hoping this will be our house!

We looked around at some other houses today....and we've found a middle ground (I think, anyway). So long as our rental application goes through (she has to check our rental history with Wooten Co. tomorrow), the house will be ours November 1st.

It's a stone bungalow. Donald really likes the stone, I think it's not so attractive. But the inside matters more to me than the outside, since that's the part you look at most. It has 2 bedrooms, 1 full bath, 1 half bath, utility room, living room, dining room, kitchen, full cement-floored basement, detached garage and small yard. The rent is very affordable and there is no pet deposit, which is nice. She'll accept both cats willingly. The previous tenant said utilities run about $80 for all, which is cheaper than our current apartment!

The pros for me were: jetted tub; wood floors; walls that weren't white (we've had all white walls for SEVEN years!); an archway from the living room to dining room; closer to work (1.4 miles from AG H/Q, under 5 miles from my school); neighborhood looks good (houses are well-kept, previous tenant said the neighbors were all nice minus one family); landlady seems nice and non-crazy. Cons for me: no dishwasher (BIG con...); we have to get our own fridge, washer and dryer; creepy basement; garage is detached; kitchen and bathroom definitely on the small side.

The pros for Donald were: the basement (he can have it, I'm staying upstairs!); a hallway (for some reason he really wanted a hallway, the house I loved had no hallways which he hated); neighborhood looks good; fireplace. Cons for him: master bedroom directly off living room (he likes separation of living and sleeping quarters).

As you see, our wants and desires do not have a ton of overlap. That has been challenging. But we both agreed we could happily live in this home. So, hopefully there will be no trouble with the application and we can happily live there!

The only worry is that our current landlady is, as I've said before, crazy. No really. I promise. So, she could screw it up for us. But she has no real complaint against us. We've paid rent on time for almost 7 years, anything we've been asked to do we've done. She does not know about Dash, and he's the only thing she could possibly say we've done that we shouldn't.

Some of our Monday Night Dinner people will have farther to drive, but we will be much closer to a few of them. Hopefully they'll all still feel the drive is worth it! Also, with the wood floors, maybe Hanna will finally be able to be in my house sometimes!

So, fingers crossed!!

what's the haps?

The haps around here have been eventful! Here's a quick peek:
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Almost three weeks ago, Donald was at Chris's house to play the new Halo and a stray kitten "found" him (his words, not mine). We now have a tiny cat. He is white with orange spots, goes by the name of Dash Maul. (The Maul was earned during his first flea bath.)

He's adorable, but he bites like an alligator. He also has unfortunately brought a virus into our home that made Jax very sick this week. A visit to the emergency vet thursday night for 2 prescriptions and a follow up with his regular vet today (resulting in a 3rd prescription) has already made Dash an expensive little thing. Next weekend we have to take Dash for some tests and vaccinations. He is not old enough to be neutered, but that'll happen this winter!
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RenFest was last weekend, um....well....

the faire was fun in and of itself. However, MAJOR drama happened with some of the attenders, the ramifications of which are still not over. I am unsure how lasting the effects will be truthfully, which is worrisome, but the duplicitousness of the continuing situation is cementing some unfortunate and sad things in my mind. (Sorry for the vagueness...)

Donald got to participate in the magic show as "Bob Rigatoni." My volunteering him may have had something to do with it...Tonya also participated, but she was chosen specifically by the magician himself. He got a little too touchy with her, too. Like, if we were the suing types, we could probably have a case.

We had two newcomers to the group this year, Rob and Lindsay. Unfortunately, Matt (Lindsay's boyfriend) opted to stay behind, in order to study. It turned out to be nice in a way, though, because I had a great, great car ride there and back alone with Lindsay. Long talks in cars are one of my most favorite things ever. I contend there is a depth to road trip bonding rarely found any other way.

Got to see baby Ameliah again, she is getting cuter. She has quite a ways to go to catch up to the charm of her big brother, though!

Mom and Grandma were wonderful hostesses, as always. Their generosity is truly appreciated.
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I saw Whip It this weekend and my crush on Ellen Page was reignited. She's just so stinkin' cute!
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Seems like a lot of the ladies I love have been having hurt hearts lately in some form or another...the trend needs to end!!
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We need to move by November 30th. We are hoping to find a place and sign a lease by November 1st, giving us plenty of time to move, clean, etc. It's imperitive that we move before the CRAZY landlady finds out we have Dash. He's against the lease. He's the first thing we've ever done against the lease. But I know she would evict us and that would screw over our rental history.

I've been looking at houses. It's complicated! We need a neighborhood safe enough to make Donald happy, rent that's affordable, the ability to bring both cats, and something we will both enjoy living in. I thought I finally found the perfect house. It was a cute little Victorian style house from the early 1900's. Wood floors, crown molding, 2 bed, 1 bath, fenced yard, renovated kitchen, whirlpool tub, newer heating and air, and getting painted this month. Donald HATED it. The whole thing. It was EXACTLY the house I was looking for and he informed me it is everything he wants to avoid. Yikes!! This makes things even harder. Hopefully we'll find a middle ground. We are looking at another house tomorrow, wish us luck!