Monday, July 18, 2011

Adventures in House Hunting.....Shedd style!

Jonathan and I spent a day in Reform house hunting. We went through all our normal channels in order to find a place to live. We stopped by apartment complexes, got a newspaper, and a shopper's guide and came up completely empty! We were upset and didn't know where to turn. We came home and that's when the phone calls started coming in.

We were getting phone calls from Booster Club members and other people in the community who were on the prowl for the perfect house for these five Shedd's. We got a call from a coach who said he had found a house for us to come see. We went the very next day, and the owner of the house had an emergency in Birmingham and couldn't get to Reform with the key that day. Four hours in the car....wasted. We were getting really frustrated, but we made plans to come back in a few days and try again.

Our next attempt was more successful except for the part where we got there around 10 and couldn't see that house until around 6. The coach did have another house for us to see, so we went to that house. It had holes in the walls and the ceiling and there was pink insulation on the floor. Sarah called this the soft house and she loved it because it was soft and pink. I, on the other hand, was not to impressed. The houses around it kinda scared me and there were bad words written on the sliding glass doors leading to the back yard. Not my number one choice obviously.

We killed time with the kids for what seemed like forever. We went to City Hall and talked with a lady there that had called us. She gave us a few more leads, and we called about one. The lady I talked to was selling her house, but it had been on the market for over a year. He husband had been the former principal at the school Jonathan will be at next year. She told me that the school was closing and that there was no way they would do a lease to own deal with us on their house.....it was like getting a phone call that the world was going to end. After calling our coach friend back and talking with the lady at City Hall we were reassured that the school had it in writing that the school would not close for at least 3 years.

I was still not convinced and was thinking about the worst....me here in Clanton with the kids while Jonathan lived in Peewee's hotel in Reform during the week. Not quite what we were hoping for, but we toured the elementary school with Elizabeth anyway.

Finally the time comes to see the house we'd tried to see before. Although the carpet needs to be replaced and the walls need some paint it has everything that I had wanted in a house. It's on the end of a dead end road, so there shouldn't be anyone out there. It had a huge front porch with a swing, a car port big enough for 2 cars, and a big back deck. Inside it had a long living room, a real laundry room (as opposed to the laundry closet we have now). It had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and an office. Although it had a few issues we were excited about the possibilities. We let them know we were interested and that's when our adventure began.....

TO BE CONTINUED.....