Last Post of the Gypsy Chronicles! 6/6

Ok here we go for the last post of the continuing explanation of our many moves.

The house we were renting last was so nice. Oh but I totally forgot one major thing...wanna make a wild guess? Think....
Dryer?!? YES! Same problem...no gas dryer so guess what we did? You guessed it, back to the garage it went.

Jiminy cricket I didn't even realize till this moment how many months...years actually that I was stuck with an unmarried washer/dryer set. TOO many.

Other than that the house was great.

But other issues began rearing up.
This time it had nothing to do with the house, the landlord, or our income. (well not directly) It had to do with our making a decision to resign our church and move on from Chowchilla. It took many months of praying for direction. But we really felt our time there was drawing to a close.

My husband began preaching out at a lot of other churches. He was also working a regular job to support us as the church wasn't big enough to do so.

We decided we needed to break loose and if we were going to do it, we needed to do it before school started in fall.

We decided we were moving to Sanger, to attend church there and sort of recoup. We chose Sanger because there was a school there the kids were very interested in attending, (homeschool charter with site based enrichment classes) and also we enjoyed the church there and felt it would be a safe place to be.

It was really hard to find a house though. Really hard. There was virtually nothing available in our budget. We spent hours...days...weeks combing the papers, Craigslist, and streets. We were getting really frustrated! Having 2 dogs and 4 kids really can complicate things.

One day, about a month before school was going to start we spent the afternoon hunting again. We didn't find anything. We were heading back home when I thought of another paper I could pick up. So we stopped by a gas station and got one.

I found a listing for a 4 bd 3 bth home on 3 acres for $1450. No city was listed but the street address was there. It sounded perfect. I called and left a message with the landlord. We drove out to see it.

My first impression was: Desert. It was a scorching hot day and the property hadn't a tree in sight. It had a nice shady patio though that was encouraging.

We snooped around as much as possible but really couldn't tell what the inside was like. It had 2 new ac units that looked promising, as well as new windows and a newish roof. Other than that it was clear it was a very old home.

When we got home that evening, the landlord returned my call and I asked him some questions and made an appointment to see the inside for the following weekend.

I asked him #1, was the house efficient? "Oh yes, the house is very efficient with brand new ac units-the utility bills are extremely low."

#2, does the house have gas hook ups for a dryer? "Yes the house runs on natural gas which makes it even more efficient."

#3, is Internet available? "Yes, high speed Internet is available."

#4, Does it have its own well? "Yes its own well as well as an irrigation ditch for watering the whole property for crops/animals/pasture etc."

Wow...sounds great.

So on Sunday, we took the family to church then afterwards went to see the inside of the house. I will be honest, I wanted to fall on the floor and kick and scream. It was in my opinion, the most hideous house I had ever seen. It's walls were putrid flesh tone. It smelled like old lady farts. One bathroom had a grotesque pink toilet and tub, the other bathroom had the same color shower that had a 6 inch gaping hole in its floor instead of a drain. That bathroom was actually in a walk thru area to get to the other side of the house. (Very odd design)

It happened to be 2 old houses put together-they were linked by an enclosed porch area that had carpet that smelled like sewer. The other house, had the 3rd bathroom, which reeked of mold, and 2 teeny tiny (8x9) cell like bedrooms with tile floors and the same flesh tone walls.

Since it was 2 houses put together, it had 2 kitchens as well. One kitchen had an interesting knotty pine paneling, the other had the horrid pink countertops. The grout looked like doodoo was crammed in between the tiles.

I was gagging. I looked at my husband in hopes he was doing the same. Apparently he was not. His eyes seemed to gleam a little even. Oh and it had fairly new carpet in the living room, and 2 bedrooms which was a horrible shade of dark mauve that totally clashed with the death tone walls. It did not have a master bedroom with an adjoining bathroom.

I snapped photos for whatever bizarre reason-probably to keep from developing a serious case of anxiety while my husband and the landlord went outside to talk.

When my husband came back inside, he was even more excited than he'd been before. He said, "Babe! This guy is so awesome! He's going to make this a wonderland for us! A WONDERLAND!!!!! (His precise most ridiculous words) He said he's going to plant TREES, he wants you to make a list of what kinds you want, he's going to put in a patio in the backyard-a COVERED patio so we can have parties back there. And he's going to pave the driveway and all KINDS of other great things! Not only that, he says we can move in with no deposit!!!!!!" (That was the kicker for him no doubt)

(((Sigh))) "I want to think about it babe...I'm just not sold on all of this...." "But babe!!!! We haven't found anything else that will work! What about the dogs? We have to have space for them! And your garden! And all this acreage, surely we can generate an income of some sort with it!"

(((Sigh))) "I'm just not sure...I just don't like so many things about the house...I don't want the girls being so far away, I don't like their rooms, I don't like not having my own bathroom, I don't like the pink tub? I don't like...I don't like...I. don't. like.

"We can PAINT the stupid tub! We can yank that pink toilet out and put a white one in! We can paint the whole house! We can jerk that carpet out, we can fix this, we can fix that, we can replace the poopoo counters, we can we can we can......

So the Pollyanna spirit began to have its way in me....I started envisioning some of these possibilities. I began to see the knotty pine kitchen decorated like a country cabin...the pink one began to look French to me. I picked out paint colors. I visualized the enclosed walkway a pottery barn approved mudroom.

I saw chickens, goats, pigs, horses, and maybe even a cow. I wanted it all. I drew up a garden. A vegetable garden AND a cutting garden.

So.....we moved in. It was mid August. It was hot. Hades hot.

Only one of the kitchens had a stove so that was the one we chose to use primarily. It did not have a dishwasher. Pollyanna didn't mind though. She had plans of homemade soap-a regular homestead she would have!

