Our house in the middle of our street

I think part of everyone's American Dream is to own their own home. I know it was my dream. We bought our first house for our first wedding anniversary. Poor Doug was convinced he'd never be able to live up to that gift! We sold that house in 2002 and bought another house in a wonderful neighborhood where we had friends.

In late 2005 we started talking about moving. The house was feeling small with two kids and all their stuff. An opportunity to buy some land sort of fell into our hands and we ran with the idea of building our own home near Doug's work. After several years of him commuting, we were both ready for him to work closer to his home.

So, in 2006 we put our house on the market. At that very moment, the housing market started its collapse. We struggled to even get showings on the house, let alone an offer. I found out I was pregnant. With the twins. Our house was under construction. We moved, leaving our house listed with a broker, and started paying two mortgages. One one income. With two more babies coming into the world. For the last three years we've struggled to find respectable tenants to live in our home. We've hired attorneys, had to pay outstanding bills that our tenants left behind for us. We've had to repaint our home, haul tenants' trash to the dump. Not my idea of the American Dream.

Last month we re-listed that house with new brokers, not expecting much. We were under contract in four days after about 20 showings. I won't go into details of how much of a financial hit we took to sell this house. It was depressing, but it had to be done. Yesterday we closed on the sale. The new owners are young and full of energy. I think they'll love the house. It's a great neighborhood, they both work in the city, and have friends down the street. I'm so glad that the American Dream came true for them. I'm even happier that I'm no longer a dual home owner. Now we can put the energy into this home that we meant to do when we built. It's time for our American Dream to come to light again.