A crazy weekend!

I have had an interesting weekend! But first I have to explain some background as to why everything transpired as it did:
I’ve known for a few weeks that my mom will probably be coming here to Washington to stay for the winter since she will not have anyone in South Dakota to assist her if needed over the winter. Now this is presenting to be an almost nightmare scenario. Aberdeen is quite lacking in ‘safe, appropriate rental housing’ especially when you begin with the requirements for a furnished studio or one bedroom apartment! I live in a large one bedroom, but have no space for a second person except for very short visits. This has been weighing on me for a while and I haven’t been sure how to make it work.


Then, the real estate supplement came with the newspaper on Friday evening…

I couldn’t stop myself from looking! Why? I’m not really sure, I certainly don’t have any money saved to buy a house right now! But there was that cute house that I have walked by a few times and thought ‘hmm?’ So, I drove the few blocks away to look at it, peeked into the windows of the empty house, wandered around the yard – beautifully landscaped just overgrown, and thought to myself: “What if I bought a house for myself that would have enough room for both me and mom?!?!” And suddenly this became the focus of the weekend. I could hardly think of anything else.

I called my friend Diane, went to her house for delicious egg drop soup, then Diane, Trish and I went back to the house. They agreed that it looked cute, that the yard looked very nice and wouldn’t need THAT much work to whip it back into great shape…then we looked up and saw the roof ---sagging on all 4 sides! :-{

Well, I was undaunted (silly me) and thought “well, that could be fixed.” Thought about it all day Saturday at work, then once I got home, called a realtor that my friend John recommended. She agreed to meet me and Joy to show us the house. (My friend Joy was coming from Olympia for dinner and planned to crash on the futon for the night.)

I really am not sure how to describe the house, it is almost beyond description…Joy thougth that I would need a topographical map to navigate the floors they were so bumpy and warped. The master bedroom had the same linoleum as the kitchen. The wall above the fireplace mantle was an unpainted piece of plywood. The bathroom in the downstairs bedroom consisted of, get this, a small shower door that opened directly from the room to a small shower stall, that’s it, no sink, no toilet! And the smell, not quite sure what it was, but didn’t want to figure it out!

The realtor said it succinctly: “I’m trying to find one thing that I like about the house. But I can’t.” I agreed. What a shame, the yard was so cute, and the house looked so nice from the outside.

So, now where to go with this? Not really sure right now. I still need to find housing for my mom for the winter, and I am getting sick of apartment living…