Digging Ourselves Out

There’s that saying about when one door of opportunity closes, a window opens. That’s where we were at. Literally. This morning, I went to open the door and I couldn’t. I could barely budge it an inch. The snow that blasted Dickinson, which predicted we’d get 12 inches and was also predicting 16 for the farm, had dumped onto the front door and blew down all the stairs barricading the door. So instead of going out a window, I went out the back door, stumbled up the stairs, high kneed through the snow all the way to the front. I fully believed we had the 12 inches as I was having winter 2008 flashbacks. This is awfully like Matt’s and I’s situation. We have a Plan B or maybe it’s C…lost track through all the favors and phone calls asking.

When Matt and I started looking for houses, we had a few ground rules. No condos, no twin homes, we’d like a garage, a master suite, an open kitchen, and a sliding glass door in a quiet neighborhood (the last two are for Nike). Well then the shoe dropped and we found out we were being evicted. We went with the house we had been stalking for a bit, it didn’t work. I cried. We started making phone calls, looking for other rental opportunities, started checking outside of the area options, revisited the available housing list, talked with our parents, and started calling in favors. The hardest part was the cat issue, nobody wants to take pets on. I did find 1 place, rent would be approximately $2000 and they were asking for a year’s lease. Great. That leaves you feeling mad and a bit taken advantage of because of the community/situation. Then I asked Matt the changer question, could we look at townhouses and condos? We started viewing them online and we took a look at one. I liked it upon walking in. Nice foyer, den, rec room in the basement, master suite with walk-in closet, 3 bedrooms, private deck with sliding door, quiet neighborhood, tall ceilings, central air, peek through kitchen, and double garage. The only thing lacking was the space to place the camper and a yard for Matt to mow. We have some cosmetic work to do as we go, but I think we can take it on, together.

We put in an offer, had a counter, and we accepted. And I breathed. Now we have some work to do, get an inspection done, get financing approved, and start packing. So in a sense, we had a couple doors shut and we changed our attack strategy, we went out the back door.

Best Meal: To celebrate our 2 year, we had lobster ravioli that Michele had picked up for us at Sam’s, a baked brie, and asparagus and we started to hope and plan.

ALM: You know you really live in Dickinson when you’ve been mentally preparing to live in a camper.