#joevsthevolcano

This is the house that would have eliminated Hood River from our lives. This is Grange Hall Road in Dalton, Massachusetts.

In 2009 I did not get along well with my manager. In 2009 many home owners were underwater in their mortgages. That house in the center of the picture, the one with the long driveway down the mountain to Grange Hall Road, was in foreclosure.

It must have been 4,500 square feet. There was a creek running down the mountain that emptied into a pond next to the house. When I saw that view into the woods I felt like I would never watch television ever again. I would have been happy to just sit and look out that window.

It was January in New England and negative eight degrees Fahrenheit the first day we saw the house. It was so cold inside the house that a crack formed down the center of the entire length of the ceiling. The foreclosure price was $250,000 (almost double our mortgage at the time, but less than our house in Hood River would turn out to be.)

I could still walk to work from that house. This was Saturday. We had an engineer come out to inspect the crack and give us his expert opinion on Thursday. $500 later we learned the house was perfectly straight and the crack was just due to contraction from the cold.

By Friday we put in our offer contingent on selling our house. By Saturday the house was sold to someone else. It had been on the market for a few months. I cynically believe that another realtor bought the house and were just waiting until someone showed interest.

That was the big reach following my boredom at work. And in the ensuing disappointment of not getting that house we responded with the big change. Within three months I was looking for a job, and three months after that we were moving into our new home in Hood River.  I put an offer in within 36 hours of my first having stepped foot in Oregon. I’m sure my real estate agent thought I was weird, but ship driving in the navy taught me to be decisive.