9860 S.E. Citadel street Clackamas Oregon
D Vautier
10/2022
I bought this house in 1973 mostly because my wife wanted the additional lots. I actually wanted a newer larger house which were selling for around $21,500 at the time and we could have affored it. We paid $17,000 for this house and lived there 6 years but it seemed like much longer because so much went on. We then moved to Seattle in 1979 and rented the house out until my divorce in 1989. In 1991 I sold it for around $50,000. Most of the money went to lawyers.
I have so many memories of this house, all of which happened within those seemingly short 6 years.
The place needed
new wiring really
bad. There was a 200 amp box recently installed because the
previous owner did welding in the garage. Then I found 3 individual
fuse boxes, one on the west side and two others inside in the kitchen
and bathroom. I remember crawling around the attic trying to find
wiring to various lights and switches.
Next was the heating system. There was one big gas unit in the living room. That was all. My youngest son slept in the east bedroom, my wife and I used the middle bedroom and my daughter had the west bedroom. Once the ceiling collapsed in our bedroom and woke us up. That was a surprise.
I painted a pink elephant on the south wall in my daughter's room. That winter of 1973 was a cold one and my son got pneumonia. I installed double windows and baseboard heating in all the bedrooms. At that time baseboard heat was quite affordable.
Next came the frogs. The land
around Citadel Street is low and when it rained heavily the entire area
became a bog. The space under our house turned into a
breeding ground for frogs that croaked constantly all night and kept me awake. I got a conveyer
belt and hauled a few cubes of sand and gravel under the house. We
had a large female shepherd so I got the entire property fenced.
The roof was another matter. It leaked badly. There were three layers of shingles on the roof, would you believe, so I had to remove them and replace any rotten boards. My father-in-law helped me but I did most of the work. I did it in four days and it was absolutely exhausting. I was in bed for two days after that. This was my first and last roof job--ever for me.
Two vacant lots were to the west of us and we tried to buy them. Actually one of the lots had a little shack on it. Some kids came by one night and burned it down.
We had a neighbor to the south of us who had two lovely young daughters that did our babysitting. Unfortunately the dad was a drunk and used to hang out a lot at the bar on the corner of 102nd and hwy 212. One night he came home late and while crossing that vacant lot he passed out and died.
The Zimmermans lived to the north on the corner property. We were very good friends.
We celebrated many birthdays and Christmases in that house. So many memories. My daughter started school at Buckman Elementary (now Bilquest).
Grandpa an Grandma came all the time because they had a big house out on Sunnyside road. I set up a swing in the back yard for the kids. Life was wonderful.
We were on septic tank and the damn thing kept collapsing leaving a big hole in the back yard. what a surprise opening the window and finding a big hole in the back yard. I would go out and repair it. It also would back up a lot. Sewer was coming the next year so I did not replace it and we hooked up as soon as we could. Boy did I enjoy filling that old thing in. I also enjoyed flushing the toilet.