My little circus is now residing under a brand new Big Top.
With Hubsy's new property being twenty some miles away, we finally made the decision to relocate (flee from the hood). We'd been talking about it for the past year, but this time we made the firm decision to do it, and to do it now.
No really, I mean now... now... RIGHT NOW! (If you're not familiar with what I am referring to, please see #6 of this post about my Bipolar "mood personalities").
It took me two days to find this house. I mean, it wasn't hidden under a rock somewhere. But even if it had been hidden in the farthest back boondocks of the internet, I would've found it. We were destined to find it; we just didn't know it yet.
It was the second listing in the search results that met my housing criteria, but I wasn't particularly pleased with the curb appeal in the photo, so I moved on. No biggie. I wasn't going to jump on the very first, or second house I found, you know.
I must have looked at fifty houses over the course of two days, in various areas surrounding our targeted town, but nothing really jumped out at me. I didn't think I was being picky, but we had a did have a certain criteria in mind. Okay, so our "criteria" was really nothing more than a hopeful list of dreams... what would we have, if we could have anything?
1. I really want each of my kids to have their own room. First of all, I am sooo done with the fighting and the drama over who snores or talks in their sleep, who won't turn down the music late at night, and who really made that mess. Besides, these girls need a place to freely express their very different personalities. A comfort zone, a safe zone, a no-fly zone. The teenager doesn't want to stare down Dave Coulier and Taylor Swift in the conscious hours that are the darkness of her emo-punk existence.
2. It has to be a house. No more duplex, and certainly no apartment. No more sharing a wall, backyard, or driveway with anyone who will not be equally as considerate of noise and decorum, and have at least an equal amount of common sense.
3. And if it's going to be a house, it sure would be nice to have a bit of a yard. As a family, we love spending time outdoors, but we're also kind of homebodies, so we need a private space of our own. And a place for the dog to roam freely. And I've wanted a vegetable garden forever. Yeah, we need a yard.
4. Our new home must be just a hop and a skip from Hubsy's new workplace. No more gas guzzling, time consuming jumps back and forth.
5. And lastly, we need a stunning price. One of the benefits of this move has got to be that it benefits our bottom line. We need to save money.
So, back to the top of the list, and back to that second house. The one that had a stunning price, a separate bedroom for each kid, a quarter acre of land, a mere mile from Hubsy's workplace. Well this time, I decided to view it on Google map... and I should have known never to judge a book by it's cover. It was an adorable, little country house with a huge corner lot yard, everything on my wish list ... and a terribly ugly front porch. Uh, I think I can deal with that. Oh yes, the Universe has led me to this house.
It took nearly a week of email tag, scheduling and rescheduling, to get an appointment for viewing. By the time the agent and I got our calendars synchronized, there was another interested party sniffing around. As much as I wanted the house, I was already becoming annoyed with it, but the sudden competition spurred a sense of conquest. We jumped on it, signed the lease, and moved in. Oh how I wish it had been as easy as it sounds. But that's another story.
