Hello 416 North Page Street

June 2002: Good news! We bought our first house in the heart of historic Stoughton, WI. We'll miss the lake, but we're very excited to move into a house knowing we don't have to move out again on anyone's time schedule but our own. And Jill is very excited to start decorating! Scooter has decided that the new place isn't as scary as it first seemed, though it is pretty creaky and squeaky. He has even come out of hiding to explore.

Our new place is actually pretty old -- it was built in 1922. The people who sold it to us did a lot of great remodeling work, so it has good paint, nice floors, a new roof and a master bathroom, which is rare for an old house like this. The outside is a lovely blue with white and scarlet trim. It has a fireplace, and wood floors and oak trim throughout. Jill particularly loves the built-in cabinets at the entrance to the dining room.

Goodbye Lake Kegonsa

It also has a big garage (also rare for old houses) and a cement basketball patio in the back yard.

Jill's dad and Pete's mom and brother James volunteered to help us move, brave souls. We're had fun, even though it was hot, humid, sweaty work at the end of May. We only had 1 day to close the sale, move out of our old place and into the new, because our lease ended on the same day we closed! And to top it all off, U-Haul didn't have the truck we reserved. But with some scrambling and hard work we got it all done.

Scooter

We have a lot of pictures of the new place posted at www.TheKochers.com, if you want to see more. Keep trying, Yahoo limits our daily viewer numbers.

What will we miss most about living on the lake? So many things: front yard ice skating, the birds, the sound of waves, the ability to see far across the flat lake, the sun rising over the water, knowing that we could jump in at any time. What will we miss least? That's easy: the bugs! It's lakefly hatching season and they sure are swarming thickly. But the positives have far outweighed the negatives, and we'll miss our little lake rental. Take good care and keep in touch.

Love, Pete, Jill & Scooter 416 North Page Street, Stoughton, WI 53589

jill.kocher@stanfordalumni.org pete.kocher@stanfordalumni.org