The prehistory of my search....

I have lived in my current apartment for nearly ten years. It was good when I moved in; it was affordable and extremely convenient to the train station. It was even better when I was in graduate school; rent control made it even more affordable as the years went by.

However, I have had my MLS since January 1996. I can afford better, and I want better.

The last time my lease came up for renewal (October 1999), I contemplated moving closer to the city, but I realized that in order to get a reasonable apartment in a reasonable area, the rent would be pretty high. High enough that saving for a down payment for a house would be pretty much out of the question.

So I resigned myself to staying in my apartment for another year. In the meantime, my savings account grew, and it was with a moderate amount of surprise that I checked the balance around April and realized that I had something that looked like a down payment.

I had looked at enough real estate listings to get a sense of where I could and wanted to buy a place. I contacted a realtor in that area, and dragged my mother around to look at houses.

Yes, houses.

At that point, I had the fantasy of a little house with a little garden....

That first hunt was a reality check.

Let's see.... We saw five houses. The first was the No-Yard house. Didn't fit with my garden dreams. The second was the Eagle's Nest. The living room was gorgeous, with a wide window that had an amazing view of a lake, but it was on a hill. The road went up, the front walk went up, and the stairs within the house were about the steepest I've ever seen. The third was the Doll's House. It was charmingly decorated and well maintained, but it was tiny. And the lot was small. I didn't realize how small a quarter of a acre really is. The next house was the Tidy House. Again, well-kept, again a lot smaller than I'd hoped. The fifth and last house was the Scary Cellar. The upper part of the house was fine, and the lot was lovely (sigh...), but the cellar was strange-looking. Massive-repairs-needed sort of strange-looking. In addition, all of the houses were very far from anything that even remotely resembled mass transit. (I don't have a car, and don't want to get one until I get the housing situation straightened out.)

So I went back to my shoebox and spent the rest of the weekend trying to accept reality.

It worked.

I realized that I wouldn't really have the time to work in and enjoy a garden, which made the lawn requirement disappear. However, since I was giving up the garden, I wanted to get more living space. The answer: a condominium.

So I contacted my realtor, told her of my change of heart, and waited. I decided not to limit myself, so I contacted another realtor in a neighboring area. She didn't have anything I wanted at the moment, but assured me that I should be able to find and close on a place before my lease ended.

Things were quiet for a month or so, then I looked at the calendar, and it was July. I contacted both realtors: This is the time; I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

No answer from the first realtor. The second was on vacation, but a coworker was filling in for her, and got back to me with two listings.

Both of which I saw, one of which I liked and made an offer for.....

URL: http://www.netcom.com/~dplourde/rollercoaster/prehistory.html
Copyright statement	This page has been accessed times.
Personal page	Changes last made on: 17 August 2000.
Questions? Comments? Tpyo alerts? Write to me at dplourde@ix.netcom.com