Falling into place...14º

The summer of 1977, brought stability to our life in Joseph...The house we had rented for 4 years was going up for sale...Max Hayes (owner) arrived from Alaska and with a local realtor walked through the house doing an appraisal...Max was quick to point out to the realtor the improvements, such as carpets in all rooms and newly painted walls throughout the house, improvements that we had made...He wanted to get a good price for the house but also wanted to made it reasonable enough that we could afford it...After considerable hassle, us trying to get a bank loan, (the bank required us to come up with $10,000.00 down,) Haye's offered to carry the contract...We had been good renters, our monthly rent paid always on time, so they knew they could count on us to fulfill the contract, and they liked the idea of selling to someone who loved the property and would take good care of it...Their only stipulation was that we pay the loan off in 10 years instead of the usual 25 to 30...They suggested that we could make a balloon payment or refinance at that time with a bank loan, something that people did all the time...We were new to house buying, loans, balloon payments and refinancing...But finally things worked out, Dad came to the rescue with help on the down payment and in the meantime I talked to a local realtor about other ways to pay-down a mortgage...He suggested that we pay a larger monthly payment and showed me that we could actually pay the house off in 10 years...So, again with more help from Dad and my new part-time job at the library, we could make this work...After 16 years of marriage, we would be homeowners...Soon we discovered the costs of owning a home...Hugs To All...OWAV:)