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Our First House
In June of 1982 my fiancée, Jay, and I were walking down Fourth Avenue in Albany. We were planning our wedding and talking about our future. We came across an old house that nobody lived in at the time. Jay said, “Look, there’s an old house we could buy and fix up”. I just looked at him with wide eyes and a bewildered look. We went to the neighbor’s house, knocked on the door and asked about the house. She told us that the house had been empty for five years and that the power company, Pacific Power & Light (PP&L) owned it. PP&L had purchased the house to tear down and build a parking lot for the water plant, which PP&L also owned, that was on the other side of the house. We thanked the neighbor for the information and walked back to my place.
When we arrived at my place, Jay called PP&L to inquire about the house. He was told “At this time there are no plans to sell the house”, but they would put our name on the list and contact us if something changed. About a month later, we received a letter informing us, they were accepting bids for the Fourth Avenue house. There were ten letters sent out and we had 30 days to make an offer.
We casually started our research on the house. Jay went to the court house to find out more, such as lot size, tax assessment value, etc. The tax lot assessment was $13,500 for the lot and $17,050 for the house. It was a big lot that went all the way down to the Calapooia River. There were two easements on the property, one for the water treatment plant to get to the settling ponds and the other for the railroad for the train trestle. PP&L had paid $58,000 for the house in 1977. We also found out that PP&L had sold the house twice before for $1.00 with the intent that the purchaser would have to move the house. Both times PP&L pulled out of the deal at the last minute. The house is on the National Historic Registry and referred to as the Dannals house. It had been a thorn in PP&L’s side ever since they purchased it, mostly because of one neighbor, Mrs. Bain, and the Historical Society.
The reason Mrs. Bain and the Historical Society were interested in saving this house is because it is a very good example of a Victorian style house. The architectural style is referred to as Queen Anne with Eastlake details. The house has the traditional Queen Anne steep gabled roof with sawed shingles in the peak panel for added texture and details, a round turret in the corner of the top floor and a wrap around front porch that is inside the main structural frame of the house, including Eastlake gingerbread railings and newel posts. The daylight basement makes the house seem to be reaching for the sky.
The very last day that we could submit in our offer, we sat down, pulled a piece of notebook paper out of my binder and hand wrote:
“Dear Sirs, We bid $14,000 dollar for the Fourth Avenue property and house….”
Our thought was $13,500 for the lot and $500 for the house. We signed the letter and mailed it. We brush off our hands, saying we’ll never get the bid, but that was a great learning experience.
Our life went on, busy with wedding plans, working and finding an apartment to move into after we were married. One week before our wedding a letter came in the mail.
“Dear Mr. Conrad and Ms. Hollingshead,
We are pleased to inform you that you are the high bidders…”
Jay’s reaction was, “What? We were just kidding. This was just supposed to be a learning experience! Now what are we going to do?” I replied sheepishly, “Buy an old house and fix it up?” We called PP&L explaining that we were to be married in a week, the names on the contract would need to be changed and we would contact them when we returned from our honeymoon.
There was a revised contract waiting for us when we returned. After reading the contract, there were a few issues that we needed to address. The first issue was we needed $700 for the 5% down payment. That was more money than we had at the time. We asked Jay’s parents if we could borrow the money. The second was a clause stating that if in the first year after we purchased the house, a natural disaster destroyed it; PP&L had the option to buy back the house for the purchase price. This really concerned us and we made an appointment to discuss it with PP&L. When we met with them we asked, “What’s not to say that in a year, you have somebody burn the house down?” The guy leaned across the table and said, “Mr. Conrad, if we had wanted to burn it down, we would have done so, long ago”. Somehow that gave us the reassurance, it was going to be okay. We were this young newly married couple, which had nothing to do with the Historical Society. So actually selling the house to us was good for PP&L’s public image.
