State of Housing

We are fans of HGTV on cable! Especially the remodeling programs that take a broken down home or set of rooms, and make it into something special.

We are also fans of housing in general: buildings that become homes, more than a place, but a nest for the heart and spirit – a place in which to raise families, hopes and dreams!

The idea of nest building is beguiling. Given a place we make it more of our home by decorating it, changing it, adding furniture and function to the space.  You know the drill – change it so it is mine or ours!  Change that we direct. Change that we make.

After the newlywed years of apartments, we lived in one home in Wheaton for 23 years. The kids were born there and graduated from high school there. One graduated from college, and the other remained in college for a few more years. Then divorce and moving to another home, this time in Warrenville.

The kids came with me. Daughter left for her city apartment in a few months, but son remained part time while he worked on his college degree out of state, then in the city for grad school. I learned the necessities of home keeping and cooking – sort of! But for 19 years Warrenville became home via the town home. Rocky joined me 13 years ago and we built a good life together here in town.

Now we are moving on. Not sure where at this moment, but we are looking for affordable housing for two old retired guys. Metro Chicago is too costly with inflated property taxes, and often inflated HOA fees as well. So we are looking rural.

The search has been instructive. It appears that housing stock is plentiful. In our price range much of it is foreclosures and short sales. Conditions of the homes range from fair to awful. Foreclosed homes have electrical equipment and even switches removed. Appliances are long gone. Gaping holes in walls suggest missing fixtures and treasures now removed.

Other homes have sloping floors where such was unintended! Buckled doorways, ceilings and walls are evident as well. Carpeting is not just soiled, it is wrinkled, torn and often missing entirely. Smells of empty homes have another story to tell. Most of those stories come unbidden and unpleasant.

We have found drug houses where marijuana was grown in abundance; mysterious rooms hidden from view with shelving in place for countless racks of plants, myriad electrical outlets for grow lights, aromas of soil and excess water to grow the plants.

One wonders if any of these homes were once coke houses or amphetamine labs. I understand smells in those places are not to be forgotten.

Driveways that have long ago broken up to native gravel (sort of) and patios that look like rough mosaic – so broken up as to yield multiple tripping hazards.  And wet basements and slab floors where rain and snow melt liberally enters the home by season and nurtures mold and mildew aplenty.

It is alarming the state of housing we have seen. And this is in suburban settings.

The rural settings tell their own story of chagrin and struggle. Proud old towns along the by-ways and rivers of Illinois have struggled to survive. Homes are very out of date. Empty homes, smelly homes, foreclosed and forlorn – short sale homes neater and nicer, but still forlorn and forworn.

The economic downturn in Illinois has had a toll on most communities. Only the most tony of them have remained unscathed and those I have not visited. I am not tony! Nor is my wallet in their same league.

Our home search continues but along many sad pathways of economic hardship by so very many good people.

As we journey through this period of life we do have hope that we are moving toward something that is good. We think we are going to find home. Somewhere, somehow, we will find The Place for us to build the next chapter of our life.

Home is hard to find. You have to work at it. If the search is too easy the end result may not be worthy of our time forward.

Stay tuned for developments! I know for sure, however, that the HGTV instant rehab is not in our future. We can dream of it, though!

August 29, 2013