Progress!

In the wake of Eric's continued problems with his employer (the fire department) and his long-standing injury, there's been a definite need to downsize the house and the utility bills. Plus, when we moved into this house, Eric was overseas with the Army, my mom was living with us helping with the kids, and Anna was 17. Now, we're in five bedrooms with me and Eric, Stony, the girls sharing a big room, Mom living on her own, and Anna heading off to college.

But in this three-story-house-plus-a-basement, you don't even want to know what the utilities run. Plus, it's a lot of house to take care of...something we don't really have time to do. For us, now...it's just too much house. I have to say the rent is very reasonable, but it's still downtown rent, and we can cut that cost with something smaller.

So, with almost two years of a three-year lease under our belt, we asked our landlord if she'd let us out of the lease. She's a super-wonderful woman and was very sympathetic about the situation. She agreed to let us out of the lease if we'd show the house (and when an acceptable replacement was found). That was about five days ago.

Since then, I've been gathering moving supplies, packing the decorative things, and trying hard to find a nice, clean place that's affordable and, at the same time, in a neighborhood safe for the kids. The thing is, rentals move fast! But moving is hard and takes a long time, too! When we moved in 2006, it seemed like it took 15 of my closest, liquor-sweating friends to get it done and still took all day. (Yet another thanks to those friends!!) So we figured we'd see what was out there and then be ready to jump whenever our current place rented...especially since the new tenant would probably want to move quickly, too. (There's more information to come on that in about six days...but it looks like we'll actually have our choice of two really good situations!)

THEN, today, our landlord referred a very well-known, local do-gooder...a friend of the landlord's...to look at our current house. The prospective tenant has two friends who live 30-or-more miles away, work in town, and are getting killed by gas prices. They want to move to town...and the woman wanted to come look at the house in 90 minutes! We rushed home to try to make the house at least somewhat presentable, and minimize the evidence of three young kids and three cats. Eric, Anna, and I produced a whirlwind of efficient action and did quite a miraculous job...turning the house from a possible health hazard into just a place that needs the stuff moved out of it and then cleaned.

The prospective tenant, herself a really cool person who loves an early 20th Century house with lots of character (more than she cares about the dirt in it) indeed dug the large rooms, the high ceilings, the gas stove, the antique, claw-foot tub, and the creaky wood floors. She called the landlord right away and told them she and her friends would take it!

The timing will be perfect because her lease at her current place ends at the end of June, allowing us four more weeks to get the decision about the other place(s) settled and finish packing/moving. Eric will be out-of-town with the Army, too (relax, my strong, youngish friends)...but he'll be back the last week of June.

So, even though life has dealt us some craptastic days the last year, this week yielded some good progress toward a less expensive and less labor-intensive living situation. Whether you consider them prayers or just a petition to the energy that makes up our universe, these things are very positive responses to my very serious requests.