Updates

The lovely sweet rental I was hoping for went to a family that could do a year lease. I was just about to leave town Sunday night after a weekend of house sitting and getting a rental lined up. I called to see if I could drop off the deposit, since I hadn't heard from them. I was disappointed at the news that someone else was getting the house. It was 2000 square feet tucked into the woods not far from the club. I t would have sustained us well.

Instead, one of my girlfriends who just knows the right people, got a frantic call from me to make some magic happen. Did she know anyone who had a rental available in two weeks. She called her old landlord that she had used between house shopping and purchase a few years ago.

A week ago he hadn't had anything open. This weekend he had renters move out. I met him twenty minutes later at the available duplex. It is a dead end street with one shabby duplex among eight. Ours luckily was one of the new models, less than three years old. Small but clean with a suitable back yard fenced for the dog. A lovely view of a field out the back made it bearable. I might even take the 10x10 back bedroom for Tom and I because of the view.

He will do month by month. and accept pets with an extra deposit of $500 on top of the $1000 cleaning deposit. Because of my friend as a reference he is letting us have it. She is a clean freak and a great tenant. I will have to hire her when we move out to help me clean the place. I thought it looked pretty good when I saw it, but the land lord was looking at the carpets and saying he would have them cleaned for us before we moved in. I am never seeing my cleaning deposit again. I just know that going in to this duplex. He is a clean freak also. My cleaning deposit is toast.


The one shabby unit was interesting.As I pulled up to park one tenant yelling up at the second story balcony of the other unit using expletives to tell them to stop slamming their doors. But the rest of the neighborhood seemed quiet and calm. We always have the club to go hide if it gets really bad. My girlfriend pointed out that Tom's propensity for fireworks would be quite welcome in this neighborhood. I told her the grass field would limit the display, but maybe not this year with all the rain.

Pretty much everything will go into storage. I might make a u haul run and then let the movers bring up the rest to store. I am thinking even of throwing down a rug in the garage to give us a little more living space. Its going to be tight. but it was either that or give up the dog and cats or sign a one year lease. and I want to limit the pain to as short a duration as possible.

Trevor said he was OK with an apartment. He "had stayed overnight in one before." Tom and I roared with laughter at that. He has no idea what we are in for. The last time Tom and I lived in an apartment was for two months before we bought our first house and before we had pets or children. This isn't quite an apartment as it is a coldasack of duplexes. Our unit is the end unit next to a field. It gave me the illusion of space when in the back yard.

Rent is $950 plus we will have to rent storage for $100 a month. Garbage and water are covered which for us is worth $150 a month. We just have to do electric. I don't believe there is air conditioning so I do want to pick up a couple fans just in case. We will be living there in August. But there is always the pool at the club when it gets really hot.

I returned home after dropping off the children I had been sitting over tyhe weekend. They had been pretty easy. The oldest teen had plans all weekend so I barely saw her. The 12 year old entertained the four year old that joined us making my job easy. I had an invitation to dinner Saturday night with my charges. We had barbecued burgers. Between my house shopping and the dinner and the spare kids, the weekend whizzed by with excitement. I even slipped in a trip to the goodwill and found a pair of tan slacks for golfing this summer. All this, between the panicked bids at finding a rental.

Now I just have to cut my walk in closet down to linen closet size and Tom's walk in closet down even more. It will be challenging. It can be done. People do it all the time.

Another friend suggested a big garage sale, but we will be getting a big house and I would just have to replace everything again. Besides a lot of our stuff is books. Or dish sets that are heirlooms for the boys future wives.

The pool table and the resistance trainer will need to go into storage. I definitely want them in our new house. Tom thinks our king bed will need to go into storage also. We will sleep on the guest room double bed. There are some strategic issues to still work out. We are in the right school district for the boys for where we want to end up, so they wont be transferring. Our dining table will go into storage also. We will use the round one for a while. Nice intimate dinners for a change. I wont be able to swear at my kids without people hearing me, so we will all have to work on our manners. Maybe it will get us all organized.

We can do this. Positive vibes, Baby. Positive vibes.