Thursday, March 27, 2008

Our Home

This photo shows our home in northeast Albuquerque, near the intersection of Indian School Road and Chelwood Park Boulevard. We've lived here since buying the home in 1991; it was our first home and we didn't plan on living here forever, but that's the way it's worked out. The house (which was built in 1967 and thus is over forty years old) wasn't really big enough for our family, having only three bedrooms, and the need for additional space became even more acute after we had Kiley in 1992 and Kristy had Nicole in 1995; however, somehow we survived the years of living on top of each other. (It's ironic that the home seemed very spacious after we lived for six years in a 900 sq. ft. apartment at the Greenbriar co-op on Nakomis Street and Constitution Avenue; it didn't take long for that illusion to be dispelled, however.) We only have one child living at home now, so needless to say we're in better shape at present.


The trend these days is to build 3,000 sq. ft. houses on 1/5-acre lots -- the complete antithesis of our home, which is 1,700 sq. ft. on something close to 1/2 acre. (We have a lot bigger back yard than I wish to care for, which explains why it always looks like heck.) It would be lovely in some ways to have a newer, bigger home, but at least we've done a lot to our house over the years to make it more liveable. A lot remains to be done, especially to the exterior, but it will probably have to wait until we pay off our mortgage in three years. (My dream is to add on to the back and have a pool table and spa.) In these days of young LDS couples tending to buy more house than they can easily afford, sometimes I feel like we're the only ones following the prophet's counsel regarding debt and frugality!

[Update 11/24/11: Here's a Google Earth view of our house.]