Looking Up

My first freak out moment was in the first two weeks we moved in to this house and there was stuff everywhere and no where to put it. Last night we made our last trip to our storage unit and everything we don't absolutely need is safely, neatly packed away there. The simple lack of clutter has a big positive effect on me. Yeah I havent seen some of my beloved cooking supplies, paintings, decorations, books and who knows what else for 5 months now with no end in sight..but at least Im not stepping over boxes.

The basement is now finished, I guess. There is a new shitty vinyl floor on top of the stinky concrete and the wall are still the same. Just as gross as ever. The root of the stench is in the boiler room, which is still in full effect. Sadly the basement will always be unusable since the landlord decided not to gut it, but at least the smell doesn't come upstairs anymore and I only smell it when I go downstairs to do laundry. The upstairs is set up as much as it's going to be. We have our couches, a place to cook and eat and basic neccesitities on our bedrooms.

I am also feeling better in some ways about the house search. We decided to stick with a town called Sturbridge, MA, which is about 30 minutes southwest of Tufts, rather than where we were looking before...30 minutes east toward Boston. Sturbridge is almost 1/2 the price for houses in some cases. This will help a lot and we really do like the area, although now I'll be looking at UCONN and two schools in Springfield for physical therapy school instead of UMASS. The main problem with this otherwise perfect solution is that there are only 10 houses for sale at the moment that meet our basic criteria and we easily crossed them off because they are either in a subdivision, on a very busy road, extremely ugly or need a lot of work. So the plan is to look daily and hope something comes up soon!

Ben started school today, so until I get a job I'm watching Finley. I need to find a gym class or something fun for us to do together. She will still be going to school 2 days a week so that I have time to search for jobs. I have a full day of working on my computer ahead of me at Panera tomorrow.

Finley with her Owl 28 months

Right now Ben is outside with Finley and the dogs and I am enjoying some quiet time.  We're having A jambalaya type of soup with locally made sausage for dinner!