Home, sweet freebies

In 1984, while I was working on Capitol Hill, Annie and I had an opportunity to buy a new townhouse. We’d never owned a home before, and it was a heady experience for us.

There was a new development opening up, and the county required the builder to include thirteen low-income townhouses among the single-family homes for people just getting started.

Back then, “low-income” was a step up for me. I made so little as a congressional press secretary that I had to ask my boss for a $5,000 raise just to qualify as poor.

Anyway, in the end, we got the townhouse … but not at all the way we expected.

When we were told that the townhouse would soon be ready, we gave notice at our apartment. So far, so good.

But then the builder got back to us and said he had no occupancy permits and we couldn’t move in. When we told him we'd already given notice, he said okay, we could move in—but we’d have to get a temporary occupancy permit and pay $50 a day. That was $1,500 a month ($4,640 a month in today's economy!).

So, we took our case to the county. They told us that, not only couldn't the builder prevent us from moving in, but he also had to absorb the monthly payments himself until we closed … which took about six months!

So, instead of becoming paupers, we had no mortgage payments for nearly half a year. And with the money we saved, we were able to buy a washer, dryer and chest freezer for Annie … and a 12-string guitar for me.

Nevertheless, the builder kept trying to stick it to us. And every time he did, he grabbed the short end of the stick … and we ended up being able to buy a new garbage disposal, dishwasher and privacy fence as well.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

~ Romans 8:28, NIV