A family’s search for the right home

When a house is put on the market, she is both excited and nervous.

She can hope for generous buyers who will treat her well and not be stingy with her wants and needs. Of course, the buyers are looking for a house that meets their needs and is in great shape both inside and out. Seldom do both the house and buyers get all of what they are looking for.

When I was a child, one of three with another on the way, our parents were house-hunting with an agent who, for some reason, did not take into account the family he was house-shopping with had three young kids. He should have; it would have saved a lot of time, effort and frustration.

The first house we looked at and dismissed was a lovely place, but according to our parents, it was way too close to a busy road. The second place had a nice front yard but almost no back yard. Kids do like to play in their back yards. The third house was lovely with a front yard and a big, fenced rear yard. It was across the street from a very big river, but the neighborhood was close to the schools, and the road was traveled only by those who lived on the street. My mother loved the house, and my dad loved the price. The house was ours.

We moved in right away and were instructed by our mother to stay in the back yard unless one of our parents was with us. Since the back yard was big and totally fenced in, we kids had a great place to play for a while. Brother and I soon learned to climb over the fence and sneak across the road to explore the river. There were steps down the big bank leading to a pier where several neighbors had their boats tied up. Behind the steps, the riverbank was damp, and the ground was rather muddy.

Brother and I loved it and didn’t mind getting muddy until we heard our parents calling us. We waited until they went back to the house looking for us, then we snuck up the stairs and hid behind our neighbor’s garage. We found a hose and tried to wash the mud off our shoes, but the mud was stubborn, so there was still evidence. Then we carefully sneaked back into our back yard and told our folks we had been playing behind the garage.

Having muddy shoes and the backs of our clothes covered in damp dirt told our parents a different story: We had, in fact, been down by the river and not playing behind the garage. They were both worried and upset about us breaking their rules. We were ordered to go inside and not allowed outside for at least two days.

A few days later, we kids were told we were moving to another house, one not close to the river. We were heartbroken and cried the entire time we were packing up our house. The next house was surrounded by woods. We kids liked it and made plans to build a treehouse and maybe catch a few snakes. We loved snakes, not the dangerous ones.

We knew about rattlesnakes, but we weren’t really sure how to identify the other poisonous ones, so we figured we needed to ask someone who knows about snakes. My brother decided to ask Dad and told him why we needed to know, and just like that, our snake collecting came to an end right then. It seemed that no matter where we lived, my brother and I were going to find trouble and get into it.

Laura Moore can be emailed at lehmoore1@gmail.com.