Wednesday, October 03, 2007

a lead

I have possibly found something. One of the guys at the sharpening place across the street from where I work told me about a cozy little rental house not far from work. It sounds idyllic. Small, yellow, quiet neighbors, great neighborhood, plowed in winter, decent yard, garage.

The folks who run the sharpening place -- well, they know everything and everyone in town. I talked to them about it on my way back from the post office this morning, and they know the owner, have been in the house, and they said it's great. Small, but great. They also offered to help me move.

I'm checking it out at lunch. Now if only it isn't too expensive...

4 comments:

none said...

I hope it works out! Let us know!

Beth said...

Does it have a dishwasher? ;)

The Prufroquette said...

LOL. No dishwasher. :( Parodies of Jack will unfortunately continue.

So here's the scoop on the house. It's small, and pretty run-down on the outside (paint really REALLY in need of a new job), not bad on the inside though. Two small bedrooms, small living room, decent-sized kitchen (but I have to go back and see if I can squeeze my table in it), nice bathroom, and (da da DA) garage is attached to the house. Also has a basement (with a lot of junk in it which will need to be cleaned out, ideally before I move into it).

Some repairs need done around the place -- such as a couple of windows fixed, and some of the basement windows, and one of the garage windows -- the inside smells like it's been empty for awhile, which the next-door neighbor says it has, and the backyard, while promising, has a falling-down shed at the very back, complete with barrels around it. At the same time, the backyard, which is VERY decent-sized, is screened in on three sides by lovely trees and has a firepit, and the house itself is set back a little from the road. There is a little green-painted front porch.

The rent isn't too outrageous, but I have a lot of questions that the girl who let me in couldn't answer, and I have yet to hear back from the actual landlord. Such as, whether the heat is electric, gas, or oil; and whether the water is city water or from a well; and how old the furnace is; and how much utilities run, since I'm responsible for them; and how quickly these repairs can be made so I can move in.

But the location is PERFECT, it's five minutes from work and the neighborhood is more on the rural side and exactly where I was hoping it would be; I love the setup, the house is cute, has lots of little cupboards, and I'm wondering if the landlord would lower the rent if I offered to help out with some of the work that needs doing -- not big heavy repair stuff, or the windows, but painting and mowing and raking and snowblowing and helping cart the crap out of the backyard and whatnot. I like home projects.

It's not my only option, of course, and I'm not signing anything right away. There are enough "hmmmm"s that it'll take some thinking, but enough "yayyyy"s that they might balance out.

So we'll see!

AND HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY RELIEF RELIEF I talked to my landlord this afternoon and he said he'd let me out of the lease early, with only a hundred-dollar penalty. So it looks like I'll be moving before the snow flies, like I wanted.

God is so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so good.

none said...

Yay! I'm so glad you can get out of your lease. The house sounds like it has potential. :)

The Year of More and Less

Life continues apace. I like being in my late thirties. I have my shit roughly together. I'm more secure and confident in who I am....