My wife and her three sisters built it 30 years ago, just as I was coming into the picture. I slept on the floor when the first beds and furniture were delivered. Back then the nearest neighbor’s house was a brisk couple minute up the hill walk and as a vacation home it was often vacant. All manner of critters could be seen out that back window. I was our little oasis in the woods. My wife and SILs were afraid of the bears; I threatened to put honey on the nearby trees. These are not woodsy people and known to say “bugs eck!”
2 and 1/2 hours away ( then, on a rare good day now a bit less), in a gated community 3 bedrooms, a loft, a great room and a beautiful stone fireplace. It has stayed immaculate all these years as the ladies are painters, have a handyman (me) and big on leaving it the way they found it. The routine was always the same 2 days there, often a weekend and 2 hours cleaning before we left.
I fished there with my son and caught pickerel, bass an trout. In the winter I skied and sledded on the associations small ski slope. We swam in their community pools and my kids road their horses. I walked the loop around the block up and down hill countless times with my then young and now old pooch.
There were bumps along the road: a couple break-ins, a well pump, $25K exterior redo and lots of small stuff like gravel for the drive way to keep the mud at bay. Oh and the attack of the killer wasps- Quite a scene I can tell you. Still It is a tidy little house.
Time, Smart Stewardship, industry and a bit of luck can turn a new neighborhood into a desirable tree lined suburban delight with great school districts. Unfortunately that isn’t the story Im telling here. Walking the loop over the years I’ve seen that overbuilding and foreclosures abound.
Hey Honey how about we buy or build a vacation home? Sounds great right? Well it is great only if you use it. Kids get into weekend sports and some weekends you are just too tired to deal with packing up the car and a that three hour drive. Will there be traffic on the Cross Bronx? I can tell you- probably. There’s a house at the head of our road that I’ve seen someone in perhaps 3 times 25 years ago and it has been abandoned since.
A couple years back we added Cameras to the house as our wood was disappearing. Sad to say but people steal wood to stay warm.
There isn’t much industry up there.
My daughter went to the house in early December and we discovered the septic tank cover was off. Yeah, the septic people think it was a bear. Well yesterday the tank was pumped and after 30 years we will need a new pump ($1300 all in). All this crystallized my thinking that perhaps it is time to sell. So I arranged to meet a realtor yesterday as well. Bad news our $125,000 (100K paid +25K redo) home is now worth $80 something K. I was not surprised, like I said foreclosures are keeping prices way down.
I thought of selling so that we could simplify and be free of all the anchors that hold the wife and I to this part of Pennsylvania. I want a more rural setting (Yeah my daughter will be here and my Freshman college son has three more years). Im thinking a house on a lake or a house with lake access would be nice. Plus it cost $7,500 a year to fund the house (e.g. taxes, insurance, utilities). Three of the sisters are paying so my share will be $2500 each year we keep it. Of course this year it will be more.
If we sold it would be ‘found’ money.. Id love to gift the house to the kids but I’m not sure they could fund it.
Options:
1. Sell it
2. Buy the rest of em out and use it as my summer home when i sell the castle in South east Delaware.
1. I’d put in Air conditioning (need for a few days a year)
2. Insert for the fireplace (In case we lose electricity)
3. A better camera system
4. Maybe add a Garage.
3. Do nothing for now
2 and 1/2 hours away ( then, on a rare good day now a bit less), in a gated community 3 bedrooms, a loft, a great room and a beautiful stone fireplace. It has stayed immaculate all these years as the ladies are painters, have a handyman (me) and big on leaving it the way they found it. The routine was always the same 2 days there, often a weekend and 2 hours cleaning before we left.
I fished there with my son and caught pickerel, bass an trout. In the winter I skied and sledded on the associations small ski slope. We swam in their community pools and my kids road their horses. I walked the loop around the block up and down hill countless times with my then young and now old pooch.
There were bumps along the road: a couple break-ins, a well pump, $25K exterior redo and lots of small stuff like gravel for the drive way to keep the mud at bay. Oh and the attack of the killer wasps- Quite a scene I can tell you. Still It is a tidy little house.
Time, Smart Stewardship, industry and a bit of luck can turn a new neighborhood into a desirable tree lined suburban delight with great school districts. Unfortunately that isn’t the story Im telling here. Walking the loop over the years I’ve seen that overbuilding and foreclosures abound.
Hey Honey how about we buy or build a vacation home? Sounds great right? Well it is great only if you use it. Kids get into weekend sports and some weekends you are just too tired to deal with packing up the car and a that three hour drive. Will there be traffic on the Cross Bronx? I can tell you- probably. There’s a house at the head of our road that I’ve seen someone in perhaps 3 times 25 years ago and it has been abandoned since.
A couple years back we added Cameras to the house as our wood was disappearing. Sad to say but people steal wood to stay warm.
There isn’t much industry up there.
My daughter went to the house in early December and we discovered the septic tank cover was off. Yeah, the septic people think it was a bear. Well yesterday the tank was pumped and after 30 years we will need a new pump ($1300 all in). All this crystallized my thinking that perhaps it is time to sell. So I arranged to meet a realtor yesterday as well. Bad news our $125,000 (100K paid +25K redo) home is now worth $80 something K. I was not surprised, like I said foreclosures are keeping prices way down.
I thought of selling so that we could simplify and be free of all the anchors that hold the wife and I to this part of Pennsylvania. I want a more rural setting (Yeah my daughter will be here and my Freshman college son has three more years). Im thinking a house on a lake or a house with lake access would be nice. Plus it cost $7,500 a year to fund the house (e.g. taxes, insurance, utilities). Three of the sisters are paying so my share will be $2500 each year we keep it. Of course this year it will be more.
If we sold it would be ‘found’ money.. Id love to gift the house to the kids but I’m not sure they could fund it.
Options:
1. Sell it
2. Buy the rest of em out and use it as my summer home when i sell the castle in South east Delaware.
1. I’d put in Air conditioning (need for a few days a year)
2. Insert for the fireplace (In case we lose electricity)
3. A better camera system
4. Maybe add a Garage.
3. Do nothing for now
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