Last week was a doozy.
On Tuesday the property management company we rent from called and told us that the owner of our house absolutely refused under any circumstances to let us go month to month when our lease expires in November. They only want people in the house if they are covered by a lease. We have to move. Oh, and we have to find another place that will only make us sign a three month lease and takes dogs of the pit-bull variety.
Then, in the middle of an intersection on a busy street, my van stopped working.
My Mother-in-Law got caught shoplifting and I had to cover the cost of those stupid earrings. And explain senile dementia to a security agent that really was not all that interested.
And by the way, did I mention that Air Force Guy just so happens to be gone until mid-December?
This is where I get to choose my vowel; Our sweet Homefront Six has a saying, "Bitter or Better, choose your vowel."
I have to say that this week I was leaning towards the bitter. I'm really not particularly feeling up to packing up my house all on my lonesome and dragging box after box to a storage facility and trying to line up strong type guys to help carry out the big stuff (I HATE imposing on people) while simultaneously trying to figure out where to live.
And I wish I could say I feel guilty for wishing my MIL would just... disappear, but when a later call from her nursing facility was made to tell me she has a cold they are medicating her for, I felt a little giddy. Yes, that makes me a bad person. I've accepted that fact.
And the van... We just fixed it a month ago. This was SO not in our budget. Or my comfort zone. And from talking to the mechanic, I was given the distinct impression (actually - he stated it outright) that I was lucky it was raining, because the thing that caused my car to stop was a wayward spark that burned out some wires and LUCKILY was tamped out by the dripping rain before causing a fire under the hood.
Thank heavens for small favors.
Anyway, I was leaning bitter. I was.
Then I had a typical military spouse epiphany. We get those a lot. Sarah had one this weekend. Mine was a bit different - I talked to Larry, the most wonderful real estate agent in the world (and someone we have interviewed about home buying in this market on SpouseBUZZ radio). Then I talked to one of my best friends who is down visiting the area from our last duty station. Then I talked to my Dad. And I emailed and talked with SpouseBUZZ regular commentorArmyReserveWife .
And somehow, it all seems to be working out.
First of all, I realized that I really don't need to be looking for a short term rental - with the 99% probability that AF Family will be remaining in this area for another two years (we'll know for sure mid-December), we need to buy NOW while the market is low.
My friend explained her experience and directed us to USAA, we did, we're pre-approved, that's taken care of.
Larry has been sending me tons of housing listings. Done.
ArmyReserveWife, who just PCS'd, is saving all her boxes so I don't have to go hunting for my own.
My van made it to the mechanic's who diagnosed the problem and even offered to come and pick me up when it was done (although they don't have a real shuttle service) because they wanted to "show support" to our family since AFG is off doing military stuff.
And my grandmother, who is nearly 93 years old, will get to see my kids again for the first time in three years - since we'll take the 6 weeks between moving out of our rental and moving into our OWN HOME to go visit. We had been worried about seeing her, but California is just so far away from us under normal circumstances.
Now we can go.
So now, I'm better. I've chosen my vowel. I'm so excited about owning our own home, I'm giddy. I think I might paint the rooms some god-awful colors just because I can. My kids get to see MeMa, and it's not a horrible "catch the first plane" trip and hope you get there in time to say good-bye, either. They'll have better memories than that.
My MIL is too sick to leave her nursing home and lift any other pieces of jewelry from Macy's.
My car has been fully checked out now, and the problems are being fixed. We should (knock on wood) make it across country twice just fine.
And, in a great soothing balm to my anger at my landlords - they are asking for about 200$ a month more than any other rental house in the area, there are a large number of rental vacancies around here, and we move out at the beginning of "no one is moving" season. I think the house might be empty for several months.
HAH!
I'm totally better now.
