rooted in rainier vista

carrie and i wouldn’t be home owners right now if it weren’t for my parents. they had been scheming for this day since before i was even born. it’s been their plan now for well over 25 years to someday save up enough money to put me through college and help me own my own home. and now, done and done. with a big boost from my parents, we now  own our first home in a little neighborhood called rainier vista, one of a handful of mixed-income communities in seattle.

there’s a lot we love about our house, but what makes it really special is that we live really close to a lot of folks we know. our immediate next door neighbors are friends from quest. a block over is the guy that officiated our wedding, and his wife who was our real estate agent. just up the hill from our neighborhood are some fellow recently-wed ex-IVers. around the corner is a guy i’ve known since i was in high school. and so on and so on. there are easily a dozen or so friends within a five-minute drive. of course, our morning commute is no big deal since the schools we teach at aren’t far, either. it’s no exaggeration to say that this is pretty ideal for us. neither is it an exaggeration to say we owe my parents big.

so tonight, we’re going to celebrate our new home by drinking some sparking apple cider (yes, we live on the edge) and unpacking a few more boxes. we have a ways to go before we’re really settled in, but once we are, i’m looking forward to a ton of future poker nights, football parties, lesson planning, movies, and community dinners in our home.