The Ones that Came Before

One year ago this week, David and I jumped headfirst into homeownership. Throwing caution, bank accounts, and sanity to the wind, we have been elbow-deep in joint compound, sheetrock dust, and paint ever since.


But before I tell the story of THIS house, I have to tell the story of the houses that came before.

David and I had been looking online for homes somewhat seriously for about 3 months before we found this one. I was dead-set on a Victorian in downtown New Braunfels. The square, Schlitterbahn, Naeglin's bakery…. I pictured myself riding a pink cruiser bicycle with Binky in the basket down to the Farmer's Market where I would buy $9 squash I would never eat. The reality of this is that Victorian homes in New Braunfels START at the mid $300's, and in our family of two teachers plus one very spoiled dog plus one very large antique buying habit, homes below $200K were far and few between.

We made a bid on a small Victorian home on Cross Street early on, but lost to a higher bidder. I kept looking, and prices kept rising. My $8 squash dreams were falling apart. Binky said he was kind of afraid of bicycles anyway, but I think this was a ploy to make me feel better.

The Victorian that was not to be….

So I shifted my focus to my other dream: a home with land I could fill with burros, rescue dogs, a pet cow, and a vegetable garden for my own squash. Purgatory Road is a great stretch of hill-country homes on acreage, and we set our sights there. There was a great house for sale in our price range (in Alex land a great house is a monstrosity that is falling to the ground, but which in THEORY could become habitable by throwing millions of dollars and hundreds of gallons of paint at it). We bid well over asking price but lost to a flipper. Unlike the Victorian, this loss was harder to get over, though. I was convinced that it would be ours. I had mentally picked out shutter colors, painted it white, and filled it with squash-eating burros. I cried myself to sleep that night.

The house on Purgatory Road. 

David, being the more realistic of the two of us, decided we should take a break from looking for awhile, but I was undeterred. I broadened my search to include Canyon Lake. Canyon Lake is an interesting place. Half wild and rocky terrain, half trailer homes, it is an un-zoned area about 20 minutes from New Braunfels. Homes here range from meth shacks to million dollar developments. Surely there was a burro and a squash in here somewhere!

Most of the homes for sale were typical lake houses, set on piers and with wood clapboard siding.

The 80's called. It wants its everything back….

None of those matched what I imagined in my head…. white siding, green shutters, a tin roof and lots and lots of dogs. I wanted an 1800's farmhouse on an 1930's budget. I wanted a house that felt like Texas, not 1987 New Jersey. Was it possible?