Over the course of forty years together my wife and I have lived in two different apartments, one purchased mobile home, one church-owned parsonage, and four different homes with a mortgage. So what was it that caused us to switch gears from having our own place to joining our son's family in a new house? We talked about what we were doing at our house, what Jon was wanting to do at his house, and about downsizing as you get older. I certainly don't remember all the conversations and the subjects but there were some overriding themes that surfaced. One was Jon's house and the projects they hoped to pursue. Most everyone who buys a house makes a list of things to make the house their own. This list was filled with both wants and needs, a some of them would be costly. Building new would cost less in the long run. On our side of the ledger was the idea of preparation for retirement years and downsizing even more. And Kathy never having to move again. Somewhere along the line the idea was floated for combining our families for good.
I started thinking about this distinct possibility during the final months of 2018. My mom and youngest son came to Atlanta to visit for Thanksgiving, and then for Christmas Kathy, myself, and my son's family went to Texas to visit family. There's something about spending time with family that gives you a better perspective. My brother-in-law Bob is great with people and has never met a stranger. He enjoys visiting open houses in new build neighborhoods to see what the state of new homes was like. They all knew Bob by name and that meant we had the royal treatment in looking around and asking questions. I looked at these homes with an eye to carving out two or three room areas that might work for us. The houses we looked at had this type of space on the second floor, usually a loft area with a bedroom and bathroom. I figured such an arrangement might work, though there would be no separate entrance.
Our bedroom in the bonus room
We had a taste of this idea years before when we moved to Georgia at the end of 2016. We moved our belongings into the basement of Jon and Myric's first house, and moved ourselves into their bonus room on the second floor as our living space until we found a home. For six months time that large room was our personal space, serving as bedroom, living room, office, and storage. Kathy was of the opinion that such an arrangement worked better as a temporary solution rather than a permanent one, and she was not shy in sharing her thoughts. Her conclusion was that there was really no way to make this all happen at their present house so a move would be necessary. She promptly went online and showed us all the houses that struck her fancy, though all the pre-owned houses seemed to need work as well. Nothing seemed likely to be a solution for our housing question.
The living room and office area of the bonus room
As we started 2019, Kathy shifted gears and started showing us websites for new home construction in our area. Again, most of those would allow us a bedroom and bathroom at our own end of the house but nothing more. And, just like we saw in Texas, we were not finding homes with basements. Though we were not thrilled with the idea of living in a basement, it could provide another option for greater space. Then she suggested we take a Saturday to check out a small neighborhood that was just starting up and was just ten minutes away. She had driven by it on the drive from our home to the kids' home and has followed the progress of removing trees, putting in the utilities, and grading the site. For my part, I never noticed that subdivision even though I drove by it daily. Since that day I definitely notice all the new subdivisions that are sprouting up in every crevice and cranny near us.
I was not impressed with the drive up to the model home. It was the only finished home on the street, with the one across from it just underway. Lots of dirt mounds everywhere. While I had only driven up to a barren road, the model home was complete and more impressive than I had expected. Having built a new church and extensively renovated a home, I was pleased with what I saw in the construction of the home. To me the structure of a house and other hidden parts are more important than the visible areas. Once you build a house you can't just move walls (at least not easily or cheaply) or yank out plumbing and electrical. But you can always paint the walls or change a faucet or replace a lighting fixture. Considering the problems with my previous two houses it was good to see proper sheathing on the exterior walls for structure, and the air infiltration barrier covering it. That may have been standard on these homes we were looking at but I wasn't taking anything for granted.
"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood."
One home might be mostly just like another home but it's the details that stand out and make the difference. There were a number of items that stood out to me. The windows were very well made with all the right features and were far better than any home we had ever lived in. The ceiling height on the first floor ceilings was nine feet and made a big difference in the feel of the space. Jon was especially looking for taller ceilings so as not to feel claustrophobic. I liked the cement board siding which would not blow off like vinyl siding, and was far more durable than the fiber board siding on older houses. The builder also offered two options for the kitchen layout and two options for the master bath layout. And, in what I considered a huge feature, the hot water was provided by a large tankless unit. No doubt the plumbing would be optimized for the tankless system.
Interior of the model home
We also walked across the street with the agent and looked at the house under construction, which was a different model and had a basement. We went down to the basement, as they called it, and looked it over with a thought towards how we would use it for an apartment. Kathy has always said she didn't want to live in a basement, but this wasn't a basement in the typical sense of a Midwestern basement. Those basements are basically a giant hole in the ground into which a house is dropped. This is why most basements leak. Water and pressure builds up in the ground and finds its way through any little crack in the concrete walls or floor. Been there, done that, wasn't happy about all that got ruined. Storage is one thing but actually living in a basement is something far different. And what was different about this basement is that it would be more correctly called a daylight basement, or a Georgia basement if you live in Georgia. Only the front half of the house contains basement walls which then step down to ground level at the back of the house. The grade outside also steps down so that all the water runs down the hill and off into the back yard, thereby keeping it out of the living area. In addition, there are windows on the back wall to let in light, and a door that can be used as a separate entrance. Clearly Kathy was on to something here.
The unadorned daylight basement
This would not be your typical subdivision. Only sixteen houses would be built on this single dead-end cul-de-sac street. Nine of them would be on a slab and the other seven would have a basement. There would be no pool, no tennis courts, no walking trail, no clubhouse in this small HOA. But we saw it as perhaps the best option we had seen yet. When we got home I ran some quick numbers and felt that it could work for us. So I put our findings in a detailed email and sent it off to Jonathan to look over. I wasn't sure what to expect.
Jon and Myric then checked it out on their own and liked what they saw, so all four of us---Jonathan, Myric, Kathy, and myself---got together to talk it over. Jonathan said the numbers looked good for our budgets, and the commute to work would be about the same. He liked the smaller neighborhood that he felt would be quieter on the street. Myric liked the open concept kitchen and family room, plus the master bath. Kathy was excited that the space was large enough on the lower level to have an apartment instead of just a room or two. And I was pleased with the overall quality of the house construction, based on what I saw. We all felt God was directing us in this. We all agreed that me and Jon would go back to see about putting a deal together.
We did that the next Saturday. I walked around the properties down the street to see which lot seemed best for us, but Jon had already decided on one of the lots that fit the bill. We had to pick out a few of the building options in advance, like the walkout concrete patio and the large crown molding. But in a short time we had signed a contract, put down a deposit, and drove away as the first owners to purchase a house in this new subdivision. When we got back to the house and we told the girls that we bought a house, they thought we were joking. But we weren't. Instead, we were all soon to embark on the process of building a new home. There would be a lot of unknowns, but with God's help we know it would all work out!
Arktander
(aka David Andreasen)
