Home for Seven Years

I didn’t work this weekend. It feels funny, as if we have been in town, I have at least previewed 10 to 14 homes every single weekend, but this weekend, I did not work. No open houses, no previews. Well, we did preview one home that we just happened to drive by, and as it was in one of my very favorite neighborhoods, I just had to take a peek, but merely out of curiosity rather than from a professional stand point. So, I did not work.

Instead I was celebrating my boys turning 7. Those tiny things that used to be swinging in our kitchen in their baby swings, that took pretty much two thirds of the floor space. Those two, whom are no longer babies, but about to be 2^nd graders. And whilst celebrating with their friends and our family, I did some time travel in my memories.

You see, our twins’ birthday, as big of a party and celebration it is, intertwines with another, rather big life event, the day that we finally got to move in our freshly built home. 7 years ago, with two newborns and a toddler we were waiting to close on our first home, and to move in. We were at the tail end of the recession, and dealing with the after math of subprime loans and as such the bank wanted to be very, very sure everything was in order and went by the book, and closing took a long time. There weren’t any real issues, but bumps were created by stuff like selling our old stroller on Craig’s List and not having a bill of sale for the funds. So, we ended up explaining to our underwriter that we had to sell the stroller, even though I was pregnant, because it would not fit two babies. So, the process dragged on, and on, and on… until, what was not supposed to happen prior to us moving in happened, the twins were born.

Finally, we were sitting in escrow with two infant car seats on that big table and a toddler reading books, singing in one corner of the room. I honestly have absolutely no idea on what I scribbled my name on, as I was feeding one of the boys tending to two others. So, I signed my life away trusting that my husband knew what we were doing. Page after page, I signed, I signed, and I initialed holding the bottle with my left hand, one of the babies in that same arm, and the escrow agent holding on to the papers as I signed. And then it was done. The process that started in December, was completed, and as an exception to all rules, out of the pity of those watching us, we got the keys to our new home before anything had been recorded. Two hours later the moving truck was parked in front of the house, and we moved into our home.

We bought and built new construction during a time when no one knew if we would ever have neighbors. There was a chance, that looking back seems absolutely ludicrous, that we would be in that neighborhood, at the end of a long street by ourselves with just a couple of neighbors.  That there would never be the park that was intended to be or all those homes they were talking about building at some point. There were rumors about a school, but that seemed like a distant dream, I mean, we did not even have sidewalks, and half of the roads were still forest.

The look that I get when I tell people we moved with two infants and a toddler, is usually a look of utter disbelief mixed with something resembling amazement. However, truth to be told, it was easy. The boys were less than a week old, and as newborns they slept in their car seats and every three hours I fed them. I, myself felt way better without that huge twin belly, and was finally able to move around again. So, all in all, it went well.

In 7 years, the entire neighborhood has been completed. There are no longer empty lots, well there haven’t been in years. My boys have celebrated their birthday at the beautiful community park for years, and next year, we will finally have our very own school too. Homes that used to sell in their 7 to 8 hundreds, are now mostly valued above that magical 1 million mark.