The Haggled Housewife Blog

As I write this it is my last official day of school ( with my kids – it was last week by the way…).  My kids are all peacefully sleeping.  I can hear them breathing.  One little guy is even snoring.  It is sooo quiet and cool in the room.  Calm music of the ocean is playing in the background.  The perfect setting to going on stay-cation. Another year is done and thankfully it was a fairly good one all around.  I tried something new ( My coach position, drove in the snow…no  one got hurt…believe it or not even in such a short time the kids learned alot and I had some real fun)  I mostly measure success of progress by how the class flows and the last two months of school had been full of heartfelt surprises, emotion and more bonding than I ever imagined.  The kids, the parents and the Teaching assistant were kind, considerate and very flattering.  They made it a real pleasure to come to work..I am grateful for that…18 years doing the same job – sometimes honest to you is too much but the kids always make it comical, interesting and never dull and this year they made it easy – almost like I never worked anywhere else ( even though I know it wasn’t true).

So now that I am official on STAYCACTION from my “real GUS job”…I can begin my summer move and packing job…. The closing date is set for July 29th so that gives us about three and half weeks.   So I know everyone ( all five of you -wink,wink) want to know where we are going to go and what we found. 

 Ta Dah…we are moving clear across town ( not too far) so I think I will be able to find my way… but far enough where I will  see different scenery.( On a side note we looked at a place 6 houses away from our old house)    We found a house for rent ….a big house is size but not so much in price.  (Although honest to you  we did have to go over budget maybe a little tiny bit)  The house doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of our mortgaged Haggled House.  ( No pool, no hot tub, no waterfall, no gazebo, no pond, no enormous deck) But (Don’t you just love it when I am not afraid to start a sentence with BUT) it does have a built in doggie door for Miss. Bedford, a full bathroom for everyone (Princess ALYAK even has one in her room) Yep that’s right …three full bathrooms..although Cobes’s is pink… (although when talking about it please refer to it as a shade of off white (wink,wink), an eat in kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a 2nd relaxing  room for just Gary and me, 4 bedrooms, so (Cobes can have his own video room again), an office for my HAGGLEDHOUSEWIFE life and a storage room  for all of Gary’s painting stuff, plus a converted garage  which was made into a huge bedroom with a bathroom for me and Gary.   Nine rooms alltogether…count them!  Central air ( ahhh..cool air in the summer) a backyard with a swing for me and a built in basketball court ( now Cobey can play real games) we will put the other one across like a real “pretend” regulation court.  A shed for our snow blower and other outside stuff.  It is well worn like our family and I really think we can make it feel like home, with all our stuff.( Well not all our stuff.. we are selling a great deal of our stuff to pay for Miss. Bedford.. but enough of our wanted stuff)

(I am trying really hard to be positive…don’t you think?)  It really has all of those things no exaggeration… although not so easy on the eye at first…. it needs  tender love and care, a little repair (   oh okay… maybe a medium amount of repair,  creative smarts, an  open mind  and a  cool  family to give it some excitement and  life ) (THATs the part where we come in)

The story behind the dreaded haggled house hunt is a twisty, up and down and all around one.  Would you expect anything less?…..The story is a multidimensional one…too…ahhh. poo!  We had decided on a Condo.  We were all in agreement, the space was okay… a little bit on the smaller size but would work for what we wanted.  I won’t lie the location was great.  It was close to everything..but upon further inspection it is noted it didn’t fit our needs as much as we wanted…limited parking, no storage, not enough room and the landlady honest to you reminded me and treated me like the MEAN UGLY TROLL in one of my favorite classic tales…The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  (Whose that renting…my CONDO roared the LandLady Troll )  It is not I …. the HAGGLED HOUSEWIFE I said….  in a teeny tiny voice….  (Honest to you…I am way too brave, strong and smart for BS LADY….) (Denise you would have been so proud)  (P.s.s…By the way I used my powerful kung fu writing via email to decline…while keeping my grace….  dignity and self respect)

We had looked at the  house when it came up and at first glance it was too big and too fugly.  It was overwhelming….too many rooms…too much to maintain….too much to clean… we thought we really wanted to go back to the simpler life…. the  life of the condo ( no snow shoveling, no grass cutting)  but I just couldn’t stop that haggling feeling of something not right…gosh darn it though it had take out food on every corner and a restaurant to have dinner…)In my heart it just didn’t feel good…. (Although it is noted  from our new place ( right across the street)  we can walk to a family restaurant/diner which is open from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM every day) (HEY…HEY…HEY) It is also three to four blocks away from another restaurant for Mr. Meyer and I to go out at night (wink,wink).

Surprising enough..the real estate lady that showed us the house the first time, called us back and said “What do you think about the house?”  “Take a second look”, she said.  I said to her…”OKAY”.    Honest to you, I wasn’t sure if Gary wanted to take a second look, but he did and when Gary looked for a second time and he actually liked what he saw… he said…”Lis… I can fix it!” “I know I  can  and look at all the space you and I will have.”  “Okay”, I said… let’s give it a try.” ( I know he can … together I think we can do just about  anything now if we try)Also honest to you … there are not that many houses to rent in our price range in our town…. and the house fits most of our needs… it is  not perfect by any means… but  as I have learned nothing really is. SO WE SAID …”WHAT THE HEY?!”  It is relieving to realize that  there can be the possibility of  happiness and life again in another place/space…./ dare I say… HOUSE or do I say HOME?! (LCL) I don’t know yet…but I will of course keep you posted. 

Truthfully, so far the best part of  finding this house was the email warm welcome….. I received from this new landlord. (A very different feel from the CONDO “MUT” LADY)  (Mr. Landlord as he will be known) in the story…  said and I hope he doesn’t mind that I am sharing….”I hope you enjoy and have a great time living in the house.”  I cried when I read that of course…. It made me feel a little less haggled and a little more  relieved.. dareI say… it put my mind at little at ease.  I cried the little drippy tears and big droopy tears.    All I need now is Mr. Meyer too remain calm and not get overly excited…… me too though!  (I would be lying if I said there wasn’t tough stuff ahead)  I think in the end this house is not where I intended to go but where I intended to be… ( so I will just go with that…) GUT FEELING…. at least for now…..

Believe it or not ..the story doesn’t end here…. (weekly posts hard to fit everything in) …the story just isn’t done…. The Real Estate Lady… who showed us the new house….which will affectionately now be known as THE TLC…(TENDER LOVE  and CARE) house  actually remembered me from showing my  HAGGLED HOUSE…and through this process  she said she liked me and wanted me to get the TLC house.  (So I had a little extra help and for that I am grateful) (SEE ..you really do get what you give)  So while she was checking our credit report she googled my email- because she thought it was a peculiar name for a painting company.. ( which it would be) and she discovered the story behind the house.  So now copy 104 of the book (yeah) is gone as well.

Was it the power of the house?…the power of the book?  ……was it meant to be.?.. I am not really sure..? . Funny how life can come full circle….sometimes….so my new address will be the TLC house.  So just like me …. THE HAGGLED HOUSEWIFE with the right amount of tender love and care…it is my hope my new house and me can only get better.

The next couple of weeks I will be plenty busy…packing, sorting, moving, changing and  rearranging.  (literally and figuratively) It is alot for us to do but I think  I am ready for the challenge and the change…(did I just admit to that?)

Please stay tuned for my postings… as always I will let you know how everything is going…..

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 9:25 AM and is filed under The Haggled Housewife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.