Bonnie's House

Bonnie had lived in this house for as long as I had known...for at least the 24 years since my parents had moved there, probably much, much longer. How much longer? I have no idea. This house was located a mere half-block away from where I grew up, just down the back alley. When I was in Elementary School, I would walk past this house every, single day. Her big dogs would bark at me ferociously, scaring me half to death every time, even though I knew the barking was coming and tried to brace myself for it. I would hurry past, as fast as my little legs would carry me, reminding myself over and over again that the dogs were chained up, they weren't going to get me, I was perfectly safe. I knew who lived here but had never taken so much as a glimpse inside. This house was a mystery.

This last spring Bonnie moved and the house went up for sale. It sat empty and "for sale" all summer long. Then one weekend in August, my sister, Heather, and I spent the weekend in Cokeville, helping my mom with her big house-painting project (it was porch-painting time). On our way back from getting our daily fountain drink at the Flying J, we drove past Bonnie's old house and as I noticed the "for sale" sign still up, I enquired as to how much they wanted for it, and if there was any potential within those walls. Within 15 minutes we had a key to the house and were giving ourselves the grand tour. It was a like a tomb of mystery suddenly revealed. This house I had walked past frequently my entire life was suddenly not so mysterious. And it was actually quite charming. I fell in love quite quickly. The floor plan was decent, and my goodness, there were 5 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms!? It was huge!? Was there potential? Most definitely. I could see it, and luckily, my mom could as well. 

And so for the remainder of the porch-painting that day we discussed this old house...and it's potential...and what we could do with it...and how lovely it could be if we were to take on this project together. And how FUN it would be to work on it together. Heather was quick to prophesy that we would kill each other by the end, which we might (we have had a few renovation squabbles in our lifetime). But we assured each other that compromise would be our mantra. And even if did try to kill each other periodically, we all know that Obergs bounce back quick and within days of any squabble, all would be forgiven and forgotten. We're good like that.

So that next week my mom made a few phone calls and we waited a few weeks for the title company to get all the paperwork together. And we started planning and scheming and I started creating excel spreadsheets by the dozen in order to track our progress.

And as of September 16, this beauty is all ours. Ours for the fixing...and fix it we will...