Happenstance House: Sep 7, 2008

Post #5
Are you ready? It's long!

This house has always been known as the Doctor's House. When we moved in in 1992, all we had to do when we met anyone new, was say we lived in the Doctor's House and they all knew where it was. We used to sit on our front porch and watch young people ride horses to the post office, tie them up, and go in to get the mail. In the winter, snowmobiles went roaring down the road late at night. And how we laughed and enjoyed it's quaintness. But in the last few years, farmer's fields are being turned into subdivisions. It's become a highly desirable area. It's only 20 minutes from downtown Grand Rapids and 10 minutes from a huge mall and all the restaurants you could ever want, and here we are still in a farming community. The problem is the new people don't know the history of the township or even care to find out. They don't know about the Doctor's House. The majority of them think they live in a neighboring town because that is the post office and school system they use, so their address reflects that. I sometimes think of the Jay Walkers on Jay Leno when I talk to them. How can you not know the name of the town you live in, your fire department, your library, and where you must go to vote? Anyway that's another subject.

My previous house was a Spanish-style ranch. We had it built and it was beautiful. In-the-ground pool, two fireplaces, and a courtyard with native shade plants, but it wasn't me. I grew up in an old house, and the house before that one was old. I was proud of the new house, but I never really felt quite comfortable there.
I used to go by a Dutch Colonial on my way home from work and think, now that's what I really want. It was on a small city lot with a one stall garage, not attached. No, I'd think I'd like a bigger yard for my gardens, but I still like living in a city setting, not country. Where could you find a yard like that in a city? I went out of my way some days to drive by and dream. We weren't thinking of moving at all and I never told my husband about my dream.
One day, he said, "Did you see the paper today? There's an open house in the country. Look at this place. What are we doing Wednesday night? Let's go look!"
We never went to an open house for fun or curiosity in our life! But it was summer and a nice country drive. When we arrived, the place was a zoo -- cars everywhere, people all over the place. Later we were told over 80 people went through. The Realtor said it was the social highpoint of the year for the town. Everyone wanted to get inside. It was "excuse me, pardon me" all the way through the 22 rooms. We loved it, but I started to have a sick feeling at the same time thinking, my husband is going to make me move. Even though I'd had the dreams, I still had not told him, and I was really afraid to shake up my life again.
We talked to the Realtor, signed a guest list, and went home talking about all the things we could do to it -- then promptly forgot about it as being too far out of town, etc, etc.
Two weeks later the Realtor called and said "Of all the people I talked to, you were the ones I thought would call back; there was a light in your eyes." We said thanks, but no thanks. But then we couldn't stop talking about it. Every night in the dark before bed and every day over supper we would dream. I then confessed my daydreams and showed him the house I had been looking at. It was a carbon copy, white Dutch Colonial EXCEPT the country house was a double Dutch, 2-3 times as large, had a three stall garage and 1 acre of property! Suddenly it dawned on me, that this was not just Happenstance, but a true gift from God. Everything I wanted and more!
We took another look at the house, made an offer , and they agreed to take it off the market for one month while we tried to sell our house -- unheard of!
We sold our house in three weeks! Again unheard of at that time, like now, houses were taking 1-2 years to sell.
So that's my story. I named the house Happenstance House, because if it weren't for the ad placed in an unusual spot in the paper, we would never had seen it. But we always knew it was more than happenstance that brought us here. It was truly a gift, and I have always been grateful.

Here are photos of the parlor to the right of the front entrance.