House hunting is not as much fun as it sounds
John and I are looking to move in together, as our leases are both up within a couple weeks of each other. Since my lease is up on May 31, we started looking for houses two months ago. The first two real estate people that we contacted informed us that we were looking way too early, and should wait until we were a month away from needing to move.
So stupidly enough, we followed their advice. We started looking last week, got a real estate agent, Bob, who is amazing, and gave him some houses we were interested in. His first comment was "Y'all should have started looking a *lot* sooner." We've looked at almost fifteen houses so far in person, and several online. It seems like every one of them has some problem or another, the most common one being that the owners of the houses do not want to rent to people with cats. Dogs seem to be fine, but cats are obviously Satan spawn.
The rental houses in Houston are going so quickly that twice now we have been set up to go view one that's gone off the market the day of or the day before. We actually had the money ready and were driving out to put a down payment on one of them, only to find that the owner suddenly changed their mind and the cats were not going to be okay. That was the day that I pretty much broke. I haven't cried like that in a long time.
I absolutely refuse to get rid of my cats. They are family, they're my babies, and even leaving them at mom's house or something would be too much for me. If we can't find a house, then we'll just have to get an apartment. My current place is raising the rent another 80 a month. That means I'll be paying $1,025 for a crappy two bedroom apartment with horrible maintenance and even worse management. Not I, said the little red hen. No way in hell.
So we went out last night to look at four more houses. All of these are a lot farther out than I wanted to go, but anything close, decent looking and in a safe neighborhood has a prejudice against cats. I told Bob that I didn't even want to set foot in another house that wouldn't let my cats live there, because falling in love with a place only to have it snatched out from under you is more fun than I can take for the third time.
The house we decided on currently has more than one application on it, and the owners are making their decision today. I've been sick to my stomach and driven to distraction all day. Here it is, 4:30, and we still haven't heard anything. I just don't know what to think, but we're running out of both time and options. So please everyone keep their fingers crossed for me.
In other news, the job is terribly boring but is going pretty well. My year review is in May, and hopefully I'll get a raise. Plus they've started handing out quarterly bonus checks based on how much profit the surgery centers outside of Houston have made, so that is REALLY nice.
Vegas with Mom and Dad was a lot of fun. We gambled a lot, walked the strip and looked at hotels, went to the wax museum at The Venetian. Also one evening we got really dressed up, had dinner at Stack, and saw the Cirque du Soleil show Love at the Mirage. We were in the second row from the stage, and at many points the performers were literally hovering over us. The show was magical in a way that can't be described in mere words, and I cried at more than one part. It was wonderful.
Overall it was nice to spend a week with my parents and to get away from all the idiots that bug me so much at work. I missed John like crazy, as that was the longest we've ever been apart from each other. He grew a lovely scruffy mountain man beard while I was gone, that was promptly removed at my urging when I came home. I didn't lose much money, because quite honestly I didn't have much to start with. So that was good too. I took dozens of pictures, many of them quite silly, since I had my own digital camera finally. There's also a short video of my mom dancing when she hit a jackpot. Yay!
My life is actually going pretty well at the moment. It's starting to shape into what I've been wanting it to be for a while, and that's a really good thing. Although I miss all of you.
So stupidly enough, we followed their advice. We started looking last week, got a real estate agent, Bob, who is amazing, and gave him some houses we were interested in. His first comment was "Y'all should have started looking a *lot* sooner." We've looked at almost fifteen houses so far in person, and several online. It seems like every one of them has some problem or another, the most common one being that the owners of the houses do not want to rent to people with cats. Dogs seem to be fine, but cats are obviously Satan spawn.
The rental houses in Houston are going so quickly that twice now we have been set up to go view one that's gone off the market the day of or the day before. We actually had the money ready and were driving out to put a down payment on one of them, only to find that the owner suddenly changed their mind and the cats were not going to be okay. That was the day that I pretty much broke. I haven't cried like that in a long time.
I absolutely refuse to get rid of my cats. They are family, they're my babies, and even leaving them at mom's house or something would be too much for me. If we can't find a house, then we'll just have to get an apartment. My current place is raising the rent another 80 a month. That means I'll be paying $1,025 for a crappy two bedroom apartment with horrible maintenance and even worse management. Not I, said the little red hen. No way in hell.
So we went out last night to look at four more houses. All of these are a lot farther out than I wanted to go, but anything close, decent looking and in a safe neighborhood has a prejudice against cats. I told Bob that I didn't even want to set foot in another house that wouldn't let my cats live there, because falling in love with a place only to have it snatched out from under you is more fun than I can take for the third time.
The house we decided on currently has more than one application on it, and the owners are making their decision today. I've been sick to my stomach and driven to distraction all day. Here it is, 4:30, and we still haven't heard anything. I just don't know what to think, but we're running out of both time and options. So please everyone keep their fingers crossed for me.
In other news, the job is terribly boring but is going pretty well. My year review is in May, and hopefully I'll get a raise. Plus they've started handing out quarterly bonus checks based on how much profit the surgery centers outside of Houston have made, so that is REALLY nice.
Vegas with Mom and Dad was a lot of fun. We gambled a lot, walked the strip and looked at hotels, went to the wax museum at The Venetian. Also one evening we got really dressed up, had dinner at Stack, and saw the Cirque du Soleil show Love at the Mirage. We were in the second row from the stage, and at many points the performers were literally hovering over us. The show was magical in a way that can't be described in mere words, and I cried at more than one part. It was wonderful.
Overall it was nice to spend a week with my parents and to get away from all the idiots that bug me so much at work. I missed John like crazy, as that was the longest we've ever been apart from each other. He grew a lovely scruffy mountain man beard while I was gone, that was promptly removed at my urging when I came home. I didn't lose much money, because quite honestly I didn't have much to start with. So that was good too. I took dozens of pictures, many of them quite silly, since I had my own digital camera finally. There's also a short video of my mom dancing when she hit a jackpot. Yay!
My life is actually going pretty well at the moment. It's starting to shape into what I've been wanting it to be for a while, and that's a really good thing. Although I miss all of you.