770 Rebuilding America street by street

For 34 years we lived in a lovely, hip roof, colonial style home on a beautiful, tree lined street in a pleasant, upscale suburb. Ours was the last street developed before World War II put a stop to home building due to shortages of materials. Just one street north of us where home building started in the later 1940s, the homes were a different style and materials. Of course, by the time we purchased 2338, it didn't meet the standards of the times, either ours or the city's, so it seemed that for 34 years we were adding closets, building walls, replacing light fixtures, upgrading plumbing, putting on triple track windows, installing a new water heater and furnace, new wiring, appliances, kitchen cabinets, adding a family room, an art studio and a free standing garage, laying a brick patio, building and replacing a variety of privacy fences and finally wrapping the house in vinyl that looked like board siding. Don't believe the stories you read about this or that improvement adding %% of value to your home. That only applies if you sell within 5 or 6 years. We stayed too long and ended up redoing a number of our 1970s projects in the 1990s. Yes, a home is a good investment, but if we had banked all the remodeling projects and just let the home appreciate with the neighborhood, we would have been way ahead.

But we were pikers compared to many of our neighbors. In the late 90s, our new young neighbors with 3 little children purchased the huge half million dollar home (reduced) next door, and because it looked like such a bargain to them (they moved from California), for the next two years they provided full employment for a variety of carpenters, decorators, landscapers, and painters. The previous owners had also continuously been revising, adding on, covering up, and redecorating. Truly, for five days a week, for over thirty years, the prettiest street in town looked like a used truck and van parking lot.

Now we own a condo in one of the prettiest complexes in our city. There isn't a day that goes by that we aren't happy to be here and enjoy the lovely view from the living room windows. But occasionally, these units too go up for sale--we're the fourth owner of ours since 1990. One on the north side sold last summer and the new owners have been meticulously redecorating for 5 months. The previous owner had redone it about eight years ago, and it was quite lovely when we did a walk through after her death. Every day negotiating that side of our drive was a challenge--trucks and vans were everywhere, day after day.

Now the largest one on the south side has sold. Yesterday morning I counted the trucks and vans parked on the street and around that unit--there were eight. But after 5 p.m. and on week-ends--it is still a pretty place to live.