This might be our big break. That's the conversation my wife and I were having after an odd phone call in the fall of 2000. We were friends with a family and their children attending the same school as our kids and one of their daughters also went to the same ballet classes as our oldest daughter. We didn't see them much outside of school and ballet, as the father was disabled. They lived in the formerly fancy pants part of town called Briarcliff. The new hot spot for higher end houses was outside of town about 2 miles or so.
At the time, our family of 6 was living in a 1200 square foot ranch with 3 bedrooms and no basement. Both of the homes were built at the same time, 1973, but were like night and day. Briarcliff had been the homes for doctors and lawyers. Our subdivision had always been blue collar families. The phone call from the father was asking us if we would ever be interested in moving into a larger home in a nicer part of town? Of course I said, that would be nice but we were not looking or even planning to make such a move at that time. He asked me to come over to their house, and his wife walked me around the house in Briarcliff. 2600 SF and a full basement. The house was dated but finished nicely as the mother was very neat and tidy. He asked us to consider moving into their home in the next 40 days. They were building a new home with handicapped access throughout that was nearly complete.
The confusing thing that was poorly explained was that we weren't going to be selling our small ranch, rather we were going to be trading it to him, as a down payment buying the Briarcliff home, then he would keep the small ranch as an investment property. So when the wife called and asked what we thought, my initial reaction was that we couldn't possibly get the house ready to sell in time to meet his deadline. She was stunned, because she realized we didn't have to sell our old ranch home, all we had to do was move out. We didn't have to clean, repair, fix, modernize or update anything. Just pack up and move out.
My wife and I realized this may be a once in a lifetime shot that would change our family forever. This was our big break. We got the house packed, we had a huge moving party with a bunch of friends. We lived out of boxes for about 3 weeks getting everything settled and unpacked. The kids all ended up in 3 of the bedrooms and my wife and I had a master bath for once. I use my son's room now as my office for home inspections and the 2 younger girl's room is now my wife's Barbie collection room. A creative and life changing event that doesn't happen very often, but we're so glad it did.
Barbie Room 
Scott Seaton-The Home Inspector With A Heart
SLS Home Inspections @815-644-6271
Inspecting homes like yours in the Kankakee, Bourbonnais, Bradley, Illinois area since 2007.
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