We cranked up the ac. Pollyanna doesn't like sweating.

We made a list of all the repairs/ideas we had. Hubby went and bought new lighting fixtures for the bathrooms. It was a start.

The kids started school.

It was hot.

It was dusty.

It was....a desert.

We went about getting Internet. Not available. Huh? We tried company after company. No one serviced the area. No problem, Pollyanna doesn't need Internet.

Getting trash service proved to be impossible. The city said it was county and the county said it was city. No worries, Pollyanna can burn her paper trash and compost her scraps.

We got our first PG&E bill.

We picked ourselves up off the floor and dusted ourselves off. $900.

You have got to be kidding! Even Polly was appalled.

We spoke to the landlord and asked why this was. He said he'd never known it to be so high! (Noooo?)

He couldn't explain the Internet thing either....

When will we have water in the ditch?
"Ohhhh that's just a few months out of the year." Polly's dreams seem to be dashing.....

He did plant a few Sequoia trees-but planted them in the heat of summer, and they withered and died no matter how much Polly HAND WATERED THEM.

We held on hoping for cooler weather.

Did I mention this place was $1450 per month?

By and by, the weather did indeed cool down. Way down. In December, it was cold. Wind and rain whipped around the house and we could feel drafts at every window. Polly doesn't like cold. Polly wanted a woodstove!

We could hardly keep the house warm enough without the heater running non stop. We got our gas bill for December. Just a mere $600. Polly nearly puked.

We kept holding on. Scraping by. My husband got a new job-a better job. But it required him to put money up front. Money we didn't have. So he did the unpardonable. He got a credit card.

We scooted through Christmas. And January. I don't ask much about our finances. But I found out we had acquired a lot more debt than we wanted to. We made promises years ago that we would not get into debt ever again. And here we were slipping into debt faster than a fat boy eats cake.

In addition to the compounding debt problem, the endearing little details of living in an old farmhouse were waning quickly.

Bathroom #1's tub wouldn't drain-although it had no plug either so couldn't be cleaned adequately, much less bathed in.

Bathroom #2 was the one with the gaping shower drain that prompted me to hork in my mouth just thinking about stepping in and...being sucked into the abyss of slimy, hairy, shower water. Plus this bathroom was the walk thru one-it's doors didn't have knobs much less locks. (Apparently these things aren't noticeable upon initial walk throughs) Nor did its sink work. (Water dribbled out of faucet)

Bathroom #3, which was on the complete other side of the house, became our main bathroom as it had all 3 working components that bathroom should have; however, it's mildew problem was never ending no matter how much bleach and caulking we applied.

We started using bathroom #2 for a pantry/storage area as the kitchen had very limited space. We had thought maybe converting that bathroom to a real pantry would be a good idea. I drew out the plans and visualized my perfectly labeled and organized container lined shelves. But due to limited funds and excessive frustration, that idea got pushed farther and farther away-and we settled for piling our bulk items around the toilet.

"Mom! Where's the flour?" "By the toilet!" "Oh yeah! Right where it belongs ! Dual duty! Use for baby powder!!!!"

Once, we discovered the hot water heater was leaking, rendering excessive use of gas to properly heat the water. After 4 months of dealing with this, LL finally decided to replace the water heater. He told us when it would happen and we prepared to let the workers in the back yard to do the work. (I have a post about this earlier) Anyway, I left the house for a job commitment I'd taken on. I didn't get home till late that night, hot, sweaty, stinky and ready for a hot shower. No. Water. None. They had removed the hot water heater and had not replaced it at all!

This is just a sampling of the quickly piling up hardships presented daily while living in this house. $1450 a month.

Finally...things came to a head...

On Valentines Day, (lucky me) I got a phone call. From my husband. And no it wasn't to tell me to meet him at Ruth's Chris for a romantic candlelight dinner.

"We have to move babe. I can't handle this anymore."

*slowly withdraws knife from stomach*

"Seriously? Now?"

He told me I had to find a place to move to within 2 weeks as he was not forking over another dime for the rathole or for utilities that aren't even doing the job.

*deep breath*

*thinking* ....we are in the middle of school....I have dogs...we have a bunny....I'm already so overwhelmed.....

I answer, "Ok I will think about it and pray about it."

He says, "I don't mean make a decision next week. I mean now, like tonight."

I hang up.

I cry. I bawl. I squall. I pray. I cry some more. I even punched my pillow a few times. I'm thinking of how to tell the kids. How to tell them they have to leave the school they've grown to love. How to tell them we are going to go to another church. All of it just seized into a bowling ball sized knot in my stomach.

He calls me an hour later asking if I knew what we were gonna do. I tell him the only solution I knew of is to move in with my parents. He says, "Call them."

I wrote a rough draft email to my dad.

I didn't send it.

I wanted to wait till that evening to see if maybe my husband would change his mind.

He didn't.

I told myself I'd send the email in the morning if he still felt the same. He did.

So I sent it.

Of course, my parents are always more than happy to extend a helpful hand if needed.

So we began to talk and work out details.

I withdrew the kids from school and enrolled them in another one closer to my parents house. (Amazing school-will post about that later) And I began to pack our things.

We are sad but resigned to this change as we know it is for the best. We will save money, we will get ahead. And lastly, we have decided our gypsy days are over. I can't do this anymore. Polly is pollied out.

While most of our moves have been due to circumstances out of our control, we do know there have been times we jumped the gun when we should have waited something out.

Hind sight is always better than foresight.

So...if you have wondered what we've been up to, that's the scoop. Are you wallowing in billows of pity for your dear friend Polly?

I know you are. Well....please don't take it too seriously, as I truly AM a Pollyanna, I AM the adventurous sort, and I DO like saving money.

My life! Longest post ever I know!!!!!