The House on Steve Drive
A little over a year ago, I bought a house. Not just any house, mind you.
I bought the House on Steve Drive.
Four bedrooms. Two bathrooms. Formal dining room. Spacious living room with wood-burning fireplace. Breakfast nook. Two-car garage. Over 1900 square feet, not including the large sunroom overlooking the patio and the small backyard filled with matured trees, the same ones that helped contribute to an outrageously low and efficient electric bill.
On spring mornings, I loved sitting in the sunroom drinking coffee, listening to the various birds sing their morning songs. On winter nights, I loved sitting in front of the roaring fire as the light flickered and reflected off the wood paneling in the living room.
I loved and still love this house and everything it should have been. It’s the kind of home that everyone dreams of having when they’re younger. It’s the American Dream, so to speak.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned and the House on Steve Drive is now my American Dream, Unfulfilled.
I bought the House on Steve Drive for different reasons. One was to make Someone and her children happy. Two was to provide a warm and safe home for my children. Three was to create an investment that would help me in a few years when it was time to move closer to my daughters.
Today, the house is empty most days, except for me, although the joyful sound of my children’s laughter is still present when they are home with me. Someone and her children are gone, replaced by memories and disappointment. Despite this solitude, loneliness, of all things, is rarely there. Considering how lonely I was at the end of my time with Someone, my guess is that there’s a reason for that.
The House on Steve Drive is now testimony to a series of investment mistakes that have cost me a small fortune over the last two years. A For Sale sign sits in the front yard, a reminder of that bad decision. Another sits in a small box in a drawer, a beautiful sapphire ring that’ll probably never be worn again. I lay on a third each night purchased to satisfy varied slumbering firmness requirements.
When I sell the ring, at the very best, I’ll probably only get back 20% of what I paid for it. The bed, really an over-glorified air mattress if we’re being honest, will net me about the same. And then there’s the house itself. Between the initial down payment, the new garage door (after the old one broke), the months where I was forced to pay the mortgage by myself because of an unfortunate timing of unemployment that lasted many months, I’ve lost more money than I care to admit.
And now, as I prepare to sell the House on Steve Drive, I’ve realized that I’m no longer a first-time home-buyer. I’ve lost that status, along with all of the loan opportunities that come with that. So when I do decide to purchase another home, I’ll have to come to the table with the cash in hand to make the appropriate down payment for a conventional mortgage loan. That means I have to start saving like crazy, more than I already do.
But despite all of this negativity, I’m not angry or bitter because everything happens for a reason, whether for good or bad. This has given me the opportunity to move closer to my girls and to work and everything else that is important in my life. And the selling of the house won’t be a complete bust. Because of the short-term ownership, I was fearful that I would have to pay to sell it. As it turns out, I’ll actually be getting a check, albeit a considerably small one.
Plus, I’ll no longer be subjected to the hour-long commute (sometimes much longer) to and from work every day. At most now, I’ll be in the car for 30 minutes and then I’ll be home, with plenty of time to cook dinner, write, read and play with my girls and whatever else I want to do.
In essence, in exchange for a busted investment, I’m getting a better quality of life for my daughters and myself. So as the universe unfolds, speaks and leads me along the path of my life… I’m actually coming out ahead.
To speak metaphorically, I am definitely basking in the glorious sunshine despite the winter chill that cuts through the emptiness of the House on Steve Drive.
And I couldn’t be happier.
Peace, Love and Naked Bunnies…
January 25, 2013 at 6:10 pm
Dude, I haven’t known you long in the grand scheme of things, but it sounds to me like you did exactly the right things at the right time. Alternate-Universe David is probably sitting around wishing and wondering about how great his life might have been if he’d just taken a chance and bought that dream house on Steve Drive. You, however, can move forward without the woulda-coulda-shoulda, because you know when to hold ‘em and when to, uh… sold ‘em. Here’s to continuing sunshine in the days ahead!