We've rented a house now for quite a few years from a decent couple who live out of the country. They own two houses here that are side by side. Their last visit found us stumped--they were not mean, by any stretch of the imagination, but they left us with a feeling of insecurity. Suddenly, they wanted us to pay for repairs to the appliances and the sprinkler system.
It was winter in Florida (a notoriously bad time for grass) and they were complaining about the upkeep of the lawns--they wound up hiring a man to do the lawn on the home they use for their visits and paying him twice as much as what they were taking off of our rent to do the same work. The land lady's first comments on entering our house to come for a visit was about how bad the rug looked. We've lived here seven years and they've never once paid for the rugs to be steam-cleaned. We had it done one time, and I was going to do them before their visit, but just ran out of time. My parents were coming to visit as well and I had to arrange flights, hotel and car for them, plus the kids were out of school and we'd been back and forth on if the teen was going for a training or not the day after Christmas. Needless to say, we began to worry. What if they upped our rent next year? What if they decided they didn't want us in their home next year?
Now the reason we've rented is because we've been hoping for a transfer back to New England, where hubby and I are both from and where my (elderly and in declining health) parents live. At this point, it looks like the transfer is not coming and we'll be living here for at least another seven years by the time we get both boys through school. With that in mind, we've decided to buy a house. We went looking. And looking. We put in offers and if the house wasn't sold to someone else before the ink was dry on our offer, then someone else's offer was accepted over ours.
Our realtor suggested looking outside of the area we had chosen (based on our kids' schools) and so we did. The tide of houses turned to a trickle. We found one that had just gone on the market hours earlier. The only real problem was that it was our second choice of schools and would involve our teen finishing high school in a different school. We put in an offer and after some hemming and hawing, we were accepted, mostly due to my hubby's military veteran status.
We have spent the past week getting our ducks in a row, signing papers, asking my dad for help with closing costs and finding out about the legalities involved in trying to keep the teen at his school (DON'T try to fudge the address--it's a felony, BTW).
I've been dealing with a sulky teen (and his GF), who was fine with the move before we signed legally binding papers but went through a phase of "I don't wanna move to the other school" before returning to the grown-up decision of "If I have to, I'll go". Plus, trying to keep Mr. Hyper-boy focused on finishing his classes when all he wants to do is pack. Hubby has been blessedly calm during all of this. Last Saturday, I had my monthly RWA meeting and had to leave early for the (very thorough home inspection). Now we have our laundry list of things to do once we close; luckily, there's nothing major that NEEDS doing.
I have been going to my doctor for mid-life testing with one more to go tomorrow, but that's been a stressor, as well. For the past week, I've been suffering from a severe cold with migraines but been unable to really take anything for it because of tomorrow's test.
My mother, who lives in New England with Dad, is slowly deteriorating with some form of undiagnosed dementia. She goes for her visit to the doctor today, hopefully to be diagnosed so that Dad can get some help. I am an only child so there are no siblings to give Dad relief. I was hoping to fly up in May and send Dad off for a long week-end but now we're closing on the house and will be doing painting, cleaning, packing and moving then. Before summer is over, I will make the time to get up there, even if it's only for a few days. I will have to bring Mr. Hyper, no doubt.
Put in the fact that I run my own business and it's been difficult staying on top of that with everything else going on and you have the last of my
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