Our New Home

   One of the most exciting, material things for me happened back in 1971. We had been married 8 years when we moved into our newly built home.
                                     Through word of mouth I  had heard about a new development being built up in the township. I decided to look into it, even though I was thinking that we would be never be able to do this. We were not financially stable back then, and because of that I thought it could never happen.
But,what could it hurt to look into having our own home? I had to at least try, if it didn't work out, then it didn't, but how would I know that unless we tried?
 One day when the boys were being extra good, I found some time on my hands and got up enough nerve to call the builder. He asked if  he could come out to talk to us. Without asking my husband, I made arrangements for Mr. Builder to come.
  The day before he was to come I told my husband what I had done. He said "you are going to waste our time, and don't get your hopes up."
   When Mr. Builder came to talk to us, I pretty much had talked myself  out of this dream of mine. The three of us sat down at our kitchen table and he talked to us, explaining everything financially. I looked at my husband and we were both smiling and I knew he was thinking what I was. "This just might work! "  
   Mr. Builder rode us up in his fancy car to show us the lots that were still available. I wanted a ranch, but being pregnant with my fourth child, they said we should build a two story with four bedrooms.   
  I wanted a level lot, but Mr. Builder said he could not build a two story house on the lot I wanted. He showed us the lot that would work for us, and I grudgingly gave up my dreams of a ranch home and a level lot. What was important was the fact that we were going to have our own home built.
   We did all the necessary paper work, gave the down payment and went out to celebrate. During the next couple of months, we would drive up to see them building our home, that was exciting times. First we saw them lay the footer, then each week we would watch as the construction
workers would finish one section and go on to another. 
We took pictures of our home being built and when our parents came to visit, we would drive them up to see the progress that had been done.
    Finally on March 13, 1971, we were able to move into our own newly built home. Oh, what a happy day that was for our family. There had been a lot of set backs that happened during the time our home was being built. We question ourselves many times, wondering if we would ever move in or call it our own. That will be a story for another time, the main thing being, we were in.
    The day we  moved in was a cold, snowy, wintry March. The 13th to be exact. We found out that it was cold and not getting warmer in the house.Our third son had a bad cold and needed him to be warm. When my husband came home from work he called the company who put the furnace in and asked if someone could come out and fix it.  That wonderful man, who had not even been paid for his job yet, had to travel an hour to fix our furnace, but did so because of my son, and the fact that I was pregnant.
   Our home seemed so huge to us, we had moved from a small 4 room duplex to a home with 4 bedrooms, bath, kitchen, dining room, living room, powder room, and basement. To us it was a castle.
The boys had so much room to play, my kitchen was state of the art ( what does state of the art mean anyhow?) and my husband had a place for his tools. Even our car fit nicely into the garage.
    Because we built on an empty lot, there was a lot of ground work to be done, We had to hire a construction worker to come in and level the lot.  My husband had to build a retaining wall, order stone for the driveway,and seed the yard. There was nothing but dirt when the weather was dry, and mud when it rained. Once all of that was done, we could enjoy our new home,
       It has been 41 years since that day, and our home has so much history that I can never imagine leaving.
Our sons, and even my husband say that we should down size, but I can't even begin to think of leaving, my husband has put so much work into our home and all the memories are still alive.
 When we walk into the boys one bedroom, we see a hole in the cupboard from one son shooting his B.B. gun inside of it.  The room where my other son tied a string around a fountain pen and twirled it around as it put ink stains into our new ceiling, the traps still hanging in the basement from when our two older sons went trapping for raccoon and fox. The yard where we had 1st, 2nd and 3rd base so embedded into the ground that we thought grass would never grow there. The drums being played so loud that we could not hear ourselves talk, The weekend we went to Harrisburg with the two youngest and left the oldest at home. They had a Woodstock party that lasted the whole weekend.
The year the shed blew off of our property from the snow storm, the year we all went Christmas Caroling on our street and no one opened their doors!
Those are just some of the funny memories I have, the sentimental one are to numerous to mention as they outweigh the funny ones.
Their were tears during the years but mostly we had  happiness.

      To be continued - - - - -