Tuesday, May 25, 2004
OUR HOME ON 65TH STREET
We made arrangements to see the house that was up for sale. Eldon and Evelyn had us all over to dinner and then watched the children while George and I called on the owners. I liked the location and yard. It was large even by today’s standard. It was a ranch with double garage, utility, kitchen, dining room, living room, one bath and three bedrooms. It seemed like a castle after living in our small but efficient apartment. The owners were personable and two large dogs greeted us as well. After we looked it over we were hooked. We made our own sale but the next hurdle was affording it. The home (I believe was originally built and sold for 15,500) and was about two years old…..they wanted 2,000 down and then take over their loan of 13,000. They were the original owners. We gave them 500 escrow money and said we’d be in touch.
We went back to Eldon and Evelyn’s to talk out the conditions with them and figure a way to get the down payment. It was hard for us to obtain a loan with nothing to put up for chattel. I called mom and dad and talked with them about getting a loan for us and then we could pay them back. Dad still worked at the Missouri Dept. of Transportation and belonged to a credit union. I guess I made a great plea because mom went the next day and borrowed the money…..sent us a check and told us what the monthly payments would be.
It was like the heavens opened and rained good fortune on us. I cannot describe the wonderful happy feeling to know we would soon own our very own home….and a beautiful one at that. We were to take possession by October 1st. We had a month to get ready. We put Georgie in school in North Kansas City and would have to transfer him when we moved. All was made ready. We gave notice to the apartment complex to terminate on the 30th of September. Now one would think we had covered all the bases … right? Not at all !! We didn’t foresee the owners taking longer to move. They apologized but said they would need another week. We were frantic with no place to go and when George told Eldon our dilemma he immediately volunteered moving in with them for a week. We could put our furniture in their double garage and stay with them until we could move. Great !! We were saved once again….but no quite.
We moved to Shawnee on the last of September … into the garage as planned. Now we were four adults and five children in the Schneider house with the oldest child being six. The week drew to a close and when we called to see about possession we were told it would be another week. In the meantime I came down with the worst strep throat I had ever had before or since. I was down for the count, leaving poor Evelyn to look after my three and her two. (Two of which were still in diapers.) I was so sick I didn’t think I’d be up to moving when our second week was up. No problem….they didn’t leave until the day before Halloween. Never buy a house from someone without benefit of a lawyer or real estate agent.
Evelyn got Georgie ready for school every day, looked after the four remaining children and fed all of us until I could get out of bed and help with the chores. We gave them money for groceries of course but no amount of money could pay back for her goodness. It was a cold, snowy day when we moved but we got everything inside. We worked all day getting things hooked up and running. Our furniture that looked so good in our first little home and apartment now looked out of place. When we bought it seven years prior the styles and colors were vastly different from the current ones. Everything in 1950 was dark green, red and chartreuse. Furniture was the new look of light oak that almost looked gray. So now we had a red divan and chair, two plastic dark green chairs with an oriental lamp (red shade) and wild cotton drapes of all three colors mentioned. The styles had changed to Early American maple with earth colors and milk glass. I knew we would be years away from decorating in any form.
We had seen the house at night with the lights on. In the daylight the carpeting was dirty and dog hair had filtered behind every piece of furniture the former owners had. The walls showed marks of damage that was covered by the furniture…..I didn’t have time to worry about redecorating…what was needed now was some good elbow-grease type of cleaning. The house was in good shape as far as structure so I knew after a thorough cleaning it would begin to show it’s advantages. I worked for days to make it seem like “home” and the children were happy with their large bedrooms.
From that moment on every bit of energy I had was spent improving the house, the yard and taking care of the family’s needs. In the evenings it was nice to sit in the back yard and watch cows graze in the pasture at the end of our street. I was as happy and contented as those cows seemed to be……….we were home.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
We went back to Eldon and Evelyn’s to talk out the conditions with them and figure a way to get the down payment. It was hard for us to obtain a loan with nothing to put up for chattel. I called mom and dad and talked with them about getting a loan for us and then we could pay them back. Dad still worked at the Missouri Dept. of Transportation and belonged to a credit union. I guess I made a great plea because mom went the next day and borrowed the money…..sent us a check and told us what the monthly payments would be.
It was like the heavens opened and rained good fortune on us. I cannot describe the wonderful happy feeling to know we would soon own our very own home….and a beautiful one at that. We were to take possession by October 1st. We had a month to get ready. We put Georgie in school in North Kansas City and would have to transfer him when we moved. All was made ready. We gave notice to the apartment complex to terminate on the 30th of September. Now one would think we had covered all the bases … right? Not at all !! We didn’t foresee the owners taking longer to move. They apologized but said they would need another week. We were frantic with no place to go and when George told Eldon our dilemma he immediately volunteered moving in with them for a week. We could put our furniture in their double garage and stay with them until we could move. Great !! We were saved once again….but no quite.
We moved to Shawnee on the last of September … into the garage as planned. Now we were four adults and five children in the Schneider house with the oldest child being six. The week drew to a close and when we called to see about possession we were told it would be another week. In the meantime I came down with the worst strep throat I had ever had before or since. I was down for the count, leaving poor Evelyn to look after my three and her two. (Two of which were still in diapers.) I was so sick I didn’t think I’d be up to moving when our second week was up. No problem….they didn’t leave until the day before Halloween. Never buy a house from someone without benefit of a lawyer or real estate agent.
Evelyn got Georgie ready for school every day, looked after the four remaining children and fed all of us until I could get out of bed and help with the chores. We gave them money for groceries of course but no amount of money could pay back for her goodness. It was a cold, snowy day when we moved but we got everything inside. We worked all day getting things hooked up and running. Our furniture that looked so good in our first little home and apartment now looked out of place. When we bought it seven years prior the styles and colors were vastly different from the current ones. Everything in 1950 was dark green, red and chartreuse. Furniture was the new look of light oak that almost looked gray. So now we had a red divan and chair, two plastic dark green chairs with an oriental lamp (red shade) and wild cotton drapes of all three colors mentioned. The styles had changed to Early American maple with earth colors and milk glass. I knew we would be years away from decorating in any form.
We had seen the house at night with the lights on. In the daylight the carpeting was dirty and dog hair had filtered behind every piece of furniture the former owners had. The walls showed marks of damage that was covered by the furniture…..I didn’t have time to worry about redecorating…what was needed now was some good elbow-grease type of cleaning. The house was in good shape as far as structure so I knew after a thorough cleaning it would begin to show it’s advantages. I worked for days to make it seem like “home” and the children were happy with their large bedrooms.
From that moment on every bit of energy I had was spent improving the house, the yard and taking care of the family’s needs. In the evenings it was nice to sit in the back yard and watch cows graze in the pasture at the end of our street. I was as happy and contented as those cows seemed to be……….we were home.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
