My husband and I are quite conservative in our beliefs. We were both raised in the Roman Catholic faith. We tend to vote conservative and live a life style that is well within our means to pay for. We both learned from our parents that you do not buy things on credit. If you want something you save money until you have enough to buy it. We do have credit cards; however we pay them off in full at the end of each month. We have tried to instill in our children our values regarding our faith and finances.
We were really surprised when our daughter came home from college and announced that she was going to take the inheritance money that she received from her godmother and buy a house. She said that she saw a house for sale close to campus and she thought she could stop throwing rent money away and put that money into her own house. She could also rent to two other young women and this would help pay for the mortgage as well as the taxes and insurance. This was sound thinking, however I never imagined our daughter at age nineteen wanting to buy a house.
She asked if we would meet with her and the agent to see the house. We made an appointment and my husband and I decided that we would keep an opened mine. After all her desire to buy a house was a much more sound investment than many nineteen year olds would come up with. The house was quite charming. It had been a single family home whose basement was converted to a rental apartment. My daughter could have the main floor of the home and could rent the apartment out. The apartment had its own entry, so this provided additional security for our daughter. There was a laundry room in the lower level that was separated from the apartment. She could choose to let the renters use the laundry or not. We talked to our daughter about lawn maintenance as well as snow removal. These are things that she did not take into consideration when she thought to buy a house. The agent suggested that yard work and snow removal could be part of a renters rent payment. She would be helping out someone that could not afford the full rent and she would be getting the outside work completed without having to do it herself. After a great deal of thought she made an offer on the house. I told her that I would help her decorate and get settled. It is a huge responsibility, yet I think she will learn some great lessons.
It seems that all around us things are changing at a very rapid rate. The major contributing factor to all the change seems to be the increase in the number of people that live in the United States. With the increase in numbers in the population the metropolitan areas are spreading our further from the core of the city. As the city areas grow more and more of the population expands into the rural areas. Soon development follows the people and rural areas turn into small towns. Less and less land is being used for farming; instead it is being developed into housing.
A few years ago my husband and I noticed wealthy individuals were buying up lots on lakes. They would find cottages for sale along the lakes area and would demolish the cottage and replace it with a huge new structure. We noticed several smaller lakes that we liked fishing on where suddenly surrounded by huge homes. One lake in particular we noticed this happening on. The large homes took away the north woods feeling from the lake. My husband and I had talked about finding cottages for sale that we could fix up and have as a get away. We decided that the way properties were moving we had better make our move for cottages for sale while there were still some available.
We decided one Saturday afternoon to go for a drive around two lakes that we have always enjoyed. One of the lakes is very large and the other was smaller, but there is a channel that goes from this small lake into a larger lake. A great portion of this lake and the surrounding area where in a state park. We had been cross country skiing in the state park during the winter months and we had noticed that there were several privately owned cabins adjacent to the state land. We commented on how private the area was. We went back to the area to see if anything was on the market. We turned down one small road that we had never been on before. The road led to what had been a small resort. There were signs listing cottages for sale. The resort had been closed for many years. Most of the buildings were in need of repairs. Two of the cottages for sale had been updated within the past six to seven years. The cottages were close to thee edge of the lake and were surrounded by pine trees. It was a very pretty setting, but we were concerned about who would do the upkeep on the road when it snowed. We are still looking at cottages for sale. I know that it is only a matter of time before we find the perfect place for us.