:(
Ugh, what an emotional rollercoaster the last week has been.
So I made a friend at the gym, J, a very sweet person whom I told about the housing thing. She got in touch with her friend C who lives in South San Francisco, who lives next door to and caretakes an empty house for another allegedly super-nice lady, P. I'd mentioned our max price and she heard back that P was amenable to that price with some caveats - one, that one of the three bedrooms was to be closed off and left to the owner's devices (with her coming around periodically to garden or something?), and two, that we take care of her two outdoor cats who show up in the evenings. I was absolutely cool with both things as a tradeoff for a standalone house (thus an end to all wall talking issues) that I didn't have to move super far away from SF for. Honestly, expense aside, I saw the cats as a bonus :P I prayed to the housing gods that it wouldn't be absolutely hideous.
So the next night R and I go with J to meet C and check out the house. And my god - soon as we got out of the car (in a cute, completely quiet little neighborhood)...cats! And not just the 2, a crapload of cats! C feeds the neighborhood's feral cats on that doorstep, and has her own cats too, and then there were the house's cats - they were everythere, 2 in the house, more sauntering around outside...and all friendly *w* and the house was nice! cute, not huge but big enough for us (maybe slightly more sq. footage than our current place, plus 2 bedrooms and a garage and stuff), and a lovely back yard area with a real little garden (never had that before ;_;). Flowers out of the windows. Non-coin-op laundry. Post office and BART within walking distance. A nicer area of SSF (which is not that far from real SF - we could still drive up easily for anything). And C actually seemed like a cool neighbor too, open and friendly, like the kind that would pop by with food or invite you over to gab or housesit for you (never had that before either ;_;). And she knew R's dad from her work! Small world, and she seemed to really like us :)
To reiterate, a standalone house, spacious enough, quiet, close to SF, charming garden, nice neighbor and RANDOM CAT HEAVEN. It was like...charmed. Yes the thought of the owner randomly stopping by to garden and drink tea thing scared me (anxiety) but I could learn to live with it...I was also scared about Hooch not getting along with the other kitties and how to keep him content indoors, but that would be surmountable, surely (C suggested we put him on a long leash and let him chill in the garden, which sounded nice)...it wasn't new looking, and there was some antiquated cabinetry and stuff but not that bad, and we could help work on it, maybe even for free...we'd tighten our belts and do whatever it took! Our search was finally over!!
Till we contacted P to set up a time to talk to her personally to go over the details...whereupon she informed us that after talking to her husband or something, the price was now twice as much as before.
Bringing it up to standard insane bay area high-end-of-market prices. And still expecting us to feed and take care of cats and leave the home open to her. If we had that kind of money we'd get a huge, sweet ass condo right here in the city -_- (SSF is NOT SF, for those of you non locals tuning in (as if I have a huge audience :P). It's 2 towns over, tiny and boring). WTH? Anyone paying that kind of money would never want to SEE their landlord, let alone in that house in that city with the landlord coming around randomly to chill in their home! And this house has been sitting empty for the last 5 years!!
So, another dream dashed. At least this time it was quick...but ach, it hurts :( It seemed so perfect, we're probably never going to get such a chance again so close to here, and I'm SO TIRED of looking every day and scams and not having calls returned and fucking loud neighbors (the bedroom talkers resurfaced this week too -_-). Ach. I'm welling up again just writing it, so let me quickly stick in the happy stuff I recall from these past couple weeks.
We saw the SF Ballet in Stern Grove's free summer concert thingie last weekend, and it was lovely - this one pas de deux to Tchaikovsky was stunning, the program was varied and interesting, and there was a really cool African blend with traditional (Bach) at the end that I loved. It was sunny and lively and we were lucky to get a pretty good spot (note to self, next time get there at least 3 hours early) and shared yummy grilled cheese and bacon from Canyon Market. So that day was nice.
I also decided to keep Crunchyroll to keep watching Shokugeki no Souma, and we discovered Himouto! Umaru-chan, which is the CUTEST ANIME EVER, about an overachiever girl who comes home to transform into a lazy snack eating gamer XD R says he doesn't want that show encouraging my similar behavior, so he shakes his head whenever I squee about it :3. Also started watching Polar Bear Cafe, which is a bit absurdist and also super cute :D Lots of talking animals being weird in a civilized animal+human world.
We also saw Ant-Man, which I'd been on the fence about but did mostly enjoy (the tiny sequences would make for an awesome theme park ride a la Disney Star Wars adventure), and we finally caught John Wick too, which was silly as I thought but there were some fun action bits. I finally found the source of the lame selfie bee comics that describe my life so perfectly - so cute! And True Detective did turn fairly watchable again :P And we had some good meals and I think I'm getting my fitness back on track too (I'd been slacking off a bit but now J and I are buddying up to monitor each other. J's a happy thing too, new friends are always nice, and maybe C will still invite us over to play Cards Against Humanity even if we're not neighbors :P). So yes, good things did happen...
It hurts, though ;_;