Yeah, I'd Say it's About Time...

Yes, I'm 33 and it's finally happening: I'm moving to a place of my own. In fact, I'm building a house from scratch! Better late than never, huh? It all began in 2001 when I started classes for my Masters in Business. I decided that I'd get a place of my own once I had the degree. I graduated in December of 2005, shortly after Hurricane Katrina visited our little corner of the world. And that event changed just about everything for everyone here...

Houses went on the market in droves. Prices skyrocketed. A real estate agent told me that prices would come down as soon as sellers realized they couldn't get these astronimical figures they were asking. Apparently, the sellers never got the point! I looked at a couple of houses, but they're all so old with their own histories (and problems) that I wouldn't know about until it's too late. And who wants to throw that much money into something that someone else designed years ago?

Then, in February, 2006 my mom and I were driving around noting houses for sale on streets that we never travel. We stumbled on a vacant lot for sale. The neighbors were outside watching their kids play. Darren & Melissa are a nice couple. We asked about the neighborhood and the lot. The really liked the neighborhood, and they explained that their new house and the vacant lot used to be one big lot. They had subdivided it and sold the other half. Now the new owner was turning around and selling it. The seller was asking $135,000 for the lot, and Darren said she must have come down on the price since the last time he had heard. I thank God for this find. I consider it a blessing.

Being the creative perfectionist that I am, I decided that I'd rather design and build my own place from scratch than to buy from someone else. I called and made an offer, and we eventually settled on $128,000. A couple of months later (and after some last-minute wrangling by the seller to get out of her signed contract), I was the owner of my own vacant lot.

So now I'm definitely moving into a place of my own. And after 33 years, I'd have to say it's about time!