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09/13/2004: "The Great Moving Saga, part 2"

music: Pearl Jam--Nothingman
mood: satisfied =)

Wednesday 1 September--Richard was kind enough to try to let me sleep as long as possible, and I think I finally roused myself about 1pm. We started looking through the classifieds and making calls on homes that afternoon, leaving lots of messages and getting through to a few prospective landlords.

We loaded everyone in the van again and trailer in tow, set out to see how the storage unit had fared in our absence, pick up some happy hour slushes from Sonic for the drive and made plans to go to Steve & Ginger's for dinner that evening... (click on more to read more)

We looked at one home that was within their ward boundaries that was advertised as having a pool & hot tub, 3 bed, 1.5 bath with a tile kitchen. It was nice, but very very small (the bunkbeds would not have fit in the smaller bedrooms). The property manager had swung by to unlock it for us while he was in the neighborhood and he was coming back just as we were leaving. We thanked him for his time, but told him we were in the market for something just a little bigger. He mentioned that he had two more properties that were larger that he could show us if we were interested and had the time. We drove to two more homes, each more fabulous than the last. Both were brand new homes, no one had ever lived in them before, spacious, with lawns that were set to be delivered sometime that next week, playgrounds and parks less than a block away. The last one was an energy efficient home that guaranteed to not have heating or cooling bills to exceed $50 a month. We were really impressed by that! The manager mentioned he had another property he thought might fit us really well but it would be a longer drive to get to, and if we thought that either of these two would work that would be fine. We agreed to go take a look, and discussed the two homes we had just seen on the way. Richard said that it was kind of weird in those last two homes, as if it were a future home we were looking at and not one he could picture us living in now.

The fourth home was breathtaking. It had been just vacated the previous day, we could make out where pieces of furniture had been on the carpet. It had vaulted ceilings, a front room, tiled kitchen with an island workspace and a dining area, four bedrooms (one bedroom done in lavendar/purple), 2 bathrooms(main bathroom with a sunflower/birdhouse mural), laundry room, family room, two car garage, back patio with a small lawn and lots of rock landscaping around the sides of the house.

We were very intrigued by this house, and the manager left us there to discuss it amongst ourselves. We walked around the neighborhood and talked to neighbors to find out what they thought of the area. We went down to one of the playground parks and talked to the teens there to get their opinions as well.

We went to Steve & Ginger's house, ate some yummy pizza and caught up while the children played. We headed back to the motel via the neighborhoods we were looking to find homes in to see what we thought of them at night. We did rule out a couple of homes based on our nighttime observations. We made plans to look at other houses the next day, and to apply for approval for the fourth home we looked at. It was not hard to fall asleep once back at the motel.

to be continued....