New House and Recession

St. Louis Arch

Our first home

Living Room

Living Room

Kitchen

We were so excited to be in a new city with a new life. We had just purchased our first home! In addition to the rabbit and Stella, we got another dog. We just kept adding and adding. Stella was named after a jazz tune called Stella by Starlight and Chowder is a Boston Terrier, so Chowder seemed like a fitting name for a mess of a dog.

Chowder and Stella

For work, I had an accounting job that I hated. My boss was rude and insensitive. I quit after six weeks. I contacted a coworker at Champion Windows and got another accounting job, answering phones and scheduling appointments. However, they were overstaffed and I often went home early because there was not anything to do. In the fall of 2008, we elected a new president. I dressed as Sarah Palin for Halloween that year. Then, the bottom dropped out of the economy, and our perfect lives.

The Recession, 2009

We went ahead and bought a new car on New Years Eve, 2008. I'm still driving that car. In February of 2009 I was laid off. I came into work that day and my supervisor cornered me and said that the discussions they had about staffing resulted in me having to go. They knew I was in school and was not going to stay at that job forever. I was out of work for six weeks, with a new car payment, three animals to feed and take to the vet, and an expensive mortgage. Walt decided to buy a new truck during this time. We still fight about that truck every once in a while. While I was laid off, I took education classes and decided that teaching was the direction my life needed to go.

Luckily I got a job at a bank in April of 2009. I REALLY liked that job. It was fast, they gave me some responsibility, and my co-workers were really fun. I worked there throughout the recession, trying to pay bills and take classes at UMSL. Walt's job was very stressful, and during the spring of 2010 we felt like it was time to move again. I was going to have to quit work to focus on school full time, and we could not afford our house payment on one salary, so we put the house up for sale, I applied to UMKC again, and Walt found a new job at another charter school in Kansas City.

We couldn't sell the house, though. From June to August we bit our fingernails, waiting for people to come look at it. No offers were ever made. We couldn't understand. The house was so cute, the location was great. So we moved to Kansas City anyway, but because we still owned the house, we had to move in with Walt's mom and dad. That six month period was the worst of my life.

I'm eternally indebted to my in-laws for letting us stay with them for free. We did not even buy groceries most of the time. But our lack of privacy and the feeling of dependence was hard for us, since we had lived on our own for five years. We went back to St. Louis once a month every month until January 2012. I applied through our lender to do a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure on our house. We had maxed out our savings and retirement making payments on a house we weren't living in, so we gave it back to the bank. (You can see the pictures of it, inside and out, here: http://www.trulia.com/homes/Missouri/Saint_Louis/sold/98207-6452-Southwest-Ave-Saint-Louis-MO-63139#photo-14)

We lovingly dubbed the house our "vacation home." I still miss it.