This Old House

The first house I ever built is for sale again.  I had no idea when we built it that it would launch a new career for me.

We built is for ourselves in 1991 and moved in just before Christmas, as you can tell from the wreath on the front door.  One word of advice – if you can possibly avoid moving just before Christmas by all means do so.  Christmas was a blur that year.  I’m actually surprised that I put up a wreath. 

I knew nothing at the time about building houses, but LBeau is a structural engineer, so I figured he’d keep me straight even though I had to be the one to oversee the whole process.  Fortunately it was a fairly simple plan that LBeau drew himself.  We patterned it after the George Wythe House in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.

It was a good house.  We had a huge side yard that became the neighborhood ball field.  Soccer, baseball and football were all played in our side yard.  One neighbor even asked me when we were going to put up bleachers and lights.

By the time we left 4109 Ashington Drive ten years later, all of my boys had graduated from high school.  Ben was home from the University of Arkansas for the summer, and he was not happy about the move.  This was the house that all of his friends hung out in.  This was the basement where they played poker and the deck where they smoked nasty cigars, leaving them in plastic cups for me to deal with.  So Ben sulked and refused to move anything from his room.  LBeau and I were not happy.

When Kevin and Tricia bought our house, they had 15-month old twins, a boy and a girl.  They now have three children, and they are relocating to be closer to family.  Here’s a LINK to the real estate information, complete with pictures.

I hope the next family enjoys it as much as we did.