The Thursday Ramble: Home

Last week Doc Spo posted a 99 Questions to Ask Your Grandparents, about a favorite or memorable home. This got me to thinking about the places I have lived since moving out of my parents home. 

In 1980 I was hired by a home building company in Orlando, I shared an apartment for a couple of years with my brother, and later with the person who would be my first spouse. Those were utilitarian places of no merit other than being closer to work and the tourist zone. 

I built my first home in 1982, a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home,  with a one car garage, it was about 1,000 sq. ft. of living area. For anyone thinking mortgage rates are high today, I was a first time buyer who qualified for a special discount rate of 13.5% (fixed for 15 years.) 

A year or so after I moved into that one, I built another home. A smaller 2 bedroom, 1 bath, a two unit building. I sold half of the building to my middle brother, and I bought the other half. I never lived there. I rented it for a few years, and parted with it when I parted with the first spouse. My brother still lives there. 

After the duplex was finished, interest rates came down a bit, we sold the first house and I built the third house (second one I would live in.) It was larger about 1250 sq. ft., 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a nice kitchen, and a two car garage. It was a modest home, but I customized it heavily, with nicer doors and trim, redesign on the kitchen, larger enclosed patio. I also built in 71 days from the day the building permit was issued, until the power was turned on and we moved in. I lived in that one until I moved out of Florida and sold it. 

When we moved to Kentucky we had a long weekend to go house shopping, by the end of the second day we had a contract on a nearly finished new home. It was about 1750 sq. ft, two large bedrooms, a large office area that could have been enclosed as a 3rd bedroom, 2 full baths, a two car garage. It is the only home I have lived in that had stairs and a fireplace. The living, dining room, entryway and kitchen had 16 foot ceilings. It was very stylish, very pretty. The largest and in many ways the nicest home I have ever lived in. Lexington was an easy place to live, but it lacked museums, gardens, restaurant variety, culture and shopping we both craved. Traffic is terrible because of a poorly designed road network, my 4 mile commute often took 30 minutes or more.    

A couple of years while I was in law school, I rented a tiny efficiency apartment near the University in Louisville. It had been the living room of grand old brick house, plus a bathroom built in under the stairs. The owner lived upstairs. I would drive in on Monday, study, sleep and study until my classes were done for the week, then go back to Lexington.  Eliminating the commute, allowed me to take Saturdays off. 

When I took the job in Washington DC, I rented an apartment in Crystal City (if you have flown into National Airport, this is the area between the airport and the Pentagon. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath apartment probably about 1,000 sq. ft. The kitchen was tiny and dated. The parking garage was a nightmare and I was driving the largest car I ever owned. It was a five minute walk to the Crystal City Metro Station. I knew when I rented it, it was temporary. If the job worked out, I would be looking to buy. It did, and I did, about a year later. If that apartment had been available to buy - I would have bought it. Amazon now has a massive office building across the street from it. 

I moved from there to a 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, condo that is about 1,120 sq. ft., plus a glass enclosed conservatory. For those not familiar, a condo is an apartment or flat that you own, along the right to use common areas such as the pools and gym.  There are a little over 1,000 apartments in four high rise towers in the community. We are a ten minute walk from the Huntington Metro Station. Over the years we have made it our own.  When I moved in I painted and updated all of the electrical fittings and light fixtures. A few years later we put hardwood floors in all but Sweet Bear's bedroom, the kitchen and baths. We had both bathroom replaced with very custom work. I debated long and hard about tearing out the tub and putting in a shower, the experts all tell you not having a tub will hurt on resale, ultimately we decided we were doing this for us, not for resale, and I wanted an age friendly shower.  The last item was the kitchen remodel.  COVID delayed that work for a couple of years, and supply chain delays made it more complicated, but we waited and custom designed what we wanted, the way we wanted it. I enjoy it everyday. 

If I had to pick a favorite of all of these, it would be the condo that we live in. We have remodeled it to our taste and to fit our needs. The location is easy to live in (it would be nice to be in Crystal city, but it would have cost another half-a-million-dollars to be there.) It is Home.