[speaker001:] [Breathing] [LAUGHTER] Well Carol since today's subject is our homes, why don't you tell me about yours.
[speaker002:] Okay, I live in Plano, in a four bedroom, two bath house, which is the area's dominantly three bedroom, two bath. So, I'm just a little bit different than typical, uh, and of course, the Plano area is basically with alleyways, so everything around here is set up that way. Which I think is a little bit different than most areas, in the houses, the way they're constructed. And it's a brick house, with, uh, some wood. It's real nice, I like it [LAUGHTER]. How about you?
[speaker001:] Well I, I certainly hope so. We have a, a classic ranch, up in Denton. Ranch style home, I shou-, [LAUGHTER] I would hate to think that anybody thought, uh, the lot we live on as a ranch. Uh, it's in a subdivision and one story. It started out life as a three bedroom house, and now has no two car garage and has, uh, the two extra rooms enclosed. I suppose we still only have three effective bedrooms but we gained a playroom for the kids and an office out of enclosing the garage.
[speaker002:] Are most of the houses in your area three bedroom, two bath?
[speaker001:] Almost a hundred percent.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I, I can't think of any four bedroom houses in the subdivision. Ours is probably the closest to it. You know how realtors are, they'll say, oh this could be five bedrooms. Yeah, if you had two people that don't have any clothes it could be a five bedroom house,
[speaker002:] Yeah, to.
[speaker001:] don't need a closet [breathing].
[speaker002:] The only thing about mine, um, I think there's probably about, oh, when I go down the street I can just pick out houses that are, that are identical to mine and usually they are the four bedroom, um, but they're spaced out, oh I'd say maybe three, on a two block period. Because it's all different builders up here. So it's kind of hard at that point to, you know, classify some of the builders. But most of the builders all built three, two. But the one thing, my house is a little bit different and I can pick it out again because it's not typical, is I've got the, oh, what do you call a, uh, double ceiling, double high in one half of the house. So like the den and the living room are all double cathedral ceilings.
[speaker001:] Uh, cathedral ceilings.
[speaker002:] And, uh, the kitchen is norm and the bedrooms are norm. So it just goes down the dining room, the family room, and the living room that way. And I love the space. It just, it's, uh, luckily I came from a house in Colorado which had the cathedral ceiling and I just lucked out and walked into this one and of course I felt the same airy feeling, which I liked it real well, so it's a nice thing to move into, but, again, it's not typical in this area. You can just spot them because the ce-, the roof is so hi-, much higher. But, uh,
[speaker001:] Well I hadn't thought about it in that sense, of the high roofs. We have cathedral ceilings in, uh, two rooms. In the, uh, family room and in the master bedroom and those are, are pleasant.
[speaker002:] Yeah. Well it's like when my son goes up into the, up into the furnace area over the garage.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] He can walk and he's six foot. And he says, oh, come on up mom. I'm not going up there [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] I'm not going up there, but he says there's plenty of room up there for a room. So that means if I knock out the wall in my family room, I could make another room overlooking my family room from upstairs with no problem. But, um, I'm not that ambitious. I tol-, maybe someday when I feel really ambitious and an-, get angry I'll start poking holes up there, but until that time [LAUGHTER]. But, uh, I've noticed the houses around here are basically, it's one story and they're all basically two, uh, bath, two, uh, with three bedrooms. And we're ninety, I would say about, oh, about ninety-five percent, no I guess may-, probably a hundred percent of them all are mostly brick, uh, with some wood.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] But it's, it's basically all brick. The next subdivision over from me is total brick and the one on the other side of me is about the same as mine. But, uh, the one on opposite the street now, they're total brick and they're basically almost all three, two. They're all three, two. But of course they have a little river going down their area too, which is kind of nice [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] If it's the kind of river I'm thinking of, better them, than, than us, you know [breathing] [LAUGHTER]. Are you talking about a, a real river, creek?
[speaker002:] No it's a creek, they've put little fountains in and such.
[speaker001:] Well that's nice. Uh, I came from Mississippi recently and the rivers that we had there were the ones that came with the rains and they didn't pay any, any attention to banks and that kind of stuff.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] So you're just as likely to fl-, wake up and discover you're in two inches of water.
[speaker002:] [Breathing] [LAUGHTER] Do you have a lot of property, I mean a lot of yard around your house now, in Denton?
[speaker001:] Uh, it's a third of an acre. I don't think that's a lot, uh, in fact, I have been real disappointed in the six years that I've lived out here about lot sizes [breathing] [LAUGHTER]. I'm more accustomed to a one acre lot being a standard and the two acre being what most people have.
[speaker002:] Yeah, when you get down closer in to the newer tract homes you find almost like there's no lot line at all. They're built practically on top of each other.
[speaker001:] That's true.
[speaker002:] I know, I was,
[speaker001:] An, and while, while there are some advantages to that, [LAUGHTER] there's less time spent outside making it look nice and taking care of things. Uh, I just feel hemmed in by that. It's not as comfortable a living for me.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. Well this subdivision here has got, oh, there's enough to put, oh, I'd say, uh, what, twelve feet between each house on each side. Well, I've got more on one side than I've got on the other, but I'm like you, I came down from Colorado and there was more land up there around a yard with a big full back yard, which here, I look out my back yard and I can see the gate. I mean the fence is right there, I mean just don't run too fast, or you'll hit it and I'm not used to that either. I mean I could see people putting swimming pools in the back yard all around me, but to me, you put the swimming pool in your back yard and you've lost your back yard.
[speaker001:] Entirely.
[speaker002:] I mean, uh, sure, I mean you've got a little place on one side or the other, but, uh, to me they're not that big enough for a pool, but, you know, they're going up, so. But it's, uh, it's great for mowing [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] Fro-, from that aspect, you're right. And, and it doesn't take nearly as long to get out there and weed it by hand and that kind of stuff.
[speaker002:] But yes, I'm used to, uh, walking out the back yard and you can play catch across the back yard and you've got plenty of room to even play a small game of baseball, but, don't do it around here.
[speaker001:] No, the one, that's sort of what drove me to Denton [throat clearing],
[speaker002:] [Tapping].
[speaker001:] when I first came out here in eighty-five. I started looking and it seemed like the further I got away from Dallas, center, uh, the more lot came with the house and, and the lower the price, at the same time. And it just seemed like there was a ten thousand dollar drop for each city.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] I hadn't thought about it that way.
[speaker001:] S-, so moving up thirty-five, [LAUGHTER] I stopped when I got to Denton. Uh.
[speaker002:] It ju-, well see now, with our jobs mainly hitting downtown Dallas we couldn't go too much further, but, we pra-, we went that way. It was the schools and the cost of houses, so we kept going out until we figured we hit a point where we need the traffic, time to get into work, and that's where we stopped. It was the tham-, same problem. But I think Plano's,
[speaker001:] You all both, you all both work downtown?
[speaker002:] [Breathing] [LAUGHTER] I got layed off by T I [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Oh, well, this is a wonderful thing that, that you're doing here still helping them out.
[speaker002:] Oh, I ye-,
[speaker001:] Uh, but you were working downtown.
[speaker002:] No, I was working at the Dallas site. My ex-husband was working downtown.
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] But I have, uh, no, T I as far as I concerned, they've been great as far as layoffs is concerned, so I have no problems. But as far as the housing, I would like, personally, I would like to move out of a four bedroom house and go with something smaller. But prices in Plano, there isn't, um, there isn't a section in Plano you can really move to without getting caught and, uh, it, my price right now, for what I pay,