Back in the Saddle Again

 

Brenda and I purchased our last home in late spring of 1985.  We bought what was then addressed as “40 Bellwood Northport”, and now is 2113 Bellwood.  We bought it through a sealed-bid auction that we won by less than $1000 with a bid of about $49,900.  After careful negotiation, we got the owner to finance us for one year at the upwardly negotiated price of $53k.  After a year of remodeling, partly while we lived in the house, we financed it in 1986 for ~$70k for 30 years at something like 8.5% interest- the going rate.  In 1993 we refinanced it for 15 years at about half that interest, and wound up with a similar monthly payment.

I say all that to introduce our recent home purchase on 17 Feb. 2016, our daughter Kelly’s birthday anniversary.  The new house is half the size of the old one at a MUCH higher price, although after adjusting for inflation, it isn’t really THAT much more (still more, mind you).  Of course the new house is really new, since it was built in 2007, compared to our old house, which is about 89 years old.

 

We really love the old Bellwood home, as do our children.  It is a fabulous location, an absolutely beautiful lot, and a wonderful old-timely style and construction that no longer exists.  The beams underneath are huge, 10X12 creosoted.  The layout is the old pre-a/c style of a big central hallway connecting two big porches.  The ceilings are 10 feet so the hot air ca rise out of the living space.  The walls are plaster and the closets are small and few in number.

When we bought the place, there were about 4 layers of wallpaper on most of the walls.  The outside paint had failed, and the shrubs were overgrown.  The yard was zoysia grass, but had not been cared for in 6-7 years.  In over 30 years of living here, a lot has changed.  Our little kids are now adults with kids of their own.  The bushes are still overgrown, just different bushes in different locations.  There are more crepe myrtles; now there are oak leaf hydrangeas to supplement the American strawberry bushes and the Perny hollies.  The roof and the heating system are almost new… the trees mostly 30 years older and bigger.

It’s been a wonderful house, a real gift from G^d.  But its time has past.  We love that old house, but we aren’t married to it.  We love it, just don’t have a long term commitment to it.  The new place can be locked up and left for months on end.  The old place couldn’t go more than a couple of weeks.

Things change… but G^d doesn’t.  His qualities are steadfast.  His faithfulness endures to all generations.  We love him and are committed to Him.  It’s important to make these distinctions.