We were at the right place at the right time. We made a small effort to investigate something that was just a dream; not even a dream but a whimsical thought. From the first small steps that we made, asking the neighbor and making that first phone call, to at the last minute making the offer on the house, a vast difference was made in our life. We took a chance. We took this chance together as a couple. It was the beginning chapter of our lives together. This house has a very special place in our heart. Our dream came true. My advice is to be careful what you wish for… it just might happen!
When we arrived at my place, Jay called PP&L to inquire about the house. He was told “At this time there are no plans to sell the house”, but they would put our name on the list and contact us if something changed. About a month later, we received a letter informing us, they were accepting bids for the Fourth Avenue house. There were ten letters sent out and we had 30 days to make an offer.
We casually started our research on the house. Jay went to the court house to find out more, such as lot size, tax assessment value, etc. The tax lot assessment was $13,500 for the lot and $17,050 for the house. It was a big lot that went all the way down to the Calapooia River. There were two easements on the property, one for the water treatment plant to get to the settling ponds and the other for the railroad for the train trestle. PP&L had paid $58,000 for the house in 1977. We also found out that PP&L had sold the house twice before for $1.00 with the intent that the purchaser would have to move the house. Both times PP&L pulled out of the deal at the last minute. The house is on the National Historic Registry and referred to as the Dannals house. It had been a thorn in PP&L’s side ever since they purchased it, mostly because of one neighbor, Mrs. Bain, and the Historical Society.
The reason Mrs. Bain and the Historical Society were interested in saving this house is because it is a very good example of a Victorian style house. The architectural style is referred to as Queen Anne with Eastlake details. The house has the traditional Queen Anne steep gabled roof with sawed shingles in the peak panel for added texture and details, a round turret in the corner of the top floor and a wrap around front porch that is inside the main structural frame of the house, including Eastlake gingerbread railings and newel posts. The daylight basement makes the house seem to be reaching for the sky.
The very last day that we could submit in our offer, we sat down, pulled a piece of notebook paper out of my binder and hand wrote:
“Dear Sirs, We bid $14,000 dollar for the Fourth Avenue property and house….”
Our thought was $13,500 for the lot and $500 for the house. We signed the letter and mailed it. We brush off our hands, saying we’ll never get the bid, but that was a great learning experience.
Our life went on, busy with wedding plans, working and finding an apartment to move into after we were married. One week before our wedding a letter came in the mail.
“Dear Mr. Conrad and Ms. Hollingshead,
We are pleased to inform you that you are the high bidders…”
Jay’s reaction was, “What? We were just kidding. This was just supposed to be a learning experience! Now what are we going to do?” I replied sheepishly, “Buy an old house and fix it up?” We called PP&L explaining that we were to be married in a week, the names on the contract would need to be changed and we would contact them when we returned from our honeymoon.
There was a revised contract waiting for us when we returned. After reading the contract, there were a few issues that we needed to address. The first issue was we needed $700 for the 5% down payment. That was more money than we had at the time. We asked Jay’s parents if we could borrow the money. The second was a clause stating that if in the first year after we purchased the house, a natural disaster destroyed it; PP&L had the option to buy back the house for the purchase price. This really concerned us and we made an appointment to discuss it with PP&L. When we met with them we asked, “What’s not to say that in a year, you have somebody burn the house down?” The guy leaned across the table and said, “Mr. Conrad, if we had wanted to burn it down, we would have done so, long ago”. Somehow that gave us the reassurance, it was going to be okay. We were this young newly married couple, which had nothing to do with the Historical Society. So actually selling the house to us was good for PP&L’s public image.
We were at the right place at the right time. We made a small effort to investigate something that was just a dream; not even a dream but a whimsical thought. From the first small steps that we made, asking the neighbor and making that first phone call, to at the last minute making the offer on the house, a vast difference was made in our life. We took a chance. We took this chance together as a couple. It was the beginning chapter of our lives together. This house has a very special place in our heart. Our dream came true. My advice is to be careful what you wish for… it just might happen!
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