Haddock and Dill: October 8, 1955 Bonnie Gets a House and Bob Wants a Dog

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"Our big news for this week is that we have signed a contract to buy a house if the loan goes through. Everything else is done and we hope to have an o.k. on the loan before November. The house is four years old and three blocks from school. It was built by some of our friends and paid for by the girl's father. It is built well and better than we could afford to build one now. It is frame but is a story and a half so we can paint and repair ourselves when we need to.

It has no garage but we hope to add one within a year. It has a living room, 13x22 with a fireplace, dining room 11x12, kitchen 11x19, a big bathroom, hall and two bedrooms. We'll have to put the children together. Their bedroom was made for two children and is 11x15. Our bedroom is 11x12. The upstairs is unfinished but has lots of room for two rooms and a bath. We will fix Bob a room up there as soon as we can. There is a full basement, a gas furnace and water heater. The kitchen is decorated beautifully with nice cabinets. We'll have to do some painting in the living room because it is blue and our furniture is green. We have seen it only once but we know we are getting something good that we couldn't build.

The lot is 72x106--not very big but has shade and nice grass established.

The people living in the house went away to school and the house has been empty since early fall. The man wanted $23,000 for it so it didn't sell. We gave $17,500. for it with a down payment of $2,600. The mortgage was $14,900. at 4.5%. The appraisal was $19,000. so we feel we got a good house. Of course, we don't have it yet and we aren't telling it yet. We don't want everyone to know it until we're sure.

The house deal has kept us in a dither all week. Now we can only wait. If the loan goes through we'll move in early November and you can spend our first Thanksgiving in our home with us. It will take us a long time to decorate and do all we want to do but it will be ours and be fun to do.

It has been hot and rainy all week but it is getting cold again. We have a little furnace fire. It will be nice not to shovel coal.

The kids have been sick this week. Ann started a cold on Sunday and we had the Dr. Tuesday. She had bronchitis again. Now she is all right--just coughs a little but Bob has it. The Dr. came to see him yesterday. They had such high fevers and felt so bad. It is going around town but I hope I escape.

Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 23, 1954

Bob wants a dachshund dog and wants a female so we can raise some puppies. We have been trying to talk him out of that. That's too much of a good thing. The pup will wait until we're settled on the house but we think we have some located.