Montezuma, IA- My Sixth Home

After graduating from college, my fiancee had a job in Grinnell, IA. We went looking for houses and happened upon a tiny little house in the country.

It was very rough, but we thought we could fix it up and make it work. Unfortunately, we found out through an inspection that the house was uninhabitable. We checked into our options for building a home on the lot and were told by the bank that we could do it. We put in an offer and on the lot and it was immediately accepted. Since it would take at least 3 months to build a house, we needed someplace to live during that time. Fortunately the farmer who sold us the land, had farmland with an old farmhouse that he was willing to rent to us for $100 a month. A month later after graduating college, we moved out of our apartments and into the farmhouse.

Though it was a 2 story home with 7 rooms, we were only to occupy three rooms on the main floor. The weekend we moved in they had to completely tear out the bathroom and fix some major plumbing issues becuase the house had not been occupied for awhile and was in disrepair. We caught at least a mouse a week while we lived there from June through September, thank God we got out before winter came and it got cold out! We didn't keep anything in the kitchen cabinets because the rodents were so bad. We kept everything in bins with snap on lids. One time while my mom was visiting she went to get something out of a cupboad and I screamed at her to stay out of teh cabinets because I didn't know what she would find in them! My fiancee's mother actually cried on her way home after helping us get settled in. She said that it was the worst house she had ever left her child in (and my husband lived in some nasty bachelor pads in college!) Needless to say we were calling our builder constantly to get him to put a rush on our new home.

Otter Creek, IA- My First Home

After I was born, in 1980, my parents brought me home to an old two-story farmhouse in Otter Creek, IA. We lived there for about 7 years, as I remember attending Kindergarten while living in that house. My younger sister and I shared a room on the second floor and my younger brother's room was across the hall. I believe that my parents room was downstairs, along with the kitchen/dining room, living room and a bathroom. I remember there being a wood burning stove in the living room. Other than that, most of my memories of living there are of being outside on the farm. We had a hog building and a couple of other barns. In the summer I remember cleaning out the hog pen area and using it to ride our bikes. In the other barn we kept two cows that we affectionately named Big Bird and Snuffleupagus. We had a small metal swingset in the back yard that kept us occupied for hours on end! This was back in the day when children had imaginations and did not sit inside watching tv or playing video games all night! We would spend hours just exploring on the farm, taking walks along the stream that ran through the backyard, catching fireflies and playing tag and other childhood games. There was a rock quarry about 1-2 miles from our home that we would walk to frequently. We climbed the rock piles and played king of the mountain. We all had little first aid kits made from camera film canisters with string tied around so that we could wear them as a necklace! Those were the days! We were so young and innocent. I don't remember what prompted the move, but remember that my father had a change in careers. As a result we were off to Franklin Grove, IL and my second house.