We’re moving TODAY!

Today, in two hours, we’re going over to sign the lease, get the keys and officially take the place. After that, we’re getting a U-Haul and will begin hauling the large stuff, like furniture. Son and Pseudo Son are the heavy-lifters. Yes, the place has stairs. All of them did.

Thanks for all of your great comments and guessing as to which place we rented. Here’s the story:

I went to see the (wonderful!) house on Tuesday night after work. The potential landlord said he had another tenant interested in renting the place. He would take my application, but they were first in line. They had 24-hours to show him the money, and if they didn’t, he’d give the place to us. Well, I waited the 24-hours (all Wednesday) and there was no word from him. I called him and left a message on Thursday. After that, I was trying to avoid the apartment landlord while trying to connect with the house one! Not easy to do, because both had my work number. I did not have a good feeling about the house by then, because in that situation, no news was probably not good news!

In the meantime, my mother had called several times. At first she was excited about the house, and then she started turning away from it because it is more expensive and she had wanted to get away from maintenance like shoveling and lawn care. I told her that we (son and I) would do all of that stuff, and that the house had ever-so-much more room, plus a laundry in the basement, besides all the other good stuff already mentioned.

On Thursday night, right before leaving work I saw the red message light on my phone. There was the awaited message—the other tenants had taken the house—what a bummer. It drastically changed what I can bring and what I must dispose of from my current house. The house landlord did offer to send back the $20 application fee, so even though I was thinking him a bit of a jerk to make me wait (when we were running out of time) I guess he’s an OK guy as that was supposed to be non-refundable. He said he had a two-bedroom house for rent now; the one the other tenants were in. I’m sure it’s nice, but we need a three-bedroom whatever!

So I quickly called the other landlord to cement the deal there. They already had our deposit but we hadn’t paid the first month’s rent nor signed a lease. The apartment landlord said they were not done with remodeling the place yet and maybe we could get in by Tuesday!

Tuesday? That was two days before we had to be totally moved out from this house. I hate last-minute stuff because things can go wrong. What if we had a blizzard or some really bad weather? What if someone got sick (like my heavy-lifters) and couldn’t work for a couple of days? What if my poor uncle suddenly died and we had to go to his funeral? I was not a happy camper about this and did my best to push the landlord into letting us at least start moving in on Saturday. She wasn’t very pleased with me, and I worrried a bit about losing the only place we had to go!

But on Friday she called back and said the carpenters were over at the apartment all night finishing up. We could sign, pay the rent and get the keys early on Saturday morning. Wah hoo! Finally, finally a place to go! I would rather have had the house, but this apartment is much better than any others I’ve seen. It will work, and it’s across the street from a very good friend.

Have a great weekend!