Psst........Daniel Might Be Moving Out

There will be plenty to mow.

        
      When Daniel was about ten, he used to joke that when his eldest sibling Stephanie got her own home, that he was moving out with her. He loved our home and all that went on, on the farm, but he was also very close to Stephanie.  Stephanie also has been a juvenile diabetic, with Type I autoimmune diabetes, the result of an autoimmune reaction to a virus she caught when she was nine.  Daniel's devotion to moving with her was probably motivated in part to wanting to watch her and keep her safe in her new home someday. It was also probably motivated by the thought of what fun it would be to live in a new house with no parents, just a sibling.  Stephanie. Their closeness was nurtured I think by Stephanie's having been 12 when Daniel was born, and she always enjoyed each phase of his development and was always very close to him.
             Stephanie is now in her twenties and graduated from university several years ago. It took a lot of time to get a really good job, but eventually she did.  It is time for her to move out on her own.  We live in an unusual place in that there really are no apartments here, and rental houses are not only hard to find, but they are expensive.  So, she has been exhaustively looking at small rural homes to buy.  It has been quite an experience. As  many time home buyers, two time builders of our homes, and investors, we have been going with her, but this is her money, her loan, and the choices must be choices that she makes, and is happy with for a long time.  Moving up every four years or so, as we did, may not be an option for our own kids as they become homeowners. The world has decidedly changed. House hunting with her has been an experience especially since many area homes were damaged during the Virginia earthquake last August.  When she did find a home, and she tried to place a contract on it, someone else beat us to it.  I am also afraid we found a lot of homes that probably should be bulldozed.  This week however, the tables turned.  I received a notification a home which had gone up for sale that fit Stephanie's requirements.  I drove past it, as instructed, to rule it out if necessary, and then I e-mailed the data to Stephanie at work. Then she e-mailed me back asking me to make an appointment for all of us to go see it. The next day, my husband and I and Stephanie and her boyfriend, went out to look at it. Finally, we found a home that she can both afford, and that suits her.  She also may be getting married soon, and will likely not be there alone.  Stephanie remembered that Daniel said he would be going with her, when the time came for her to get a house of her own.  I wonder, with our homes being in nearby rural villages and towns, whether Daniel, on visits to Earth ,will spend his time on our farm, and at Stephanie's lovely new home.  I think I read that we are supposed to be ambivalent when our children strike out on their own, but I am not.  I could not be more pleased or more proud that she has saved and will have the chance to begin the journey of homeownership.  There is no ambivalence, just excitement and joy for me.  I'll bet Daniel and my Dad are as pleased as punch too !

She will have her own kitchen !

Prior posts on this part of the journey:


http://learnedfromdaniel.blogspot.com/2012/02/foreclosures-everywhere.html

http://learnedfromdaniel.blogspot.com/2012/01/shes-looking-at-houses.html