House of the Year

As embarrassed as we are, it seems we can't manage to stay in one place very long. As June rolls around so do the moving trucks. We hope to someday finally buy a house we can settle down in, but something tells us that may be a long time from now. Here are the many houses we have lived in over the past six years.

Settling Down August 2010 - forever

The time has finally come to buy a house and settle down for a while. We have purchased a house before, but never with intentions of staying very long. This move will prove to be the last. It is exciting to throw moving boxes away and get rid of furniture we won't need. We purchased a house in the Spokane Valley with over 3000 sq feet, five bedrooms +office, three bathrooms, two family rooms and a formal living room. In addition to the space we also have a spa, in-ground pool and an acre of yard. Mike now has his very own shop (with two stories)! We are pleased by our find and look forward to settling into our new house and settling a bit more in life. Here are the pictures.

Fairview Home August 2009 - August 2010

And we go again... Yes, the summer months rolled around and we decided to move yet again. However, this time we moved back home to Spokane. Becky got a job at Spokane Mental Health and in only three short weeks we were able to pack up the house and move. We decided to rent a house so we could save up money and take our time to find the perfect house to buy next summer. Nevertheless, we found a 5 bedroom, 2 bath home with a two car detached garage (which Becky greatly appreciates). The house is approximately 2300 square feet with a full basement. It is by far the oldest house we have ever lived in and that comes with it's share of leaks and other items in need of fixing.

Banestone House June 2008 - August 2009

After searching for quite some time, we decided on the house on Banestone. This is a three bedroom, two bath 1700 square feet home with a two car garage. We really liked the layout of the house (one story) and nice living space. However, we had to compromise on the garage space and bedrooms. When we moved to this house we knew we didn't plan to stay long so it was just a matter of finding something that would work for now.

Spandrell House June 2007 - June 2008

After selling our Fernley house in less than a week, we had to find somewhere fast. We had plans of purchasing a brand new home, but changed our minds at the last minute. Again lucky us! The house we were going to buy is now selling $100,000 less than what we were going to pay for it. Whew! So we settled on this three bedroom plus loft, 2.5 bath, 3 car 1600 square feet house in Sparks. It backed to a hill so we had a wonderful private backyard. This was the last house Porter ever lived in so it is very meaningful to us. Unfortunately, we didn't chose to leave this house. Our landlord had to go into foreclosure and our time was limited. So we moved. 

Fernley House June 2005 - June 2007

Why oh Why.... We still wonder that sometimes. The housing market was really picking up and buying a house seemed like a great plan for our financial future. We couldn't afford anything in Reno (300+), so we looked in the neighboring town of Fernley. We found this manufactured home that was more of a fixer-upper for a reasonable price. This was a three bedroom, two bath 1300 square feet home. Mike found out quickly he does not like to work on houses as they eat up time (and money) he could be working on his bug. The commute is eventually what did us in. It was about 40 minutes to Reno and then about 20 minutes to make it where ever we were headed. Our monthly gas bill was somewhere between $400 and 600 per month. We lived here for two years and sold the house, for a loss, in one week. In hindsight  we got lucky. We sold the house about a month or two before the market crashed. Lucky us!

Brassie House June 2004 - June 2005

This house couldn't have been more perfect after living in such a tiny apartment. This house had three bedrooms, 2.5 baths and was 1200 square feet. We were the very first people to live in this house which was pretty fancy, but the house about three feet next to us was just being built. There were a few early mornings when construction workers started before the sun came up. This house was in a wonderful location and central to everything in Reno including a golf course.

Apartment August 2003 - June 2004

This was our one bedroom, one bath 800 square feet apartment. Needless to stay it was SMALL. We have a view of the neighboring apartment complex. Our neighbors downstairs were very loud night and day. By December, we were itching to move to a bigger place!