March 19, 2024

Rippentrops return to same home they bought 50 years ago

Couple returns to Newton after moving to Florida 40 years ago

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Technology took Nila and Dave Rippentrop from Newton to southwestern Florida. In a way, technology brought them back — to the exact same house they’d bought 50 years ago.

The couple lived in Newton in the 1960s and 70s, when Dave worked in the telephone technology business. A job offer for Dave took the couple to the Fort Myers, Fla., area in 1974, and the couple returned to Iowa in July 2013 to be closer to Dave’s recently widowed sister in Lake Mills.

A chance conversation between Nila and the couple’s only daughter, Dawn, at a family reunion in August led to one of the most unlikely of moves.

“She was looking up our old houses on her phone, and she got real quiet when she looked up our old house on East 13th Street,” Nila said. “She said ‘Mom ... It’s for sale.’”

That led to the couple coming to Newton to see the house, which had been kept up and improved in several ways through the years. While it was much smaller than what they’d become accustomed to in Florida, Nila fell in love with the kitchen, and the couple ended up buying the house and recently moved in.

Nila and Dave had made the small single-story house the first home they ever bought, taking over payments for the Spellman family and moving in during November of 1965. The total cost of the home was $9,600, Nila recalls.

After moving to a house on North Second Avenue East in 1972, the job in a very fast-growing part of Florida came up in 1974. Dave was one of the few people around who had both the knowledge and skill in splicing telephone cable, and the west coast of Florida desperately sought people with his experience.

The house had most recently belonged to Newton firefighter Blaine Lefler and his wife, Jill, who moved to Runnells.

“When we came to see the house, I was very impressed,” Nila said. “It reminded me of an older lady who has had a facelift, and has a new hairdo.”

Dave, who is 72, still wants to have some major remodeling done, including moving out a front wall that would widen the front side of the kitchen, where it connects to the living room. However, the couple — along with their dog, Sadie Mae — seem excited to simply be in their old house. Nila has clearly been hard at work decorating, and already has a Thanksgiving turkey decoration on the front porch.

Sadie Mae, while not old enough to have memories of the old ways of the house, has taken to guarding it as if she did.

“She’ll run to the door if someone’s there, unless we come in and interact with the person,” Dave said.

Nila said the neighborhood was different in the 1960s and 70s.

“We all knew each other, and helped each other out,” Nila said.

She said they started looking for another house when plans were made to build an apartment complex next door (the home is at a dead end of East 13th Street), and while the buildings wound up being constructed on the far side of the adjacent lot, the initial concern was that they’d have apartments only a few feet away.

Dawn, their daughter, and Shawn, their son, were ages 10 and 4 when they moved away, Nila said. The couple was able to build their own custom home in Florida in 1990,and lived there until moving to Lake Mills in 1990.

“The climate was great, but we’d had enough of Florida,” Nila said.

Dave is retired, and the couple has three grandsons they like to visit with, when they can, along with a grandson who is almost 2 years old. Having less of a home to maintain might give the Rippentrops more time to travel and spend time with family.

There is still much work to be done; Dave said there are parts of the basement that need work, for example. But the house meets their needs — not to mention, brings back some memories.

“This house got us started in the housing market,” Nila said. “And it was our stepping stone for our lives.”

Lefler was able to move outside Jasper County to Runnells when he and most other City of Newton employees were granted permission to live anywhere they like, regardless of distance from Newton, when a new city ordinance was adopted in May. He and his wife, Jill, put the house on the market and later moved to Runnells to be closer to family.

Lefler recalls when he first heard from Nila Rippentrop about possibly re-acquiring their old home.

“At first we thought someone was playing a joke on us — one of those things where you tell people, ‘You are never going to believe this,’” Lefler said. “It was a wonderful feeling knowing someone who really cares about this home will be living here. I knew they would keep the house a home and make a good contribution to our community. I feel their story gives people hope that Newton can really be a home to good people.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com