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The first time we went house hunting, it was in a "historic" part of the city (Historic, meaning "run down") because that was the only type of house we had a chance at affording. One of the very first houses we made an offer on had four doors leading into an 800 sq ft dwelling. None of the doors could said with any amount of certainty to be the FRONT door. Apparently, the rooms in the house had been rented to miners who worked all kinds of crazy shifts so they each had their own door. I know this because the city has affixed a plaque to the exterior of the house telling the surprisingly dull story.

But ever since we looked into buying that house, a new question rushes to the foreground of my mind when considering purchasing a house: Does the house come with a plaque? Not many houses do come with a plaque. I think more should.

We finally bought a house and we are slowing making it ours. We've painted all of the bedrooms and yesterday we re-did the hardwood floors in the master bedroom. The house did not come with a plaque but it did come with a flag pole. While we were making our offer on the house, the guys who lived in the house had a "skull and crossbones" flag flying overhead. Our kids were very excited about the flag. My wife said the flag would be the first thing to go when the house became ours.

When the house sold, the guys kept the flag. I told my wife we should have written into the contract that inclusions were: The range, dishwasher and Jolly Roger. We let them take the fridges for crying out loud. They could at least have left us the flag. But I jumped on eBay and bought a couple of flags. My wife says the Jolly Roger can fly until Holloween but she says the larger, brighter Gadsden flag (from colonial times- a rattlesnake on a yellow background that reads Don't Tread On Me) that I bought will NEVER be raised.

We'll see. I have four screeching, whining voices on my side as opposed to my wife's one.