As promised...5/6 of our many moves

Ok so we were finally able to start looking for a house. I failed to mention one big issue (to me anyway) while living at the church. While the men were doing the remodel, they forgot to measure right for installing a place for a washer and dryer. Long story short we had to put the washer in the bathroom and the dryer in the kitchen. Yes I know. Joyful and triumphant indeed. So I had to put sopping, wet clothes into a basket on wheels and maneuver it through the kitchen, around the dining table over to the dryer every.time.I.washed.clothes. It was the thorn in my flesh.

So we found a house. It had a pool! It was in the same gated community we'd lived in before. It was a 2 story 3 bedroom 3 bath with an office.

We were pleased.

We had half our stuff moved in when the dryer was being delivered and it hit us. The house wasn't equipped for a gas dryer. We loved our gas dryer. It saves us lots of money. Hubby refused to buy an electric one. He said he would put the dryer out in the garage by the hot water heater. I said, "No way! I am not going through that again!" He said, "Are you serious? You would move right now because of this silly dryer issue?" I said, "Yes, yes I would." He told me HE would do the laundry until he could have the gas piped inside. Imagine that. That's right, you can't. Good because there's no need to because it never happened. Neither thing.

So here I was, stuck again with a washer and dryer, two items that are supposed to be married....like pb&j, like mac n' cheese, like pizza and ranch...you get the picture. But mine had to be separated. We lived there for over a year and I endured the digging, throbbing thorn.

After a year went by, we were still very happy with that house. (Other than my laundry demise) We were renting through a property management company and they were great. Oh we were paying $1300 a month for it.

At church one day, a lady asked me if I knew anyone needing to rent a house. I didn't. Several weeks later she asked me again, this time asking if WE wanted to rent her daughters house. Specs? She said $1000 per month for a small 3bd 2 bath house in an iffy neighborhood. It had a beautiful pool. Nahhh...we had something much bigger and nicer and moving stinks and that price wasn't too tempting for what it was.

Several weeks later, she asked us this, "My daughter is putting her house on the market and needs someone to live in it RENT FREE until it sells which the realtor estimates to be 9 months to a year."

Hmmmmm....nahhhh....I don't want to live in a house that's on the market. (Free) I don't want to move...(Free) Blahhhh it's an old yucky house...(Free) The thought of "free" kept haunting us. We looked at our income and our bank account and thought some more.

Thinking of all the money we could save we decided to give it a go.

Ugh. Just thinking about it makes my stomach hurl. The house was gnarly dirty. There was a gourmet smorgasbord under the stove for hungry critters....the ceiling fans and window sills could have sprouted a garden the dust was so thick. One bedroom literally smelled like a zoo so badly, we ripped up the carpet and put in new flooring and painted just so we could breathe. The window sills were filled with mold and spiders. It was awful. But it was free. So we cleaned it up as best we could and made it home.

The pool was amazing with a beautiful waterfall.

We had to set up our classroom in the living room.

The bathrooms were hideous and stinky. We had intentions of fixing them up a bit to make them tolerable.

We were there 2 months when the realtor wanted to show it. Of course we knew that was part of the deal so we let her. Oh! The client made an offer?!?! Really now? The bank said yes! Yes?!?!? So the house is sold? What happened to the 9-12 month estimation? Yes. The house is sold. LOVELY.

So back to the drawing board we went.

I'd remembered a friend mentioning another friend getting ready to rent out her beautiful 4bd 3bth home for only $1000 per month! I met with her and immediately we scraped up the deposit and first months rent to secure it. It was too good to pass up.

It was an amazing home. The landlords were so nice, they put in a huge concrete patio in the back and grass and sprinklers. They even put in a raised garden bed since I'd mentioned I wanted a garden! It was by far the most efficient home we've ever lived in. It had the normal rental white walls and cheap carpet but overall it was a lovely house. It even had a loft area we were able to use for a classroom. We really really liked this house.