Okay...the Boston area is MASSIVE! Its not the easiest thing in the world to find a house here. Its a little...okay...a lot, overwhelming! We knew what areas to avoid b/c of services in school for Gaige...but its kinda like playing Russian roulette on where you land!
We arrived in the area at my friend's (Gwen) house and both had been living on Craiglist and other sites looking for the right place. We both had made a lot of calls and got very few returned calls...it was kinda frustrating. We went out looking at a few but nothing seemed right. Then when I got back to her house, there was a new ad that had been posted...it looked great. I emailed the guy and he got right back to me.
Bliss and True and I went to look at another house near our hotel and I was getting discouraged...this one was not going to work for us either. So we went to look at the "house in the ham".
It was winner! It had lots of room and perks like I wanted...a garage...a finished basement...and space!
Lets talk square footage...Our house in Memphis was 2700sf, 5 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms and we bought it for $96,000. That would be unheard of, even it the smallest town in New England!
So Elizabeth Taylors' house...we were told it was close to 2000sf but it was only about 1500 we found out when we arrived. It had 1 and 3/4 bath and four bedrooms but one of those, was really a glorified closet. It was tight.
The Portland house was about 2100sf, only 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bath. It was beautiful and the kitchen had never been cooked in, so God gave us more. I firmly believed that even though we had to pay more (because rent is so high here) that God would give us a more functional house!
The last house, while beautiful and remodeled...the setting was not a very good one for Gaige...and this 'house in the ham' is perfect for him. Its slightly secluded and while there are a couple of kids in the neighborhood, they are not close to us. We want him to learn to socialize but because he obsesses, having next door neighbors to obsess about causing a lot of issues. So that was even better.
When I started talking to the landlord, L, he had immigrated from Russia when he was a child...I had been to Russia in 1992. He and his wife have a daughter who has autism, too. So there was an instant connection.
So I felt pretty good that this was the house God intended...oh yeah, it would be MORE, too...4 bedrooms, 3.5 bath with a jacuzzi tub (if you don't know, that's my ME time every day...a long bath)...and 2400sf!
I had already made two appointments the next day to see houses. They weren't right...one of them smelled like mold so it was an instant out! We filled out the application for L.
I went back to Gwen's to see if we could find anything else...no one was returning calls. So I decided there was no use in staying and headed back to Maine.
So we returned to packing and preparing Tuesday night and waited for L to make a decision...he finally called us back Wednesday night and it was "no" and he felt really bad about it. Our credit is not stellar (yes we are working on it) and so they decided to go with another applicant.
Stomach-churning fear...that's a word for it...but, we spent the Thursday at the beach, anyway...geez!
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