House for sale!

On the trip to Boise, The Texan and I stopped in La Grande to refuel and switch cars. Coincidentally, she pulled into a station just down the block from the house our family used to live in, and, all gas lanes being full at the moment, I drove up to check out the house. It has a For Sale By Owner sign in front.

I could make a joke about how the state university system is so broke that they are trying to save some money by not hiring a real estate agent -- but it appears that they sold the house sometime in the past. If you click here, you'll be able to see the online listing, which has some photos of the interior (click on the small ones and they'll get big). They are asking $375,000. Four bedroom, finished basement, with a two-car garage and a "carriage house".

When we moved out, and the new Acting President of the then-college (it is Eastern Oregon University now) moved in, Mom was a little offended that the first thing the new "first lady" did was rip out all the carpeting and tear down the wallpaper. Me, too. I had been in the decorating trenches with Mom, finding inexpensive alternatives for the house, which we spent a lot of time -- but not a lot of state monies -- updating from the early 60s decor it had before. We thought it was a statement about our taste and style. It was years later (after Dad's cancer and cold turkey quitting, and an entirely new house that never was smoked in) before we realized that two chain smokers had lived in that house for 8 years, and the new residents were non-smokers. I wonder how they could have walked in the front door, much less slept there. I can't sit in a restaurant next to a smoker, who isn't smoking, even, any more.

It doesn't look to have changed much since I was last inside the house, 27 years ago (yikes). The kitchen has been updated (no surprise, but how I miss the brown paisley wallpaper!). The real estate entry mentions the rock garden -- I think Dad put that in. The "carriage house" they call it -- it is a single car garage half way down the hill, where Dad parked his state car -- used to have a flat roof with a wide rim around it. When I was a teenager, I thought maybe it was originally intended to be a wading pool, for every time it rained, the roof would flood full.

Looking at the house now, I realize it is a gracious, quite beautiful layout. Great closets. I hope the new owner, if it gets one, takes good care of it.