I don’t know how many years it has been, but several back we fell in love with a little property just on the Northside of Lake Texoma. At the time our eyes were bigger than our wallet so we waited to make an offer, but we knew that we wanted to be by this lake one day soon. We met with a local realtor who showed us a dozen properties that led us a great little single wide on an acre on Texoma Hills road. We talked ourselves in circles over this property and the potential it had. It happened to be one country mile away from a property that Karon and Chris had bought but honestly I can’t remember which came first the chicken or the egg so to speak. Some time passed and Aaron even had a chance to see it and he contacted Rick to see if we were going to buy it and if not he wanted to make an offer. And just like that our first lake dream property was gone.
We really enjoyed our visits to Karon and Chris’s lake house. Nestled in practically a forest of real trees it was everything we didn’t have in Northlake. But again life took another turn and we would soon be leaving our Northlake home for a new home in Trophy Club. The idea of a lake house subsided but we occasionally drove by properties at the lake each visit to OK to see the Kastner’s. We love our time there and to me it means time with family. I adore the time that our girls get to spend with our cousins. That meant so much to me as a kid that I love watching them play and interact when we get together.
A couple years ago we noticed the place at the end of the road of Texoma Park was for sale, so far out of our price range. But it was adorable with a great lake view. We joked if that is ever in our price range we are buying it! Later a little new farm house just two houses down was for sale by Karon and Chris and we drove by a handful of times. But to me having a lake property meant having a view if not lake front. Our new home in Trophy Club was perfectly surrounded by trees and it met every tree desire I had, now I wanted to see water.
Thanksgiving 2017 we were just headed into Kingston when my imaginary ADD clicked on Zillow. To my surprise our little Texoma Park lake view property price had dropped $100K over the last few years. Rick said to contact the realtor, reluctantly I sent a Facebook message and before we had pulled up to the Kastner’s we already had a call. The realtor agreed to show us the property that Friday. At best I thought this was still just a dream, this property was still quite a bit out of our price range, but a girl can dream right?
After our first visit to the property we were pleasantly surprised the house was only 13 years old and really had mostly new working parts aside from some crazy paint colors and mismatched floors it seemed like a fun project.
Rick seemed not really interested and I let it go, why push for a huge financial commitment like that anyway?
The next week at work I was talking to a co-worker who was looking for a place in that general area to retire. I told her about the house, I mentioned it to Rick that night and he was unnerved and said, “You told someone about our lake house?” Laughing the next day we really started looking at finances. We contacted the realtor again and found out the house was actually off the market. Rick after some good conversations with the realtor got her to make an offer thirty thousand below the last listing price. Of course the buyer could have laughed in our faces and initially said absolutely not. After a few days her son talked her into accepting the offer if we paid all the fees and we gladly accepted. That was the beginning of our lake house journey. Our 2017 ended with the excitement and stress of being vacation property owners. We already had so much on our plates but we decided that we could take on this one more thing.
We closed on the property in mid January. The realtor, Anne took our picture a the title office the day we closed. She told us we were just the most adorable couple and said in the cutest southern accent, “You realize that right you two are just adorable”. Karon and Chris met us at the closing office and took us over to the electric company to set up our account. We all went to Kingston afterward to have burgers at the local diner to celebrate. It was fun that their excitement seemed to match ours. After living almost four hours from them for the last 20 years, I was excited to be starting this new journey were we would be so much closer without imposing some of the time.
Rick’s grandpa Hickle had just passed that last September and though we had made many trips over the years to visit, it sometimes felt like we were wearing them down with our family of five and often our little furry child, Oso.
We all shared in the excitement and the promise of being back very soon to continue to work on the new property.
We of course came back the very next weekend to start clearing out junk and cutting back the one big tree that shaded the porch. Karon and Chris came over even though Chris wasn’t feeling that well to help us with our four hour clean up. It was nice spending time with Karon as cleaned all the weeds from the air conditioner and talked about the plans for the house and her plans of her new addition at her house just down the road.
The kids, Audrey and Natalie, seemed to have a little fun helping with the cleanup and didn’t complain about being in a house all day with no furniture and no TV.
My mind raced with all the possibilities of lake time relaxation. Kayaking and hiking around the lake. Making memories as my Aunt Faye would say with our little family and my nieces and nephew at the lake.
The weeks following have been just madness. I feel like I am behind on so many things, but love the planning and preparing for our future vacation home/rental property. In my mind it will be a sanctuary where we can go to relax and unwind. Hopefully being more writing and maybe one day I will actually have an actual book that I can try to publish. My only worry is that the kids will grow tired of it before we do. I have big plans to make it fun for them and hope that it will mean more time with cousins and taking friends to the lake.
Most of all I must say that I have been beyond blessed in my life. Who would have thought twenty years ago that I would have three beautiful daughters, a loving and somewhat crazy husband, a beautiful home in Trophy Club that is just a short walk to Lake Grapevine and now a adorable lake house with a grand view of Lake Texoma. I hope this is just the first post of many to come of our Lake house adventures!
