Three years of apartment life will soon end

My family and I have lived in an apartment for the past three years, which is two years more than we thought we would. That will soon change, as we are currently building a new home on the north side of Stevens Point.


When we sold our home in Wautoma in 2008, we decided to rent an apartment in Plover for a year while we explored our options. Did we want to buy a home, build one or maybe move on to another community? We didn’t know.

We quickly eliminated the option to move elsewhere, as we fell in love with Portage County. Simply said, it offers many of the conveniences of a metropolitan area, but with less of the hassles, such as traffic, crime and traffic. Did I mention traffic?

My wife, Jenny, and I looked at plenty of homes in the area, and never found anything we really liked in our price range. When we bought our home in Wautoma, we knew immediately it was the one. We never had those feelings about the homes we looked at here.

Building a home seemed like the best option, but then the economy collapsed, putting our mission on hold for two more years than we intended. As we waited for the banking industry to collect itself, we purchased a lot in the Eagle Point Subdivision and looked at builders and plans.

Jenny discovered the subdivision during the Golden Sands Home Builders Association’s annual Tour of Homes in 2009 in which one of the featured homes was located there. We loved its proximity to Interstate 39, and the rural setting it offers that we enjoyed growing up in rural Waushara County. We knew it was the perfect place to raise our son, Braden. Plus it has a nice lake where Braden and I caught several big bass last summer.

After looking at a number of builders, we decided we wanted to go with Heartland Homes in Plover, which at the time was a Wausau Homes dealer and is now a Blenker Homes dealer. Jason, Brice and the rest of the staff there were friendly, and word of mouth said they were a good group of people to deal with.

After more than a year’s worth of looking at plans, we finally found one we liked: a modest three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch-style home.

The basement for the home was dug and the footings were set this week. Heartland will set the home, which is constructed in Blenker’s facility in Amherst, on Tuesday, March 22, and it should be finished on May 22.

We’ll have to wait a few weeks to move in, though, as Heartland wants to feature the home on the 2011 Tour of Homes.

The little details about the house – upgrades, colors and flooring – were fairly easy for Jenny and me. We tend to have the same tastes, so we rarely disagreed about anything. In fact, we picked out flooring, under budget, in less than an hour at Carpets Plus in Plover.

Now, we’re trying to determine what colors we want to paint rooms in the house. Blaze orange will not be allowed, Jenny has told me. Maybe I can still push for camouflage.

Heartland will allow us access to the house in mid-April to paint rooms, prior to flooring installation, making the task much easier.

If Heartland could figure out a way for the move itself to be much easier, then all would be perfect. Then again, we’ll be getting out of our crowded apartment soon, which is more than good enough for us.