Three Houses

This is a story of three houses.

To get a rental in this town, you have to be aggressive (which we are not) and willing to make a quick commitment (which we also are not) because things get snatched up so quickly.

Michael and I are more of the type that sit down, discuss, pray, go over budget, discuss, pray some more, and then!....the opportunity has passed us by.

Our current house was great because it got us here to Abilene, but it wasn’t intended for our family. Since we moved in, we have had another child, making an already too-small house even more cramped. There is no dishwasher so we have had to wash all the dishes by hand. There is a one car driveway that the landlord put in for us, but one of us always had to park on the street. And we are directly across from campus (specifically the stadium) meaning every single time there is any event whatsoever, there are cars clogging up our street and taking up our parking and making life generally more annoying.

After the unpleasant incident with the first rental house, we decided to make a few phone calls from signs we saw nearby. Of those, three emerged as possibilities:

A four-bedroom on the other side of Campus Court across Ambler

The house next door

And a dark horse contender on the other side of 10th.

We go and see the first one, which turned out to be too small. When we move, we know that it will likely be our home for quite a while because we tend to settle in. The bedrooms are smaller, more suited to the college students that typically rent properties like this. It has a small backyard and roses out front and a garage the current residents are using as a cool hang out area, but Michael and I know before we leave that it wasn’t the right fit for us.

The next day, we walk over to see the house next door.

A lot of our problems—proximity to campus, busy streets—would still have to be dealt with, but there was a two garage and additional parking. This house was beautiful and spacious, four large bedrooms, and an additional office off the master. The backyard had a covered patio that was topped with a super cool deck which meant we could host things. Not a ton of yard for the dog, but it also meant less mowing. Rent was higher but manageable for that much extra space. We would really be able to breathe.

The family that owned it could only offer it for a year though, as their youngest son would be taking over it in his junior year. If it hadn’t been for that stipulation, we might have said yes to it that day, but the idea of having to move again so soon stopped us.

Our hopes rested on this one last house.

The owner of the too-small first rental mentioned that he would have a four-bedroom available at the beginning of May, over on Scott Place. If we’d like to see it.

It was on a quiet street, near the end of a cul de sac. Little kids ran and played in neighboring yards, and it was quiet and peaceful and definitively suburban.

The very nice landlord met us at the door and let us look around. It was several hundred more square feet than our current house, with two living areas, two dining areas, a two car garage, and three bedrooms. He said he was going to get construction in there to convert the formal dining area into a fourth bedroom, but came down on the rent price when we said three bedrooms would be fine for now.

This home sparked my imagination. I could hear in my head my mother-in-law asking, “where would you put your Christmas tree?” Rhonda loves Christmas and that is usually her first question about a new place. I could see our stockings hung from the mantle over the (functional) fireplace, the tree decked out and lit up next to it.

The laundry room has a perfect area for the dog’s bed, and the covered back porch would be the best for Gabriel’s hammock swing. Ben and Emerald would be thrilled they still have pecans to collect and sell to my mother in the winter. The sprinkler system in the front would keep our grass so green and lovely.

And y’all. My closet.

There is more storage places everywhere, for stockpiling the girls’ diabetes supplies and Gabe’s incontinent supplies, for putting away all of these things that right now have no place. There are places I can put all my Christmas decorations.

There’s even a dishwasher!

There are still some considerations we have had to make. Currently, there is no washer and dryer, so we will have to get some. We have two living rooms to fill with furniture but in a parallel to our first apartment, we only have one recliner. We are on the lookout for new seating options. Neither of these things concern us too greatly because they are fixable problems.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up because I loved this house with its soft carpet for Tula to crawl around on and its charming wallpaper and the serenity that envelopes it from all sides.

Yesterday, Michael got the keys. Today we started moving in.

And I have not been able to stop grinning.

I got my house!

—Andie—