Snippet of Sunshine from Stella: Moving Right Along

Continued from the December/January 2003 issue
After receiving pre-approval from the bank for a monthly payment, triple our current mortgage payment. We finished off seeing a fixer upper with no electricity wired or water available to it. They could use the house for children of the sequel Halloween 143 as far as I’m concerned. At least the next one was near civilization.
“Here she is folks.” The yard was breathtaking. The drive was located between the massive stone pillars – a rooftop peeked out from beneath ancient oaks, pines, and willows, which were weeping all over, the front yard – I was ready to sign on the dotted line. The house was early 1900’s. The large foyer was lit by a single naked bulb dangling on the end of an electrical wire.
“That can be fixed.” I thought trying to keep a positive attitude.
The cast iron cook stove in the kitchen fascinated me until I realized it was the only stove!
I heard my husband ask, “What type of heat does it have?”
“Oil heat downstairs and each of the bedrooms upstairs have fireplaces” came the reply.
“How cozy,” I thought picturing myself reading snug in bed listening to fire crackle.
The stairs groaned and creaked as we climbed. I was visualizing them with garland and lights for the holidays.
I turned back just in time to hear him say “the hardwood might need a little refinishing up here.”
The master bedroom floor sagged like a worn out mattress. I pictured waking up to find all of the furniture had drifted downhill and met in the middle of the room. The next bedroom actually had floorboards missing! The realtor’s glasses needed a tune-up!
As we drove back to the real estate office, my husband carefully explained that we did not want to do quite that much fixing up.
“I’ll be out of town for a few days but Mr. Coswell will take you out tomorrow” said the cherry little man.
The next morning we met Mr. Coswell at the real estate office. “Folks, I’ve got the perfect house for you. It has four bedrooms, a large living room, a den, two bathrooms, two-car garage, on three beautiful acres. Everything is in fairly good working order. All it needs is a little paint.”
My husband reached over and squeezed my hand. It sounded great. We listened to Mr. Coswell chat as we traveled not paying attention to where we were going.
He signaled and turned into the driveway and said, “Here we are folks.”
“We’ll take it” my husband informed Mr. Coswell before he had even had the car engine stopped.
Astounded Mr. Coswell stammered, “But don’t you want to look first?”
He looked at the paper work puzzled and them smiled sheepishly. “Glad I could be of assistance to you folks, he said as he laughed good naturally. He had driven us to our own home!
We will be adding a room in the fall.
Illustrated by Linda Hedinger