Patience is not a quality that I have. I do not like to wait for anything. Right now, I am house hunting. That means I have to wait for my realtor to be free to show me the houses. I have to wait for my husband to have been working his new position (he got a promotion this month!!) for 30 days. I have to wait for our tax return...oh yes. I am going to use our tax return as a down payment. It has been nothing but wait, wait, wait.
It's frustrating! I am so ready to be out of this apartment. We have been here almost 2 years, and will likely have to go month to month when our lease expires at the end of Feb. It's not a bad place. It is infinitely better than Hell House. Hell House is what I call the place we were living in before the apartment. It is a long, drama filled story that deserves its own post one day. However, at least at Hell House we had awesome neighbors and a yard. This place...well...
1. It's on the third floor. That gets really old, really quickly.
2. We live next door to the man I call "Angry Santa". He is an older, portly gentleman with a balding head and a long white beard. He could easily pass for Santa if he wasn't always scowling. He is a bit of a dick. His favorite past-times include coughing loud enough to hear through my walls, banging on said walls when I vacuum (in the middle of the day WTF?), and taking up the entire stairwell when he comes and goes.
3. We live across from the Harley riders who like to yell "Shut the f*ck up" when someone knocks on my door. Awesome.
4. It is always hot. We have not had to turn on the heat once since we have been here. In fact, I tend to keep the windows open. That includes in the middle of winter. We live in Michigan. That isn't normal. I think this goes back to being on the third floor.
So back to house hunting. We waited until my husband got the promotion before we started seriously looking. We didn't really WANT to move but the plan was that if he was not promoted by the time I graduated (which should be within the next month if I quit procrastinating and finish my final class) then I would look for a teaching job wherever I could get one. Luckily, it didn't come to that. The girls can stay in their school. I don't mind subbing until something permanent comes along.
So far I have one house that I love. It has every feature I want. The only downside is that it has active train tracks that literally run right behind the backyard. It isn't a huge deal. One went by when we were there and it wasn't much louder than Hell House that was 1/2 a mile down the road from the tracks. However, if we choose to sell one day, I don't think that is going to be on the positive side of things.
I looked at a house today that was halfway between the town we live in, and the town my husband works in. It was a nice idea. The outside looked nice enough, and the pictures on the internet showed a house that wasn't as nice as the one I love so far, but looked ok, and it was $22,000 less. Yeah. There is a reason for that.
Can I offer a suggestion to those trying to sell a house? The smell of cat pee is not a selling point. If you have 4+ cats, you need a way to control the odors they emit. The whole house reeked. I tried not to let that deter me. There are ways of getting rid of cat pee smell...
But add in the house needed all new walls (plaster and every single one was cracked, broken, or in disrepair), new floors (they would have been nice wood floors had they not been wavy), insulation, and windows. The kitchen also badly needed updating. The bedrooms were tiny. I was simply not impressed. They would have to come down at least $15,000 more to make it worth it, and even then, I am not convinced I want to deal with the amount of work it needs. My 11 year old, who went with me, made it pretty clear that the other house was way better. I don't think she was basing that only on the fact that the other one had a pool.
So I am back in the waiting game. I have 6 more houses to look at next week. I am waiting for the new paychecks to start rolling in. I have to wait for the W2s to make their way here. Wait, wait, wait.
I hate waiting.
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