I Felt Like I Was Home
Almost 40 years ago, Suzie McKenzie moved from California back to her hometown of Burlington, Vermont, with her 7-year-old daughter. She lived with her mom and was looking for a place to live when her sister-in-law, who rented from Champlain Housing Trust, suggested Suzie move into her apartment since she had just bought a house through CHT. That idea turned out to be a good one and before long, Suzie and her daughter moved in.
“It was a wonderful place,” said Suzie. And she quickly became good friends with her upstairs and next-door neighbors, and to this day, they are all still good friends.
She happily lived in a few different Champlain Housing Trust apartments over the next 18 years. Then one day a CHT homebuyer education counselor asked her, “Would you want to buy a house?” The truth was, she hadn’t thought much about it.
“I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ So, it turned into a house!” Suzie said CHT made the whole possibility and process of buying a house very smooth for her.
“They showed me many, many houses, but this was the first one I was like, ‘Oh, yeah.’” The minute Suzie stepped inside the house on North Street, she said “I just knew. I felt like I was home.”
Suzie says the strong, instant sensation of home was probably because this is a Sears kit house, just like the one she grew up in a few blocks from here. This house felt familiar and solid like the one she shared with her parents and 10 brothers and sisters growing up.
Suzie’s home is part of CHT’s shared equity program which means homeowners do not have a down payment and pay a reduced mortgage. Homeowners agree that when and if selling their home, they will receive 25% of the equity and allow the rest to be re-invested into the home so it remains affordable forever.
During nearly 20 years of living in her North Street home, Suzie has completed quite a few projects, sometimes with family pitching in, like restoring and painting the built-in cabinets, re-finishing the hardwood floors, and adding beadboard to accent the kitchen. “I’m not into house beautiful; I’m into house comfortable,” she jokes.
Joking aside, what gives her joy about living in this house is that she can walk anywhere, she is in the Old North End which she loves, and she said, “most importantly, it’s about family. My daughter and her two kids can come – it’s a sure thing, and it’s really solid.”
Her grandson, who’s in fourth grade, gave Suzie a painting of her house which she displays on a kitchen windowsill alongside family photos and a few frog statues from her vast frog collection.
“He told me, ‘Grandma, I don’t LIKE your house. I LOVE YOUR HOUSE!’ I feel the same way. I am lucky,” says Suzie, “very, very lucky. CHT has not missed a beat for me. I feel grateful every day for my house. What more could you ask for?”