideas for what we want to buy when it comes time.
Earlier this year, thanks to some end-of-the-year blessings, we came to resolve that 2006 wouldn’t complete without the purchase of a home. So when my mom and dad came to visit for a long Easter weekend, we thought it might be a good idea to take them to see a couple communities we had come to appreciate over the years. Mind you, we had no plans to do anything serious…just casual looking, much like our weekend drives. My dad is a residential developer and architect and has been in the industry for as long as I’ve known him, so his opinion on the things we like was valuable to us.
Well, it was more like this: Mom and Dad flew in on the Thursday before Easter. They left on the Tuesday after. Just hours after we signed the contract.
On that Friday morning, Raquel went to work and I met the folks at the hotel. After a leisure breakfast, we headed downtown to do some tourist-type stuff. We went to Old City Park, had lunch at Farmer’s Market and walked around the shops. We still had a little bit of time before Raquel got out of work so I suggested we go check out some things in the Savannah neighborhood. It was my intention to drive around the neighborhood, show Dad the neat look of the houses…full of southern colonial charm…and head on down the road to a similar development and see more of the same.
However, as we drove through the neighborhood in Savannah, we stopped at a couple homes for sale and took the info sheets from the “info tubes” (or the take-ones, as Raquel and I like to call them), the prices on them were such that Dad wanted to stop by the sales office. We ended up being there for almost two hours, walking through the models, being blown away by the prices and the incentives, and even being very drawn-in by a house that we all liked. Mom and Dad were blown away by what was available to buyers there and almost bought a house of their own.
Raquel, though, wasn’t there and didn’t have a chance to see what we had seen yet. So we left, and took our excitement home, eager to share with her. It was a great night, sharing with Raquel all that we had seen and learned that day, playing some cribbage, having some beer, enjoying some BBQ chicken, and eager to go look at more houses later in the weekend. It was a great day and Raquel and I decided that night that we would no longer be casual about learning the process and what was avaialble to us.
The next day, Saturday, was a play day. Mom and Raquel had a Peg O’ My Heart jewelry party hosted by our dear friend and realtor, Sonya, so Dad and I hopped the train to Fort Worth and spend the day out there.
After church on Easter Sunday, we had a forgettable lunch at the Prairie House and we resumed the housing search.
To be continued.