Peace - that was the other name for home. ~ Kathleen Norris

Is this our future home? Is this where Dear Hubby will hang up his hat at the end of the day, whose windows I'll look out? A street I'll begin to think of as 'familiar'? Grass he'll cut? Rooms I'll decorate? We sure like it, is all I can say. But only the good Lord knows the answers to all those questions.





I put in an inquiry on this house. This morning I got a responsive email from a gentleman who's been selling real estate in the Livonia area for 30 years. He asked what our requirements are. This is what I wrote back to him:





Since my husband and I have raised our family and aren't interested in keeping up with the Joneses, we're pretty modest in our needs at this stage in life. We would like to have a 3 bedroom home, using one as a den/office and one for a guest room as we'll probably have visitors from out of state. A living room. Not necessarily a formal dining room, but a nice eating area. A bright kitchen.....I love windows with lots of light in the kitchen and the living room areas! 2 bathrooms would be nice. A garage and finished basement would be nice. A fireplace or wood stove would be nice! A fenced back yard isn't a total requirement but it would be lovely to have as well, since I'll continue doing the day care for my grandsons in Michigan, too. We don't need a huge lot....here in Portland we live in an older urban neighborhood where we can basically reach out and touch our neighbors' houses....the lots are narrow but fairly deep so we have a nice little yard out back. The dimensions on our lot are 45'x90'. We would like a LITTLE more room between houses, tho we have wonderful neighbors and have lived here peacefully with them for almost 30 years! As to a price range....we have lived in our home for 28 years. It's an old 1912 Craftsman bungalow. Our current payment with tax and insurance figured in to it is around $$$$$$ per month. Because this is a very comfortable mortgage for us, we'd like to keep it around the same amount back there. We don't care if it's new construction or old, tho we do like older homes. We're not "fancy-schmancy". All we ask is that it's in decent shape, not a fixer-upper, and the basics are updated...furnace, roof, stuff of that nature. I love to garden so landscaping isn't important...I'll be changing that to what I like. If we can find a place with the basic appliances and washer/dryer included, that'd be great....then we won't have to drag ours across the country. We like trees. A neighborhood that's quiet. How's that to get you started out?



I guess what I'm trying to tell him is we want a home.