From Durkyn to Stackhurst

I'm not sure exactly why we find ourselves living on streets with such unusual names.  Nonetheless, we have gone through a significant change in our life as a family.  We have moved out of our home on Durkyn Place and into a new home.  The Durkyn house was on the market, but was not selling (not too surprising).  At the same time we found some great deals out there and decided that now was the time to buy for sure.  Interest rates are at all time lows, and list prices are dropping dramatically.  So, we decided on a cute house just north of Durkyn in Youngsville, NC.  Technically we still have a Wake Forest address, so I'm not quite sure how to tell people where we live.  The next street over is Wake County, while we are in Franklin County.  Which wouldn't be so bad except the Wake Co. folks are paying only a fraction of the taxes we now pay in Franklin Co. (which would have been nice to know prior to purchasing in Franklin Co.).  But still, the instant equity we have in the house made the purchase and move worth it.

What happened to Durkyn, you ask?  It is still there, but it is currently occupied by a tenant who is renting from us for a 6 month lease.  This frees us up to not have to carry two mortgages. The tenant is a very nice little family and we are certainly glad to have them in the house.

While we greatly miss our neighbors on Durkyn, we have come to really enjoy this new spot.  The neighbors are very friendly here as well.  The new house is quite spacious, too, making life a little easier on Ashley and the kids for sure (and for me, too!)  The yard is nice and flat and there are NO trees!  Which at first I thought was a bummer, but in all honesty, I really like the idea of not having to rake this fall!  We do have some small trees, but not enough to really have to rake.  Also, because there are no trees, there is no canopy and the sky is huge!!!  When the stars are out, you can almost see 180 degrees of starry sky!  It's great!  We are also on the flight path for air traffic into and out of RDU airport.  We love watching the planes fly overhead.  The boys especially like them!

The move was long and tedious.  The driveway at Durkyn was too steep to get the truck down.  It kept bottoming-out.  We finally just had to park it on the curb and carry every last piece of furniture, every box, and every little thing up the drive and into the truck (about a 20-30 yard hike).  Needless to say that made the day extra long.

At Stackhurst, we parked the truck right up to the house on our nice, flat driveway!  Our plans are still to sell Durkyn and cash in on that investment.  We are so glad to still keep in touch with the folks from that neighborhood, although, we would like to spend more time with them.  It's not quite the same that's for sure.  We have met neighbors here and are enjoying our relationships with them.  Neighbor Paul has great tips for the house, and we have some great conversations.  Neighbor Kamira and her puppy, Pepper like playing in the front yard, so we always like it when they visit.  The kids really like Pepper, and I think she likes them just as much.  Abigail has made some new friends whose backyard backs up to ours.  They'll often come up to the property line and stand there to see if Abigail and Nate can come out and play.


I'm not sure exactly what God's plans are for us and how long we'll be in this neighborhood.  While we are here, though, there are really two investments will make. One being investing in our kids and the time we spend with them.  And the other being meeting more neighbors and making more friends.  Those investments are sure to produce a return, regardless of the state of the economy.