Our Dream Home

We lived here from 2000 through 2006. It was intended to be our retirement home, incorporating all the features that we had been dreaming of for the previous 30 years. Some items were: No Wires in the air, Clear view of Sunrise and Sunset, A pleasant view, One level floor plan, Combined Family Room and Kitchen area, Fireplace, and Workshops, Flower Arranging Area, and a Sewing Room.

We found a lot on Redbud Drive in a little subdivision called Westwood Place. It was just on the edge of the city limits of LaPorte but in the county. It looked westward across a 40 or 50 acre wetland called Lake Pottinger. Across the wetland which we called our swamp where nobody would be wandering around, was a cornfield owned by the County Home. The lot was about 50 feet above water level. Behind the home site were mature oak, hickory and _____ trees. The slope behind the home would accommodate a walk out basement.

The lot came with a builder. Walter Kegebein was widely known as one of the highest quality builders in the area. He was about 75 years old and had been building houses for 52 years. He had purchased the acreage for Westwood Place to build homes in his own development. He would only sell a lot if he were to be the builder. These were solidly built attractive and mostly brick homes. In the front of each lot he had planted a Pin Oak tree. More about that later.

Walt designed the homes himself, customizing to the customers specifications, which he skillfully and diplomatically guided. For example he sent us on several trips to select brick colors and roof colors.

After five years we found Arizona, fell in love with the place, sold this house and moved to a sunnier clime.