Well, as some are already aware, the loan for the
home chosen in last week's article fell through, so
the hunt is still on. And you, lucky readers, are
going to be subjected to more of these articles, as
I've been assured that they are
interesting¹. In fact, I've decided that the
series will continue until we actually move into a
place, or until it becomes clear that we are not going
to move², so you'll just have to bear with
me³...

So, anyway, Friday (12.4.02) Tom called me at work.
I thought he was calling to tell me that the loan had
been approved... Boy, was I wrong... I was not very
happy, and will admit that I was a bit
upset⁴. Over
dinner, we discussed some different options - keep
looking at different mobile homes, in the hopes that
another lender would not be as picky, rent a
different, less expensive one-bedroom apartment and
save up some more, look into renting a two bedroom
place with a friend of ours from church who is looking
for somewhere to live... We didn't even consider a
real house, except in passing, because anything any
good would be way too expensive, unless we managed to
find something that was being foreclosed or something.
But we did come away from the conversation with the
feeling that perhaps the mobile home described last
week was just not meant to be, that maybe something
better was in store. After dinner, we were going
someplace with the friend from church, so we talked
with him...

Saturday, Tom got a newspaper, and he glanced
through the ads. He saw one or two places, but that
was it. However, I was definitely in a procrastinating
mood, but I was expecting a phone call, and Tom needed
to use the phone anyway⁵, so I decided to look through the
ads. I determined to look at all the one and two
bedroom rentals, whether apartment, duplex, condo, or
house⁶, and when I was done with that, I
decided to take a glance at properties for sale, just
for the heck of it. I wasn't expecting to find
anything decent that was inexpensive, unless it was in
a terrible location⁷ and even some of those were a bit
high... But I kept looking anyway. Then, I found a two-bedroom, two-bath place with a low down payment and
monthly payments that are just a bit more than half
our current rent⁹ so I pointed it out
to Tom, and he called. We've an appointment to look at
it this afternoon¹⁰, and I
will describe it when we get back.

Later

• Duplex¹¹
• 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
• Stove, dishwasher, disposal, washer and dryer
  hookup, no fridge
• Fireplace
• 2 car garage
• Fenced back yard

Like I said above, we found this place in the
newspaper. The realtor was supposed to meet us at 4...
We stayed to 4.30, but she never showed. However, the
back door wasn't locked... The place is a little run
down, but it's all cosmetic stuff - couple holes in the
walls, decorative tile around the fireplace missing,
that kind of thing¹²... No structural damage. Since it is
a HUD¹³ home (and I may explain this
further next week, but I'm pushing against the
deadline now) the house is described online, and would
have any necessary repairs listed (the other homes
have repairs listed).

Our realtor is submitting a bid today, 17.4.02.
I'll describe the process next week, even if nothing
comes of it...

Amy Pawloski

18.04.02 Front Page

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