This is my post for #memoirmonday #43 What is one of the most expensive things that you’ve ever bought? hosted by @ericvancewalton.
Other than the land in which we live, our most expensive item was our home. Looking back on it, I can see where everything fell into place. The County was making us leave our home to build a road so my husband found this place it had an old junk trailer that was on 2 acres but we needed a trailer to put on it. We started looking for one, new was too much money, so we even drove to the middle of the state to look at repossessed trailers, they were terrible and filthy, and they even had all of the old owners' belongings thrown throughout them. They also wanted over 100 grand for them.
We did not know what we were going to do because we had to move, the County had paid us for the house and we only had so long to move. My husband found a trailer that was on school property and the people living in it needed it gone from the school, they wanted 35K for it but my husband asked if they would take 30 and they said yes but they wanted cash because they were leaving to start jobs in another state and needed the money now.
We went to our bank and asked to withdraw 30K. Did you know banks don't have that much cash on hand? Our bank didn't, we had to wait over an hour for them to bring the money. They gave us the money in a bank bag but my husband did not want to walk out the door with a bulging bank bag full of money. They put it in an old manilla envelope that was covered in writing.
When we got to the school where the trailer was, my husband had me wait in the truck, with the doors locked. He went inside and made sure everything was ok. The man who owned the trailer wanted us to follow him to his bank so they could count the money, we did that and he handed us the title.
Now we had to hire someone to move a 60 foot double wide trailer. We found a trailer moving company, he wanted 10 thousand to do it. Plus we had to pay someone to bring in fill dirt and make a pad for it to sit on.
The next highest thing we bought was my truck, we had to go to the west coast to pick it up and the people again wanted cash. We went to the bank and told them we needed 12 thousand in cash. They said they had to call someone in to open the big safe but they had it. We met the people at a public place, they were a very nice couple that used it to tow their camper and no longer needed it. It is a 1997 Ford diesel and now has 150k miles. It still runs great but the frame is rusting away.
photos are mine
I bet you guys were terrified to be carrying around that much cash. It pretty interesting when you look back at moments in life like this and see how things just line up. I've had a few instances in my own life like this. My parent's have too. When the sold their house in Ohio to move to Rockledge they got just enough to buy a trailer in Indian Oaks. It was a nice one too. The former owner was a NASA engineer and he had it tied down with extra metal straps to make it sturdier for the hurricanes. The year they moved down (2004) they had four! The trailer survived with very minimal damage.
It must have been very stressful to make those couple of big purchases with cash, my gosh hehe.
Like you, I think the most expensive thing we have ever bought is our home, the apartment we live in.
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