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!

Not Good

I rarely post negative things because I try not to dwell on them. It doesn't help anything. But I don't have much positive to say right now. Ben, Finley, the dogs and I are all fine, but things are awful right now. It feels like we hit road blocks over and over again and the stress is building up. The stress of selling our house, packing up our stuff and moving to a place we've never really been was enough. But then we couldn't find a place to live and had to invade our friends house for 3 months. That was all challenging but tolerable. Then we finally get this rental house we've been waiting for and it is a dump. I am not the type of person that can handle lots of clutter, but it's very hard to fit everything in 1/2 the house because the other half is unusable. Last week, I couldn't take stepping over stuff anymore and went and got a storage unit. So now we are paying for a house that we can't use AND we have to pay for a storage unit. Only 2 burners on the stove work, the house is dirty and there is tons of garbage in the yard from previous tenants. Its such a huge step down from our house and lifestyle in Seattle. And then you'd think that the plan to buy a house would help the situation, but that isn't going well either. When we originally planned to move, we thought we could get a much bigger house with a bigger yard. That was the primary reason we moved. Now prices are going up and the specific area that works the best for us in terms of location happens to be more expensive than we can afford. So it's looking like we probably won't be able to get a house that is any better than the one we had in Seattle and maybe a slightly bigger yard if we are lucky. This is not a good feeling after this kind of move. I'm not done yet. Since we don't know where we will be living, I can't really apply for jobs and that doesn't help our financial situation at all and the idea into physical therapy school is just making things more complicated. Add this situation to all the typical stresses of moving to a new place and it's too much to handle! Things can only get better I hope!

next step

We moved into our own house this week. It feels good to have all of our possessions back and sleep in our own bed for the first time in 4 months, but it also feels like just the next step. The house is in a good location for Ben to get to school and the neighborhood actually reminds me of ours in Seattle with less traffic and more dead end roads. It's mostly 1950's-1960's ranches on 1/4 acre or less lots. The house is smaller than our last house and has only 1 bathroom and isn't the nicest. The front stairs are falling apart, it's not especially clean and the entire downstairs was unusable when we got there because of the smell of cat urine. Apparently the previous tenants cat used the downstairs of the house as a litter box. I can't really even go down there without gagging. Anyway, I immediately called the landlord and told her that we will be looking for a new place to live unless the smell goes away. She was really helpful and arranged for a company to come in and detoxify the basement, put in new floors and paint the walls. We are hoping it works!

We are still plugging away at house shopping. It's easier now that we are closer to where we are looking. And now that I've seen our rental house..I am even more motivated to find a new house. I've been applying for jobs a lot. I had one interview, but they "decided not to fill the position". Finley is doing great! She is talking more and more. She puts together funny sentences and makes good observations about the world. Last weekend we went to an Italian food festival and stayed in a hotel so we could be closer a race even for Pax. They had no crib or pack n play so she slept in the bed next to us. She reminded me of a kid at a sleepover party...laughing, saying "watch this watch this" and jumping on the bed. She seems to understand that we don't live with Sue and Joe anymore and that we have our own house. Fin is at daycare today so I have some time to look for jobs. We are going to pick her up and then head over to Framingham to take the dogs for a hike, chiropractor for all three and then we'll go out to dinner after.