Well, as I type this, we are on our journey back from another visit to Charleston. Isn’t technology amazing? Yes, I’m in the car…blogging.
So, as he drives, I’m able to report about our house hunting endeavors these past few days…
Well, we found a perfect little house that we loved online…on CraigsList, actually. The rent seemed ridiculously low for the house, so when Stephen called the renter we found out why.
“Uhhh, yes…you send me rent, I send you key. I taking job in Africa…won’t be available to meet. No references or credit check. Just send me first month’s rent…”
Sounds fishy.
Stephen does a little more investigating and finds out that the house is for sale or rent, BUT not at that price and IT WASN’T EVEN THAT GUY’S HOUSE!
We still thought the place was perfect for us…location, enough rooms, price was just at the top of what we were willing to pay. So, we arranged to meet up with an agent and go look at the place. (A little side note here: we’re looking to rent, but this place was also available as a lease/purchase and that appealed to us.)
I must admit, when we pulled into the driveway, I fell in love with it. And the interior was just as perfect. It “fit” us. But realizing that God has the house He wants for us already picked out, we prayed on the front porch and just left it in His hands.
We also looked at a few other houses on our way out of town. A couple were “potentials”, but the last one we saw was a doozy.
The minute we pulled into the driveway and saw the broken backyard gate, and the neighborhood, the first thing that came out of Stephen’s mouth was,
This is going to be a waste of time.
We see the man who is meeting us to show us the property, and from inside the truck, Kenni says,
Watch out, lady!
We tell her,
Uhhh, McKenna…that’s a man.
She responds, completely honestly,
Oh. Well I just saw long hair…
We didn’t even go in the front door, it was the back “patio” door. I use the term patio very loosely.
The door didn’t open all the way, and the first thing I noticed was the fact that it was incredibly dirty, and each room had a different kind of flooring in it…even down to what looked like brown astroturf in the “spare bedroom”. And to top it off, the flooring was just laying on the subfloor in most of the rooms, not even attached.
The backyard was a bit of an overgrown jungle with some sort of wooden structure in the middle. Stephen asked if they were going to clean it up. We were told that the owner had done a bit of landscaping and might be a little sensitive to changing it.
Really? She’s sentimental about broken, plastic lawn furniture and clover patches?
I didn’t even look at the rest of that house. I am now referring to it as the “meth lab” we got to go see.
I left feeling like I needed to bathe my children after being in there. Blech.
To top it off, the “agent” or whatever he was, wanted to pick Caia up and carry her back to the truck. And my child, sweet lovable child that she is, went to him!!!
I knew Kenni was feeling uncomfortable the whole time we were there, because she kept asking me to pick her up and carry her. This is code for: “This is creeping me out, and I need you to make sure I’m going to be okay.”
So, I guess that really, going to see that house wasn’t a total loss. Because now we know that McKenna is a great judge of character and situations, and Caia…well, not so much. She’d hug the Grinch if he looked at her long enough…
Bottom line is: we still LOVE the original house we saw, but we’re a little unsure if it will all work out as far as the details go, including the fact that the owner wants a deposit on Monday and to start paying rent on May 15th. We’d appreciate your prayers as we keep searching for the house that God has for our family.
And in the meantime, I told Stephen that we’ll always look back and laugh at our trip to “Meth Lab Lane” today…
What, no photo?